Heavy Smokers, Drinkers Brain Age 36% Faster

The combination of smoking and heavy drinking takes its toll in the form of 36% faster brain aging. Smoking and heavier alcohol consumption often co-occur, and their combined effect on cognition may be larger than the sum of their individual effects. The research team assessed 6,473 adults (4,635 men and 1,838 women) aged between 45 and 69 years old over a 10-year period. The adults were part of the Whitehall II cohort study of British civil servants. All the participants were asked about their cigarette and alcohol consumption, and their cognitive function (including verbal and mathematical reasoning, short-term verbal memory and verbal fluency) was then assessed three times over 10 years. The research team found that in current smokers who...
Source: FuturePundit - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs