WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Having more years of formal education delays the memory loss linked to Alzheimer's disease, but once the condition begins to take hold, better-educated people decline more rapidly, researchers said on Monday.
Their 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 2-1/2 months, according to the researchers at Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
But once this memory loss began, the rate of decline unfolded 4 percent more quickly for each additional year of education, the researchers said.
Someone with 16 years of schooling might experience memory decline 50 percent more quickly than another person with just four years education, based on the findings.
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As one of my fellow clippers, pokkets, astutely observed, increasing one's level of education is "Holding the water back until the dam breaks, rather than letting it trickle down the drain." Which I find to be a comfort, of sorts--I'll fight it but should it happen to me anyway it will proceed more quickly and be over. I hope.
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