Though having more years of formal education delays the memory loss linked to Alzheimer’s disease, victims of dementia who are better educated deteriorate faster than those with less schooling. This could be because people who are better educated manage to “mask” the disease in its early stages.

Researchers in the United States have found that university graduates suffer a memory decline that is 50% faster than someone with a minimal education.

They believe that, by the time dementia becomes apparent, both groups will have suffered the same damage to the brain.

However, the well-educated get worse quicker because their greater “thinking power” allows them to compensate subliminally for their disease in its early stages.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, with about 500 cases diagnosed every day in the United Kingdom alone, as more people live longer.

The study, published in the journal Neurology, tracked memory loss in a group of elderly people from New York City’s Bronx borough before they were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or another form of old-age dementia.

Every year of education delayed the accelerated memory decline that precedes dementia by about 2.5 months, according to the researchers at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, the United States.

But once this memory loss began, the rate of decline was found to be 4% faster for each additional year of education, the researchers said.

For instance, a person with 16 years of schooling might experience memory decline 50% more quickly than another person with just four years education.

The researchers examined 117 people who developed dementia out of an original group of 488 from the 1980s onwards. For six years, they were given annual cognitive tests which assessed memory, speech and ability to think.

Dr Charles Hall, professor of epidemiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who led the study, said an elderly person who starts to see memory loss might well deteriorate fairly rapidly, particularly if he or she has a high education or high IQ.

Among the brilliant minds who have fallen victim to dementia are novelist Iris Murdoch, who died in 1999 aged 79, and author and broadcaster Bernard Levin, who died three years ago, aged 75.

The condition is caused by an accumulation of “plaques and tangles” or protein deposits in the brain which may first lead to difficulty finding words. This progresses to typical symptoms of dementia, loss of memory, confusion and agitation.

Auto news for auto freaks! iDrive.in
DWS community! / Cricket blog
DWS F1 News