Smoking in Adolescence Caused Osteoporosis?

Common assumption has been said that the phenomenon of bone fragility or osteoporosis usually attacked the elderly. But a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health last week broke that notion.

Apparently, the young girl who used to smoke will experience bone mineral in the body. "Teens are a potential time to form your actual bones," said Lorah Dorn, scientist and developmental psychologist and a pediatric nurse practitioner at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Regeneration and the process of bone turnover last a lifetime. Adolescence is an important role to develop a framework to be strong and solid. According to Dorn, a failure to build adequate bone strength in adolescence can harm a young woman's ability to collect "bone bank".

Though bone reserves will be needed if one day the woman through menopause and start to lose bone mass. This period is usually experienced after they are over 45-50 years.

Girls who lit up more frequently had lower rates of lumbar spine and total bone density during this time period. (Picture from: http://www.medicaldaily.com/)

In doing research, Dorn and her colleagues recruited 262 healthy girls aged 11-17 years. The girls answered a number of questions about nutrition and lifestyle. They then returned again three years later for a bone density test. Smokers girl showed outgrowth lower bone density than non-smokers girl. In addition, they experienced decreased hip bone density.

Kenneth Ward, a clinical health psychologist at the University of Memphis School of Public Health in Tennessee, was impressed by the research that could identify smoking as a risk factor for the young group. Likely cumulative effect of smoking and teens do not have enough time for a lot of smoke. This study shows a clear trend.

Previous research (with adult respondents) conducted Ward and Robert Klesges, found that smoking increases the risk of vertebral fractures by 13 percent and hip fractures by 31 percent in women. Ward said, this study can help pediatricians to be more proactive in intervention so that children do not smoke. Still unclear, Ward and Dorn note, is exactly how smoking contributes to the reduced bone mineralization. *** [SCIENCENEWS | ISMI WAHID | KORAN TEMPO 4081]

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