People with memory problems who have a university education could be at greater risk of a stroke, suggests research from the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
In a study published in Stroke, they were found to have a 39% greater risk of stroke compared with those with a lower level of education,<\/p>\n
This could be because their early defences against cognitive decline have been eroded.<\/p>\n
Around 9,000 people in Rotterdam were tracked over 20 years.<\/p>\n
They were all healthy and aged 55 and over. In a questionnaire, participants were asked if they had any issues with their memory.<\/p>\n
After analysing the results, researchers from Erasmus University Rotterdam found an increased risk of stroke in people who had earlier complained of memory lapses.<\/p>\n
But the risk of stroke was even higher if participants had a high level of education, defined as higher vocational education or university training.<\/p>\n
Cognitive reserve<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Arfan Ikram, associate professor of neuroepidemiology at Erasmus University, said that education was a good indicator of the brain’s ability to fight against cognitive damage, such as dementia.<\/p>\n This ability, known as cognitive reserve, is usually built up during childhood and early adulthood, and is thought to protect against damage to the brain.<\/p>\n He said: “In people with a high level of education, it takes longer for the brain to be damaged and for dementia to occur.<\/p>\n “But if these people start complaining about their memory, then the mechanism is gone.<\/p>\n “This can be an indicator they have reached an advanced stage, when the cognitive reserve is not compensating any more.”<\/p>\n As a result, Prof Ikram said, memory problems can be an important warning sign in this sub-group, “telling you to keep a watch on this person”.<\/p>\n A stroke occurs when a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain either becomes blocked by a clot or bursts.<\/p>\n When that happens, part of the brain cannot get the blood and oxygen it needs and so brain cells die.<\/p>\n The Stroke Association says medical problems like diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol can increase the risk of having a stroke.<\/p>\n Leading a healthy lifestyle, keeping physically active and stopping smoking can all help to reduce the major risks.<\/p>\n In addition, Prof Ikram says people should start early to maintain brain health in later life – something which is as important as physical health, in the fight against stroke and dementia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" People with memory problems who have a university education could be at greater risk of a stroke, suggests research from the Netherlands. In a study published in Stroke, they were found to have a 39% greater risk of stroke compared with those with a lower level of education, This could be because their early defences […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":49641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-73755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chinese"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}