Opposing Digits

High levels of education speed up the progression of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in next month's issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

Mental agility dropped every year among Alzheimer's disease patients with each additional year of education, leading to an additional 0.3 percent deterioration, the researchers from the Columbia University Medical Center in New York found. The speed of thought processes and memory were particularly affected.

Previous studies have shown that people with high levels of education are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. The new study shows that the brains of more educated people can tolerate changes for longer periods of time, meaning signs of decreased mental agility typical of Alzheimer's disease appear later. When those signs do appear, the disease progresses faster than it does in less educated patients.

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If you really want to avoid alzheimers: avoid aluminum. It's in cookware, wasabi, anti-persperant, backing powder (Rumford is aluminum free), and other things you wouldn't normally suspect. Chelation therapy can be used to remove it, but no one should jump into the therapy without researching it a bit and coming up with a good mineral replacement regimen.