Higher education results in lower dementia .

People with more education are better able to cope with the changes that come with dementia .
Dementia is a loss of brain function that occurs with certain diseases. It affects memory, thinking, language, judgment, and behavior.

Studies have shown that the more time a person spends in education when young , the lower the risk of dementia later on . But whether or not it was the education itself - and perhaps the associated  higher socioeconomic status and healthier lifestyles - that afforded this protection remained a mystery . Now , researchers from the UK and Finland have revealed the answer : It's all about coping .

Examining the brains of 872 people who'd been part of three long term aging studies , the researchers found that while brain changes seen in dementia are not necessarily linked to education level , subjects who had more education werer better able to compensate for the effects of the condition as they aged .

"There's not a one to one relation ship betwenn being diagnosed with dementia during life and changes seen in the brain at death ,"says the university of Cambridge's Dr Hannah keage ,co-author of the brain published paper . She explains that a person may have alot of brain pathology ,while shoing no signs of dementia .

"Education in early life appears to enable some people to cope with alot of changes in their brain before showing dementia symptoms."

These findings have implications for public-health policy,says study lead and University of Cambridge professor Carol Brayne ." They're hugely relevant to decisions about resource allocation between health and education."