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  fn-mote
  The rate of fatality for Alzheimer’s among ambulance and taxi drivers is 3x lower than the general population. This is not observed in other transportation-related careers.The connection is believed to be the spatial reasoning involved in routing. No causative link is suggested.
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  47
  The biggest weakness in the study is that Taxi and ambulance drivers in the dataset died around 64 to 67, versus 74 for other occupations [0]. If Alzheimer's is much more likely to show up later, then lower Alzheimer's related death rates among Taxi and ambulance drivers may reflect earlier mortality rather than any effect from the job.[0] https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-study-...
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  kimixa
  Statistically you'd expect some "random" samplings of the population to show significant deviations from the mean just by chance.Roll enough different sets of dice and you'd expect some to end up being all sixes - that doesn't mean that set is rigged. Yeah, they're the ones you'd do further tests on, but it's not evidence in itself.
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  jimmar
  One of the first signs that a somebody has Alzheimer's is that they'll get lost. E.g., they've been attending church on Thursdays nights at the same chapel for 15 years, but suddenly they forgot how to get home after a recent service. Part of the reason for the findings in the current study is that people quit those professions when they feel themselves starting to struggle.
• barbegal
  This series of graphs https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/387/bmj-2024-082194/F1.large... shows that whilst those two professions are at the bottom of the distribution they are not particularly outlying and cherry picking of those professions has occurred. The statistical analysis should have adjusted for picking the best 2 occupations of the 443 in the study. That would likely show very little statistical significance.
• jjcc
  It seems a lot of people already know that. I remember their's a claim that Taxi drivers hipocampus is larger than average people. A memory method called "Memory palace" or "Method of Loci" exists for 2 thousand years exploiting human's navigation capability.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci
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  bhouston
  I immediately go to these two thoughts:- Is significant life-long usage of real-time mental spatial navigation protective?- Are those who end up in these positions self-selected for better than average real-time mental spatial navigation and that above average performance correlates with protection against Alzheimer's.
• not5150
  When I was growing up, we had these big books called Thomas Brothers Guides. I remember giving laminated versions as gifts - one of the best gifts you could give.I worked as an EMT for about 4 months and for the first few weeks had to drive around while the Paramedic (we rode EMT/Paramedic pairs) quizzed me about "if we got a call at XYZ, how would you get there"Talk about vivid dreams every night.
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  Melatonic
  I would imagine the combo of spatial reasoning and mapping plus social stimulation could be a reason. You could also argue both are regularly training reflexes and fine motor movement.Or could be there some weird variable that's unaccounted for ? Do taxi drivers and ambulance drivers for some reason have more regular sleep patterns ? We know that is definitely helpful for Alzheimer's
• tsoukase
  That's interesting. It's one of a few studies that supports a mental functioning, if it's lifelong and of specific type, prevents nerve cell degeneration and dying. If the theory that mind inactivity causes dementia is true, it will revolutionise it's prevention with lifelong adult training. AI could help immensely in this field keeping the community mentally occupied. I am waiting for a solid study measuring that a stress free group (either due to personal or professional status) beats all the stressful ones. We know it happens but it's nice to have evidence. Which group has obviously less stress today?
• qwertytyyuu
  I cannot navigate for to save my life, if this ends up be causal i'm so screwed
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  smallnix
  Would love to see a study looking at people who spend significant time in video games that require spatial navigation.That could even be a form of therapy after diagnosis (which seems to become easier with biomarkers).
• anon
  undefined
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  csallen
  So why not bus drivers? Supposedly because their routes are fixed?
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  DeathArrow
  Isn't Alzheimer manifesting itself at an old age? Maybe taxi and ambulance drivers aren't too old? Maybe we find the same if we analyze jet fighter pilots?
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  90d
  I wonder what a similar study will look like for those who enjoy competitive online gaming into their old age. If the microplastics do not get to our brain first, of course.
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  joecool1029
  I was really expecting this to be higher not lower due to factors like particulate inhalation from exhaust/brake dust/tire particles. Also there's a lot of sedentary-type problems you get while taxi driving like bad diet habits that are not conducive to brain health.Dunno, did taxi driving for a few years. Mostly suburban for a small fleet, not gigging. I'm thinking newer drivers that rely on smartphones for navigation won't get the same benefit.I seem to recall that at least some populations of taxi driver they have exams like The Knowledge (https://london-taxi.co.uk/the-knowledge/) where changes in structures of the brain can be measured after learning it.
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  academicfish
  I assume that was a generation that didn’t use Google Maps.
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  sowbug
  Would be interesting to see whether spatial reasoning from gaming shows the same association.
• mahirsaid
  That's interesting, all of that Spatial Processing and critical thinking keeps the brain juicy.
• m463
  related - Indian food contains turmeric (curcumin) and indians don't get alzheimer's as much.
• zeristor
  “Use the KNOWLEDGE Luke, always”
• caaqil
  My first reaction to the title was: "duh, selection/survivorship bias" but their counter is pretty solid:> Firstly and perhaps most importantly, selection bias is possible because individuals who are at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease may be less likely to enter or remain in memory intensive driving occupations such as taxi and ambulance driving. This could mean that the lower Alzheimer’s disease mortality observed in these occupations is not due to the protective effect of the job itself but rather because those prone to the disease may have self-selected out of such roles. However, Alzheimer’s disease symptoms typically develop after patients’ working years, with only 5-10% of cases occurring in people younger than 65 years (early onset).1114 While subtle symptoms could develop earlier, they would still most likely be after a person had worked long enough to deem the occupation to be a so-called usual occupation, suggesting against substantial attrition from navigational jobs due to development of Alzheimer’s disease. Moreover, even if lifelong taxi driving selects for individuals with strong spatial processing, our findings would still suggest an interesting link between spatial processing skills and risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
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  readthenotes1
  That's a pretty positive spin on this statistic that ambulance drivers and taxi drivers die much younger than many other professions
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  zoklet-enjoyer
  Hey! Its time to make some crazy money! Are you ready? Here we go!