One of the rewards of a good education and a stimulating career is that they initially protect the brain from Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study The downside? When the disease does take its toll, it hits harder than it does in less learned victims.
"The time that [more learned victims] suffer is shorter, so they have more productive time before the disease sets in," says Yaakov Stern, Ph.D., of Columbia University, who presented his findings at the recent annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology
Stern, a neuropsychologist, followed 177 patients with early Alzheimer's disease, an age-related illness marked by memory loss. Stern asked patients to memorize a 12-word list once a year for four years, giving them six chances to recall the items each time. While people with a lower educational or occupational status declined by about one test point a year, those with more schooling---over eight years of education--and higher status jobs--managerial, business, government or technical careers--showed little memory loss in the first two years and then declined by at least two points per year by the end of the study.
