Smoking And Back Pain – What Is The Link?
Everyone knows about the relationship between cigarettes and heart disease or lung cancer, but are you aware that Smoking Can Increase the Chances of Your Having Disc Problems By 4 Times. When I inform my patients about this they are very surprised. Cigarettes contain more than 7000 toxic chemicals and we know at least more than 250 of them are harmful to our bodies. Numerous studies have reported that smoking is associated with chronic pain, especially back and joint pains. Increased chronic pain is due to the ability of nicotine and other chemicals to: - Narrows blood vessels, reducing the blood flow to the muscles, bones, and other body parts - Impact on brain circuitry - Impact on immunity and slow healing - Increased fatigue - Increase blood pressure The incidence of chronic low back pain among smokers compared to non-smokers is higher, and smokers experience more severe pain. This is true irrespective of the sex and nature of work (manual laborers Vs white-collar). Some studies h...