Alzheimer's risk increases 50% from smoking

[KeysBum]

Evidence is growing that smoking raises the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by as much as 50 percent. In late 2007, Dutch researchers who tracked almost 7,000 people age 55 or older for 7 years reported that current smokers were more likely to develop dementia than people who had never smoked or had quit. Interestingly, the effect was more pronounced for people who did not have the APOE-e4 gene (the type known to be most vulnerable to the disease). Smoking didn't raise the already elevated risk of Alzheimer's in those who had the APOE-e4 gene.
It's thought that smoking damages the cardiovascular system and causes oxidative stress, both conditions that are associated with Alzheimer's.
You may have heard that smoking protects against dementia -- which is a myth. This persistent idea grew out of flawed studies and because fewer people with Alzheimer's were smokers. But in fact smokers, tend to have shorter life spans and are less likely to live to the advanced ages at which Alzheimer's most often strikes.

 

[sherid]

There are a number of studies that show that smoking decreases the risk of Alzheimers and Parkinson's disease. As one who deals with a family member with Alzheimers and was a non-smoker, I believe that as of now, no one has a clue about what causes it. Although the anti-smoker movement would like to pin the cause of all diseases known to mankind on smoking and shs, to me it is simply a diversion from the indisputable truth that as we grow older, all sorts of horrible things happen to our bodies as they break down and that the medical world is powerless against the process. It is easy to blame smoking on what we don't understand and cannot cure. I seriously doubt that if the world became totally non-smoking today that any of these life-ending conditions would end.

 

[KeysBum]

There are a number of studies that show that smoking decreases the risk of Alzheimers and Parkinson's disease. As one who deals with a family member with Alzheimers and was a non-smoker, I believe that as of now, no one has a clue about what causes it. Although the anti-smoker movement would like to pin the cause of all diseases known to mankind on smoking and shs, to me it is simply a diversion from the indisputable truth that as we grow older, all sorts of horrible things happen to our bodies as they break down and that the medical world is powerless against the process. It is easy to blame smoking on what we don't understand and cannot cure. I seriously doubt that if the world became totally non-smoking today that any of these life-ending conditions would end.

Your response confuses me. If you didn't think quitting smoking would improve your health, why did you bother with vaping?
Studies like this reinforce to me the benefits of vaping as an alternative to smoking. I know that in the one year I have been smoke free, my health has improved a lot. No scientific study, but I haven’t had a cold or bronchitis, I can climb stairs without near as much effort, I can free dive deeper and hold my breath longer. AND I DON"T STINK. And no, the diseases associated with smoking will not go away. But if they go away for me and the ones I love who quit smoking, I'm good with that.

If I believed your paradigm, I wouldn't have gone through the effort of quitting, why bother.

Did you get to the end of the post? the part that said: You may have heard that smoking protects against dementia -- which is a myth. This persistent idea grew out of flawed studies and because fewer people with Alzheimer's were smokers. But in fact smokers, tend to have shorter life spans and are less likely to live to the advanced ages at which Alzheimer's most often strikes.

 

[440BB]

I can understand how the smoking process could increase the advancement of Alzheimer's. Fortunately for vapers, nicotine itself may be helpful and could contribute to therapy for cognitive impairment. Here's a source Nicotine Patch Improves Memory in People With Mild Cognitive Impairment - ABC News

I'm even happier I switched - double win!

 

[sherid]

I vape because I enjoy it. I smoked because I enjoy it. What I cannot stand is the constant flooding of the press with "studies" that blame smoking for every disease and condition known to mankind, especially when there are conflicting studies. I mourn the loss of science to promote the anti-smoker cause. When I see those commercials for Chantix, I want to barf. Chantix is the leading cause of death and mental breakdowns for the thousands of people who have been harmed by it, yet the public endures the ad. The anti-smoker movement is a very profitable one. They buy both the press and so-called scientists with unlimited cash flow in the form of grants. Does smoking cause dementia? I doubt it since the cause of dementia is probably buried in the genes of those who suffer and in the fact that old age and the dying brain that accompanies it is tied to dementia. As we live longer, we suffer longer. As for the effort to quit smoking, that is the glory of the e cig. It really does not require much effort. Good luck on your continued journey, but there are skeptics among us. I am one of them.

 

[W Axl Rose]

Well said, Sherid

 

[chuckie]

Great post Sherid.

 

[OctaviaNik]

Oh dear, hope they don't link it to nicotine

Either way I'm rogered, as my paternal grandfather suffered from early-onset Alzheimers and my maternal grandmother had it as well. Soooo, I don't think it's going to make much difference lol. I'll probably die in a big ball of flames at a track day way before then

 

[John Phoenix]

Evidence is growing that smoking raises the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by as much as 50 percent. In late 2007, Dutch researchers who tracked almost 7,000 people age 55 or older for 7 years reported that current smokers were more likely to develop dementia than people who had never smoked or had quit.


You may have heard that smoking protects against dementia -- which is a myth. This persistent idea grew out of flawed studies and because fewer people with Alzheimer's were smokers. But in fact smokers, tend to have shorter life spans and are less likely to live to the advanced ages at which Alzheimer's most often strikes.

This is what bother me about these studies. On the one hand you would have us believe that researchers "tracked almost 7,000 people age 55 or older for 7 years" and concluded that "current smokers were more likely to develop dementia than people who had never smoked"

But you don't say HOW they arrived at this conclusion. To start with you have 7000 people in varying stages of health. You have no control group for your experiment. These 7000 people all went about their daily lives in different environments which could have been polluted, all ate different things which could have been toxic like eating fatty fried foods or lots of refined sugars, all could have inhaled or absorbed through the skin other substances that were toxic or used products like cosmetics, perfumes, soaps shaving creams house hold cleaning products, roach spray, chlorine from pools the list is endless.. and none of this was taken into account for this study.. over 7 years. The only One thing you can say for sure these people had in common was that they smoked. That sounds like a pretty flawed study to me.

Now if they put all 7000 people in a sterile environment, brought all of them up to the same level of health, gave them all identical diets, monitored their air quality, their exposure to other chemicals for a whole 7 years and then reached their conclusion, there might be something to it. As it is, there is no way anyone should believe such a study. There is nothing scientific about it.

And yet, you site that you know other studies are flawed by your logic? Apply the same logic to the study you sited.