Highly educated people could be more likely to experience a “faster” death from dementia as they have to deal with a more advanced form of the disease once they have been diagnosed.

January 27, 2025– Highly educated people are more at risk of experiencing a “faster” death from dementia.

Research has suggested that those who decided to go to university have brain reserves that can protect against early signs of the degenerative condition – which causes a decline in thinking, memory, and reasoning skills – but by the time a diagnosis has been made, they are dealing with a much more serious form of the illness.

Study Shows More Educated People Experience Faster Dementia Decline

In total, 261 studies were examined, with 36 of those relating to education, and life expectancy following a diagnosis declined for every year of learning – with 2.5 months taken off with every extra year of study.

Scientists at Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, wrote in the BMJ: “This paradigm postulates that people with higher education are more resilient to brain injury before functional declines.

“Once this reserve has been used up and dementia is diagnosed, these people are already at a more advanced stage of the underlying disease and clinical progression will be faster.”

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Published by HOLR Magazine

Sources: Erasmus University Medical Centre, BMJ

Image Credit: BANG SHOWBIZ