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Smoking is a pain in the a, er, knee

Theories abound to do with reasons why, but a study of men with osteoarthritis showed them at knee pain levels of 60% after smoking versus 45% without.

One theory is that people are more of a pain when they smoke — as in, their pain threshold is lower.

Most of the others relate to increased stress & poison levels in the smokers.

Whatever the cause and connection, the scientists are excited because smoking is, as they term it, a “modifiable risk factor.” Stop smoking, and perhaps the joints will benefit.

They also found that cutting back & using nicotine replacements enabled many of their subjects to kick the habit.

This contrasts with US findings, which say that quitting has to be done abruptly.

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