Taxi and ambulance drivers have the lowest risk of developing Alzheimer's when compared to other professions, likely because of how they think when in work.

In a survey of over nine million people which compared 443 professions, taxi and ambulance drivers were found to be the two professions with the lowest risk of Alzheimer’s.

Professor Luke O’Neill told The Pat Kenny Show that this was likely due to the way these professionals use their brains while at work.

“It's clearly to do with their knowledge in their brains, because taxi drivers have mental maps of cities,” he said.

“They drive different routes every day and they’ve got to use their spatial reasoning.”

Prof O’Neill said this keeps the hippocampus active.

 

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A trainee taxi driver doing 'The Knoweldge' in London. York Way, Kings Cross, London, UK. Image: Pete Jenkins / Alamy. 24 November 2007

He said that bus drivers and airplane pilots do not see the same benefits, likely because they service the same routes every day or rely heavily on GPS systems.

“The ambulance drivers had it as well – now, interestingly, not bus drivers,” Prof O’Neill said.

“Now, you might say, why would that be? Bus drivers follow the same route every day, whereas a taxi driver or an ambulance driver has to be much more varied [and find the] quickest way.”

Cutting out digital tools

According to Prof O’Neill, the results of this survey seem to suggest that we should try to navigate without using digital tools.

“It’s almost as if navigation is a wonderfully intelligent thing we can do as humans,” he said.

“Then the hippocampus is where your memory bank is and in taxi drivers’ brains then, their hippocampus have these maps that have been laid down as a memory store if you know what I mean.

“Therefore, they’re able to use that hippocampus more – it's like a muscle really and they’re using that memory muscle all the time.”

Prof O’Neill said that un-addressed hearing loss can increase a person’s chances of Alzheimer’s, as well as high cholesterol, obesity, depression, smoking and social isolation.

He recommended regular exercise as a prevention method against the disease.

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Main image; Luke O'Neill in the Newstalk studio (L) and a taxi sign (R).