A study of 136,018 participants over the age of 45 by a team at Ohio State University (OSU) found that 10 percent of middle-aged or older smokers began to experience memory loss and confusion. In general, smokers were twice as likely to develop brain problems as their peers.
Ex-smokers who stopped smoking more than 10 years ago had a 50 percent increased risk of developing brain problems, reports a local Arabic daily.
Cognitive problems are rare in middle-aged people, as the brain does not begin to lose function until after the age of 65 in most cases. Smoking has been linked to many important health problems later in life, such as Alzheimer’s disease and cancer, among others. Women are also more likely to suffer from cognitive decline than men.
Smoking has long been associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline, such as Alzheimer’s disease, but symptoms of these problems in middle-aged people are rare.
For their research, published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the researchers surveyed nearly 140,000 people about their smoking habits and whether they felt they had experienced memory loss during that time.
And they found that eight percent of people who had never smoked in their lives suffered from cognitive decline.
Meanwhile, 16 percent of current smokers reported brain problems and memory loss. Many of these smokers were too young to deal with these problems. Just under 10 percent of participants ages 45 to 49 reported brain problems when surveyed.
The rate of reported cognitive problems was similar among respondents in their 50s. The differences in cognitive decline between smokers and non-smokers diminished greatly with age, although many people at that point develop diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia for a variety of reasons.
“The association we saw was most significant in the 45-59 age group, suggesting that smoking cessation at this point in life may be beneficial for cognitive health,” said lead author Dr. Jeffrey Wing, a professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University.
Although quitting smoking can reverse some of the damage, about 12 percent of respondents who quit smoking more than a decade ago reported cognitive problems