Smoking hurts teen girls’ bones

Lower density likely in adolescents who smoke cigarettes

High school might be a bit early to start thinking about bone loss and osteoporosis, but a new study finds that teenage girls who smoke may put themselves on a trajectory to accrue less bone mineral than those who don’t light up.

Osteoporosis is a loss of bone density that predisposes people to fractures and leaves many elderly people — particularly women — hunched over.