"The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide." ~ Kurt Vonnegut
As if there is not enough proof already that smoking is bad for you, new research has established a link between smoking and the development of dementia in later years. Compared to nonsmokers, those who smoke two packs of cigarettes a day during middle age face a 157% increased chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease and a 172% greater risk of developing vascular dementia.
The study, executed jointly by researchers at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California, and at the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio, analyzed the histories of 21,123 middle-aged men and women and followed up with them for more than 20 years. Most were at least 50 years old when the surveys commenced between 1978 and 1985. The subsequent tracking took place when the participants were an average of 71.6 years old, from 1994 through 2008.
The sample size of the study was large enough to prove that the effects of smoking on causing dementia are the same across the board despite gender or ethnicity. Those subjects who smoked earlier in their lives and quit or smoked less than half a pack a day did not seem to have an increased risk factor for developing dementia.
Two decades from the start of the research, 25% of the volunteers — 5,367 people — were diagnosed with dementia. Nearly a quarter of this group (1,136 people) were found to have Alzheimer’s disease. The most common form of dementia, Alzheimer’s typically strikes those 65 and older and is the cause of 50 to 70% of dementia cases. A possible reason that smoking may precipitate dementia has to do with increased inflammation caused by smoking. Previous research has suggested links between inflammation of neuropathways in the brain and Alzheimer’s disease.
Vascular dementia, a cognitive impairment defined by damage to, or blockages of, the blood vessels in the brain, is the second most common form of the disease. In the study, it was responsible for several hundred more of the diagnoses. Since smoking is a major risk factor for stroke, it’s possible that smoking contributes to vascular dementia in the same way by narrowing blood vessels and depriving brain cells of oxygen.
This is the first study to focus on the long-term consequences of smoking in relation to dementia, but not the first to establish links between them. Research at the University of California, San Francisco that took place earlier this year found that smoking is a substantial risk factor for the disease. The researchers reviewed 43 studies that were published between 1984 and 2007 and discovered, amazingly, that those studies affiliated in some way with the tobacco industry suggested that smoking can protect you from Alzheimer’s disease. Protect?!?
Much less surprisingly, all of the independent studies they examined (i.e., those with no tobacco industry ties) showed the exact opposite findings over and over again — that smoking does indeed increase your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Approximately one-quarter of the studies were tobacco-industry related and the other three-quarters were independent.
We already know that nearly 9 million Americans have chronic ailments such as emphysema, heart disease, and chronic bronchitis that are all smoking-related. Smoking is responsible for 87% of lung cancer fatalities as well as 30% of total cancer deaths. In addition, 5.3 million Americans have been stricken with Alzheimer’s disease and that number will be swiftly rising as the baby boomers become senior citizens. It is expected that the number of people diagnosed will be three times its current tally by the year 2050. And, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, dementia triples health care costs for those it afflicts.
All of this should be particularly disturbing in China, considering that 75% of all adult males over age 30 currently smoke heavily in that country. The medical costs associated with the millions and millions of inevitable Alzheimer cases on the horizon, will be back breaking. And worldwide, we’re talking about over a billion smokers. Truly, we have seen only the tip of the Alzheimer’s iceberg headed our way.
Jon Barron is a researcher, author, lecturer and founder of Baseline of Health Foundation. He has wrapped his mind around every natural therapy known to man and brought it together in a whole body package--delivering a whole body “system” program, a high-end line of nutraceutical products, and cutting-edge functional foods and drinks for consumers to enjoy.
Combining his knowledge and research with modern science, he continues to pioneer the alternative health industry and help consumers world-wide with his free health information and natural health newsletter. You can also download a free copy of his cutting-edge health book, “Lessons From The Miracle Doctors” by visiting his website .
Jon Barron’s high-end line of health supplements for natural colon cleansing, immune system support, digestive health, and anti aging nutrition can be found at http://www.baselinenutritionals.com
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I see a lot of information like this about smoking that always leaves out something: like the good things about nicotine, the poisons forced into the cigarettes by government or the manufacturers and the source of funding for the mentioned research.
It’s like the medical people when I ask them what they blame whatever illness on when the affected person is not a smoker, never a smoker and was never around cigarette smoke. Well…well…well…they bluster around with no direction. Blaming smoking for so much is a lazy approach to healing that does not disguise their ignorance about the true nature of health or illness.
