Smoking cigarettes can cause a person in their 40s to experience cognitive decline, according to a study.
A study by an Ohio State University (OSU) team of 136,018 participants over the age of 45 found that 10 percent of middle-aged or older smokers suffered from memory loss and confusion. Overall, smokers were twice as likely to have brain problems as their peers.
Breaking the bad habit can stop the decline. Ex-smokers who quit more than a decade ago had a 50 percent increased risk of brain problems – half that of current smokers.
Cognitive problems are rare in middle-aged people because the brain in most cases only loses function after the age of 65. However, smoking is associated with many important health problems later in life, such as: B. Alzheimer’s and cancer. Women are also more likely to suffer from cognitive decline than men.
Researchers have found smoking can cause people to experience cognitive decline as early as age 45 (file photo)
Smoking has long been associated with an increased risk of developing cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, but the incidence of these problems in middle-aged people is rare.
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For their study, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the researchers asked a sample of nearly 140,000 people about their smoking habits and whether they felt they had memory loss during that time.
They found that eight percent of people who had never smoked in their lives experienced cognitive decline.
Meanwhile, 16 percent of current smokers reported brain problems and memory loss.
Many of these smokers were of an age considered too young to deal with these problems.
Just under 10 percent of the participants, ages 45 to 49, reported brain problems during the study — although the researchers found almost all of them were smokers.
The number of reported cognitive problems was similar among participants in their 50s.
However, the differences in cognitive decline between smokers and non-smokers largely decreased with age, as many people at that time developed diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia for various reasons.
“The association we saw was most significant in the 45-59 age group, suggesting that quitting at this stage of life may have cognitive health benefits,” said Dr. Jeffrey Wing, senior author of the study and professor of epidemiology at OSU.
However, quitting smoking can reverse some of the damage. About 12 percent of survey participants who quit more than a decade ago reported cognitive problems.
This is still a 50 percent increase over baseline non-smokers, a significant decrease compared to non-smokers.
People who quit within the past 10 years had a 13 percent risk of developing the disease, slightly higher than long-term quitters.
“These results may indicate that time since quitting smoking is important and may be related to cognitive outcomes,” said Jenna Rajczyk, a graduate student at OSU who led the study.
“It’s a simple assessment that’s easy to perform routinely and detects cognitive decline at a younger age than usual, escalating to the level of a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia,” she continued.
“This is not an intense series of questions. It is more of a personal reflection on your cognitive status to see if you feel you are not as sharp as you used to be.
The study only took self-reported samples of cognitive problems and did not collect data on the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia.
Signs of the devastating condition often appear decades before the patient can receive a diagnosis, and it is rare for a middle-aged person to be told by a doctor that they have the disease.
Alzheimer’s is the leading cause of dementia in the US. It affects about 6.5 million Americans age 65 and older.
The number of Americans suffering from the disease is expected to double in the next 20 years, as longer life spans will lead to more cases over time.
There is no known cure for the condition and treatments to slow the progression of the disease are rare.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
