Passive smoking leads to dementia

Senile dementia is most at risk for passive smokers, scientists have found. Those who do not smoke at all, and even those who actively smoke, are at much lower risk.

The Chinese-American joint study involved a total of 5,921 people over the age of 60 living in rural and urban communities in Anhui, Guangdong, Heilongjiang, and near Shanghai. Scientists monitored their health and found that in the group of passive smokers, senile dementia developed on average 10% more often than in the group of active smokers and 32% more often than in the group of people who did not smoke either actively or passively.

Moreover, both active and passive smokers traditionally experience the first signs of dementia much earlier than people who never smoke. So, depending on various factors and a person’s lifestyle, if he smokes, senile dementia begins to develop around the age of 59-63. For non-smokers, we are talking about the period from 63 to 67 years of life, although in both cases these figures can vary quite widely.

According to statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), only 11% of the world's population is protected from passive smoking today. The situation with second-hand smoke is worst in China and its neighboring Russia.