Three main reasons. 1. Low alcohol intake, as taxi drivers cannot afford a DUI. 2 Problem solving, navigation and finding alternative routes. 3. Constant and intense concentration required to drive a motor vehicle.
As the son of a cab driver, I can promise you, that man drank like a fish. Also having spent my time as a first responder, alcoholics work hard because they know they have limited options for getting their alcohol, so most balance it. My father drank solid from Friday evening through Sunday evening, and then water coffee all week while smoking.
I drove over 7000 passengers for Uber and Lyft. My memory improved exponentially. I also got really good at talking to people. Even now I can jump right into a conversation with anyone. One thing you learn after driving and talking to over 7000 people is when not to talk. Ha hA
Unlike airline pilots, taxi drivers interact constantly with customers, including discussions of proper route. I believe human verbal interaction is one of the highest functions of the brain and unfortunately, as you get older, you have less human interaction, especially as you become deaf. My hypothesis is that it’s the human verbal interactions that keep the brain alive.
@ i don’t think it’s the complexity. I think it has more to do with needing to create “long term” memories (even tho long term may be 20 mins) continually while interacting with other people.i suspect that face-to-face interpersonal communication in real-time engages the brain more comprehensively and deeply than other activities.
I used to do 5 to 8 service calls a day allover the city. Back in the 2000's when I started using a GPS it definitely made me lazy, and I quickly noticed how much my ability to navigate without one was degraded.
I'm no taxi driver, but I can't use a GPS. To go to Spain (I live not far from the Pyrénées), I memorized the route, first thing I did in Figueras was buying a map of Cataluña. Fortunately, it was not designed by Salvador Dali.
i used to hike in the wilderness using topo maps and noticed how it increased my ability to not get lost in urban settings. I might not have known exactly where I was, but I knew how to get back to the nearest known points (typically highways). It was a practiced skill, very well practiced. I'm starting to get out more again where I need to navigate using maps and will not use GPS as a primary means unless I do feel lost/threatened. Spacial reasoning takes practice and GPS is not skill developing. How that affects the brain, no clue.
Good point. If you retire at 70 and die at 90, does your death certificate indicate the occupation you held 20 years prior? Or does it say something like "retired". If you could somehow acquire the resumes of all people who have died you could form a much better picture and perhaps find an occupational link.
@@WillinWells Yeah, my father was an airline pilot and we were relieved when he retired at age 60. We had noticed lapses and forgetfulness just beginning. He died of Alzheimer's disease at 86.
@@DonaldMains It's a statistical adjustment but it remains that, even with that, there is no concise answer why the results show that. They are trying to see if there is something about taxi driving that results in less alzheimers but alas, it did not prove anything.
Yeah, its silly to suggest cabbies die young from all the lethal accidents. That´s a one in million or less. And even then probably(more than 50%) from someone else doing the damage.
@@teppo9585 My skills as a Cab driver are such that I am so aware of other vehicle's you can read them in an instant and know their next move. You become so familiar with your local roads that you know where every manhole cover is. I have had a few accidents, only one being my fault, the winter sun blinded me and I could not see, hit the break hard but sadly it was the gas pedal. Luckily it all happened at crawling in traffic speed.
Do you drive primarily in urban areas? I suspect the risk of say an inner city taxi driver and a long haul trucker would be very different because of highway speeds vs inner city speeds. I'd worry more about being stabbed or shot in the inner city than about a motor vehicle accident. And the reverse for a long haul trucker.
@@floridacoder I am mainly Urban, we do get Rural work plus Airport runs to Gatwick and Heathrow which is motorway which I decline. Nobody stabbed or shot but as the population is changing into non Europeans its inevitable in the future.
I understand that it is very difficult to become a taxi driver in London. Requiring a comprehensive geography test of roads and locations. Here in the U.S. just about anyone with a drivers license can drive a taxi.
Have you been in a NYC cab? This is selection bias -- if a taxi driver does start to show signs of mental impairment, they stop driving and self-select out of the pool of drivers.
@@InformationEngineer59 Taxi drivers dont have a healthy lifestyle, seating all day probably smoking more than the average, eating poorly, that's probably why they have a short life expectancy.
