Smoking linked to mid-life memory loss: study

The study by Severine Sabia and colleagues of France’s Institute National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, reviewed data from 10,308 London-based civil servants age 35 to 55, who took part in a study between 1985 and 1988.

The researchers said that they found strong links between smoking and cognitive and memory problems later in life.

“First, smoking in middle age is associated with memory deficit and decline in reasoning abilities,” they wrote in a report in the June 9 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. “Second, long-term ex-smokers are less likely to have cognitive deficits in memory, vocabulary and verbal fluency.”

The authors stressed that “the results are important because individuals with cognitive impairment in mid-life may progress to dementia at a faster rate”.