Scientists have provided further evidence that smoking is harmful. Girls who smoke in their teens increase the risk of developing osteoporosis, a disease of brittle bones, in old age. Smoking greatly affects the quality of the bones of the thigh and lumbar spine. It is in these places that fractures most often occur in older women with osteoporosis.
Researchers at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center studied the effects of smoking, as well as depression and anxiety on bone mineral density (BMD) in 262 girls aged 11 to 19 years. It is with these factors that low bone density in adults is associated.
For three years, the girls underwent a clinical examination annually. Each time, doctors examined the girls using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, which measures the total mineral content in the bones, as well as the mineral density of the hip bones and lumbar spine. Doctors also screened teenagers for depression and anxiety. Every three months, a telephone survey assessed their smoking rate.
Although all the girls who participated in the study, both smokers and non-smokers, entered adolescence with the same level of BMD, this picture gradually changed. Over time, the girls who smoked the most were found to have the lowest levels of BMD in the lumbar spine and hip bones.
Depression, regardless of the age of the participants, also contributed to a decrease in the level of BMD in the spine, while anxiety did not affect the level of BMD.
It is in adolescence that girls form 50% of their bone mass, and even a relatively low level of smoking negatively affects the process of its accumulation.
