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Smoking reduces intelligence in men
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Men who smoke lose most of their intelligence over the years and also suffer from memory loss. These are the conclusions reached by British scientists.
A study conducted by scientists demonstrated that men who smoke become stupider with age, unlike non-smokers.
The specialists processed data from almost seven thousand people, including both women and men (two thousand and five thousand, respectively). All volunteers were former office workers at government agencies. At the time of the experiment, the average age of the volunteers was between 50 and 60 years.
The participants in the experiment underwent special testing to determine the level of development of their mental abilities. As a result, it was discovered that people who have such a bad habit as smoking demonstrated weaker results in terms of intellectual level and memory quality. The researchers noted that a certain age-related deterioration of cognitive thinking in humans is considered normal. However, in male smokers - and especially in heavy smokers - this process was much faster.
It is noteworthy that such a deterioration in indicators was characteristic exclusively of the male part of the population – the level of intelligence was more stable in women. In addition, the researchers were attracted by the fact that the level of mental abilities decreased more rapidly in those men who did not part with cigarettes for more than ten years. Moreover, regardless of whether they later gave up the bad habit or not.
A little earlier, scientists from the Johns Hopkins Medical College (Baltimore) made a statement that such a bad habit as smoking increases the risk of stroke in humans many times over. At the same time, it was stipulated that passive smokers also have such a risk - for example, if one person smokes in the house, then all family members can suffer from it.
In addition, in the course of other similar experiments, specialists have proven the direct influence of smoking on DNA mutation processes, on early mortality of young people, as well as on the health of subsequent generations of smoking parents.
According to statistics compiled by the World Health Organization, the harm to human health from smoking is so high that every day in the world every 5-7 seconds one person dies from diseases caused by smoking. In general, every year the world loses about five million people because of smoking. If this trend continues and people continue to indulge their bad habit, then in a few years this number will double - to ten million people annually: such a disappointing forecast is made by scientists today. Unfortunately, almost all smokers realize that smoking is harmful, and the effects of nicotine in most cases are irreversible. However, the overwhelming majority of people are unable to give up another cigarette.
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