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People with more years of education tend
to develop Alzheimer's disease later in life than those with less formal
schooling, but once the symptoms begin, better-educated people lose their
memory faster than those with less education, a new study reveals Tuesday.
(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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BEIJING, Oct. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- People with more years of education tend to
develop Alzheimer's disease later in life than those with less formal schooling,
but once the symptoms begin, better-educated people lose their memory faster
than those with less education, a new study reveals Tuesday.
The study, published in today's issue of Neurology,
involved 488 seniors who were followed for an average of six years using annual
cognitive tests, including 117 who eventually developed Alzheimer's or another
dementia.
The participants from New York City's Bronx borough
ranged in formal education levels of less than three years of elementary school
to people with postgraduate education.
The study 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. However, once that
accelerated decline stopped, the people with more education saw their rate of
cognitive decline accelerate 4 percent faster for each additional year of
education.
"People with more education experience a delay in the
actual decline in memory that is characteristic of people who are developing
dementia, in particular Alzheimer's disease," said Charles Hall, a
biostatistician at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
"However, once that decline begins, it proceeds more
rapidly and by the time people are actually diagnosed, they're about at the same
place" as less-educated people diagnosed earlier, Hall added.
"What we think this represents is that there's some
amount of neuronal reserve or compensational ability . . . such that the
pathology of Alzheimer's disease will develop at whatever rate it develops and
people with more education have more neuronal capacity . . . and therefore
aren't affected until much later in the natural history of the disease process."
"However, once that disease process gets to a certain
level, the brain cannot handle it anymore and the decline begins and proceeds
more rapidly because there's more pathology there," he said, referring to the
death of cells and other abnormalities in the brain caused by the progressive
disease.
However, Hall said because the subjects were born at
a time when educational opportunities differed markedly from more modern
schooling, it's hard to know how the findings would apply to subsequent
generations.
"Whether that (would) apply to people who were born
in the 1920s or the 1950s who had different life experiences is not known," he
said. "Although I don't know any reason why it would not hold, I haven't proven
it."
(Agencies)
Study: Tooth loss, dementia may be
linked
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Tooth loss may predict the
development of dementia late in life, according to research published Wednesday
in the October issue of The Journal of the American Dental Association.
Numerous past studies have shown that people with dementia
have a high incidence of poor oral health. Few researchers, however, have
examined the relationship from the opposite direction, to determine whether poor
oral health actually may contribute to the development of dementia. Full story
A drink a day may delay
dementia
WASHINGTON, May 22 (Xinhua) -- In people with mild
cognitive impairment, up to one drink of alcohol a day may slow their
progression to dementia, according to an Italian study published in the May 22
issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Mild cognitive impairment is a transitional stage between
normal aging and dementia that is used to classify people with mild memory or
cognitive problems and no significant disability. Full story
