quit yesterday

A lot of folks tend to miss the fact that smoking not only damages your lungs and heart, but also affects the health of your bones.

Smoke, and you’re inviting a party of trouble to your bones. Here’s a break-down of what you could be up against.

• Osteoporosis
• Back Pain
• Slow Healing Bones
• Muscle / Tendon Tears
• Replantation Hand Surgery Complications

My mum has smoked the majority of her life. And now she’s paying the price with osteoporosis (weak bones). At the age of 50, my mum was said to have bones equivalent to that of a 70 year old. Mum has since given up, started drinking calcium enriched milk and doing regular exercise to strengthen her bones.

And don’t think for a moment, it’s too late to change. It’s NEVER to late to quit smoking.

Another tell-tale sign to be on the lookout for is lower back pain. It could be more than just your posture or the way you sit that gives you this back pain.

In fact, many spine surgeons often require their patients to give up smoking before a spinal operation in order to avoid complications. Smoking can also lead to degenerative disc disease in your back. So watch out!

But it doesn’t stop there.

Now onto slow healing bones. There’s a medical term known as non-union and delayed union when these quacks talk about repair of bone fractures. Basically what this means is that if you break a bone and are a smoker, your bone will repair itself slower (delayed union) than a non-smoker, and there is even the chance that it won’t completely repair at all (non-union).

So you can see, smoking not only affects your heart and lungs, but also goes much deeper under the hood to attack your healthy bones. Smoking also plays havoc with all the strings (muscles and tendons) that tie your bones together.

Smokers are at a higher risk of muscle and tendon tears, especially in the shoulder area. That’s because these muscles and tendons are being robbed of an optimal supply of blood due to your smoking activities.

Now we’re not only talking about your own smoking habits. If you’re unlucky enough to have your finger chopped off and then re-attached (replantation hand surgery), just the presence of smoke 20 feet away will turn that healing finger blue. That’s just how dangerous passive smoking also is. I just thank my lucky stars ALL smoking is now banned indoors in public areas in Australia.

So What Are The Common Denominators?

One of the common denominators of the above illnesses is that smoking slows down the microcirculation in your body.

Microcirculation is the tiny network of blood flows in the various nooks and crannies of your body. It’s the way your body ensures it gets enough minerals and nutrients to operate at optimal performance.

If you start slowing or shutting down this microcirculation, then start to expect your body to fall apart.

It’s as simple as that.

So why am I telling you all this?

Because I’m forever reading about the dangers of smoking to our lungs and heart, and it seems that the dangers to our skeletal system is often overlooked.

And a cure to all these problems is simple. Stop smoking today. :-)

Hope you enjoyed this article.

Ciao.