DennisD.
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 Posted: 12/09/06 - 19:08 Post subject: Smoking Causes Knee Pain in Osteoarthritis Patients |
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Thanks to the numerous researches, we keep learning about new dangers of smoking. One of the latest studies reveals that smoking would cause more severe pain and more loss of cartilage in men suffering from osteoarthritis.
Knee osteoarthritis is one of the leading causes of disability in older people.
Shreyasee Amin, a rheumatologist at the Mayo Clinic and the lead author of the study included 159 men with osteoarthritis in the study. The study involved imaging the knees and questioners about the pain. On a pain scale from 1 to 100, the smokers reached scored 60 while the non-smokers scored 45.
The reasons why smoking exacerbates arthritis haven’t still been found but the researchers suggest that smoking could inhibit cell proliferation, increase oxidant stress and contribute to cartilage loss, raise carbon monoxide levels in blood and impair cartilage repair or even lower a person's pain threshold.
Scientists are very happy about this finding as it suggests that osteoarthritis pain could be decreased by quitting smoking and because they found a modifiable risk factor for osteoarthritis pain. |
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