For a healthy life, education is the best medicine

STUDYING for a degree could help people stay slim and healthy, researchers believe, after finding that every three-and-a-half years spent in education knocks one point off your BMI.

Scientists have known for some time that staying in education for longer protects against strokes and heart attacks, but never knew why.

Now, after looking after the schooling of 200,000 people enrolled in the UK Biobank cohort, they discovered it is because the better educated are slimmer, less likely to smoke and have low blood pressure.

Starting at primary school, each 3.6 years in education was linked to a reduction in Body Mass Index of 1kg/m2, and a reduction in systolic blood pressure of 3mm/hg.

A BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is considered healthy, while systolic blood pressure should be between 90 and 120. It means the average person who studies a five-year medical degree could expect to be 2 BMI points lighter than someone who leaves school at 16.

Dr Dipender Gill, an author of the work from Imperial College London’s School of Public Health, said: “We now need to investigate what other reasons may link education and lower cardiovascular disease risk. One possibility is that people who spend more time in education tend to engage more with healthcare services and see their doctor sooner with any health complaints.”

Researchers said that now they knew what was behind the reduced risk, it could be easier to focus on policies to reduce weight, smoking and blood pressure. The research was published in the BMJ.