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FOX- Smoking shrinks the brain and drives up Alzheimer’s risk, new study finds A recent study from the Washington University School of Medicine analyzed the brain scans, smoking history and genetic risk of a group of 32,094 European participants and found a decreased brain volume in those who smoked one pack daily versus those who never smoked or had smoked fewer than 100 cigarettes. The study shared why older people who smoke are at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive deterring diseases. It stated 14% of global Alzheimer’s disease cases could be attributed to smoking. Quitting smoking can prevent the loss of additional brain tissue, but cannot reverse prior damage. Dr. Brett Osborn was not involved in conducting the study, but shared his insights on the findings with Fox News Digital. Dr. Osborn said some age-related diseases are inevitable, yet our lifestyle choices affect the speed of the process. "We can age gracefully in part by choosing to avoid toxins such as alcohol and smoking, both of which increase the production of toxic free radicals, also known as oxidative stress," he told Fox News Digital. Dr. Osborn explained when someone smokes, their blood vessel linings are taken over by electrons that cause cell damage and affects the heart, lungs and brain. "When you smoke, the brain takes a hit due to the induced vascular damage," Osborn said. "Over time, the brain shrinks, and this is evident on MRI." "Smoking does terrible things not only to the body but also to the brain, and in some parts, disproportionately more than others." Dr. Osborn said the regions of the brain most affected by smoking are the frontal cortex, cerebellum, corpus callosum and amygdala. Dr. Osborn added other organs have the capability to recover after a person quits smoking, but there is no recovering for loss of brain volume. "The brain demonstrates a lower capacity for recovery, so the best you can hope for is a deceleration in induced damage when you stop," he said. "So, the sooner you quit, the better." "Remember, staying healthy lifelong is about making the right choices to mitigate the cellular damage that is the hallmark of the disease we call aging, to which no one is immune," Dr. Osborn added. The CDC reports that smoking accounts for one out of every five deaths in the U.S. Some tips on how to quit smoking is to remove all types of cigarettes and other forms of smoking from your presence, surrounding yourself with a strong support system and replacing smoking with healthier alternatives such as physical exercise.
