Smoking in Middle Age May Raise the Risk of Weak-mindedness

Researchers in England and France have the results from a 17-year-long study of more than 5,300 people. They found smokers ate less fruit and vegetables, drank more alcohol and had higher cholesterol levels than non-smokers. Middle-aged smokers are more likely to have reasoning abilities and poorer memories than those who have never smoked.

Severine Sabia at France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research wrote: “Assessment can only be among those who have survived long enough to become demented.” Sabia and his team studied 5,388 persons who were part of an inquiry of more than 10,000 civil servants aged 35 to 55 started in 1985.

The scientists found smokers were 54 % more likely than non-smokers to be in the lowest 20 % of subjects on a memory test. The research found smokers usually are less educated and financially worse off than non-smokers. The research demonstrated the value of the tobacco habit: those who stop smoking in the 10 years foregoing the tests had a decreased risk of cognitive deficit, and were more likely to drink less alcohol than persistent smokers and eat more vegetables and fruit.

The World Health Organization says tobacco use will kill 1 billion people in this century, unless governments in poor nations increase taxes on consumption and mandate health warnings.

Heart disease, lung cancer and other diseases related to smoking kill 5.4 million people a year, and the number is rising.