Alzheimer’s: link to education or link to non-smoking?
A new study has come out purporting to find that Alzheimer’s disease progresses faster in the educated. I had to chuckle when I saw the speculation of the researchers as to why…
The researchers said one possible explanation is what has been dubbed the “cognitive reserve” theory.
This holds that highly educated people either have a greater number of nerve connections in their brains, or the nerve connections that they have are more efficient.
Therefore, when the damaging changes associated with Alzheimer’s - such as the deposition of toxic protein clumps - start to take place, educated people are better placed to resist their effect at first.
However, the subsequent impact is likely to be greater than it would be in less educated brains, because of the higher levels of accumulated damage.
This seems like a wee bit of a stretch to me. I have to wonder if it isn’t more likely that the researchers merely failed to statistically control their data for the lower incidence of smoking among those with higher levels of education.
Hat tip to: Rational Review News Digest
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