How Smoking Hurts the Brain and Raises the Risk of Dementia
Are you a smoker? If so, have you ever realized how bad it’s going to be for your brain? It’s no secret smoking can devastate your health. But did you know it also raises your risk of developing dementia? At the Los Angeles assisted living, we’ve learned that lighting up can actually harm your blood vessels, cause plaque buildup and small strokes, leading to vascular dementia. In this blog post, we’ll explore how smoking hurts the brain and raises the risk of dementia. So put down that cigarette, and let’s get some valuable insight here.
Damage to Your Blood Vessels and Sky-High Blood Pressure
It’s not a secret that smoking damages your blood vessels’ lining, causing them to narrow and restricting blood flow. This damage can drive blood pressure to become unstable and skyrocket.
When you smoke, your body responds by increasing your heart rate and constricting your arteries. This combination forces your heart to work much more powerfully than it should to pump blood through the narrowed vessels, leading to an increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Moreover, smoking reduces the amount of oxygen that reaches different parts of our body, including our brain. The lack of oxygen supply leads to cell death in various organs – especially in our brain, where it’s needed most.
Plaque Buildup and Small Strokes
As your blood vessels narrow, plaque can be sedimented in your arteries, leading to greater risks of having a stroke. These plaques build up over time from fat, cholesterol, and other substances which stick to the walls of your blood vessels over time.
When this buildup occurs in the arteries leading to your brain, it can disrupt blood flow and cause small strokes. These tiny clots can damage brain tissue and raise the risk of developing dementia later on. Over time, smoking will damage neurons in the brain responsible for memory formation and retention.
Vascular Dementia
All these above mean smokers may experience difficulty recalling information or suffer from short-term memory loss. Then, it’ll lead to what’s called vascular dementia: mainly due to damaged blood vessels in the brain. Problems with language, decision-making, memory loss, and cognitive decline will be there, haunting those with vascular dementia.
The treatments are varied, but it’s a must to include medication management for underlying conditions such as hypertension or diabetes. Those include lifestyle modifications like exercise routines that promote better circulation, occupational therapy sessions designed specifically for people with cognitive deficits related to their condition, and social activities aimed at promoting engagement among peers who share similar experiences living with Vascular Dementia.
If you’re a smoker, it’s time to face the facts: smoking is terrible for your brain health. Furthermore, as we’ve seen in this article, long-term smokers are at a much sky-higher risk of developing vascular dementia – a devastating condition that can rob you of your memories and cognitive abilities.…
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