There's a long and infamous list of health reasons why you shouldn't smoke. For starters, it causes COPD, certain types of cancer and heart problems too. Now there's another reason not to smoke—and to give quitting your best shot, if you do still light up: Smoking is bad for your bones.

Here are three ways smoking hurts your bones and other parts of your musculoskeletal system.

1. Smoking raises your risk for osteoporosis. If you smoke, you are more likely than a nonsmoker to be diagnosed with this disease that causes bones to become weak and prone to fractures. Broken hips are among the most serious consequences of osteoporosis.

Smoking may weaken your bones by reducing their blood supply, hindering their ability to form new cells and preventing your body from absorbing enough bone-building calcium from the foods you eat. Also, compared to nonsmokers, women who smoke may experience earlier menopause and a subsequent drop in estrogen, a hormone that helps protect bones.

2. Broken bones take longer to heal in people who smoke. That could mean more downtime if you smoke and break a bone. This slower healing rate associated with smoking may have to do with the harmful effects of nicotine on osteoblasts, which are the cells that make new bone.

3. Smoking may damage tendons and other joint tissues. When smokers tear a rotator cuff tendon in their shoulders (a painful injury that can require surgery to fix), the tears tend to be larger than those of nonsmokers. Smoking is also linked to bursitis and other injuries caused by the stress of using a joint over and over again. In addition, smoking increases your risk for back pain and rheumatoid arthritis.

Sources: American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons; National Institutes of Health