A team of experts of University College London finished their extensive work on analyzing possible effects of prolonged smoking on modern men’s health. They worked with the findings of several previous studies and, in particular, teamed up with the employees of the British Civil Service on their individual research. In the end of the ends, they found out that such bad habit as smoking is actually strictly linked to more rapid development of cognitive disorders and cognitive decline in men. The detailed report about this research and other related comments were published this month in a peer-reviewed online medical journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
Thus, British specialists suggest putting smoking into the list of the key risk factors for cognitive disorders. In particular, smoking should be considered a factor that can cause serious cognitive decline and dementia in male elderly. It is estimated that in the year 2010, as much as 36 million people in the world suffer from various kinds of cognitive decline triggered by smoking. 
Unfortunately, if proper public attention is not paid and the problem of smoking is not addressed in the nearest future, in the next 20 years the number of men affected by cognitive decline due to smoking will double.
The study of the scientists at University College London involved analyzing the information and medical data on 5099 men and 2137 women, aged about 56. The first amount of information was collected during 10 years and included the data on 3 cognitive assessments of all the participants. Then, more information was collected over the next 15 years which also included the data received after 3 cognitive assessments along with analyzing smoking status of every each participant. It turned out that smoking elderly men develop cognitive and mental disorders much faster compared to smoking women of the same age. At that, smoking men tend to experience decline in all cognitive levels, not only in some of those.
In addition, if an aged man quits smoking (no matter on what stage of his cognitive condition), his risk of developing cognitive decline still remains very high, but the development of the cognitive disorders in such men can be a little slower compared to the one of smoking men. “Finally, our results show that the association between smoking and cognition, particularly at older ages, is likely to be underestimated owing to higher risk of death and dropout among smokers,” is stated in the report. It is interesting that the research showed very small and almost negligible connection between smoking in elderly women and developing cognitive disorders.
Remember that certain herbal remedies can be used to assist anyone quit smoking.
Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.
