Does your job have anything to do with your odds of getting
Alzheimer's disease down the road? Studies have come out
recently linking intellectually challenging careers to
reduced risk of dementia. Other studies link education
level to cognitive health in later years. Overall, people
with more education have lower rates of Alzheimer's disease
than those with less education.
This really isn't that surprising if you think about it. We
know that the more you use your brain, the stronger it
gets. Just like muscles in your arms and legs, the brain
gets more fit when you work it out. Higher education
usually means more mentally stimulating jobs and that keeps
your brain fit.
But that doesn't mean that you have to go to graduate
school to stay mentally active. Big studies look at large
groups of people. On average, when you look at lots of
people those with higher levels of education have more
intellectually challenging jobs. So overall, they have
lower rates of dementia. However, you can be a high-school
drop out and still do what's necessary to keep your brain
fit. Just don't be average.
You can maintain an active mind by committing yourself to
life-long learning. It doesn't take a formal education to
teach yourself new skills, read new books and continually
challenge your mind - it ain't rocket science.
There is, however, a flip-side to this coin. Even though
higher education predicts lower odds of getting Alzheimer's
disease, those with higher education who do get
Alzheimer's, decline much more rapidly and die sooner than
those with less education. Remember, again, this is based
on big number averages and is not necessarily predictive
for any one person. Still, on average if you have an
intellectually challenging career, your odds of getting
dementia are lower, but if you do get it, your odds of
rapid decline are greater.
At first, this might seem paradoxical. But I think there is
a likely explanation for these seemingly odd data. It all
relates back to the cognitive reserve theory, which we have
discussed in the past.
Essentially, cognitive reserve is something you create
throughout your life. The more you learn and the more you
experience, the more you create cognitive reserve. This is
like 'extra' brain circuits to accomplish intellectual
tasks.
Think of it like a city building multiple bridges across a
river. If you only have one bridge to cross the river and
it gets knocked out by a freak storm, you can't get traffic
to the other side. If, however, you've created reserve
routes to cross the river with multiple bridges and one
gets knocked out, you can divert traffic across the other
bridges.
This is the same with brain circuits. If you've created
multiple circuits through a variety of experiences you have
different ways to accomplish the same task. If one takes a
hit due to age-related damage, you can divert thoughts
through different circuits and not really notice a problem.
So people with higher education and more challenging jobs
may have reserve brain circuits. That means that even
though we may all experience the same age-related damage,
someone with more cognitive reserve will show less
cognitive decline. There are also ways to minimize the
age-related damage through healthy living, but that's
another topic.
So why would people with more reserve show more rapid
decline once dementia sets in? Again, this makes sense if
you think about it. People with high levels of reserve who
get dementia must have experienced severe damage that took
out all their bridges. Damage of this severity will take
them down quickly.
However, it's an illusion. Since studies only compare
people diagnosed with dementia, they may be comparing
apples to oranges. On average, the people with high reserve
(mentally challenging careers in these studies) who have
Alzheimer's disease have likely experienced a lot more
damage than, on average, the people with low reserve who
have Alzheimer's.
This would explain why people with more challenging careers
would have fewer cases of Alzheimer's; and also why people
with higher levels of education who do get Alzheimer's,
decline much more quickly.
Overall, it's better to boost your odds of not getting
dementia in the first place by doing what's necessary to
challenge your mind on a daily basis. Commit yourself to
life-long learning and stay mentally active to build more
bridges. Couple this with quality nutrition, plenty of
exercise and enough sleep, and you will also minimize the
storms that create the damage that can damage your bridges.
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