Smoking cigarettes regularly would make us lose our memory more quickly than others.
- In France, the departmental prevalence of daily smoking varies between 12.6% of the population and 41.4%.
- In addition to cognitive decline, tobacco causes lung cancer, COPD and cardiovascular diseases (stroke, heart attack, etc.).
- Smokers’ cognitive abilities declined up to 85% more over 10 years than non-smokers, a new study found.
According to a new study Led by UCL researchers, smoking influences how quickly our intellectual agility declines with age.
Smoking and cognitive decline: 10 years of investigation
The survey, published in Nature Communicationsanalyzed data from 32,000 adults aged 50 or older from 14 European countries. All of them regularly responded to questionnaires for 10 years.
Their cognitive function was assessed through memory and verbalization tests. Several risk factors potentially associated with cognitive decline were studied in all participants: smoking, physical activity, social life and alcohol consumption.
The scientists then found that cognitive decline was faster for people who smoked tobacco regularly. Specifically, smokers’ cognitive abilities declined up to 85% more over 10 years than those of non-smokers.
“Smoking may be a particularly important factor in cognitive aging”
Dr. Mikaela Bloomberg said: “Our study suggests that smoking may be a particularly important factor in cognitive aging. In other words, of all the healthy lifestyle habits we examined, not smoking may be one of the most important in maintaining cognitive function.”
She adds : “Previous data have already indicated that people who have healthier lifestyles have slower cognitive decline.”
She continues: “For people who are unable to quit smoking, our results suggest that adopting other healthy behaviors such as regular physical exercise, moderate alcohol consumption and maintaining a social life may help offset the negative cognitive effects associated with smoking.”
To reach all these conclusions, his team used data from the ELSA study and the SHARE survey.
Cognitive decline: Smoking causes many other health problems
In addition to cognitive decline, tobacco causes lung cancer, COPD and cardiovascular diseases (stroke, heart attack, etc.).
“It is important to remember the other health consequences associated more specifically with female smoking, such as the risks of breast cancer, cervical cancer, disruption of menstrual cycles, reduced fertility and osteoporosis.”indicated recently CT-Alliance against tobacco, the National Committee against Smoking (CNCT) and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in a report.
In France, the departmental prevalence of daily smoking varies between 12.6% of the population and 41.4%.
