Smoking Can Affect Brain

Smoking cigarettes is bad for your health. It can increase the risk for various cancers, asthma an can even affect your vision. And now, research presented at the Radiological Society of North America links cigarette smoking to brain damage. Smoking is a highly addictive behavior. While it may be associated with a temporary feeling of euphoria, in its early phases- smoking has a significant physical and psychological burden in the long run. Research has linked this activity, not only to physical conditions like lung cancer, emphysema, and asthma, but also to psychological ones like depression. Researchers recruited 43 smokers who were participating in a quit smoking program to evaluate changes occurring in the brain. They used a type of MRI to measure various chemicals in different areas of the brain at the start of the study and many months after people stopped smoking. These results were compared to those of healthy controls. The results showed that smokers had lower levels of a specific amino acid in the area of the brain responsible for our ability to perceive pleasure and pain. Similar findings are seen in patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disease and alcohol abuse. The changes were not, however permanent; after stopping smoking for 6 months, the levels of amino acid returned to normal and the brain images of past smokers were no different than those of control patients. From this study, it is clearly evident that smoking tobacco can affect the concentration of chemicals in the brain. These findings provide further motivation for quitting smoking.