Smoking does not prevent Alzheimer’s disease - Study
By ANITuesday, February 9, 2010
MELBOURNE - Smoking prevents Alzheimer’s disease is a myth, claims a new study.
In fact, after reviewing more than 40 research papers published since 1984, experts at the University of California have said that smoking nearly doubles the risk of developing the disease.
Professor Jurgen Gotz, from the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Research Institute, pointed out that industry-linked studies could have been influenced.
“There have been many studies looking at the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in general, and dementia in general, and the role of nicotine,” News.com.au quoted him as saying.
He added: “Some of these studies showed, or claimed to show, that smoking, in a sense, protects from Alzheimer’s disease.
“It turns out when one takes these (industry-linked) studies into consideration … the bottom line is smoking indeed is associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.”
He concluded: “This has been disproved both in humans, as studies show, and in animals and cell culture systems.
“Nicotine … increases the degenerative changes in the brain.”
Studies into tobacco and Alzheimer’s had begun in the late 1970s, after reports came of lower rates of the condition among older smokers. (ANI)
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February 10, 2010: 8:51 am
This is a monumentally important study. I think it’s imperative that all studies linked to funding entities with vested interests in the outcome be revealed as suspect. The results should of course be looked at, the methodology examined, because funding doesn’t necessarily negate findings, but still, it’s an aspect that should be considered. It appears that Jurgen Gotz has deleted all studies with probable tobacco ties from the canon and re-examined the results of what was left. The only way to make this an even more balanced examination is to also delete all the studies that have ties to the pharmaceutical industry, which has a vested interest in denormalizing smoking, as well as delete any studies funded by entities (lung associations, cancer associations) that are themselves funded by the financial interests of the anti-smoking industry. Until that is done, this particular approach is worse than useless–it’s mere propaganda. |
Chuck