We all know that smoking is bad for your health, but did you know that it can also cause you to feel more pain?
An article in January 2009 in the Clinical Journal of Pain set out to study the relationship between fibromyalgia symptoms and whether or not the patient used tobacco. The results of this study concluded that patients that used tobacco had more severe fibromyalgia symptoms than patients who did not use tobacco.
The researchers believe that the mechanism by which tobacco increases pain intensity is by increasing substance P in the cerebral spinal fluid. Substance P helps transmit pain signals. Therefore an increased amount of substance P would make the body feel as if it had more pain.
The researchers also concluded that smokers have lower endorphin levels, or natural pain killers. This won’t allow tobacco users to cope with the increased levels of pain as easily as those who do not use tobacco.
So if you were thinking about quitting smoking, hopefully this will be one more reason to stop. Not only will you become healthier, but you might just be able to decrease some of those aches and pains that you have been dealing with. Good luck!
Dr Spencer Charlet
Chiropractor in Mooresville, NC
704-6637625
