Dementia and Its Links to Smoking
Smoking sets off an enormous range of processes in the body each time it occurs. This is one of the reasons that someone who has decided to stop smoking should be reminded that within fifteen minutes of their last cigarette their body has already begun to heal itself.
What happens as the body ages, however? For instance, as we get older we lose our abilities to combat illness, mend bones, and fight infection quickly and easily. Though we can still do those things, it tends to take both time and bodily resources to do so. Additionally, the aging process can also limit exactly how much our bodies can handle or even repair problems that arise.
Does this mean that a senior who stops smoking will see the same repairs occurring within fifteen minutes after their last cigarette? The answer is both yes and no. It all depends upon the overall health of the individual. Consider that as the body ages it handles a process known as oxidative stress less powerfully than in earlier years. This is something that is also seen in people with advanced Alzheimer’s Disease.
Oxidative stress simply means that the body has too many “free radicals” or cellular waste products being produced by one or more chemical reactions occurring in the body. This is something known to severely damage blood vessels and leads to hardening of the arteries. This sort of blood vessel damage occurs within smokers of all ages, but if it is also occurring due to oxidative stress it could lead to damage of specific regions in the brain, and this then leads to dementia.
Additionally, all smokers boost their risk of cerebrovascular disease (which is also related to circulation in the brain), and this too is connected directly to the appearance of dementia as well.
Even more interesting are the results of studies done on current smokers of advanced ages and the appearance or development of dementia. What has been discovered is that current smokers over the age of 55 were at least fifty percent more likely to develop dementia than former or non-smokers.
What all of this information indicates is that someone over the age of 55 who persists in smoking is dramatically increasing the likelihood of developing dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease simply by creating chemical imbalances and damaging blood vessels in the brain. Because smoking is the leading preventable cause of millions of deaths each year, the need to cease smoking in later life cannot be overemphasized.
