Smoking Speeds Cognitive Decline in Seniors, Study Warns

If you’re a senior who smokes but is otherwise healthy, scientists warn that your cigarettes are just as bad for brain health as having type 2 diabetes and hypertension.

The detrimental effects of smoking on overall health are well-documented, but new research suggests that seniors who light up well into their sixties may be tampering with their brain health and cognition.

If you’re a senior who smokes but is otherwise healthy and free of type 2 diabetes and hypertension, scientists are warning that your cigarettes are just as bad for your brain health as having these chronic conditions.

Research has already suggested that high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes are known risk factors for cognitive decline. A study published in December 2020 in the journal Cureus, for example, found that treating hypertension might decrease risk of dementia, while research published in January 2017 in Diabetologia warned that type 2 diabetes not just increases risk of dementia but causes its onset at a younger age. Past studies have even estimated that type 2 diabetes increases risk of dementia by 50 percent.

For their new research, scientists at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, studied whether smoking worked “synergistically” with these conditions or if lighting up was a marker for cognitive decline on its own in aging Americans.

“The question we had is whether smoking compounded these other risk factors or are people who smoke at an elevated risk regardless of other health concerns,” says study senior author Neal Parikh, MD, a vascular neurologist and assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.

For detailed study, visit: https://www.everydayhealth.com/senior-health/smoking-speeds-cognitive-decline-in-seniors-study-warns/