Photo: imago / Flickr

A recent study has shown a surprising possible way to delay the onset of dementia – or at least to prevent its symptoms from making themselves known. The study showed that those who had more education were less likely to have shown signs of dementia during their lifetime – but that they may have been physically affected by dementia nonetheless.

The study

Evidence for the study was collected by studying over 800 brains from the bodies of people who had during their lifetime been subjects of an ageing study. Researchers looked for signs of dementia in the brains, and found that the brains of those people with a long education were just as likely to display signs of dementia, but that people with more education were less likely to have been dementia sufferers during their lifetime. Dementia, as the study demonstrates, doesn’t necessarily show itself in direct response to how it develops in the brain.

Another reason to stay in school

Photo: S@Z / Flickr

Results suggest that education allows people to cope with and compensate for dementia symptoms. The aptly named Professor Carol Brayne, who co-authored the study, said that ‘This is hugely relevant to policy decisions about the importance of resource allocation between health and education.’ Further research will be conducted to determine just how education and dementia are linked, but for now it seems that in this case knowledge really is power.

The other ways to prevent dementia

This study isn’t the first to show that people who lead more intellectually stimulating lives are at a lower risk of being affected by dementia. Other research has shown that people who spend more time on intellectually stimulating activities like reading, doing crossword puzzles and playing musical instruments are less likely to be affected, and there seems to be a lot to be said for eating foods that contain lots of healthy fats and Vitamin E, too.

Tags: education