Smoking Cigarettes Brain Damage

It is no secret that smoking cigarettes or smoking any kind of tobacco product can be hazardous to one’s health. Smoking has been linked to a number of forms of cancers: lung cancer, liver cancer, stomach cancer, and in some cases even heart disease. Researchers across the world have worked tirelessly to fully understand the possible physical damage associated with tobacco products. New research has shown that that smoking cigarettes in later years of one’s life may cause brain damage, i.e. brain shrinkage and, or memory loss.

The study found that dangerous changes in the brain that could lead to a decline in mental functioning as soon as 10 years later could occur from four different variables:

• smoking
• high blood pressure
• 
  
• diabetes
• excess weight

Study author Charles DeCarli, M.D., of the University of California at Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center, said in a journal news release, “Our findings provide evidence that identifying these risk factors early in people of middle age could be useful in screening people for at-risk dementia and encouraging people to make changes to their lifestyle before it’s too late.”

The brain is not an organ that should be tampered with, being more important than any other single organ. Damage to the brain is irreversible at this point and it does not look promising for there ever to be a way to reverse such damage. People actively addicted to cigarettes should have reason to be concerned and should try and look for ways to cut cigarettes and tobacco out of their life all together.

Quitting cigarettes is no easy chore, but, there is help out there if one desires it.

The study appears in the journal Neurology.