Quitting Smoking at Any Age Linked to Improved Cognitive Benefits
A recent study found that even people who quit later in life had slower cognitive decline than those who kept smoking.
It’s long been known that smoking is linked to dementia risk, and that quitting is one of the most powerful lifestyle modifications you can take to protect your brain health. Now, new research supports the notion that giving up the habit even later in life can be beneficial to brain function.
The longitudinal study, published in Lancet, examined cognitive outcomes collected over 18 years in 12 countries. In middle-aged and older smokers with initially similar cognitive trajectories, smokers who quit saw better cognitive outcomes than continued smokers, regardless of their age when they successfully quit.
“There’s nothing people who have already smoked for 30 years can do about those previous 30 years,” said Jamie Brown, PhD, professor of behavioral science at University College London, a study co-author. “But for them, the message is ‘Look, even if you’re 50 and you quit, you can improve that trajectory in your health and your brain health.’”
Researchers examined data of participants aged 40-89 years, choosing to focus on older adults since the effects of smoking on cognitive and physical health are often not seen in younger adults. Comparing those who quit with continuing smokers, in the six years before smoking cessation, both groups had similar rates of memory and fluency decline.
In the six years following smoking cessation, the smokers who quit saw their memory and fluency scores decline more slowly than continuing smokers. Those who quit saw more favorable outcomes regardless of their age when they stopped smoking.
Alzheimer’s prevention strategies focus on mitigating cognitive decline through a variety of strategies, including quitting smoking, that in turn have been shown to prevent or delay the onset of symptoms. Results from the study show that later-life smoking cessation is associated with an equivalent delay of up to 3 years of cognitive aging over 6 years.
Risk prevention behaviors, such as not smoking or quitting smoking, can compound over time, sometimes leading to a delay of symptoms even in people who have a genetic risk of developing Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.
While cigarette smoking has declined for decades, vapes have increased in popularity. Vapes are often marketed as a tool to quit smoking, or at least, a less harmful nicotine alternative, although research shows that some vaping cartridges contain higher levels of nicotine than cigarettes.
“My view is public health has to try to strike a balance in the way it treats and regulates the two products [cigarettes and vapes],” Brown said. “I’d always be favoring the most restrictive policies applying to cigarettes as the most lethally available products, and then slightly more risk proportionate restrictions for things like vaping.”
Brown said that while vaping might be marginally better than smoking, it’s still harmful and more should be done to limit its use by younger people. “Things like complete advertising bans are certainly appropriate,” he said.
Findings from the study regarding the positive effects on cognitive decline in people who successfully quit, regardless of their age, could serve as the basis for new mass media campaigns aimed at motivating older adults to quit. Authors of the study are interested to see whether messaging around their findings would be effective in public health campaigns.
