Taxi Drivers' Brains May Leave Them Less Vulnerable to Alzheimer's
By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Dec. 17, 2024 -- Taxi and ambulance drivers need to have quick wits and nimble reflexes to cut through traffic effectively.
Turns out that these traits might also protect them from Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study published Dec. 16 in the BMJ.
“The same part of the brain that’s involved in creating cognitive spatial maps -- which we use to navigate the world around us -- is also involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease,” explained lead researcher Dr. Vishal Patel, a surgical resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
“We hypothesized that occupations such as taxi driving and ambulance driving, which demand real-time spatial and navigational processing, might be associated with a reduced burden of Alzheimer’s disease mortality compared with other occupations,” Patel added in a hospital news release.
However, the same benefit didn’t hold for jobs that rely on following a fixed route, such as driving a bus or flying a plane, researchers noted.
For the study, researchers analyzed death records of nearly 9 million people involved in 443 different occupations. The people all died between 2020 and 2022.
Across all occupations, nearly 4% of those people died from Alzheimer’s disease.
But only 1% of taxi drivers and 0.7% of ambulance drivers died from Alzheimer’s, researchers found.
After adjustment, ambulance and taxi drivers had the lowest proportion of deaths due to Alzheimer’s out of all the professions.
By comparison, about 3% of bus drivers and 4% of pilots died from Alzheimer’s, results show.
“Our results highlight the possibility that neurological changes in the hippocampus or elsewhere among taxi and ambulance drivers may account for the lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease,” said senior researcher Dr. Anupam Jena, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
The hippocampus is the brain region that helps transfer short-term memories into long-term memory, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It also plays a role in navigation and emotional processing.
However, researchers noted that this was an observational study and can’t prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship between those careers and a lower risk of Alzheimer’s.
“We view these findings not as conclusive, but as hypothesis-generating,” Jena said. “But they suggest that 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.”
Sources
- Mass General Brigham, news release, Dec. 16, 2024
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted December 2024
Read this next
Hearing Aids Are a Boon To Social Life, Study Finds
THURSDAY, July 3, 2025 — Some folks won’t use hearing aids because they’re worried the devices will make them look old or get in the way of their social...
Brainstorming? Avoid The Internet, Study Says
WEDNESDAY, July 2, 2025 — Want to think outside the box? Avoid the internet, a new study says. Googling for new ideas can inhibit a group’s creativity during...
AI Can Help Determine A Person's Specific Form Of Dementia
TUESDAY, July 1, 2025 — A new AI tool can help doctors hone in on a patient’s particular type of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, a new study says. The...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.