Have you attended university and perhaps obtained a degree? Are you about 55 years old and already suffering from memory lapses? There's a good chance that you're at a higher risk of developing stroke, according to a new study.
The study, whose results can already be read in Stroke, ran for more than 20 years. The researchers of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands, looked into more than 8,500 men and women who were 55 years old and above but were considered healthy. They shared their health data by answering some questionnaires.
In 2012, their cases were revisited, and the researchers discovered that around 1,100 of them suffered from stroke. However, a huge portion of them were those who complained of memory lapses and have acquired higher-level education, which can either be a university degree or training in vocational course. In fact, the risk is almost 40% higher than those who have lower-level education.
Although this may seem a bit odd to many, the researchers believe that it has something to do with cognitive reserve. It is believed that people who have achieved such education possess the ability to prevent cognitive damage of the brain. This also means that the persons who have it are less at risk of suffering from Alzheimer's disease or dementia. If they already start complaining about memory loss, it is then possible that this reserve has already significantly declined or even be gone.
The research doesn't establish the cause-effect relationship between possible cognitive decline and stroke, but based on the results, they may be correlated. This could be because stroke occurs in the brain. When a person suffers from stroke, a blood vessel in the brain may have been blocked by a clot or damaged by bursting. Since the blood vessel allows the transport of the much-needed oxygen to the brain, its damage means the brain receives significantly less nutrient, and the cells start to die.