Why smoking may prevent dementia, according to

researchers
NICOTINE has been found to protect the brain as it ages so smoking could help prevent dementia,
researchers claimed.

By JOHN FITZPATRICK

PUBLISHED: 16:25, Sun, Oct 2, 2016 | UPDATED: 18:09, Sun, Oct 2, 2016

Researchers discovered nicotine wards off Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s as people grow older

They discovered that the addictive drug in tobacco wards off Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s as
people grow older.

They claim nicotine suppresses appetite and possibly even provides anti-ageing benefits.

The experts said more clinical trials must be carried out before people start lighting up to stay healthy but
insist that “we shouldn’t write off nicotine completely”.

A research team led by Dr Ursula Winzer-Serhan used animals to study how nicotine added to drinking
water affected food intake.

Animals in three groups received low, medium and high doses of nicotine corresponding to occasional,
low and medium smokers.

A control group did not receive the drug. The researchers found that the groups receiving low and
medium doses showed no levels of the drug in their blood and no changes in food intake or body weight.

But the group receiving the highest amounts ate less, gained less weight and had more receptors in the
brain where nicotine acts.

“I want to make it very clear that we’re not encouraging people to smoke” Dr Winzer-Serhan

This group of animals also experienced no behavioural side effects such as an increase in anxiety.

Dr Winzer-Serhan, associate professor at the Texas College of Medicine, said: “Some people say that
nicotine decreases anxiety, which is why people smoke. Others say it increases anxiety. Luckily we didn’t
find any evidence of anxiety. If anything, nicotine made animal models less anxious.”

The team will now be testing nicotine’s potential anti-ageing properties as early results indicate that
nicotine can keep older individuals from gaining eight.

But the team is yet to determine if the lower body mass index (BMI) translates into less degeneration of
the brain and are also unclear if the drug also has other effects.

Dr Winzer-Serhan said: “I want to make it very clear that we’re not encouraging people to smoke.
“Even if there weren’t any preliminary results, smoking results in so many health problems that any
possible benefit of nicotine would be more than cancelled out.

“However, smoking is only one possible route of administration of the drug and our work shows that we
shouldn’t write-off nicotine completely.

“We haven’t proved that this addictive drug is safe and it certainly isn’t during childhood or
adolescence.” The study was published in the Journal of Toxicology.

Question

1. what is the title of the article?

2. who made the article?
3. what is the topic of the article?
4. what are the benefits of nicotine?
5. what Dr Ursula Winzer-Serhan did in his research?
6. what are the effects of animals that receive high doses?
7. Who published this research?
8. why do people smoke?
9. when the article is published?
10. what are the effects of animals that receive low-medium doses?