Study Zeros in on Smoking's Bone Thinning Link

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Health - Reuters

Study Zeros in on Smoking's Bone Thinning Link

Mon Dec 16, 5:29 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Scientists have identified two bone loss-related

factors that drop in postmenopausal women after they quit smoking. The

finding may help explain why smoking increases a woman's risk of developing

the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis.

While experts have long known of the link, it has never been clear exactly

how smoking adversely affects bone strength.

In the current investigation, Dr. Cheryl Oncken and colleagues from the

University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington looked at levels of

sex hormones and other factors in 38 women who smoked at least 10 cigarettes

a day. Roughly, half of the women underwent smoking cessation counseling to

quit or reduce the number of cigarettes that they smoked. The rest of the

women, the " control " group, did not undergo smoking cessation therapy,

according to Oncken's team.

They found that two markers associated with bone loss--sex hormone-binding

globulin (SHBG) and N-terminal collagen crosslinks (NTx)--dropped in women

who quit smoking. Levels of SHBG and NTx decreased by 5% and 8%,

respectively, in the women who quit smoking.

The discovery may partly explain how smoking contributes to osteoporosis in

postmenopausal women, according to the report published in the December

issue of the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

" Further research should be done to evaluate whether the observed changes in

SHBG and NTx after smoking cessation result in long-term increases in bone

mineral density or decreases in fractures, " the authors conclude.

SOURCE: Nicotine and Tobacco 2002 December.