Smoking provokes cognitive impairment
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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At the University of Edinburgh, a team of researchers found that smoking people's processes of thinning the cerebral cortex are faster than normal, and this threatens a violation of cognitive abilities, speech, memory, etc., in the future.
For their study, specialists selected 500 participants who participated in an earlier study that was conducted in 1947. Among the participants were both women and men who continued to smoke, refused this bad habit or did not smoke at all. The age of the participants averaged 73 years, the number of men and women was approximately equal.
As a result of the latest survey of participants, scientists concluded that the cerebral cortex of smokers is much thinner than normal, in those who abandoned this harmful habit, the bark was partially restored, i.e. Since the time when a person quit smoking, the cerebral cortex became thicker.
One of the scientists, Sheriff Karama, explained that they managed to find out that in people suffering from addiction so far, thinning in the cerebral cortex occurred on whole sites. And those who quit smoking some time ago, there are positive improvements in the cerebral cortex, i.e. Thickness is partially restored with time.
Thinning of the cerebral cortex is a natural physiological process, as scientists say, with age, such a phenomenon is observed in every person, but smoking people this process goes much faster, which can affect thinking abilities in the future. Due to the thinning of the cerebral cortex, the person begins to undergo changes that eventually worsen cognitive functions.
Also, scientists note that the harm from smoking manifests itself not immediately, but in tens of years. Because of smoking, a person in old age can begin cognitive disorders, which is manifested by a decrease in memory, mental performance, perception of information, speech, etc.
In another study, experts at the University of Copenhagen confirmed that it is best to give up the habit of smoking gradually. According to the researchers, everyone who wants to get rid of nicotine addiction needs to reduce the number of smoked cigarettes every day.
In their study, specialists analyzed the reaction of the brain to a sudden quitting. During the brain scan of the participants in the experiment, it was found that after a sharp quitting of smoking, the oxygen level and blood circulation in the brain worsened by an average of 17%.
As the study showed, for the first day without cigarettes in the brain, disturbances begin that resemble mental retardation (a decrease in the ability to recognize surrounding phenomena, a loss of the ability to separate the main from the secondary, and also the critic's loss of one's own behavior, words).
It is for this reason, experts say, that it is hard for a person to refrain from smoking and many people return to an addiction.
With a gradual decrease in the number of cigarettes smoked per day, the work of the brain is not disrupted and the dependence decreases with time.
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