Coming from an institution that maims and kills a quarter million people +/- a year from mistakes–well cigarettes look safer than submitting one’s well being to being “practiced” on by so much incompetence.
But, thanks for the free information.
There are relationships between smoking, chronic inflammation and stress: The modern life loads great stress on people, and this stress causes the chronic inflammation, and the chronic inflammation causes people to smoke cigarettes. So illness cause people to smoke, not smoking causes people to be sick. The illness is the cause, the smoking is the result.
China is a good example: the urbanization give people very busy and stressful life, so the number of smoker and suicide rate all increased.
Human beings in the old time inhaled smoke every day, because they use the fire on wood and other plant debris to cook food. And the smoke calm people down so the people in the old time had not so serious chronic inflammmation. Now we are living in a smoke free environment, so the tobacco businessmen take the chance to make money selling cigarette.
So the so-called problem of smoking is actually not the problem of smoking cigarette, is the problem of the wrong modern life.
Hmmm…I find the above comments very interesting, but also somewhat disturbing. Both of my parents smoked from the time they were teenagers in the 1940’s. And so did most of their friends. Now well into their 80’s, neither has smoking related complications, and none of their friends ended up with strokes or lung cancer. That tells me that cigarettes have changed and more and more chemicals are being added to addict folks, which may be causing more health issues than the tobacco itself. But back then, people smoked because it was acceptable and everyone did it, not because they were stressed out. It’s a cop out to say that stress causes one to smoke. Commercial cigarettes are addictive. That’s why people continue to smoke.
I have smoked for around 20 years. When I felt the stress, I smoked more heavily, when I felt relaxed, I smoked fewer cigarettes. And smoke from some other plant leaves (not any addictive things) than from the tobacco truly reduced the number of cigarettes I smoke daily.
I believe all kinds of smoke from the natural burning and the smells of the essential oils are brain’s food. The nose has the taste buds for these kinds of food. If somebody smoke heavily, that means he needs the food for his brain, but cigarettes can not provide him with that kind of food. That’s just same as in the overeating: When someone’s body need some nutrient the food can not provide, he will overeat the food does not contain that kind of nutrient because he feels hungry, even if he feels the food is tasteless. I do not want to say consuming how many cigarettes a day is defined as a heavy smoker from a light smoker, because every one is different from the others, but the smoker himself can feel whether he smokes heavily or not.
Please not to blame others for smoking too much, or eat too much. The right way is to find the root cause of the person’s physical problem and to solve it. Or for some special people, several packs a day may not be too much for them. But all the heavy smoker I met, I could tell they were with some healthy problems.
For the smokers, if you accept the idea written in this artcle, you will die faster than not to accept it. This article loads more psycological stress on your mind to make you sicker.
The mainstream says people smoke for nicotin, but I smoke for more than the nicotin. I do not like to smoke the cigarette pack opened one years ago because the good smell from the cigarette has gone and that was from the tar?
I am amused by the excuses of smokers. I was one muself until 1965. It is absolutely correct that smoking kills many people. I have several friends who have gone that way. Lung cancer and emphysema. I also believe that nothing kills everyone. There are prostitutes in Kenya that are immune to HIV. I also believe we can do things to reduce the dangers of smoking. No one ever talks about this.
As a graduate student in chemistry I was very fortunate to meet Linus Pauling. I also read his books. One of them referenced a paper where the author said smoking uses up a lot of vitamin C per cigarette. Why not recommend smokers take a few grams of vitamin C per day. I think it will help them and it certainly can’t hurt them. My wife smokes and I have her take 3g per day in devided doses.
If you cannot stop smoking, try to minimize the damage. A bit of vitamin E might help as well.
There is a fairly newly discovered genetic condition that can explain why some people can smoke with out problems and some people who don’t smoke get cancer anyway. Alpha trypsin is an enzyme that protects the lungs and liver. Full blown alpha trypsin deficiency has been found to be the cause of much of this. I personally know two people who suffer from this and the non-drinking brother had sclerosis of the liver whle the non-smoking sister has severe lung issues. I am a carrier and while I never smoked, I worked in the steel mill and suffer tremendously. We are not all the same and we have to recognize that the answer is different for each group. Otherwise everyone who drank would become and alcoholic and all smokers would get cancer.