STOCKHOLM, Oct. 2 -- A healthy cognitive reserve, deposited over
a lifetime of learning, appears to protect the better-educated
patients from dementia, investigators here suggested. Among
nearly 1,500 adults followed for more than 20 years, those who
had at least six years of formal education had a significantly
lower risk for any form of dementia and for Alzheimer's disease
than adults who had five years of schooling or less, reported
Tiia Ngandu, M.D., Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institute, and
colleagues. When they controlled for lifestyle choices such as
poor diet or smoking that might contribute to dementia risk, the
investigators found that education, or lack of it, remained a
strong predictor of cognitive decline, they reported in the Oct.
2 issue of Neurology. "Our results provide further firm evidence
that the low educational level is related to the increased risk
of dementia and Alzheimer's disease," they wrote. "We found that
the association was independent of a wide range of other
vascular and lifest