I spent 28 years driving around a larger city in my telephone co truck. Mostly I was doing repairs. I had to learn when to get on the freeway and went to stay away from it and drive surface streets. MaBell ( and later its many diffrent names) made us hustle so we had to learn every inch of the city. Other then taxi drivers, I would like to see a list of all occupations. Can you post a link to this paper? I have been retired 20 years this month. Am I loosing my touch?? Thank you for a great video.
This makes sense if you think about how long it takes the first time to drive to work to a new job. Your brain records everything you see. After a few trips it starts to only make 'Updates', new construction, tree cut down, etc. Taxi drivers drive to new areas all the time, and meet new people every day.
London taxi drivers differ from other taxi drivers in that they have to study routes to pass a test to get the licence. It's known as "The Knowledge" and can take 2 years of study to pass it. That hippocampus training before driving a licensed taxi is likely why they were the subject of the research.
Yes. I wonder how much the study part affected things. When my mom got Alzheimer's I read a book by a doctor whose father was a church pastor. The older people in the church had a practice of memorizing the Bible and he noted the lack of dementia in the congregation.
New York City taxi drivers must also pass a rigorous test like that. Not so for Uber and Lyft drivers; big difference. I'll take a NYC cab over others any day.
He invalidated the study from the BEGINNING. 😂😂😂 To be a taxi driver, ambulance, UPS driver, etc. you must RULE OUT ALL PEOPLE WHO FAILED AT THE LONDON TEST OR BEING HIRED AS A TAXI, AMBULANCE OR DELIVERY DRIVER. That is a HUGE HUGE HUGE OVERSIGHT!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂 For every person who succeeds at driving … 20-30 people SO NOT EVEN PASS HIRING OR THE TRAINING PROCESS. So you are ALREADY SELECTING THE CREAM OF THE CROP OF HIPPOCAMPI. That is the FATAL FLAW in this study. You have gotten rid of 75% of your driving population before the third year. Believe me … I have hired drivers and when you do get one, they are golden. Most people could not navigate their way out of a paper bag. I am one of the FEW exceptions. I should have NEVER been a driver; but since I was already a manager for 5 years and transferred- against my will or expertise - I learned by trial of fire and risk of termination. I was even forced to learn by myself how to drive a tractor trailer on company property. It takes a SPECIAL BRAIN to do these things or MONTHS TO YEARS of rote memorization for those of us who are severely lacking. Now everything is second nature for me - and it does feel like my brain has been re-wired. (Kinda like trying to tie your shoe for the first time and finally getting it. Or trying to solve those Hinayana puzzles … once you get through all the brute force of getting it down … things flow. I was DEFINITELY one of those people in the 75% failure rate. Just ask ANY new driver - not using gps. And it is funny that if I use GPS to get somewhere … it never sticks. But give me a paper map or if I have to ask directions or do it without a map, I only have to go there ONCE and it is on my mind for DECADES!! But GPS, as soon as I get there, it leaves my mind forever. 😂😂😂😂
I am sedentary, have been most of my life. I have to force myself to walk a little, daily. At 82, I have had memory problems for a decade, slowly getting worse. I find walking helps, but I go online daily, reading, watching podcasts, thinking, writing comments. My interest is philosophy, technology, with a focus in epistemology, politics/economy. These 3 fields are not popular or given the attention/importance they deserve. I believe my daily academic studies are essential in keeping my brain functions from declining.
Taxi drivers also have a low life expectancy compared to most other occupations. Delivery drivers also have low life expectancy. It is very stressful driving around in a big city all day.
The drivers are the more exposed to street pollution. EVs could reduce lethal pollution in urban areas, but by the time all vehicles are electric, we won't need drivers anymore.
Spoken like someone who has never done a real study or taken advanced courses in statistics and epidemiology. Results are not invalidated because the sample size is small.
Great. I work at two jobs: hospital courier (full-time) and pizaa delivery (part-time), so I know routes all around the city and routes to hospitals in nearby cities, too, (a lot of problem-solving navigation). What I think is more important is that I do not drink alcohol, don't smoke, don't any drugs except the odd aspirin or flu pill, and fully vaccinated against Covid and the flu. Do I notice a difference? I'm physically active, yet, I see my peers, (seniors, a decade younger than myself), using walkers and confused by simple tasks. A clean and active lifestyle does wonders!
