Smoking Speeds Up Memory Loss in Old Age

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Smoking Speeds Up Memory Loss in Old Age

by Alison McCook, Reuters Health

March 23, 2004

NEW YORK - Elderly people who smoke show a five-fold faster rate of age-related mental decline than people who never smoked, according to new study findings released Monday.

Among former smokers, mental decline occurred around twice as fast as in those who said they never smoked.

And the more people smoked during their lifetimes, the quicker they appear to lose their mental faculties with age, the authors note.

These findings represent another reason why smokers should quit, and one that "may appeal to the people who didn't stop for other reasons," study author Dr. Lenore Launer of the National Institute on Aging in Maryland told Reuters Health.

This is not the first study to link smoking with mental decline. Previous research has shown that middle-aged smokers tend to show a faster rate of decline in old age, and may experience more cognitive changes than non-smokers even before they reach age 60.

During the study, Launer and her colleagues tested mental function in 9,209 people over the age of 65; they then retested them an average of 2 years later. All participants were free of dementia during the study period.

The researchers measured participants' cognitive function using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a short assessment tool used worldwide.

The authors found that never-smokers showed a decline in MMSE score of .03 points per year. Among current smokers, MMSE score dropped .16 points each year, while former smokers' scores fell by .06 points annually.

And the more packs of cigarettes people smoked, the faster they tended to lose their mental functioning as they aged, the authors report in the journal Neurology.

In an interview, Launer explained that the small change in MMSE score means that each individual smoker will likely not notice a difference in their mental functioning from year to year. But over time, she added, smokers will likely be quicker than non-smokers to notice that their brains are not working the way they used to.

Moreover, the fact that smokers as a whole experience a faster rate of cognitive decline with age shows that smoking's influence on the brain has a significant impact on public health, Launer added.

Launer explained that smoking likely affects mental functioning by causing problems in the blood vessels feeding the brain, leading to a loss of nutrients and the destruction of brain tissue.

She added that these findings suggest that repeated exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke may also cause changes to young, developing brains, and may also affect cognitive function in elderly non-smokers.