More education may be harmful when it comes to Alzheimer’s
The more education a person has had can be a detriment when it comes to Alzheimer’s disease and even speed the memory loss experienced before full onset of the disease, according to research in the US journal Neurology.
The authors found that for each additional year of formal education, the rapid accelerated memory decline associated with oncoming dementia was delayed by about two-and-a-half months. But once that accelerated decline stopped, people with more education saw their rate of cognitive decline accelerate 4% faster for each additional year of education.
“Higher levels of education delay the onset of dementia, but once it begins, the accelerated memory loss is more rapid in people with more education,” said study author Charles B Hall, PhD, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York. “Our study showed that a person with 16 years of formal education would experience a rate of memory decline that is 50% faster than someone with just four years of education.
“This rapid decline may be explained by how people with more education have a greater cognitive reserve, or the brain’s ability to maintain function in spite of damage,” said Hall. “So while they’re often diagnosed with dementia at a later date, once the cognitive reserve is no longer able to compensate for the damage that’s occurred, then the symptoms emerge.”
Hall says this is the first study to confirm important predictions of the effects of cognitive reserve in people with preclinical dementia. He also notes the study is limited since the participants were born between 1894 and 1908 and their life experiences and education may not represent that of people entering the study age range today.
