ALZHEIMER’S RISK DOUBLES IN HEAVY SMOKERS

HEAVY SMOKING LINKED TO ALZHEIMER’S
SMOKING DOUBLES DEMENTIA RISK IN LATE LIFE

(Reuters) - Heavy smoking during middle age can double the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia two decades later, researchers said. Smoking already causes millions of deaths each year from cancer and heart disease. “Our study suggests that heavy smoking in middle age increases the risk of both Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia for men and women across different race groups,” Rachel Whitmer, a research scientist with Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, California and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine. They said smoking also causes cancer and heart disease. The new findings show it threatens public health in late life, when people are already more likely to develop dementia. People who smoked more than two packs of cigarettes a day had a higher risk of both Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

Smoking, an established risk factor for stroke, may contribute to the likelihood of vascular dementia by causing small clots in the brain. Smoking also contributes to oxidative stress and inflammation, which may be linked to the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers say.

Heavy smoking in middle age seems to increase the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia, a large new study suggests. Compared with non-smokers, those who smoked more than two packs of cigarettes a day in midlife had a “dramatic increase” in the incidence of dementia - more than a 157 percent increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and a 172 percent increased risk of developing vascular dementia, Whitmer’s team found.



Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, is a fatal brain disease in which people gradually lose their memories and their abilities to reason and care for themselves. It affects more than 26 million people globally. Alzheimer's disease is characterized by a progressive loss of memory and other mental abilities. However, there is no need to suffer from this disease to forget what should be the most important thing in our existence: God. In our nature there is a tendency to forget and fall into the deceptions of the material illusion; but there is a solution: the more we remember the Supreme Lord and sing His names, Maya will not come. On the contrary, when we forget Him, Maya will come quickly to govern our existence.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Then Kapila Bhagavan began His instructions to Mother Devahuti. You are to hear this repeatedly. We have already heard this many times, but it is our nature to forget. ... The mind is the cause of bondage. But this same mind is also the cause of emancipation. How can this be? If one's mind is attached to tri-guna, the primal qualities of the external potency, then that person is in bondage. If his mind is attached to pumsi, to Supreme Lord Sri Krsna, Who is the Transcendental Supreme Reality, then he is emancipated. It has nothing to do with the body. This body has no work relevant to emancipation. The body is neither the cause of bondage nor emancipation. The mind is the cause of both. If one engages his mind in thinking about these worldly, temporary things, then he is in bondage. If one meditates on the Supreme Lord, his mind always being concentrated on Him, then he has salvation. So, mind is the cause of bondage and also of mukti - deliverance from the clutches of maya.

Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Mahārāja :
“The Qualities of a Sadhu”
http://www.sreecgmath.org/scgmtimes/scgmbbtm.php
Bhaktivedanta Memorial Library - http://bvml.org/SBBTM/tqoas.htm