They use statistics for 9 millions people, not exactly small, now the percentage of Taxi drivers in the general population is small which might bias the results and they tend to die early.
I wonder what effect navigating through nature on foot has on the hippocampus and risk of alzheimers. All my life, every chance I get, I have roamed in the woods, exploring, mostly in the Ozarks. I usually don't follow trails, but just head off in whatever direction interests me. This is more like the navigating our ancestors would have done. Unlike navigating in a car, exploring in nature includes lots of aerobic exercise, as I walk several miles up and down steep hills. It would be hard to study this because in today's world I can't think of any occupation that requires navigating through nature on foot. Most people who do, do it as a hobby.
great thing 👍👍👍 i do the same - since more then 50 jears now - everywhere - in nature - in the city - on foot or bicycle - rooming arround - breathing deep - exploring the landscape - and i go often intentional lost in the unknown more or less on a daily basis people are often confused - and asking how do you know all this paths ? i am reading maps - satellite immages - memorise them - and use this infos - having try and errors and I discover things - that are not listed on any map and that fascinates me and so I can easily remember all the connections and links between the individual places but most people are extremely bad navigators - shocking poor spatial awareness - i see it as a disease - long before alzheimer's
The comment at 2:44 , "It might mean that people with naturally larger hippocampi are more likely to end up as taxi drivers, but we'll drop that thread," jumped out at me immediately. I remember years ago in school watching a film about exercise and health in which it was noted that bus drivers in the UK were three times more likely to die of a heart attack than conductors on those same buses. They even showed an overweight bus driver steering a double-decker bus followed by a normal-sized conductor climbing up to the top deck of a bus in order to bring home the point. They were trying to show how more activity can make you healthier, but then later I thought maybe people who end up driving buses are more attracted to sedentary work than people who end up being conductors. So, the "cause" for fewer heart attacks for conductors may well be a "symptom" of these already healthy and active people's desire to engage in more active work rather than the work itself making them healthier. And people who want to be bus drivers tend to be those who are less active and less healthy, so they are attracted to a job that involves less physical activity. So, it may be possible that people who choose to drive a taxi or an ambulance are attracted to this type of work because they find getting around by car "easier" due in part to their large hippocampi and since they have large hippocampi to begin with, then this makes the job easier, which makes them better taxi and ambulance drivers and so it's not the job that prevents the disease, but the inherent skills that are needed for that job that attracts a certain group of people who happen to be already negatively correlated with Alzheimer's because they possess a neurological attribute that makes them good at that job and also prevents a certain type of dementia, in this case, Alzheimer's.
How did you identify former taxi drivers (those who left the profession because their hippocampus disappeared) from the data you investigated? Maybe the job requirements of a taxi driver favor those with large hippocampus.
As a former taxi driver, I rarely saw a taxi driver that doesn't have a metabolic disease such as diabetes or high blood pressure and I have seen lots of them die young. But man do I miss those deep personal conversation with my passengers.
@@griffinrupe True. To be a good taco driver, you don’t need to not have Alzheimer’s But in order to be a good taco driver, you benefit from not having alzheimer's. So we would expect the population of taxi drivers to have a lower incidence of it whether it is caused by driving a taxi of it is just a negatively selected precondition for becoming a taxi driver in the first place. Correlation doesn't prove causation.
In London, all licensed taxi drivers must go to school and learn the entire city layout in intricate detail. This has been the case for a very long time too. While it definitely makes for good service, Id imagine it also makes for strengthening memory and various associated processes, at least. If you've ever taken one in London, you'll understand just how challenging this is, to know the entire city is such detail and know how to get from A to B to C with little delay or confusion. London actually was the city I thought of first when I started to play this video. Makes perfect sense. But frankly, often by the time most dementia starts to make symptoms known, Alzheimer's included, drivers are likely retired. Also, a certain 'type' might be more likely to seek out being a taxi driver and/or be able to pass the exam. I could say the same for many other cities...while not necessarily school taught and tested about direction, to be even somewhat successful, you need to know the city layout well and be flexible with it depending on specific conditions and rider requests.
Years ago I did a relief courier driver job in my city. I already knew the street layout pretty well but learned how to short cut for speedy deliveries. Now I still have that map in my head but the road layout has changed so much that I cannot use that old knowledge, particularly one way streets. No other alzheimer symptoms at 75.
