We were taking the opportunity to clear the decks here at the Area 6 Office when we came across a small article in that bastion of journalism, The Metro.

“Study hard: Education may make brains more resistant to dementia, researchers have revealed. Each year of post 16 schooling reduces the risk of dementia developing by 11 per cent, as the brain is better able to manage physical damage to itself – trauma which often results in loss of cognitive ability, reported the Cambridge University study. ‘Until we have more research, the message appears to be stay in school’, said Ruth Sutherland of the Alzheimer’s Society. “

The Metro, Page 20, Monday 26th July 2010

Coupled with the anecdotal evidence by The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Vince Cable previously published on this site

He spoke about how his mother’s mind was saved by adult education – she had a nervous breakdown when he was 10 and “spent time in a mental hospital. When she recovered she saved her mind through adult education,” he said, “learning about history, literature, philosophy and art for the first time”. 

It seems that adult learning is not only good for the soul, it is good for the mind too.