Advice to bikers smokers for faster bone healing

Wheels of Happiness

Rizal Philippines
July 20, 2018

                                    Smoking  slows down healing, there  may be infection
                                       or non healing.

This write up is a fair advice to  fellow kapadyaks who are smokers.And we have a number of them. I had a conversation over the phone with a kapadyak who had broken bone injury while on the way home, at was travelling slowly.

The first thing the orthopedic  surgeons asked him before operating on him to repair his fracture was whether he smoked. Fortunately he is a non smoker. So they  operated on him. Otherwise, if he were a smoker, they wouldnt for two reasons:   1. The  operation would fail (the bones would not heal)   2.  The healing would take longer.   They are likely more to experience non union, infection and more pain than non smokers
How smoking affects healing of bones

Some explanations being advanced:

1. Nicotine occludes the arteries and capillaries that supply oxygen and nutrients to the bones, thus leading to
    non union and slow healing process

2.  Nicotine neutralizes the blood's netrophils the body's defenders hence the possibility of more infections

3. Nicotine causes the growth of cartilage to overwhelm the healing process, preventing bone growthcccc

Since we are all exposed to the possibility of  having a crash and/or a fracture, it is important that we do not smoke because the bone healing might not take place, or could take long.

So this is a fair warning to all kapadyak who smoke:  either quit biking where  you are exposed to bone breakage risk, or quit smoking if you want to continue biking.

Smokers broken bone take 62% more time to heal (or even not at all?)