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We know smokers have an increased risk of dementia.
Now new research suggests that quitting smoking, even after later in life, can slow cognitive decline.
Researchers from the University College of London collected data from more than 9,000 participants ages 40 and older across 12 countries.
“They matched people who had quit smoking with continuing smokers according to their starting cognitive scores and other characteristics, including sex, age, education level and birth country,” according to NPR.
Results showed verbal fluency declined at a rate roughly half for those who quit smoking compared to that of their smoking counterparts.
For memory, the decline was reduced by 20%.
Let’s dive deeper into this study and what this can mean for those who quit smoking.
Why Older Smokers Should Quit, Too
While many programs, campaigns, and studies look at the importance of quitting smoking when young, there’s still benefits for older smokers to quit as well.
“A lot of older people might think that there’s no point in quitting after decades of smoking, but our study suggests that quitting even later in life is linked with slower cognitive decline,” said study epidemiologist Mikaela Bloomberg said.
Dr. Neal Benowitz, a cardiovascular physician and clinical pharmacologist, highlights that encouraging older smokers to quit can be helpful.
“One of the important problems in tobacco control is that older smokers are not quitting at very high rates like younger smokers are,” Benowitz told NPR.
Along with increased risk of dementia, cell and tissue damage, along with cardiovascular health issues, are also associated with smoking.
“You’d think you might need to quit during early to midlife, and then you sort of have missed this kind of critical period for when you can quit. But that just doesn’t seem to be the case here,” Bloomberg said.
Quit Smoking with Quitxt
It’s never too late to quit smoking!
Take the first step to quitting with the no-cost Quitxt bilingual text-message service from UT Health San Antonio.
Quitxt, created by Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez and Dr. Patricia Chalela at UT Health SanAntonio with the support of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, sends texts messages to help South Texas adults quit smoking.
Messages help with motivation to quit, setting a quit date, handling stress, using nicotine replacement (if needed), and more.
To join Quitxt in English, text “iquit” to 844-332-2058.
For Spanish, text “lodejo” to 844-332-2058.
More than 1 in 5 Quitxt users fully quit smoking after completing the English version of the program, according to a recent study.
“There’s no better time than now to stop smoking with help from Quitxt,” said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research and head of community outreach and engagement at the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio.
By The Numbers
24
percent
of Mexican American-nonsmokers are exposed to secondhand smoke
