Alzheimer's Progresses Faster in Educated People

Nrbelex writes "Bloomberg news is reporting that 'High levels of education speeds up the progression of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in next month's issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Mental agility dropped every year among Alzheimer's disease patients with each additional year of education, leading to an additional 0.3 percent deterioration, the researchers from the Columbia University Medical Center in New York found. The speed of thought processes and memory were particularly affected.'"

A bit misleading title

[dcw3]

From TFA:
Previous studies have shown that people with high levels of education are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. The new study shows that the brains of more educated people can tolerate changes for longer periods of time, meaning signs of decreased mental agility typical of Alzheimer's disease appear later. When those signs do appear, the disease progresses faster than it does in less educated patients.

So, the more educated are actually less likely to have symptoms at the same age. I'm curious how they measured the drop off in ability, and the article doesn't say.

Not so fast....

[mustafap]

I also watched an interview on the BBC where another group of researchers pointed out that these results *may* be because the onset of deterioration is more easy to spot in educated people, simply because they have 'further to fall' so to speak.

The actual rate of decline, they claimed, is no different.

Re:Have the statistics been properly done here?

[Anonymous Coward]

Alzheimer's is not the deterioration of intelligence, and education isn't a metric for gauging intelligence. Education is a metric of knowledge aggregation. The disease affects the memory of the patient. I think it's pretty clear why it would be more noticeable if your ability to retain information was impeded if you dealt with a lot of information.

Re:Bogus

[blakestah]

The findings are bogus: they cite a 0.3% difference between more highly educated Alzheimer's patients and their counterparts. The counterargument is that plenty of people who wound normally go to grad school insead choose to work in industry. This small lifestyle difference for four years in a subject's late twenties should not effect tests given at age 65+. More likely is that some other factor is introduced by lifestyle differences between the two major career paths.

Well, it is already established that more educated people have a lower risk [nih.gov] of Alzheimer's, and a later onset [nih.gov]. This study, however, follows a few hundred already diagnosed patients for five years, and notes that the rate of cognitive decline is faster in the more educated patients. Probably they just didn't have enough coffee [nih.gov] Be a little more interesting when the study itself is available instead of the press release.

How could you possibly know that?

[flyinwhitey]

"That's hardly significant. Statistically, you can't really call that a correlation."

Ok, Statty Mc Statenstein, do the math for us. I've included a handy link to test for significance, all you have to do is plug in the numbers and give us your answers.

http://www.coolth.com/siginsig.htm [coolth.com]
http://www.infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2000/techbrief/t echbrief5.htm [uri.edu]
http://www.visualstatistics.net/Visual%20Statistic s%20Multimedia/z_square_ratio.htm [visualstatistics.net]

Since we all like to have facts that support our arguments, all you have to do is present your math so we can verify that the is "hardly significant".

Maybe they should look into Black Currants

[dso]

I recently came across a research article on Nutra Ingredients that said properties of the black currant help fight memeory loss and Alzhiemers.

http://www.theartofdrink.com/blog/2006/01/creme_de _cassis_kir.php [theartofdrink.com]

A glass of Cassis a day, keeps the doctor away?

This is explained in New Scientist

[Chrisq]

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg18825 301.300.html [newscientist.com] This went on to explain that the same physical damage has less results in educated people, so when they do show symptoms at a recognised level the disease is already advanced.

Read between the Lines

[WillAffleckUW]

They said:

1. People with more education develop Alzheimers later; and
2. People with more education take longer to deteriorate due to Alzheimer's but progress thru the symptoms faster.

Based on the data (and there is no truth to me having a stack of Alzheimer's patient data and control data on my desk ... ok, maybe there is, but I'm NOT a PhD in the field, nor am I an M.D.), we could correctly visualize it this way:

A. If you are highly educated, you may (or may not) have a long way to fall before your symptoms become obvious to others - the tests we have measure your abilities to do various tests, remember things, all kinds of stuff that you may develop strategies to compensate for given higher education (or don't develop strategies).

B. If you start with a high level of ability, you have a longer way to fall before unable to complete tasks, but if the disease affects your neural pathways (and it does, and we do need more brains, so we can study that, got one to spare?) then going from 200 to 150 to 100 to 50 to dead is similar to going from 100 to 75 to 50 to 25 to dead. Same time, sharper fall. However, you may be more capable for a longer time. Note, I did not say IQ, but ability - not the same thing at all.

Again, to get the real answers, you should read the original paper as published in the original scientific journal.

But, in the end, seems the best thing you can do is:
a. get some exercise, even if just gardening or walking to the grocery store to buy milk;
b. increase your mental abilities, because then if you do start failing, you'll be capable much longer, which is better;
c. realize that you have less than a 5 percent risk around 60-70 and a 20 percent risk around 90+
d. you'll probably die from the massive storm caused from Global Warming kicking up the power on your Sunset cruise in the Caribbean when you retire anyway, so this is all moot.

Re:Reflection of Rote Memorization? or Age

[WillAffleckUW]

I should point out that most people developing Alzheimers today did, in fact, go to school a long time ago.

Many develop the disease between 55 and 95, so let's take the median, which is 75 (actually, more like 72, since fewer people are 95 than 55), so they went to school from ages 6 to 18 or 6 to 24, which means they went to college in the 1940s or thereabouts.