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New Study: Smokers Have a Higher Chance of Needing Back Surgery

New Study: Smokers Have a Higher Chance of Needing Back Surgery

According to a new, Swedish study, smoking increases your risk of developing lower back pain that will later require spinal surgery. During the study, researchers focused on a common spinal condtion called spinal stenosis, which often develops from natural wear and tear to the body due to aging.

While smoking doesn’t cause spinal stenosis, it can exacerbate symptoms of this spinal condition. How? In short, nicotine is a harmful substance that constricts blood flow in the body and encourages inflammation and swelling within vital tissues.

Having said that, researchers found that smoking can increase your risk of developing a spinal condition and/or worsen symptoms associated with a pre-existing spinal disease. This may not come as a surprise to most people, especially patients of Dr. Giovanini who have read his blogs about smoking and spinal health (i.e. Smoking Worsens Degenerative Disc Disease In The Cervical Spine and Why Smoking Is Bad For The Spine). Nevertheless, it’s worth re-visiting this topic from time to time because patients often dismiss the true repercussions of smoking and their spinal health.

Anyways, let’s get back to the study. According to Reuters Health News, “Researchers examined data on 331,941 construction workers who were part of a nationwide occupational health registry in Sweden. Workers were followed for an average of more than three decades, starting when they were typically in their 30s, and 1,623 of them eventually had surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis.”

When they compared this data to people who never smoked, they found that individuals who smoked at least 15 cigarettes a day were 46% more likely to need spinal surgery. Moreover, people who smoked 14 cigarettes a day had a 31% chance of needing surgery, and finally, ex-smokers were 13% more likely to require surgery compared to those who didn’t smoke at all.

These numbers are astounding, and they shed a serious spotlight on the dangers of smoking for a person’s overall quality of life – not just their spinal health. Fortunately, there is a silver lining to all of this: if you quit smoking today, you can significantly decrease your risk of developing serious health problems and the need for surgery down the road.  

It’s important to note that there aren’t just surgery risks involved with smoking. It’s no secret that smoking also leads to a sedentary lifestyle, which comes with its own slew of additional health problems, such as weakened bones, damaged tissues, high blood pressure, asthma, and much, much more. So, if quitting smoking for optimal spinal health isn’t enough, you should do it for your overall health!

For more information on minimally invasive spine surgery or to make an appointment with Dr. Giovanini, please call (850) 934-7545 or visit https://www.neuromicrospine.com/request-appointment.

We hope to see you soon!

The advice and information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace or counter a physician’s advice or judgment. Please always consult your physician before taking any advice learned here or in any other educational medical material.