"Smoking increases the risk of vascular problems (problems with the heart and blood vessels). These vascular problems are also linked to the two most common forms of dementia: Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.
Toxins in cigarette smoke also cause inflammation and stress to cells, which have both been linked to Alzheimer's disease."
thanks for this
link: they're interesting to mid 50s me, who never smoked, but whose dad did smoke for decades, and his memory started failing late 80s, i'd never seen it. useful link.
I don't know how you determine causality of dementia. But smoking leads to poor heart and lung health and function, and that's got to have follow on effects on brain health. And there's correlation linking smoking to dementia [1]. So, I think it's fair to say grandma smokes a lot who had dementia got it from smoking even without a specific link.
The vascular damage seems to be the main suspect. But I also wonder if smoking causes poor sleep due to it being a stimulant. Poor sleep leads to dementia.
