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.<p>The connection is believed to be the spatial reasoning involved in routing. No causative link is suggested.
> The connection is believed to be the spatial reasoning involved in routing.<p>This is triggering me lol. I was a Paramedic for 10 years and 3 of those years were before GPS existed and we had these awful 900 page 5" thick things we had to wield on the fly called Map Books. It was part of our probation period testing and they would time us to pick out the routes reliably within a certain deadline or not graduate from being a probie.<p>While your partner drove to the call you'd put the book on your lap and flip to the big large grid which would tell you which map your location would be on (page 770), then you'd look up the street in the back appendix to get the coordinates for the specific house (P5, C2) and then find the cross street on another page (P5, C3), go to the grid and find the closest appropriate hospital for the purpose of the call (different ERs have different functions- for gunshots go to Highland, for amputations go to CalPac Davies, for heart attacks go to UCSF, etc) (page 815), the street location for that (A6, C4) and then make your route while flipping back and forth between all the pages while simultaneously telling your partner where to turn as you go.<p>When I went to a better ran company, dispatch would give us map page and grid coordinates over the radio when we got the call.<p>Within a few months you learn most of the neighborhoods and routes, and road hazards and preferences- for example if going to UCSF from the Peninsula take O'Shaughnessy because there's no traffic and is a smooth ride. And if you're going to Seton Hospital from 101 slow down around the turn on the on ramp onto 280 because there is a GIANT bump that will knock your partner in the back's head into the ceiling and not be comfortable for the patient on the gurney.<p>Map books were no fun but some of the dudes I worked with definitely became route-finding savants.
In a similar vein, to drive a black taxi in London you have to pass The Knowledge of London exam which requires becoming a human routing database for over twenty thousand streets and landmarks.
This is such a great anecdote, thanks for sharing!<p>>> for gunshots go to Highland, for amputations go to CalPac Davies, for heart attacks go to UCSF, etc<p>Oooft. My utmost respect. I could not do this job.
Will we see a drop in alzheimers when the open world gaming population reaches that age? I mean, I can not just navigate my city, but multiple worlds!
What are some possibilities?<p><pre><code> 1. Those with spatial reasoning are less likely to develop Alzheimers
2. Ambo and Taxi drivers are less likely (for some reason) to develop Alzheimers AND their work leads them to develop good spatial reasoning.
</code></pre>
Any others? One consideration is that those with jobs requiring long periods of concentration drink less. Among other things.
- Drivers with early symptoms of Alzheimer’s struggled to remain effective and changed profession
People with excess brain capacity are able to easily acquire spatial reasoning, and can (more) easily work/qualify for ambo and taxi jobs. Their excess brain capacity makes progressive brain damage more difficult to impact them before other causes of death.
Social interaction while spatially reasoning also helps. (Social + cognitive load)
Except causation, what can the connection be? Some genes causing both spatial reasoning and suppressing Alz?
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.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-study-reporting-lower-alzheimers-deaths-in-certain-professions-taxi-drivers-and-ambulance-drivers/" rel="nofollow">https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-study-...</a>
If you read it, one of the first things they discuss is methodology for adjusting for age at death as it relates to Alzheimer's mortality, citing exactly this objection. I'm not a statistician and I don't know if their methodology is solid or not, but it's been addressed.
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.<p>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"<p>Talk about vivid dreams every night.
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.
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.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci</a>
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.<p>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
Taxi drivers and ambulance drivers seem like two jobs that would have less regular sleep patterns, TBH.
Your reasons listed under a HN comment are more plausible than those listed by who worked on this subject for years. I find it funny and admiring.
I immediately go to these two thoughts:<p>- Is significant life-long usage of real-time mental spatial navigation protective?<p>- 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.
I think your 2nd point is less likely.<p>Anecdotal, but I've spoken with many taxi and ride-share drivers, and my impression is that their decision to seek out and continue that line of work is almost always driven by outside economic considerations. I've never heard someone base their decision on their ability to perform the job.
There's a big difference with being a driver now, though, compared to having had it as a career and being part of this study. They did it before gps.
> I've never heard someone base their decision on their ability to perform the job.<p>That they’re consciously aware of
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.
My guess: On the left of the mortality curve are those who play Minecraft without mods and not using maps, and on the very right edge are those who use modded Minecraft with minimap.<p>I wonder what about gta players. And does playing GTA mainly in taxi count in
What have you been doing to prevent / reduce microplastics?
Would love to see a study looking at people who spend significant time in video games that require spatial navigation.<p>That could even be a form of therapy after diagnosis (which seems to become easier with biomarkers).
Vsauce did a video about how League of Legends can affect spatial navigation and the brain: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RHsAUyFCAM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RHsAUyFCAM</a>
It seemed a bit odd to me since LoL isn't especially navigation-heavy, but Michael from Vsauce later confirmed he was actually playing LoL (they just weren't allowed to name it or show it directly - <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/vsauce/comments/7igkve/what_game_does_michael_play_in_your_mind_on_tech/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/vsauce/comments/7igkve/what_game_do...</a>).
So why not bus drivers? Supposedly because their routes are fixed?
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.<p>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.<p>I seem to recall that at least some populations of taxi driver they have exams like The Knowledge (<a href="https://london-taxi.co.uk/the-knowledge/" rel="nofollow">https://london-taxi.co.uk/the-knowledge/</a>) where changes in structures of the brain can be measured after learning it.
Ambulance drivers, truckers, delivery drivers and taxi drivers are more likely to get bladder cancer, most likely from holding in urine but also probably from diesel fumes and pathogens from road dust particulate matter.<p>My shitty ambo company sold our sleeping quarters as revenge when we tried to unionize and so we would have to sleep in the rig and would run the engine to keep warm, I am sure I will meet an early death from sucking in all those diesel fumes over night shifts.
I was thinking the same thing, about the tire particles and sedentary problems. It's really true the what you do for your daily work over many years shapes your body.
I assume that was a generation that didn’t use Google Maps.
At my most recent EMS job ("ambulance driver" is considered insulting), the younger people couldn't navigate anywhere without mapping it. Some of them brought up being amazed that I could get to every hospital in our area from pretty much anywhere without having to bring it up on my phone (random houses and nursing homes were a different story).
That's interesting, all of that Spatial Processing and critical thinking keeps the brain juicy.
Would be interesting to see whether spatial reasoning from gaming shows the same association.
This is indeed interesting because rotating 2D screen is not necessarily the same type of brain processing as experiencing things fly around you. Even VR is not necessarily the same, because knowing you're safe may be different from taking the situation seriously. Could be same, could be completely different.<p>But the first massively popular 3D games started end of 90s which means Alzheimer cases for them will pop up only around 2060 or later (average onset year 75 minus being 15 years kid during 90s).
related - Indian food contains turmeric (curcumin) and indians don't get alzheimer's as much.
My first reaction to the title was: "duh, selection/survivorship bias" but their counter is pretty solid:<p>> 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.
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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