A new study, just out, in the June 2008 issue of the Journal of Aging and Health, of more than 7000 people over 7 years further champions the notion that education and dementia are connected. The researchers from the Institut Nationald'Etudes Démographiques, the University of Pennsylvania and USC found that high school grads can expect to live 2.5 years more without  serious memory loss than those with fewer than 12 years of education.

Notably, the researchers also find that better educated people die sooner

after severe loss of cognitive ability, including the effects of

Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and dementia. Why?  "These findings are consistent with the idea that those with more  education may process tasks more efficiently or use other compensatory

mechanisms that delay cognitive impairment or delay our ability to detect

impairment," explained USC Davis School of Gerontology professor Eileen

Crimmins, corresponding author of the study.

Of course, with cognitive reserve, it's always been a chicken and egg question:  do people with more education do better in the long run because they were more cognitively able to begin with, hence their greater education, or is education itself protective?  The answer isn't clear yet, but while we're waiting, stay in school.