Incense Smoke Can Impair Cognitive Functions: Study

Elderly people who regularly burn incense indoors suffer from slightly impaired cognitive functions compared to their peers who don’t, a new study by Chinese University researchers revealed on Wednesday.

In a three-year study, the researchers took brain scans and gave cognitive tests to 156 elderly people who have a habit of burning incense in their homes, as well as to 359 non-incense burners.

Results showed that the incense burners performed more poorly on a range of tests – affecting a wide range of brain functions including their ability to think, visual-spatial functions, and their memory.

“The difference in cognitive function between those who burned and those who didn’t burn incense persisted over three years”, Dr Adrian Wong, an assistant professor from the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, said.

“The difference is not very big but statistically, there is a difference, so that means the difference will not be explained by chance”, he added.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans showed that the incense-burning group had fewer connections between different parts of the brain than the control group.

The results tally with numerous previous studies that show air pollution can impair brain function – not just for elderly people, but for children and adults as well.

“It could be possible that because of the various pollutants contained in the incense smoke… that would affect the brain connectivity and also other functions of the brain and that could contribute to the poorer cognitive performance”, Wong said.

However, he said this doesn’t necessarily mean people should stop burning incense at home altogether.

“We are actually calling for safer use of incense at home, so if they have better ventilators, or safer alternatives or safer incense types that would be good.”