A small point. In Sydney, Australia I had to pass a medical and a literacy/numeracy test before I could get my taxi driver's authority (not licence). In a way that weeds out people who are unfit before they even start.
I don't want to get into a sexist argument here, but I have found that men (who are still in the majority as taxi drivers and ambulance drivers) are often naturally more 'spatially aware' than women. My husband could plan a route in the evening to somewhere fairly distant we'd never been, hand me the map to navigate the next day, and actually not even need it, but remember the route without my assistance. I can't remember a route half an hour after I've looked at a map!! When you add that to the fact that women are supposed to be more prone to Alzheimer's, it may well be a telling factor.
If taxi drivers and ambulance drivers die younger on average, as shown in the graph, then the higher rates (percentage) of what is causing those younger deaths could reduce the percentage of deaths by Alzheimer's, without working as a driver in itself reducing the odds of getting Alzheimer's, as described as a possibility near the end of the video.
There are lots of interesting factors not considered. Alzheimer's seems to be nearly non-existent in societies with an almost 100% devotion to plant-based diets. And these are covering huge population samplings, in the many millions, not just 400+ people. Relatively wealthy societies can afford to eat animal-based foods. People groups tend to discount the likelihood of anything that interferes with favorite elements of their lifestyle, like eating meat and dairy. Animal-based foods are the 800 pound gorilla in the room.
My mother lived to 92 and had little to no cognitive decline at all. She put a minimum of 30,000 miles per year on her car, driving almost totally solo, retired, no job, from 50 to 92. She could travel the entire continental US, solo, with no map, on her various whims, until her mid 80s. After 85, she kept to 2-3 states.
Would love to see a study of UPS and FedEx drivers, who generally have to have active flexible minds. I worked in the industry and liked that my brain was almost never on ‘automatic,” constantly recalculating most efficient moves.
So online gaming could also help ? Example of those war games, like world of tanks, you have to make constant adjustments of the game situation and guess Enemy moves.
There eas a study that showed that people studying for the taxi exam grew their hippocampuses. What does this say about programs that discourage people from studying hard?
Paul McCartney has spoken of a weird pastime for him and his family that entails driving out down random roads making random turns, getting completely lost, and then finding your way home again. It's what the song, The Two of Us, is about. I wonder if that has helped to keep him sharp into his old age.
Yes, London taxi drivers are required to pass an exceptionally difficult test, remembering thousands of street names and navigation routes. However, many of them seem to be physically unfit and overweight from being in a sedentary occupation.
It's exactly the same activity, just with somewhat less physical activity and association with physical movement and more association with reflexes and planning based on a much smaller area of consideration. Maybe that second one would mitigate the benefit, as if a taxi driver only did the same city.
I think it's way more simple. Being in a car all day and driving the body - muscles and the nervous system never stops working and become dormant. Similar to doing minimal cardio always
I can tell you because I did it for many years. It is horrible on your body particularly the extremities. And what exercise you get is lifting HEAVY suitcases maybe going up multiple flights of stairs with no warmup. Quite challenging to the heart.
The vast majority of guesses in this comment section were already addressed in the video. Folks, please pay attention while watching it. Dr Wilson is good at this, he didn't "forget that they're dying earlier".
My mother wasn't a taxi driver, but she had an amazing memory for navigating all the most obscure, out-of-the way cul-de-sacs in the area, which she used for bargain hunting at garage sales each weekend. We joked that she had "The Knowledge" like a London cabbie. But she ended up dying of dementia, seemingly going against the finding reported here. Except that her dementia wasn't Alzheimer's; it was vascular--fitting the data of the study. Maybe navigation exercise builds up the hippocampus to delay Alzheimer's disease, like aerobic exercise builds up the heart to delay heart attacks. What other diseases might be delayed by targeted exercise?
I drove taxis for a couple of years in a small city, pre Google maps. Not only do taxi drivers navigate, conditions are constantly changing. People talking to you, for example. Also, it's not merely reading a 2 dimensional map. You're taking into account factors like how many traffic lights there are, one way streets, crossing traffic flows, places to set down passengers, best places to go to collect more fares, etc. And you're doing it for 12 hours a day. Taxi drivers die young from diseases associated with obesity. They tend not to get enough exercise and grab junk food instead of eating proper meals. The ones who don't do that remain razor sharp mentally. Btw, I loved it. I left because the company would only give me shifts deemed "safe" for a woman, although when I did work nights I had zero problems.
