Daily cigarette smoking reduces the size of your brain, a new study of more than 28,000 people suggests.
Scientists have previously found that people who smoke tend to have smaller brains compared to non-smokers, in terms of volume, but it was unclear whether smoking causes the brain to shrink or if people with smaller brains are more likely to start smoking. Now, researchers provide strong evidence that smoking causally shrinks the brain in a new report, which was posted April 28 on the preprint database medRxiv and has yet to be peer-reviewed.
