More Education Protects Aging Brains

DETROIT, July 12 (UPI) -- People with more education are better protected against the loss of brain function that comes with aging, researchers said.

The scientists, with Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, found that people with higher education levels also have more pronounced age- related brain shrinkage than do people with fewer years of schooling. However, education helps them better tolerate the shrinkage and gives them more protection against mental impairment and dementia, according to the study, which is in the July issue of the journal Neurology.

''Our research shows that education exerts a protective effect,'' said Dr. Edward Coffey, chairman of the Henry Ford's department of psychiatry in Detroit and the principal investigator of the study.

He added, ''Education doesn't reduce brain changes associated with disease or aging, but rather enables more educated individuals to resist the influence of deteriorating brain structure by maintaining better cognitive and behavioral function.''

The study was funded by the Allegheny-Singer Research Institute, the Mental Illness Research Association and the National Institutes of Health.

The average brain, which weighs about two pounds (0.90 kilograms), shrinks about 2.5 percent per decade starting around age 20 to 30. The shrinkage is believed to be caused by dying brain cells and connections between brain cells.

While scientists had suspected that education offers protection to the aging brain, this is the first study that actually measured brain size and function, the researchers said.

Coffey and his colleagues used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the brain size of 320 healthy men and women aged 66 through 90 who were living independently. The study showed there was significantly more brain shrinkage in educated people as demonstrated by an increase in the cerebrospinal fluid between the brain and the skull.

The study participants also were tested with paper and pencil to determine their ability to think.

The researchers counted years of education starting with first grade. For each year of education, they found 1/3 teaspoon more cerebrospinal fluid around the brain. So among elderly people of similar age, sex and intracranial size, those with 16 years of education had about 8 percent to 10 percent more cerebrospinal fluid than those with only four years of education.

Despite the brain shrinkage, the more highly educated people showed no clinical evidence of severe memory loss or other problems with thinking. Education protected men and women equally, the researchers found.

''Education has a big effect on our brain cells,'' Coffey said. ''The brain likes novelty. So people should stay active, even if they just sit in a different place at the dinner table or do crossword puzzles.''

The researchers said more studies are required, including following a group of participants with both high and low education levels and see what happens over time.

Dr. Steven DeKosky, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center at the University of Pittsburgh, said the study includes only people who still retained normal thinking ability. He said there probably are people with lower levels of education who also suffered brain shrinkage, but who were too impaired or diseased to be included in the study.

''We are learning more about the relationship between physical changes in the brain with aging and maintaining thinking ability,'' said DeKosky. ''This is important for us to know so that we can recommend what people should do to keep thinking normally.''

(Written by Lori Valigra in Cambridge, Mass.) Copyright 1999 by United Press International All rights reserved