Smoking And Osteoporosis

Young or old, man or woman, smoker or non-smoker - no matter what category you fit into, cigarette smoke can weaken your bones and increase your risk for fractures, as per new research presented this week at the IOF World Congress on Osteoporosis in Toronto.

Smoking has long been known to increase the risk for osteoporosis in women, but the new studies, two conducted in Sweden and one in China, find that smoking also hastens the erosion of men's bones. In addition, the Chinese study demonstrates, for the first time, that even second-hand smoke can significantly increase the risk for osteoporosis and fractures in both men and women.

Bad News from GOOD Study
The deleterious effects of smoking can readily be detected in young bones. That's one conclusion from the Gothenburg Osteoporosis and Obesity Determinants (GOOD) study, which has been following the health of young Swedish men (see conference Abstract No. OC31).

"Though smoking has previously been linked to low bone density in the elderly population, its effects on adolescents has remained controversial. Now, we clearly demonstrate that young smokers also have significant losses in bone density," said Mattias Lorentzon, lead author on the study.

Lorentzon, working with Prof. Claes Ohlsson and his colleagues at the Center for Bone Research at the Sahlgrenska Academy, Gothenburg University, measured bone mineral density--a measure of bone strength--in over 1,000 Swedish men between 18 and 20 years old. They found that in smokers, bone density in the spine, hip, and body as a whole, was lower than in their non-smoking peers. The most significant effects were in the hip, where the mineral density was over 5% lower than in non-smokers--typically, a 10% loss of bone mineral density doubles the risk of fracture.

Their results explain why prior findings have been equivocal. In this case the scientists used a sophisticated computer assisted X-ray machine (Computerized axial tomography scanner) to get three-dimensional images of bone. These 3D images showed that smoking primarily affects a specific type of bone called cortical bone. This very dense bone forms a layer, similar to the enamel on teeth, around softer, spongy bone. Lorentzon and his colleagues found that smoking reduces the thickness of cortical bone. The findings indicate that smoking may significantly affect bone strength. "If you think of bone as a pencil, then the thicker the pencil the harder it will be to break," said Lorentzon.



Posted by: Janet    Source