Smoking damages the brain

Smoking is bad for your brain. Researcher Frank-Erik de Leeuw of Radboud University has now discovered why exactly: smoking damages the white matter, the neural pathways that transmit information between different brain areas. As a result, the thinking ability deteriorates. A cigarette makes you sharper in spirit anyway? Frank-Erik de Leeuw: 'Yes, that's it [...]

Smoking is bad for your brain. Researcher Frank-Erik de Leeuw of Radboud University has now discovered why exactly: smoking damages the white matter, the neural pathways that transmit information between different brain areas. As a result, the thinking ability deteriorates.

A cigarette makes you sharper in spirit anyway?

Frank-Erik de Leeuw: 'Yes, that is the acute effect of nicotine in your brain. But long-term smoking, as you get older, makes your cognitive functioning come in a faster descending line. A cigarette makes you sharper for a moment, but less sharply than before you started smoking. '

Do smokers notice something of that decline?

"No, the process is going too slowly for that. But they rather reach the lower limit of cognitive functioning: smokers are more likely to become demented. '

If you can not stop, is it worth it to at least smoke less?

'Yes, the fewer cigarettes you smoke in total, the less serious the damage to your brain.'

You discovered that the harmful effect is completely gone twenty years after you stopped. Does the damage also recover faster?

'Unfortunately not. We do suspect that a certain genetic predisposition makes your brain less vulnerable to smoking. '

Cigarette is smoking
'If you continue to smoke ...'

Quitting smoking can be extremely difficult, even for those who are really motivated: less than 10 percent of the stop attempts succeed.

British researchers now say they have found something that increases the chances of success: personalized risk information. More than 2,600 smokers who had already indicated that they wanted to stop, received a letter in which their GP explained how big the chances were that, given their current state of health and smoking habits, they would get a serious condition. They also read how much that risk would drop if they now renounce the tobacco.

People from this group were twice as likely to respond to the invitation to quit smoking as people from the control group who were only given a standard invitation. They also finished the course twice as often, and kept on smoking almost twice as often for at least a week. Men in particular were sensitive to such a personal risk calculation.