Some studies show that the more education a person has, the less likely that person will develop Alzheimer s disease later in life. In one study, a group of 25 nuns in their 20 s wrote essays which were carefully preserved until they died. Nine of the 10 nuns who developed Alzheimer s disease had written essays that lacked ideas or lacked linguistic ability. The remainder of the nuns who did not develop the disease had essays which were quite articulate. Whether these findings relate to higher education or possibly an aptitude for expression is being studied.
Studies are also under way to devise methods of detecting the disease before symptoms occur.
PET scans of the brains of some of these people showed four areas of possibly dying neurons. Obviously further studies need to be done on larger numbers of people. A report published in Lancet on August 15, shows that estrogen may also offer protection against Alzheimer s disease. Dr. R. Mayeux and his group at Columbia University studied 1,100 elderly women with an average age of 74, over a five-year period. Women who took estrogen for a decade or more reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer s disease by 30 to 40 percent.