How does smoking cigaretts affect your joint health?

Many of us are aware of how smoking can affect our lungs and cardiovascular system. One side-effect of smoking many of us may not be aware of is how it affects our joint health. In medical school, one of the first things that I've learned is that "quitting smoking is the single best thing that you can do for your health." Now, here's one more reason:

"Smoking leads to knee cartilage loss and defect development primarily in individuals with a family history of knee OA. This provides evidence for a gene-environment interaction in the etiology of knee OA" (Ding et al, 2007).

Ding C, Cicuttini F, Blizzard L, Jones G. Smoking interacts with family history with regard to change in knee cartilage volume and cartilage defect development. Arthritis Rheum. 2007 May;56(5):1521-8.