Surprising jobs that protect you from Alzheimer's... and the roles that raise risk of disease
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Two jobs could protect you from developing dementia, according to a study. Researchers found that taxi drivers and ambulance drivers are at a much lower risk of dying from Alzheimer's compared to over 400 different occupations. This trend didn't hold for other transportation jobs that don't require navigating maps, like pilots or ship captains.
![[Each grey dot represents a different occupation included in their study. They didn't report which occupations had the highest incidence of dementia. But those with the lowest included taxi drivers and ambulance drivers]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/20/93201795-14198195-Each_grey_dot_represents_a_different_occupation_included_in_thei-a-42_1734381293030.jpg)
This led the team to believe that the mental exercise of planning a route in your head is particularly important in reducing Alzheimer's risk. Their theory is that the hippocampus, the part of the brain that is crucial for memory, is the same part that's responsible for sense of direction and navigation.
![[As people age, the amount of healthy tissue in the brain naturally begins thinning. In Alzheimer's disease, this happens at a much faster rate, leading to the memory loss, personality changes and confusion often associated with the disease]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/18/93204185-14198195-image-a-30_1734372394089.jpg)
Taxi and ambulance drivers have been shown in older studies to have particularly well-developed hippocampus', even as they age. Study author Dr Anupam Jena, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital said their results suggest: 'it’s important to consider how occupations may affect risk of death from Alzheimer’s disease and whether any cognitive activities can be potentially preventive.'.
About 7million Americans currently live with Alzheimer's disease, and according to the Alzheimer's Association, that number is projected to continuing growing over the next decades to 13million. Because ambulance drivers have to constantly navigate new routes to the hospital, they're exercising a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is responsible for spatial reasoning, memory and sense of direction.
