Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

A 2024 study found that taxi and ambulance drivers have significantly lower rates of Alzheimer's-related deaths compared to other professions, with roughly 1 in 100 dying from the disease versus 1 in 60 people overall. Researchers attribute this protection to continuous real-time navigation work, which exercises the hippocampus—the brain region responsible for memory and spatial navigation that is typically damaged first by Alzheimer's. The finding suggests that sustained mental engagement with spatial reasoning and navigation may help protect against cognitive decline.