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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Think hard and it may protect your brain from Alzheimers disease. A new study finds those with more education and more mentally demanding jobs may have protection against the memory loss that precedes Alzheimers disease.
Italian researchers included 458 participants in the study including 242 with Alzheimers disease, 72 with mild cognitive impairment and 144 with no memory problems. Mild cognitive impairment is the stage when memory problems are beyond normal but not quite to the extent of a person with Alzheimers disease.
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The participants memory and cognitive skills were tested and brain scans were done to measure the amount of brain glucose metabolism. The brain glucose metabolism shows how much the brain has been affected by plaques and tangles of Alzheimers disease. The participants were followed for 14 months.
Interestingly, study authors say of those with the same memory impairments, the ones with more education and more mentally demanding jobs had more changes and damage in the brain than people with less education and less demanding jobs. Yet those with more education and more demanding jobs had less cognitive decline. The thought is that mental challenges create a buffer against the effects of dementia on the brain.
Their brains are able to compensate for the damage and allow them to maintain functioning in spite of damage. There are two possible explanations. The brain could be made stronger through education and occupational challenges. Or, genetic factors that enabled people to achieve higher education and occupational achievement might determine the amount of brain reserve. It isnt possible to determine which accounts for our findings, study author Valentina Garibotto, MD, of the San Raffaele University and Scientific Institute and the National Institute of Neuroscience in Milan, Italy, was quoted as saying.
SOURCE: Neurology, 2008
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