Alzheimer’s Disease and Education
Alzheimer’s disease, a degenerative brain malady, is the most common form of dementia. Normal aging causes memory decline in varying degrees in people who are otherwise healthy. Alzheimer’s kills brain neurons and appears to target a different spot in the brain’s memory center than regular aging does. Research shows that some seniors’ brains can actually work around the damage aging causes and build new pathways when old ones disintegrate.
Scientists like Dr. Denise Park, the director of the University of Illinois’ Center for Healthy Minds, see an emerging need to determine how to slow down cognitive aging since the population is living longer. One proven way to fight against time’s destruction is basic physical exercise, like walking. The brain and body both profit from exercise. According to RIchard Suzman of the National Institute of Aging, research suggests that interventions like controlling diabetes and hypertension may have positive ramifications on improving aging mental abilities. Cognitive training, ranging from brain-training games to crossword puzzles, may also have positive implications, but this has not yet been proven.
People with higher educations and challenging occupations have a cognitive reserve buildup. This seems to delay Alzheimer-related memory loss. Once the condition takes hold, however, better-educated people decline more rapidly than their counterparts. This study was recently published in the journal “Neurology.” Researchers at Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that every year of education a person had achieved delayed the accelerated memory decline that precedes dememtia by about two and one-half months. The bad news is that once memory loss begins with these individuals, the rate of decline is faster for each year of education that they have. Based on these findings, an individual with 16 years of schooling might experience memory decline 50 percent faster than someone with only four years of eduation.
For more information, click on Alzheimer’s Care for the Denver Metro area
Gerri Tyber
Operations Manager, Barton Home Care