Dementia Made Worse by Smoking & Fish Oil Not Helping
Las Vegas Human Brain Injury Blog
We normally attribute smoking to lung cancer. A Recent Study now links smoking to later life dementia. My mother smoked more than a pack a day and finally succumbed to the disease. Her cancer originated in the lungs and metastasized to her brain. The 6 month ordeal was absolutely heartbreaking. And she quit smoking after getting the diagnosis which was obviously too late. She was my personal longitudinal study subject of the consequences of smoking. And she thought she was so clever with her moth balls to hide the odor and pretend she was not smoking. And I remember during the year prior to her diagnosis how her apartment, food she prepared, clothes she washed, and just about everything else smelled like moth balls. A far cry from theEast Coast Long Island Italian aromas of holiday cooking I cherished from my childhood.
Beginning January 1, 2011, the 79 million-member baby boom generation will begin - at a rate of 10,000 per day - reaching the age of 65. Growing older, while not the cause of Alzheimer's, is the single most significant factor in gauging a person's risk of the disease. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that the number of Americans with this devastating disease will balloon from just over 5 million today to 7.7 million by the year 2030 and could reach nearly 16 million by the middle of the century.
And now we have increased risk of dementia due to smoking.
“We found a two-fold increase in risk [of dementia] among those who smoked two packs per day, a 44 percent increase in those who smoked one to two packs, and 37 percent increase in those smoking one-half a pack per day in mid-life,” Dr. Whitmer told Neurology Today. I wonder if my mother began having dementia that ended up being masked by the cancer. She was forgetting things more.
The study, published in the October 2010 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, sought to discover whether smoking, a know risk factor for several life-threatening diseases, had long-term association with dementia. This link is previously controversial. The study compiled data over many years. The results revealed a 100% increase in dementia. This does not leave a lot of room to think heavy smokers are immune from related dementia.
So what can you do besides not start or quit smoking? Take more Fish Oil? Not so fast.
Fish oil is oil derived from the tissues of oily fish. Fish oils contain the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), precursors to eicosanoids that
are known to reduce inflammation throughout the body, Studies published in 2004 and 2009 have suggested that fish oil may reduce the risk of depression and suicide. One such study reported that patients who were given the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid fared no better cognitively or functionally than those who took a placebo over 18 months. and are thought to have many health benefits.
So now you know. To decrease the risk factor for dementia – DO NOT SMOKE. If you think you’re decreasing the risk factor by taking Fish Oil, you may not be. As for me, I continue to not smoke and continue taking Fish Oil.
