The Connection Between Smoking And Alzheimer's Disease (VIDEO)
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Scientists have been researching connections between smoking and Alzheimer's disease for at least 20 years. Does smoking actually have positive effects when it comes to Alzheimer's, or is there more to this story?
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06:21 PM on 06/28/2010
I think, it is wrong thinking that somebody think that smoking can help them to reduce some stress and sadness, they should do other think such as watch a funny movie or go out with friends, or read books if they have stress. Moreover, if you smoke more, it means you burn not only your money but you burn also your lung people around you, of cause you destroy the beautiful atmosphere. 
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04:26 AM on 06/14/2010
In my country most people don't have high edcucation ,so they carless on good health. The way they live ,eat ,and drink not car about the clean problem, even they are live in the good environment full of nature environmental .
04:19 AM on 06/14/2010
How to be along lives , good health is the most important ,and what is good health? So you should have health it maen that you both good body system and good feeling .
06:44 PM on 06/13/2010
Hey want to know a simple way to live life? Try moderation! Most things in moderation won't kill you! Eat well, Exercise, and De-stress! (About this article, if want to smoke great! If you don't then don't go where smokers are going to hang say.... a smokers lounge, a cigar bar, or a bar known to be used by smokers!) Good Luck Folks! P.S. It's impossible to be allergic to smoke. No seriously - impossible. I hate that excuse.
http://www.airqualitytips.com/144/the-truth-about-secondhand-smoke-allergies/
02:07 PM on 06/13/2010
This is a commendable study of studies that were paid for to be biased versus studies that were interested in discovering facts. As our nation declines our knowledge increasingly becomes supporte by and biased for special interests taht harm the national interest of revealing the truth.Honorable political leaders, starting with the President, could gradually stop dishonorable research.
01:42 PM on 06/13/2010
This is a load of crap, my Mother just died of Alzheimers and never smoked a day in her life and was rarily even exposed to cigarette smoke. It is so easy to blame agricultral products than to figure out the real causes of human diseases. I think that because smoking is not socially acceptable anymore and non-smokers are really forcing the issue that any illness that cannot be explained can easily use tobacco as the scapegoat. I would suggest studying other products on store shelves like saccharin and Nutra-sweet,(My Mother used these for a very long time) or the types of jobs held or even drugs, pollution, or the amount of lead stored in the persons body. Who really knows for sure.
04:21 PM on 06/13/2010
So because some people get a disease without being exposed to one of the factors, that factor cannot be one of the causes? Plenty of people get lung cancer and never smoke and plenty of people smoke for years and never get cancer. My father has smoked for over 60 years (since he was 12) and not gotten cancer. Should we now come to the conclusion that smoking doesn't cause lung cancer? That hardly seems like a good conclusion.
07:06 PM on 06/13/2010
It is interesting though, as long ago as 15 years ago Prevention reported on a study that compared heavily smoking "eskimo" communities rates of lung cancer compared to metro mainland American rates, even for a control group of nonsmokers, and the eskimos rates were dramatically lower, which the study people suggested meant that other factors like air pollution and diet, and perhaps even genetic predisposition might weigh more heavily than tobacco. However, since American cigarettes are the most toxic in the world, as the AP reported recently, the chemical residues left in a lot of ill people will probably be on that list of additives and pesticides. On the other hand, saccharin, nutra-sweet are known carcinogens with "safe" rates of accumulation in the body unknown, besides the aluminum that is ibiquitous in body products and cookware and is found in high amounts in brain tissue of those with alzheimer's.
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09:44 AM on 06/13/2010
As mentioned in an Az Assoc. meeting100+ years = Most, not all, get Az or other dementias
90s = 75% & up get Az or other dementias
80s = 50% & up
70s = 35% & up
BUT...
68 yrs old = life expectancy of a smoker
Smoking cuts life expectancy by 10 years
http://www.bupa.co.uk/health_information/html/health_news/240604smoke.html
78 yrs old = life expectancy of the U.S.A.
http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/usa.php
You have to live long enough to possibly get Az or other dementias, Early onset as exception
07:11 PM on 06/13/2010
the dsm IV tr, that I've just studied dementia in my counseling class, says there is no increase after a 50% rate for both Az and other dementia, it plateaus at 80 years old, and more often those with alzheimers don't make it to 80 as it usually has a 50 to 70 year onset and is usually fatal within a few years. Dementia from physiological causes, not side effects of medications or drug use, like from diabetes, accompanies general body deterioration because of the chronic diseases and is more likely to happen at any age.
03:33 PM on 06/15/2010
Been busy...just read your reply.I have been a caregiver, a family member to, a contractor to, a neighbor to, etc.
People with both AZ and non-AZ dementias.
They are not usually fatal within a few years.
I have first-hand experience.
The 50% rate for those over 80, is exclusively Alzheimer's.
The numbers change when you include other dementias
In my experience, people believe that Alzheimer's represents 75% or more of all dementias. This is not true. Your counseling class should have also mentioned that without doing a special autopsy on every person suspected of Alzheimer's, that the genuine Az numbers are not known. http://www.alz.org/alzwa/documents/alzwa_Resource_EOL_The_Alzheimers_Asso_Autopsy_Assistance_Network.pdf
Often times the survivors cannot bear the thought of a loved one undergoing more, after so much suffering. Thus, empirical evidence on the numbers is off.
