Alzheimer's "faster in educated" "Alzheimer's disease progresses more rapidly in highly educated people, research suggests. It is thought high levels of education may ward off Alzheimer's by helping the brain better tolerate damaging changes. But the latest study, involving 312 Alzheimer's patients, suggests once accumulated damage reaches a critical level, decline is relatively swift. The study, by New York's Columbia University, features in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. The researchers monitored 312 people aged 65 and older who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's for five years. Each patient underwent a battery of tests to assess their neurological function. Overall mental agility declined every year among all the patients. But each additional year of education equated to an additional 0.3% deterioration per year."