Smoking may increase risk of bone loss. (Briefly Noted).

Smoking may accelerate bone loss, increasing the risk of osteoporosis, fractures and other problems, according to findings published in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. "In every category of orthopaedics we looked at, we saw that smoking made problems worse," said study co-author Edward N. Hanley Jr., M.D. Researchers observed that fractures took longer to heal in smokers; that post-menopausal women who smoked lost bone mass faster; and that …