{"id":3411,"date":"2012-11-27T11:27:20","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T11:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=3411"},"modified":"2012-11-27T11:27:20","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T11:27:20","slug":"smoking-rots-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=3411","title":{"rendered":"Smoking ‘rots’ brain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Smoking “rots” the brain by damaging memory, learning and reasoning, according to researchers at King’s College London.<\/p>\n

A study of 8,800 people over 50 showed high blood pressure and being overweight also seemed to affect the brain, but to a lesser extent.<\/p>\n

Scientists involved said people needed to be aware that lifestyles could damage the mind as well as the body.<\/p>\n

Their study was published in the journal Age and Ageing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Researchers at King’s were investigating links between the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke and the state of the brain.<\/p>\n

Data about the health and lifestyle of a group of over-50s was collected and brain tests, such as making participants learn new words or name as many animals as they could in a minute, were also performed.<\/p>\n

They were all tested again after four and then eight years.<\/p>\n

The results showed that the overall risk of a heart attack or stroke was “significantly associated with cognitive decline” with those at the highest risk showing the greatest decline.<\/p>\n

It also said there was a “consistent association” between smoking and lower scores in the tests.<\/p>\n

One of the researchers, Dr Alex Dregan, said: “Cognitive decline becomes more common with ageing and for an increasing number of people interferes with daily functioning and well-being.<\/p>\n

“We have identified a number of risk factors which could be associated with accelerated cognitive decline, all of which, could be modifiable.”<\/p>\n

Dr Simon Ridley, from Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “Research has repeatedly linked smoking and high blood pressure to a greater risk of cognitive decline and dementia, and this study adds further weight to that evidence.<\/p>\n

“Cognitive decline as we age can develop into dementia, and unravelling the factors that are linked to this decline could be crucial for finding ways to prevent the condition.<\/p>\n

“These results underline the importance of looking after your cardiovascular health from mid-life.”<\/p>\n

The Alzheimer’s Society said: “We all know smoking, a high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and a high BMI [Body Mass Index] is bad for our heart. This research adds to the huge amount of evidence that also suggests they can be bad for our head too.<\/p>\n

“One in three people over 65 will develop dementia but there are things people can do to reduce their risk. – BBC<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smoking “rots” the brain by damaging memory, learning and reasoning, according to researchers at King’s College London. A study of 8,800 people over 50 showed high blood pressure and being overweight also seemed to affect the brain, but to a lesser extent. Scientists involved said people needed to be aware that lifestyles could damage the … Continue reading “Smoking ‘rots’ brain”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,229,123],"tags":[2243,2241,2242,2240,2244],"class_list":["post-3411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-science","category-world","tag-cigarettes","tag-dementia","tag-health","tag-smoking","tag-tobacco"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/smoking.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3411"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3414,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3411\/revisions\/3414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}