Dementia claims the lives of smarter people sooner, scientists have discovered.
People who spend more years at school or in education are likely to deteriorate from the neurodegenerative disease faster, according to the biggest study of its kind.
Scientists have dubbed the phenomenon the “cognitive reserve paradigm”.
A person’s cognitive reserve is their brain’s ability to cope and keep working, including in the face of diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
It can be bolstered through learning and mental stimulation such as education and doing brain puzzles.
But the research found that, paradoxically, these patients go downhill faster if they do get a diagnosis.
Research published in the BMJ, which analysed 261 studies including 36 relating to educational attainment, found life expectancy after a dementia…