Alzheimer of the well-educated

clipped from news.yahoo.com Alzheimer's memory loss faster among well-educated WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Having more years of formal education delays the memory loss linked to Alzheimer's disease, but once the condition begins to take hold, better-educated people decline more rapidly, researchers said on Monday. Someone with 16 years of schooling might experience memory decline 50 percent more quickly than another person with just four years education, based on the findings. "An elderly person who starts to see memory loss might well deteriorate fairly rapidly, particularly if he or she has a high education or high IQ," Charles Hall, a professor of epidemiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine who led the study, said in a telephone interview. People with more years of formal education appear to have a greater "cognitive reserve," Hall said, referring to the brain's ability to keep working despite damage.