New Research Links Smoking to Rapid Decline in Cognitive Skills

A new study conducted at University College London (UCL) has recently revealed that smoking can badly affect the brain’s functions.  It causes the rapid decline of cognitive skills as we age. 

In this study, researchers used the data of 32,000 adults. These adults were aged 50 or above and responded to some surveys that were conducted in 14 European countries. Researchers examined how cognitive decline rates might vary among cognitively healthy older adults with some different health-related behaviors such as physical activity, alcohol consumption smoking and social contact. 

In this study, researchers tested people’s memory and ability to speak fluently to see how well their brains were working. They divided the participants into different groups based on how much physical activity they did, how much alcohol they drank, whether they smoked and how often they saw friends and family. Researchers also considered some factors such as age, gender, country where participants lived and if they had any health complications. They thought these factors may affect cognitive decline.   

When researchers observed the collected data, they found that people who smoked had their thinking abilities decline faster as compared to those who didn’t smoke. This decline in thinking abilities was same for all non-smokers. Smokers had their cognitive scores decrease up to 85% more over a period of 10 years. But they also found that smokers with a healthy lifestyle that included regular exercise, socialization, moderate alcohol consumption, experienced similar cognitive decline rates as non-smokers. 

One of the researchers said that this study shows that smoking can be a significant factor that badly affects our thinking skills. It causes rapid cognitive decline as we get older. But we should understand that this study only observed the relationship. It can not prove that smoking directly causes cognitive decline.  

The research clearly shows that smoking is very dangerous for the health of the human brain. People should quit smoking as it keeps their brain working well. If they can’t quit smoking, they can do other healthy things such as exercising and being social. These things can help them protect their brain from the bad effects of smoking. Hence there is a need for some effective strategies that will spread this information among people. This study can effectively reduce the risk of many health complications.