Smoking can cause Alzheimer's Disease, says study

Cigarette smoking can lead to cognitive impairment and even Alzheimer's Disease shows recent research studies , even as the world observed World Alzheimer’s Day on September 21 to wipe away the stigma associated with the disease and provide relief to sufferers and their families. 

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, is characterised by progressive deterioration in intellect including memory, thinking, learning, orientation, language, comprehension and judgement. The impact of the disease could be so harsh that patients are even unable to carry out everyday chores.

With no effective treatments available currently, the medical and scientific community has turned its attention to identifying modifying effects of lifestyle, including smoking.

In the backdrop of epidemiological studies that have shown cigarette smoking, including second-hand smoking to be an important risk factor of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease, researchers, in a recent study named “Cigarette Smoking Accelerated Brain Aging and Induced Pre-Alzheimer-Like Neuropathology in Rats” sought to identify cigarette-smoke induced pathological changes in brains.

The study conducted on Sprague-Dawley rats (a multipurpose breed used in medical research) demonstrated that exposure to cigarette smoke induces pathological changes in the brain and increases susceptibility to the development of cognitive impairment or even Alzheimer’s Disease later in life.

The rats were exposed to either sham air or four per cent cigarette smoke for an hour per day for 8 weeks in a ventilated smoking chamber to simulate the situation of chronic passive smoking.

Dr Jacob Roy Kuriakose, Chairman, Alzheimer’s Disease International said, “Kerala is going through a situation of emerging and re-emerging communicable and non-communicable diseases. In this context, the social costs in managing diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease will challenge health systems. What we need is to set in place an effective preventive measure strategy including phasing out of tobacco products.”

“One way of doing this would be strict implementation of the provisions of Indian tobacco control legislation and initiate penal action to dissuade use,” added Dr Kuriakose who is also the National Chairman of Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India (ARDSI). 

According to Alzheimer’s Disease International – an umbrella organisation working to improve the quality of life of people with dementia and their families - 35.6 million people across the world were estimated to be living with dementia in 2010 - there are 7.7 million new cases of dementia each year, implying that there is a new case of dementia somewhere in the world every four seconds.

In Kerala, the projected prevalence of dementia in elderly aged 65 years and over 80 was 0.15 million in 2011 according to the Dementia India Report 2010 of Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India. The prevalence is estimated to be 0.18 million by 2016 and 0.21 million by 2021.

Image courtesy: TopNews

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