Osteoporosis Caused By This Common Habit

The onset of osteoporosis is most often blamed on sex hormones that help women’s bodies maintain bone mineral density plummet after menopause.

But it’s obviously far from the only cause as around 30% of osteoporosis happens in men.

So a new study in the journal Scientific Reports set out to find the other causes of osteoporosis, or in other words something that was easier to avoid than menopause.

They discovered one common habit that increases your risk of osteoporosis by shocking 37%. Stop doing this right now and your bones may immediately get stronger, even if hormones are also part of the problem.

The scientists from the University of Nevada set out to discover a connection by pooling published studies on osteoporosis.

To rule out hormonal-related causes, they focused on studies done on men.

They found 27 high-quality studies that included almost 30,000 bone fractures over three decades. Bone fractures are the best indicators of osteoporosis because of the tendency for thinner mineral-poor bones to break under pressure.

They found that smoking was linked with a 37% increased risk of bone fracture.

They found a similar result for men of different ages, geographic locations, body weight groups, exercise habits, and other subgroups. They also found the same result in large and small studies.

Therefore, this conclusion seems definitive. Smoking causes bone fractures.

But what is it about smoking that reduces bone health?

The most obvious connection is with bone mineral density.

1. The nicotine and cadmium in cigarette smoke damage bone cells, leading to thinner bones.

2. Smoking has previously been linked with lower vitamin D levels, and low vitamin D levels have been linked with osteoporosis and low bone mineral density. Our bodies need vitamin D to absorb calcium, the number one bone mineral.

3. Independently of vitamin D, smoking reduces our bodies’ absorption of calcium.

4. Previous studies have found that elderly smokers are more accident-prone than non-smokers are, possibly because they are distracted vehicle operators, and they suffer from dizziness because of blood pressure problems, etc.

5. Nicotine interferes with the tissue repair process, which means that accidents suffered by smokers might be more severe.

Therefore, if you need another reason to quit smoking, the possibility of bone fractures and osteoporosis is a good one.

Osteoporotic fractures are a major risk of death and disability in the middle-aged and elderly, and 8.3% of the population are estimated to suffer from it.

But if you already suffer from osteoporosis, stopping smoking is not going to be enough. Thousands of readers have, however, completely healed their osteoporosis using the simple diet and other lifestyle changes explained here…