Taxi! I can’t remember how to get home!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Guess what: Taxi Drivers have a lower death rate from Alzheimers. What gives?
Meet Vishal Patel and team at Harvard Medical School. They analyzed U.S. deaths across over four hundred different occupations.
About four percent of deaths surveyed were from Alzheimer’s. But only one percent of cabbies died from the disease.
However, professionals with more set driving routes, like bus drivers, had higher Alzheimer’s death rates.
Perhaps navigating unpredictable routes helps workout and protect the hippocampus – the brain region responsible for memory and spatial awareness.
But that’s no reason to start barking directions from the passenger’s seat! Stick to your Wordle, for Myrtle’s sake!
Reference: R Patel, V., Liu, M., Worsham, C. M., & Jena, A. B. (2024). Alzheimer’s disease mortality among taxi and ambulance drivers: population based cross sectional study. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 387, e082194. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-082194