Smoking ‘rottens’ the brain, new study finds

Can’t think straight? Lay off the cigarettes.
According to a new study, smoking “rots” the brain, and is worse for one’s brainpower than having high blood pressure and being overweight, the BBC reports.
The study, by researchers from King’s College London, examined 8,800 participants over the age of 50, and asked them to perform cognitive tests, such as learning new words or naming as many animals they could in a minute. The researchers tested the participants again four years later, and again after eight years.

BBC says they found a “consistent association” between smoking and lower cognitive test scores. Those who experienced the greatest cognitive decline were also at higher risk for heart attack or stroke.
The findings are believed to underscore the notion that what’s bad for the body is also bad for the mind.
“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,” Simon Ridley of Alzheimer’s Research UK told the BBC.
In a 2009 study, researchers at the Indian National Brain Research Center found that a compound in tobacco provokes the immune response to attack healthy brain cells, leading to neurological damage.
And earlier this year, British scientists found male smokers’ brain function resembled that of non-smokers who were 10 years older. The smokers exhibited early dementia-like cognitive difficulties even at age 45, according to Reuters.

Smoking rots the brain, figuratively not literally. That's the bold new assertion being made after King's College London researchers conducted a study of 8,800 adults over the age of 50. Smoking has an adverse affect on reasoning, memory and learning, according to results of the study. However, smoking isn't the only culprit. Being overweight and having high blood pressure also have a negative effect on the brain "to a lesser extent," according to a BBC report dated Nov. 25, 2012.
Oxford Journal initially published the results of the study called "Cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive decline in adults aged 50 and over: a population-based cohort study."
The King's College London study didn't set out to determine whether smoking rots the brain. Rather they were attempting to discover correlations between strokes or heart attacks and the brain. The middle-aged participants of the study were tested at the outset of the study, after four years and after eight years. They were asked to perform various brain and memory tests at each interval. Those who were smokers consistently scored lower on the tests. Those results prompted observers to assert that smoking rots the brain. That particular language is not included in the published study results themselves.

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