HMM: Education matters more than race for longer lifespan in U.S., study says. “A four-year college degree is becoming the key to living a longer life in the United States, a new study argues. In fact, education appears to be a more potent factor in determining lifespan now than race, researchers say.”

I doubt very much that education is protective; it’s almost certainly just a marker for certain traits of discipline, etc., that contribute to longer life. Efforts to extend lifespan by encouraging education will likely fall afoul of Reynolds’ Law.