Shouldn't that red line representing the US National Average have a positive slope from lower left to upper right? If the likelihood of Alzheimer's death increases with age then surely that line shouldn't be horizontal? A horizontal line would indicate the same likelihood of Alzheimer's at all ages 50 to 85.
Indirectly related to this topic, but I hate people telling me to look up places by googling the google map. I can memorize better the verbal directions faster and more compregensively, if they tell me by talking. At the same time, the ability to give a direction clearly is a learnt task. Not everyone can do it easily.
Thank you for this video. I have consciously (no pun intended, lol) been studying my own brain for years now. I treat my brain like a 'muscle' that must get used daily. I get out of my house for errands/walking/going to the seaside. I take lots of buses. I practice deep breathing. I jog a little. I laugh as much as possible, even when alone. I gave up alcohol and smoking many years ago. I eat what my body tells me it needs. I am a painter, aquatics student, comedian, dancer, knitter, poet, chef and pet-keeper. I live in the moment. I stay as close to Jesus as He will let me. I am 66 years old. I live one hour at a time, sometimes 1/2 hr at a time. I take no one and nothing for granted. I like to learn and stay alert, using all of my senses. USA
I used to own 5 taxis in Houston Texas. The Covid vaccine left me without the ability to think. For 3 years I hadn't left my home. This last month, I started to chew 4 to 6 mg of nicotine gum. It changed my life. From my first dose, everyone around me exclaimed "you're back".
And you suddenly remembered that you're D.B. Cooper, and you survived Little Big Horn. I think the vac. left you without the ability to tell the truth.
Can't navigate out of your house, in 3 years? Let's do some nicotine? Sounds like an unhealthy lifestyle. And, "you're back"? Don't blame the Covid vaccine, otherwise you would probably either be one of a million American Covid deaths, or suffer from Covid "brain fog"!
OK let's put the title of this video into perspective - Of nearly 9 million people who had died with occupational information, 3.9% (348,328) had Alzheimer's disease listed as a cause of death. Of 16,658 taxi drivers, 171 (1.03%) died from Alzheimer's disease, while among ambulance drivers, the rate was 0.74% (10 of 1,348).
My sister Susan has stage 4 Breast cancer as diagnosis with mets to lymph nodes, liver and lung and later developed a rare form call Medullary thyroid cancer,she have just 2 years to live and she never been this scared to die, she just 35, i cry everyday wishing for a miracle to happen. i don't know why im saying this here. put me in your prayers.
im really sorry. i've was in such situation 15 months ago. i had just 2 months to live till a friend told me about a healer who helped me. She cured me, I don't know how she did it. but i owe her my life. she's the reason i'm alive today.
@@BurtDBourland Please beware of scammers in your vulnerable state. I wish for your sister to get better and not live in this fear. My heart goes out to her and you.
The study covered the risk of death from Alzheimer's, not the risk of getting Alzheimer's as the video's title says. The narrator briefly acknowledged this.
If you are talking about London cabbies, they are distinct from cabbies elsewhere in the world because of the extremely harsh exam they must take which requires them to essentially memorize the entire street plan of London.
Interesting and thanks. Might bring up the question of those with a trained memory, as in the 'Memory Palace?' Such mnemonic devices or widgets, take practice to use, continuous practice to be proficient. Just a thought, but going to Las Vegas to talk to memory stage performers to get a MRI might be interesting. If such devices do work, then there are books and so on or maybe the techniques can be taught in school?
The conclusions are highly flawed, as is evidenced by the title: "The Strange Reason Taxi Drivers Rarely GET Alzheimer's Disease".... it should be, "The Strange Reason Taxi Drivers Rarely DIE FROM Alzheimer's Disease".
I don't know about other countries, but in Australia you have to pass a medical before you can become a taxi driver. So perhaps people with health issues are screened out of the data sample they surveyed?
Where's the link to the paper? I'd be interested in knowing the other lowend occupations. I think taxi drivers have a higher mortality rate because they are sitting for so long everyday.
I'd advise you to get a real map and look at it once in a while. Also don't use Gurgle Maps unless necessary. Memorize routes. Think about where north, south east and west actually are sometimes.
