Education Decreases Risk Of Dementia
Posted on 26 July 2010 by LynThomas in Health
British professor, Carole Brayne, says her research shows that for ‘each additional year of education’, there is a decreased risk of dementia development by 11%, as reported in the medical journal Brain.
“People with different levels of education have similar brain pathology, but those with more education are better able to compensate for the effects of dementia,” the Cambridge University study said.
A team of British and Finnish researchers studied the brains of 872 people, donated for medical research over the past 20 years and examined questionnaires each donor had completed on their education.
Dr Hannah Keage, the study’s co-author, said: “Our study shows education in early life appears to enable some people to cope with a lot of changes in their brain before showing dementia symptoms.”
Keage also claims that those who are more educated have more psychological strength, a condition necessary to combat dementia.
Study leader Professor Brayne added: “Education is known to be good for population health and equity. This study provides strong support for investment in early life factors which should have an impact on society and the whole lifespan.”
Professor Brayne believes this study is hugely relevant to policy decisions about the importance of resource allocation between health and education.”
The University of Gothenurg also conducted studies in ‘cognitive reserve’, or mental padding, arriving at a similar conclusion.
Dr Rolstad a Swedish psychologist said “Highly educated patients with mild cognitive impairment who went on to develop dementia had more signs of disease in their spinal fluid than those with intermediate and low levels of education.” Despite having more disease in the brain, the highly educated patients showed the same symptoms of the disease as their less well educated counterparts.
“Patients with higher levels of education tolerate more disease in the brain,” said Dr Rolstad, “But also sustain less nerve damage during the early stages of the disease.”
It would appear there are two ways in which people with a large cognitive reserve compensate for the effects of ageing or brain damage. Either they recruit alternative networks or they increase the efficiency of their existing ones.
In 2006 Marcus Richards, an epidemiologist at University College London, claimed social class, occupation and education at age 26 help shape cognitive ability at age 53. Beyond 65, the risk of dementia doubles every five years and nearly 25 per cent of people over the age of 85 suffer from dementia.
In 2006 epidemiologists claimed that people with high literacy and IQ cope better with the progress of Alzheimer’s disease. They also recover from stroke, head injury, intoxication and poisoning with neurotoxins more rapidly than the average person.
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