You wrote, "Dementia from physiological causes, not side effects of medications or drug use, like from diabetes, accompanies general body deterioration because of the chronic diseases and is more likely to happen at any age."
Sounds good but it is actually not solid.
1) Disease is more likely to happen at any age, senior citizens are not protected
2) While B12 deficiencies can happen in your 40s, and even younger, decades of testing shows that it more often happens in the elderly
03:50 PM on 06/15/2010
3) Stroke can happen at any age, but TIAs and stroke, are much more likely to hit those over 60. Unfortunately, more 1st hand experience with these. People over 80, 85, 90, etc. are not immune from TIAs or stroke.TIAs can cause cerebral shrinkage, but it is not necessarily been deemed a cause of Alzheimers
4) Because many become more sendentary in retirement, maybe because of osteoporosis or macular degeneration or menisci/bursae degeneration... Many become depressed at any age, but if you have the above come on at 70 or 80 or 90, you may now be exceeding calories for your metabolism. You become Type II vulnerable, in a way that you may not have been when you were younger.
5) Should of mentioned this earlier, but Alzheimer's is considered to lean heavily toward being caused by "physiological causes" as much as any other dementia.
Alzheimer's lacking a cure, does not mean it is not caused by "physiological causes."
Even Alzheimer's recently in the news in Colombia, having a genetic component, does not mean it is not a "physiological cause." We do not know enough about epigentics today to make a conclusion about that. Alzheimer's is not the only dementia that we do not know conclusively what the cause is.
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04:56 AM on 06/13/2010
The tie between smoking and keeping Alzheimer's at bay has LONG been fact. It's only recently that anti-smoking bigots out to make "the world safe from tobacco" are putting false statements, poo-pooing the idea and flat out lying about everything concerning tobacco and cigarettes. If any of them bother to look at the actual studies, the TRUE facts, they would realize they're just parroting lies and hatred and bigotry to get their way and screw other people. Thank goodness their efforts have turned the young against them and now the smoking numbers world-wide have gone up! Because tobacco use DOES keep many things at bay. Yes, it causes damage as well, but what doesn't? Even A.S.H. admits that the actual facts (by their own Anti-Smoking doctors nonetheless!) prove -- repeat: PROVE -- that everything anti-smokers say is a flat out lie. Just like the Prohibitionists of old with alcohol....and the pot prohibitionists as well! The A.S.H. website makes it very clear that if their "facts" are taken into courts, they will be proven as lies across the board. So, instead, they advise fanatics to "tell judges and juries 'heartfelt, pathetic stories about people you know who have died from cancer.'" Pathetic indeed. Leave people alone to live their lives because chances are 98% you AND your kids will die of cancer. If the oil spills don't wipe out life first.
07:25 AM on 06/13/2010
I think you are going a bit overboard ripping the non-smokers. I don't smoke and I don't like inhaling or smelling cigarettes but I certainly don't care if anyone wants to smoke at home or in their cars.
11:37 PM on 06/13/2010
Excuse ne while chuckle at your post. We are welcome to do it our cars and our homes but for goodness sake don't be anywhere near where I am or where I am going. Now I am not a Liberaterian but there times when I wish I were. You know who they are don't you? The are the Americans that believe in personal liberty and the government not telling us what we are allowed to do and where we are allowed to do it.
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01:21 PM on 06/13/2010
All your "TRUE facts" won't do you any good when the stuff has killed you. Good luck to you, slave to the tobacco industry!
10:48 AM on 06/27/2010
nor will your "true facts" what ever they may be...last time i checked life causes a 100% death rate.
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04:20 AM on 06/13/2010
i find a lot of the comments here misguided. scientific studies have long shown that nicotine helps memory so it's not surprise that it would help alzheimers. it doesn't mean that smoking is good for you, but to scream "fake"and so on just because smoking is bad for you is the equivalent of people denying climate change or evolution. just because science might contradict a moral stance you have does not make it fake.
10:49 AM on 06/13/2010
The memory benefits are short term but the damage of smoking to the organism is long term. The long term damage to the brain's support systems is a more reliable risk factor for alzheimers.lff
03:13 AM on 06/13/2010
This article is a misleading teaser. The real story here is that the tobacco industry will sponsor studies to justify the sale of its product. Given the connection of Alzheimer's to brain plaque and cigarettes' connection to strokes and blood vessel damage, this is truly...A no-brainer.
10:54 AM on 06/13/2010
I think the conclusions drawn from the meta-study are more accurate with the industry connected studies removed. However, controls for studies conducted or funded by anti-smoking organizations would have resulted in an even more reliable result.lff
01:38 AM on 06/13/2010
i love all the stoner's comments about cigarettes, priceless.
11:47 PM on 06/12/2010
A couple of anecdotes. I learned recently that the mother of an old acquaintance of mine had died from Alzheimer's. She had been a steady smoker for years.A friend of mine died in his forties from pancreatic cancer. He, too, was a steady smoker.
07:17 PM on 06/12/2010
Good to know! So presumably you will retain all your mental clarity, as you're wheeling your air around in a tank.
11:21 AM on 06/12/2010
Oh hogwash, Why just last week I was going to quit my 30 year 3 pack a day habit, I just forgot ! 
First Posted: 06/11/10 07:02 PM ET Updated: 11/17/11 09:02 AM ET