SMOKING DOESN'T PREVENT DEMENTIA, STUDY SHOWS.(MAIN)

Byline: -- Associated Press

LONDON -- Contrary to the belief that smoking may help ward off dementia and Alzheimer's disease, the most rigorous study ever to investigate the link has concluded that cigarettes provide no protection against mental decline.

In research published this week in the British Medical Journal, scientists from Oxford University found male doctors who smoked were just as likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's as their counterparts who had never smoked or had quit years before.

Earlier studies on the relationship between smoking and dementia, a major component of Alzheimer's, produced conflicting results, with some showing …