Smoking and the Knee

Jeffrey Kluger

Smoking is the scourge that keeps on giving. To the long, long list of ways tobacco can do you harm, add yet one more: According to a study published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, pain and cartilage damage may be worse in men suffering from osteoarthritis who also smoke than in those who don't smoke.

Investigators associated with the Mayo Clinic studied 159 male osteoarthritis patients, conducting magnetic resonance imaging scans of their knee cartilage and assessing their pain level, then following up on them 15 and 30 months later. In general, the smokers had a 2.3-fold greater chance of cartilage loss at the joint that connects the thigh and shin than the nonsmokers; and a 2.5-fold greater loss at the connection of knee cap and thigh. What's more, on a pain scale of 0 to 100, the smokers scored about 60 and the nonsmokers about 45, figures that remained essentially unchanged in the followups.

What it means: It's not certain how tobacco smoke can harm your knees, but the investigators have some theories. Substances in smoke carried through the bloodstream may stunt critical cell growth in knee cartilage, increase damage by oxidant radicals, and boost carbon dioxide levels, which essentially suffocates knee tissue. The increased pain may come from all of these kinds of damage as well as from the possibility that smoking simply lowers overall well-being and with it, pain tolerance. The solution is not one that should surprise you: Quit.

Sphere: Related Content