Cigarette Smoking and Chronic Back Pain

Did you know that cigarette smoking may delay the healing process and possibly promote back pain?

Cigarette smoking decreases blood circulation in the body, which impairs healing. Because the spinal discs have very little natural blood supply, they are more greatly affected by a reduction in circulation. Poor circulation to the spinal discs may impair healing of annular tears, bulges, or herniations, and lead to advanced degenerative disc disease and arthritic conditions.

Researchers like Dr. Miguel Schmitz, a bone specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, have found that “smoking prolongs the healing of long bone fractures”. Not only does cigarette smoking significantly delay the healing process of broken legs, but also increases the frequency of low-back pain attacks.

Recent studies conducted by Dr. Edward Hanley at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC showed a correlation between low back pain attacks and smoking. “Nicotine interferes with blood circulation and poor circulation would impair healing,” Dr. Harmon Eyre explains. In addition, cigarette smoking has also been linked to spinal disk disease.

Howard S. An, M.D. director of reconstructive spine surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee has found a relationship between symptomatic disk disease of the spine and cigarette smoking. Most of the patients included in this study who suffered from “symptomatic disk disease and a majority of the patients with acute lumbar disk herniations who underwent surgery were smokers”. The data from this study may become “convincing enough to warrant listing smoking as a risk factor for back pain, prolapsed lumbar disk, and a prolapsed cervical disk,” said Dr. An.

If you would like further information on the link between cigarette smoking and back pain, copies of the articles where this information was taken from, or information on quitting options, contact your PDR patient rep or PDR treating physician!