MOPs & MOEs Nicotine and Bone Health with Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein
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An Instagram post a few weeks ago about how nicotine reduces bone density and slows healing no matter how it's consumed (smoking, vaping, pouches, etc.) sparked some surprisingly strong reactions. Since neither of us are experts on either nicotine's health effects or bone health in general, we knew we needed to find an expert to fill us in.
Dr. Jocelyn Wittstein is a Sports Medicine Orthopaedic Surgeon and Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University specializing in the care of adolescent and adult athletes. She cares for soccer, lacrosse, and basketball teams as a team physician and consults with may regional gymnastics facilities for care of high level gymnasts. In Dr. Wittstein’s clinical practice, approximately half of her focus is on adolescent and adult knee injuries, with patellofemoral stabilization being a common procedure. In addition to her clinical and research work on the patellofemoral joint, Dr. Wittstein also is a co-investigator on NIH funded studies of biomechanical and biochemical factors contributing to post-traumatic arthritis after ACL reconstruction and meniscus surgery. She is passionate about optimizing patient outcomes and safe return to sport after knee injuries.
We talked to her a bit after recording about why different bios of her discuss such different work, and it's because she wears so many hats. Some things that bio missed were her particular emphasis on shoulder instability, work on the unique challenges faced by female athletes across the lifespan, and work on mitigating age related issues... It might not be clear from the broad span of research, but first and foremost she is a Full time surgeon.
She was a collegiate gymnast at Cornell University, and she is a mother of five.
Dr. Wittstein mentioned the app OSTEO-GAINS which helps with progressive plyometric loading will the goal of increasing bone density.