SMOKING INCREASES ALZHEIMER'S RISK
If one more piece of information on how smoking contributes to disease will get a smoker that you know to finally quit, here it is. A recent study conducted in the Netherlands found that smoking increases the risk of Alzheimer?€™s disease (AD) by as much as 50% in people 55 or older who don?€™t have a genetic predisposition to the disease. Doctors used to think that the nicotine in tobacco reduced the risk of AD by inhibiting the formation of plaques in the brain. The new study shows that, in fact, nicotine worsens the effects of a brain protein that causes Alzheimer?€™s Disease.
~Susan