BREAKING NEWS

Smokers: Kick your tobacco habit if you want better, faster repair of bones

Hadassah University Medical Center researchers have a new reason – among many – not to smoke: it will take more time for the body to repair bone fractures. The reason, according to Prof. Meir Liebergall, is that production of adult stem cells for reconnecting broken bones is lower in smokers.
Liebergall, chief of Hadassah’s orthopedics division, and his team published the findings in a recent issue of the journal Bone Marrow Research.
The department has for some time conducted basic and clinical research on the use of such cells, made from the patient’s bone marrow, to repair bones, tendons and cartilage to speed their repair. The stem cells are extracted and isolated from each patient.