Smoking Combined With Heavy Drinking Speeds up Cognitive Decline: Study

A new paper published in the British Journal of Psychiatry suggests that a combination of smoking and heavy drinking speeds up cognitive decline.

The study conducted by a team of researchers from the University College London discovered a 36 percent faster cognitive decline in those smokers who also drank heavily when compared to the non smoking moderate drinkers.

The study highlighted that the combined effect of both smoking and drinking was extremely drastic on cognition when compared to the individual effects.

The researchers examined 4,635 men and 1,838 women in the age group 45-69 years, who were part of the Whitehall II cohort  study of British civil servants. The study was done over a period of 10 years.

The researchers enquired about their cigarette as well as alcohol consumption and monitored their cognitive function through mathematical reasoning, verbal reasoning, fluency and short term memory. These were assessed thrice over 10 years.

They noticed that in smokers who were also heavy drinkers, there was a 36 percent cognitive decline compared to the non smoking moderate drinkers. For every 10 years of aging this group showed a brain decline of 12 years.

Lead  researcher Dr Gareth Hagger-Johnson concluded saying, "From a public health perspective, the increasing burden associated with cognitive aging could be reduced if lifestyle factors can be modified, and we believe that people should not drink alcohol more heavily in the belief that alcohol is a protective factor against cognitive decline. Current advice is that smokers should stop or cut down, and people should avoid heavy alcohol drinking."

The study proposes that people should also be advised not to mix the two unhealthy behaviors, especially on reaching mid life. Healthy behavior in midlife may thwart cognitive decline in early old age.