Education Vs. Brain-Aging: Black Holes + Revelations For Grads- HealthTrekker

education brain-aging boat on starry sea

Photo: Johannes Plenio, Unsplash

Education & Brain-Aging. Black Holes & Revelations Confirm Old Adage:

Health nerds like us want to do whatever we can to live longer and better.

That’s pretty-much what everyone at HealthTrekker and similar channels are all about.

But whether you’re listening to Drs.: Neal Barnard, David Sinclair, Rhonda Patrick, or others,

The other thing we want to do is not just keep our physical health in shape as we go,

But to stay as sharp as we can mentally for as long as we can, too.

So as you might imagine, a research team from UZH is finding ways in which some really old advice on “keeping in shape” is being proven right yet again…

The Short Answer:

Living longer but also remaining sharper is a great set of goals to have.
Dementia can be a huge spectre for the latter.
Researchers are finding more ways we can take preventative action early.
UZH’s team tested 200 adults over 65 who did not have dementia.
The subjects with university education had fewer physical signs of aging in their brains at the start.
This trend continued over the 7 year course of the study.
These people also had average to above-average intelligence and remained socially-active.
Cognitive tests also showed these subjects processed information more quickly and accurately than those without university education.
The study authors speculate that education almost certainly creates networks of “cognitive reserve” that resist degradation over time.
But what if they kept learning over the course of their lives & careers?
A different study shows that people with sedentary desk jobs have lower rates of dementia than those who do physical labor.
Perhaps this is a way of making education a career?
Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway is a great example of this type and has great advice on lifelong learning.

Read on to find out the details…

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UZH Team Hints At Education To Mitigate Brain-Aging:

So Alzheimer’s and Dementia are two among the worst diseases out there.

How terrible for them to rob a person of who they are, and to take their personality, memory, and wisdom away from society, too.

And how lucky are we all that university-researcher-types are finding more and more ways we might take action early,

To avoid those problems before the even start!

Well, we can now add UZH’s team to that list; and that’s where they confirm an old adage.

The Study Results On Scanning Many Savvy Seniors:

Because in tracking older individuals, they found that those who really used their brains a lot,

Tended to keep their capacities longer into old age!

The study consisted of 200 adults without dementia, aged 65 or older, across 7 years.

These people had average to above-average intelligence and maintained active social-lives just like the people who tend to live to 100.

Over the course of the work, they were put into MRI scanners to examine their brains in a variety of different ways, including anatomical characteristics.

MRI Scans Reveal Strange Anatomical Features Of Brain-Aging:

Some of the things measured were strange gaps called Lacunes,

And other blocked regions that did not get enough blood supply almost as if by mini-strokes, called Infarcts.

For some reason, those who had academic backgrounds including things like university education tended to have fewer of these problems at the beginning.

Even weirder still, those same subject had significantly lower increases in these types of problems across time, too.

Long Term Trends. Haters Gonna Hate; Brainies Gonna Brainy:

These benefits also showed up on cognitive tests.

Where those with more academic backgrounds processed information both faster, and more accurately, even as they aged.

The authors of the study speculate that, barring any more concrete proof right now,

That education and the intense brain-work it involves creates robust neural networks in the brain.

These then build up a type of cognitive “strategic-petroleum-reserve” which improves & sustains functionality over the long term.

Somehow those networks seem to both route-around any problems, and also incur fewer of them over time.

-Even after education allegedly “stopped” somewhere at the university stage.

But What If These People Were Life-Long Learners Past University?:

But if we guess at things a little further, perhaps people who were educated at university are more likely the type to be life-long learners?

Perhaps they don’t just build up robust networks in the earlier stages of their lives exclusively?

What if they continue to improve them and increasingly flesh them out as they go?

Sort of like painting a small set of character traits across the canvas of time.

Maybe there is a chance that those who went to university might be the type to have mentally-stimulating jobs?

Similarities To The Freaky Dementia Study On Sedentary Office Jobs:

Because according to another study of 8500 people by UCL, those types were 300% less likely to have dementia later in life,

Than those who had jobs involving physical labor; despite the fact that we know cardiovascular exercise of any time reduces the incidence of it!

The period for that study lasted 12 years with participants between 40 & 79 years old; so similar in some ways.

The before & after tests were concerned with:
1) Memory
2) Attention
3) Visual processing speed
4) A reading test that approximates an IQ score

And the results showed specifically:
1) People with sedentary office jobs ranked in the top 10% for cognitive performance.
2) People with physical jobs were less likely than office workers to be active outside work.
3) Most-interestingly, people with desk jobs performed better regardless of their level of education.

Mental Exercise As A Profession & The Wise Words Of Charlie Munger:

So perhaps this work also shows that the practice of doing mental work, especially as a profession, really does build up robust networks in the brain that can serve as an insurance policy later on?

To add one final note from a fairly robust person for his age, and a very smart & successful one too.

Here is Berkshire Hathaway’s Charlie Munger and his take on Lifelong Learning: