Smoking can cause neck pain.

A group of scientists from Emory University found another reason to put out a cigarette: smoking can damage the intervertebral discs in the cervical spine.

Intervertebral discs occupy one third of the total volumethe spine. Performing a damping function during life and ensuring mobility of the spine, they lose water with age and, as a result, decrease in volume. These degenerative-dystrophic changes can lead to cervicalgia (neck pain).

Scientists have found that smoking accelerates the natural wear of intervertebral discs, damaging the blood vessels that feed them and causing irreversible changes in them.

Research head Dr. Mitchell Leavitt alsoreminded that poor blood supply to the spine also worsens the flow of blood to the brain, which increases the risk of stroke and, as a result, provokes premature death.

The study involved 182 people whocomputed tomography (CT) scan was performed. According to CT images, smokers have more progressive degeneration of the cervical intervertebral discs than non-smokers.

Dr. Mitchell Leavitt said that now the doctors treating patients with dorsopathy are armed with another indisputable argument to convince patients to lead a healthy lifestyle.

In a previous study, doctors tiedsmoking with degeneration of the intervertebral disc in the lumbar spine. At present, they have found that smoking is one of the causes of pain in the neck.

A group of scientists is not going to stop atresults achieved. In the future, new studies are planned to assess the influence of other factors on the occurrence of chronic back pain: diet, alcohol consumption and obesity.