Smoking and Alzheimer's

A new study linking smoking to Alzheimer's disease was published yesterday in the online edition of Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers said that the study has proved that those who smoke during their middle ages increases their risk  to develop Alzheimer's by 157%.

The study was conducted over  21,123 ethnically diverse people, between the ages of 50 and 60 years old covering the years between 1978 and 1985. During an average follow-up of 23 years, the researchers found that 25.4 percent were diagnosed with dementia, including Alzheimer's (1,136 people) or vascular dementia (416 people). Most of the people who developed Alzheimer's were heavy smokers, i.e., smoking of more than two cigarette packs a day.

Since this was conducted through observation, the exact mechanism on how smoking may contribute to the development of Alzheimer's was not fully elaborated. Researchers believed that it is similar to stroke or the formation of clots wherein oxidative process takes place and oxygenation or tissue perfusion of the brain cells is compromised. In due time, the neurons, which are responsible for transmitting electrical impulses for neural communication, will be damaged. 

Primarily, Alzheimer's is highly known to have genetic influence. This research will have a turnabout on how the public and health providers can prevent the onset of the disease among our seniors because of the modifiability factor of the behavior.