More cheery news for cigarette smokers. While it has been well known that smoking destroys your lungs and can often lead to cancer, a new study published in the scientific journal Age and Ageing reports that “repeated exposure to tobacco smoke significantly declined the cognitive performance of older people that had elevated cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure”. The study conducted by researchers at King’s College London on 8,800 people found that high blood pressure and being overweight appeared to affect the brain at an old age, but to a lesser extent than smoking. Heart attacks and strokes are associated with cognitive decline. “Those at the highest risk of a heart attack and stroke showed the greatest decline of cognitive ability,” the study said. “Smoking habitually was strongly associated with lower scores on the tests. With these findings, the researchers inferred that smoking cigarettes actually rots the brain.” In another study that linked cigarette smoking to mental decline, research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2010 found that smokers were more than 150 per cent more likely to experience symptoms of Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia.
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Source URL (retrieved on Nov 28th 2012, 6:09am): http://www.scmp.com/business/article/1092404/tv-companies-finally-provide-entertainment-only-air
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