Add this one to the long list of reasons to quit smoking! Recent studies with a large number of participants have shown that people who have quit smoking demonstrated greater improvements in pain symptoms than those who continued to smoke. Those people who did not quit smoking did not show any improvement in their pain.
We have seen many patients who believe that their smoking helped them to cope with their pain, however, this data shows that in fact the opposite is true. The study also shows that people who quit smoking have improvement in pain after surgery and procedures. Quitting smoking is hard! However, there are many resources out there. The Pain & Healing institute highly recommends quitnet.com. While examinations and procedures like an MRI may come in handy, it is important to consider other external factors that are a part of your lifestyle. There are many links to resources and under the expert support tab, you can can get daily help with your goal for quitting, don’t do it alone!