A new study has found that smoking can damage you muscles.
Smoke reduces the amount of oxygen and nutrients the blood vessels in leg muscles receive, the Daily Mail reported.
Researchers from California, Brazil and Japan conducted the study. It is the first time a study has found the direct impact smoking has muscles.
For eight weeks, mice were exposed to smoke from tobacco cigarettes for the study.
The team found a 34% decrease "in the capillary-to-muscle fiber ratio of calf muscles in mice exposed to smoke", the report revealed. The smallest blood vessels in the body are known as capillaries.
"It is vitally important that we show people that the use of tobacco cigarettes has harmful consequences throughout the body, including large muscle groups needed for daily living," Ellen Breen, an associate research scientist of the University of California, San Diego, is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
Adding, "[We need to] develop strategies to stop the damage triggered by the detrimental components of cigarette smoke."
Previous research has found it hampers your ability to exercise because smoking causes the lung to become inflamed and makes the muscles weaker.
When muscles are unable to use energy there is a risk of developing long-term diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and diabetes.