What about truck drivers? Their navigation is not as complex but they have to pay attention and stay focused for a long period of time. They don’t interact with people much while driving like taxi driver. I would be interested to know how they compare.
Yes! I don't have a 'smart' phone. No GPS. I do have a compass, pen and paper with me all the time. And I do make my own maps when going somewhere new. One good trick is to always be turning around and observe where you've come from and remembering something that sticks out. I did the souk in Tangier this way and it was still difficult as hell.
I'd be curious to see if there's a similar study done on other vocations where one needs to think quickly and accurately on the fly like surgeons or orchestral conductors.
I'm not a fan of gaming - but I did it occasionaly with a friend for a while and surprisingly - i found that i was the one who found all sorts of places and had to navigate - because he couldn't remember very well and was realy surprised how i did it - of course I don't know if that helps me learning spacial skills - but it was significant and really amazed me to see
I play a game called GeoGuessr where you take clues from a picture to find the location of that picture. This isn't a game of spacial memory as much as it is of finding clues but it takes you to google maps places all over the globe. I've heard that actively learning helps to ward off dementia so I think this might help keep the memory demons at bay.
You posited that perhaps people who have a larger hippocampus. And mentioned the hippocampus is larger the longer the London taxi driver worked. How do the newest drivers compare with a control population of non-drivers? How much larger were the hippocampus of the newest drivers in studies?
I did Uber driving for a couple years and you know your your brain remembers these locations even if you use GPS... I would drive somewhere in 2 weeks later I could remember shortcuts in different routes to take without any assistance from a map it was like my brain mapped out the area...
Hello, I’m from the Netherlands. Here people that want to ride a taxi, must do an exam. One of subject is knowing the streets in your city. I don’t think you need to know all the streets, but enough. This exam is notoriously difficult, although I don’t live in a big city. So it seems to me that this is a case of correlation. But we will find out with if the effect disappears with the use of navigation systems.
The real factor not mentioned in this study that has to be considered is: does driving on the wrong side of the road prevent Alzheimer disease?Remember that is mandatory in London.
I was a taxi driver for many years and I actually said that to a doctor who was trying to get me to come out of anesthesia. YOU TALKING TO ME? lol. I was actually embarrassed by that and I never had a chance to apologize. There about isn't any way to ask that question that doesn't sound threatening.
It may be relevant to take into consideration the entire lifestyle of the taxi drivers. Consider that those who are serious/successful taxi drivers must take care of themselves. That means not drinking alcohol to excess and getting proper sleep etc.
Of course taxi drivers have a greater chance of dying. So find similar professions with equally elevated chances of dying and see if there is also an apparent increase in the rate of Alzheimer's in those populations.
Labour and thought saving devices certainly make you less aware. I've learnt not to use sat nav and use maps instead otherwise I'll never remember the route.
There is flaw in this analysis because older people die from Alzeheimer while younger taxi drivers die more generally. That means when taxy driver dies from any other reason, one will not even get a chance to die from Alzeheimer in late age as rest of population would. That would definitely seam to look like taxy drivers die less from alzeheimer which is a consequence, not reason.
Three main reasons. 1. Low alcohol intake, as taxi drivers cannot afford a DUI. 2 Problem solving, navigation and finding alternative routes. 3. Constant and intense concentration required to drive a motor vehicle.
thank you. this seems realistic.
Drive a motor vehicle while looking for customers on the street when you didn't have a passenger.
As the son of a cab driver, I can promise you, that man drank like a fish. Also having spent my time as a first responder, alcoholics work hard because they know they have limited options for getting their alcohol, so most balance it. My father drank solid from Friday evening through Sunday evening, and then water coffee all week while smoking.
#3. 🤣
You're hilarious. I've yet to see ANYONE do that and I've got over 1 million miles under my belt across 48 states.
This makes sense.
They always seem to forget the shortest, CHEAPEST, routes.
😂
😂😂
lool
I drove over 7000 passengers for Uber and Lyft. My memory improved exponentially. I also got really good at talking to people. Even now I can jump right into a conversation with anyone. One thing you learn after driving and talking to over 7000 people is when not to talk. Ha hA
Unlike airline pilots, taxi drivers interact constantly with customers, including discussions of proper route. I believe human verbal interaction is one of the highest functions of the brain and unfortunately, as you get older, you have less human interaction, especially as you become deaf. My hypothesis is that it’s the human verbal interactions that keep the brain alive.
