The new study, published online in the journal Addiction, explores the relationship between exposure to other people’s smoke and everyday memory problems.
The scientists compared a group of current smokers with two groups of non-smokers – those who were regularly exposed to second-hand smoke and those who were not.
Those exposed to second-hand smoke either lived with smokers or spent time with smokers, for example in a designated ‘smoking area,’ and reported being exposed to second-hand smoke for an average of 25 hours a week for an average of four and a half years.
The three groups were tested on time-based memory (remembering to carry out an activity after some time) and event-based memory (which refers to memory for future intentions and activities).
The team found that the non-smokers who had been exposed to second-hand smoke forgot almost 20 per cent more in the memory tests than those non-smokers not exposed. However, both groups out-performed the current smokers who forgot 30 per cent more than those who were not exposed to second-hand smoking.
“According to recent reports by the World Health Organization, exposure to second-hand smoke can have serious consequences on the health of people who have never smoked themselves, but who are exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke,” said lead author Dr Tom Heffernan of the Northumbria University’s Collaboration for Drug and Alcohol Research Group.
The scientists compared a group of current smokers with two groups of non-smokers – those who were regularly exposed to second-hand smoke and those who were not.
Those exposed to second-hand smoke either lived with smokers or spent time with smokers, for example in a designated ‘smoking area,’ and reported being exposed to second-hand smoke for an average of 25 hours a week for an average of four and a half years.
The three groups were tested on time-based memory (remembering to carry out an activity after some time) and event-based memory (which refers to memory for future intentions and activities).
The team found that the non-smokers who had been exposed to second-hand smoke forgot almost 20 per cent more in the memory tests than those non-smokers not exposed. However, both groups out-performed the current smokers who forgot 30 per cent more than those who were not exposed to second-hand smoking.
“According to recent reports by the World Health Organization, exposure to second-hand smoke can have serious consequences on the health of people who have never smoked themselves, but who are exposed to other people’s tobacco smoke,” said lead author Dr Tom Heffernan of the Northumbria University’s Collaboration for Drug and Alcohol Research Group.
read more: http://www.sci-news.com/medicine/article00579.html
This is what I believe. New research from Austria established that caffeine could possibly boost short term memory. Scientists discovered that there was a rise in neural activity (as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging) in the parts of the brain that were connected with memory and attention. These regions of the brain were the frontal lobe and the anterior cingulum. This was a placebo controlled research, and therefore some people were not given any caffeine. An additional, earlier study (2004) found that caffeine did assist short term memory, but only when it was with regards to a subject that people were already thinking about. Perhaps it's time to learn more about superbrain yoga. This study identified that when testing coffee's effects on unrelated subjects, short term recollection was actually adversely affected.
