Lighting Up May Dumb Smokers Down

http://www.lifeclinic.com/healthnews/article_view.asp?s...

Lighting Up May Dumb Smokers Down

10/14/2005
FRIDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Smoking can cloud the brain, according to a new study that found long-term tobacco use was linked to dulled thinking and lower IQ.

The finding contradicts what many smokers claim -- that smoking a cigarette helps them concentrate and feel more alert.

"The exact mechanism for smoking's impact on the brain's higher functions is still unclear, but may involve both neurochemical effects and damage to the blood vessels that supply the brain," lead researcher Jennifer Glass, of the University of Michigan, said in a prepared statement. "This is consistent with other findings that people with cardiovascular disease and lung disease tend to have reduced neurocognitive function."

:eyes:

: *.*

18 years. I was ranked a genius then, I'm still ranked a genius now. It also most definitely helps me to focus. Whether that is physiological or psychological is not relevant, as long as the end result is me focusing better.

the study looked at the long-term effects. you're probably comparing the short-term effects of a recent smoke your ability to focus.

the question at issue is, would your ability to focus be better today had you not been smoking for the last several years. that's not something you can just pronounce as bu**sh** from your own personal experience, it takes a multiyear study.

besides, everybody's different and you may be one of the unaffected. then again, maybe it's the cigarettes talking :evilgrin:

And when smokers say the cig helps them focus, the mean short-term, not long term. So any study referencing that would have to make the comparison short term as well, hence my reply :)

Seriously though, this study was total crap. It wasn't even a smoking study.

i'll confess i don't have time to read the study right now though.
it may be bs, but i don't know why you're so dismissive of the notion that any drug might have some long-term deliterious effects.

It wasn't even a smoking study. It wasn't even conclusive. It was 100% complete garbage.

I can recognize that. Guess I'm not so dumbed down after all.

yes, the topic needs further investigation. that's a basic part of the scientific process, but hardly means this study is baloney.

and the fact that the study was originally set up to test alcohol rather than tobacco similarly does nothing to undermine the validity of the study. that can happen in any well-designed study.

can you point to anything in the study itself that is 'bullshit' and '100% complete garbage', other than the conclusion that you're clearly not pleased with?

long enough for the nicotine to get out of your system, then retake the same IQ test and see which way the numbers went. Of course this would prove nothing if you are bound and determined that smoking helps and wanted to prove it.

Regardless, This study is still garbage.

A 5% variability is 100% WORTHLESS.

And Did you read this study yet?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5540179

I don't think much of smoking and pretty much regard it as a medical condition, not a right. Giving up is very hard for me, last time I went through a phase of about 3 hours spending almost *all* my thinking energy on trying to convince myself I didn't want a cig. I failed.

and can't seem to put them down again.

I visited your fair city once and absolutely loved it---in fact I loved all of Scotland.

I think everywhere should be like Edinburgh. Where else did you go?

Nicotine
It seems that smoking can improve some aspects of cognitive processing; nicotine is known to have memory enhancing and alerting effects. Of course, smoking is probably a very bad way to use it, since it both decreases the oxygen supply to the brain and causes severe health problems. The benefits of nicotine appears to be largest in users, which also limits its usability.

Can Smoking Speed Cognitive Processing? by Michael E. Houlihan, Walter S. Pritchard and John H. Robinson.

http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Individual/Intelligence/

I was just going to go look for that. Bush isn't the only one who fits the facts around an agenda. It is quite an epidemic in this country.

"studies" say...... we would have been dropping like flies. i was raised in a generation of more smokers, that smoked in more places, in less ventilated areas. if a whiff of second hand smoke was as deadly as these studies and anti smokers suggest, we wouldn't be here. people would be dieing all over the place. we aren't. not a tough one. like bush propaganda....... the end justifies the means? not good with sayings.

the effort to eradicate smoking is noble. to keep children away from cig is noble. but it is in lie.

anyway, done with the thread. i specifically try to stay out of this argument. i think it is absurd. not a lot of reasoning, from my perspective

I remember reading about a study years ago that "proved" second hand smoke was more harmful to people than the original smoke was to the smoker. Tried to say that the death rate from second hand smoke was higher than first hand.

Everyone seemed to forget that the smoker was also inhaling second hand smoke, getting a double dose and having less complications than the study showed for second hand smoke.

Don't remember who did the study, don't care, it was complete stupidity. It did make the news for a couple of weeks though.

now how stupid was that, and so easy to see, yet everyone pretended they couldnt see for agenda sake. doesnt work with me. and no, i mean NO justifying my smoking. i dont like it. it is not good. wish i could say x smoker. i hope i will be some day soon. but... with my bad, i wont participate in lie for others to feel better with themselves. i appreciate your post.

I smoked for almost 40 years and quit cold turkey.

It was really easy, I had a heart attack, spent ten days in hospitals during which I had a quadruple bypass. Came out smoke free. It's been about six months now.

There are days still that I would kill for a cigarette! Had one of those feeling earlier today.

Oh, did I mention that I died the first time I was in the recovery room. I was lucky, I woke up when it happened. One of my grafts came apart! I don't know what caused the pain, my heart beat or breathing, but I never felt such pain in my life, and I assume I was heavily sedated at the time.

i tell my hubby. put me in a padded room for 30 days. slide in food and water. lol lol. i am glad you made it thru. thank you for sharing your story

So it does something, that's for sure.

i'm not saying that either study is necessarily definitive, but they're not inconsistent.

it helps you in the short run but harms you in the long run. many drugs are like this, why should it be surprising that nicotine might be the same way?

comparing the performances of nonsmokers, deprived smokers, and smokers who had just smoked a cigarette.

They found, as expected, that the nonsmokers did far better than the deprived smokers.

The shocker was that the satisfied smokers did nearly as poorly as the deprived smokers did.

I guess it's just another of the many reasons to quit if you smoke, or to refuse to start if you don't.

from the home of the Michigan Wolverines (just kidding folks!!).

;-)

me doesn't unnerstan. i is so confuzed. smokin sigerets done made me stoopid? and i is dummer thin whin me startid yeers ago? o deer.....me gesses me wil kwit rite now!:eyes:

would be a weekly smoker bashing thread with 200 replies. Thank you for keeping DU predictable for me. It saves me from having to call church and asking the Reverend if Hell froze over.:sarcasm:

hey, i have been enjoying your posts. this one too. hm. yup

bother me any more?

multi-tasking making one dumber. I have first hand experience that multi-tasking makes me less aware and less able to concentrate when I need to.

As for smoking, quite simply it's disgusting, unhealthy, and smells terrible. That's a good enough reason to not smoke.

I don't know if smoking made me smarter, but it had a calming effect, when I didn't have a coughing fit.

that smokers have a less chance of getting Alzheimers than non-smokers. Don't know where I read that, but I did. Guess I won't get Alzheimers because I've been smoking since I was 13 and I'm 53 today.

:party:

I now have a reason to smoke. It will dulled my thinking so I will not have to notice the assault that this administration is doing to my country. I must not of had enough smoke yet, because B*sh still pisses me off. :spank:

:shrug:

They're where you left them!:rofl:

Smoking changes you so that you focus your concentration differently.

I find it really useful if I've had a cigarette just before embarking on a long repetetive task, but if I'm multitasking smoking puts me in an easily distracted state. If I haven't had a cigarette I get bored more easily but my memory's better, my multitasking's better and my spacial awareness is improved, my peripheral vision even seems to get better. I'm also less clumsy. My concentration isn't as *narrow* it seems more "balanced", somehow.

risk of Alzeihemer's or it helped it?