Smoking can cause dementia

Oct 27, 2010 |

Washington, Oct 26: People who smoke heavily in middle age could more than double their risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia 20 years later, according to research by Finnish experts published in a US journal.

It has been documented that smoking increases the risk of most diseases and mortality, but studies have shown that smoking can reduce the chances of Parkinson’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.

“The link between smoking and risk of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common subtype of dementia, has been somewhat controversial, with some studies suggesting that smoking reduces the risk of cognitive impairment,” the authors wrote in the report, posted online on Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Ms Minna Rusanen, from the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopio University Hospital in Kuopio, Finland, analyzed data with colleagues from 21,123 members.

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