Staying in education for longer staves off dementia

For every year a person stays in full-time learning the risk of suffering memory loss and loss of control falls by 11 per cent, it found. Researchers believe that education makes the brain more flexible and improves its ability to offset the symptoms of conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. More than half have Alzheimer's, the most common form of the disease.

Over the past decade, research has consistently shown that the more time a person spends in education, the less he or she is likely to develop dementia symptoms. Until now it has not been clear whether or not education had a physical protective effect on the brain.

The new research, published in the journal Brain, involved examining the brains of 872 participants in ECLIPSE (Epidemiological Clinicopathalogical Studies in Europe), a collaboration between three large population-based studies of ageing.

Of the donors, 56% were suffering from dementia when they died, the scientists reported in the journal Brain. Once again an association was found between more education and less risk of dementia symptoms. But surprisingly, education appeared to have no impact on levels of dementia-associated brain damage.

Dr Hanna Keage, from Cambridge University, a member of the Anglo-Finnish team, said: "Previous research has shown that there is not a one-to-one relationship between being diagnosed with dementia during life and changes seen in the brain at death.

"One person may show lots of pathology in their brain while another shows very little, yet both may have had dementia.

"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."

Ruth Sutherland, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said: "This is the largest study ever to confirm that hitting the books could help you fight the symptoms of dementia in later life.

"What we don't know is why a longer education is so good for you. It could be that the types of people who study longer have large brains which adapt better to changes associated with dementia.

"Another reason could be that educated people find ways of managing or hiding their symptoms.

"We now need more research to find out why an education can make the brain more 'dementia resistant'. Until then the message appears to be stay in school."


/Telegraph.co.uk/