In so many other professions you have much more complex verbal interactions with other people
@ i don’t think it’s the complexity. I think it has more to do with needing to create “long term” memories (even tho long term may be 20 mins) continually while interacting with other people.i suspect that face-to-face interpersonal communication in real-time engages the brain more comprehensively and deeply than other activities.
interesting socialogy impact theory.
humans might have sacrificed some significant abilities to attain speech. th-cam.com/video/ktkjUjcZid0/w-d-xo.htmlsi=0_AUm3G0Ai9PTd_m
orher professions have much more interactions than taxi drivers, so your hypothesis doesn’t seem likely
Alternative title: how Google Maps causes Alzheimer's.
Well played indeed.
They often display the symptoms
😂😂 sundar pichai will try to kill you now 😂😂
Did you watch the video? What a stupid suggestion.
Good point, Not just maps apps but AI in general, which is reducing the need for us to exercise our brains.
I used to do 5 to 8 service calls a day allover the city. Back in the 2000's when I started using a GPS it definitely made me lazy, and I quickly noticed how much my ability to navigate without one was degraded.
I'm no taxi driver, but I can't use a GPS. To go to Spain (I live not far from the Pyrénées),
I memorized the route, first thing I did in Figueras was buying a map of Cataluña. Fortunately, it was not designed by Salvador Dali.
i used to hike in the wilderness using topo maps and noticed how it increased my ability to not get lost in urban settings. I might not have known exactly where I was, but I knew how to get back to the nearest known points (typically highways). It was a practiced skill, very well practiced.
I'm starting to get out more again where I need to navigate using maps and will not use GPS as a primary means unless I do feel lost/threatened. Spacial reasoning takes practice and GPS is not skill developing. How that affects the brain, no clue.
@@Chris-ut6eq keep my scout companss and matches at the ready; over reliance on GPS can and will catch you at your most vulnerable.
If a taxi driver's memory starts to slip, he can't be a taxi driver anymore.
With GPS, I am afraid their memory will be in free fall
Good point. If you retire at 70 and die at 90, does your death certificate indicate the occupation you held 20 years prior? Or does it say something like "retired".
If you could somehow acquire the resumes of all people who have died you could form a much better picture and perhaps find an occupational link.
@@floridacoder Good point.
This is a good point, but must be the case for many of the other professions, for example there can be no active airline pilots with dementia
@@WillinWells Yeah, my father was an airline pilot and we were relieved when he retired at age 60. We had noticed lapses and forgetfulness just beginning. He died of Alzheimer's disease at 86.
He mentioned that taxi drivers tended to die earlier than average. Maybe that's why they are less prone to alzheimers.
Exactly. Correlations are interesting, but no conclusions should be drawn.
No look at the video again, they take into account the age of death and even correct it from various risks of death (smoking, drinking etc)
They adjusted for age. Did you not watch the video? He literally said even accounting for age Taxi drivers die with less alzheimer's.
@@DonaldMains It's a statistical adjustment but it remains that, even with that, there is no concise answer why the results show that. They are trying to see if there is something about taxi driving that results in less alzheimers but alas, it did not prove anything.
d3
I am a Taxi driver in England, for 24 years and have never heard of a Cabbie dieing in a car accident.
Yeah, its silly to suggest cabbies die young from all the lethal accidents. That´s a one in million or less. And even then probably(more than 50%) from someone else doing the damage.
@@teppo9585 My skills as a Cab driver are such that I am so aware of other vehicle's you can read them in an instant and know their next move. You become so familiar with your local roads that you know where every manhole cover is. I have had a few accidents, only one being my fault, the winter sun blinded me and I could not see, hit the break hard but sadly it was the gas pedal. Luckily it all happened at crawling in traffic speed.
Do you drive primarily in urban areas? I suspect the risk of say an inner city taxi driver and a long haul trucker would be very different because of highway speeds vs inner city speeds. I'd worry more about being stabbed or shot in the inner city than about a motor vehicle accident. And the reverse for a long haul trucker.
@@floridacoder I am mainly Urban, we do get Rural work plus Airport runs to Gatwick and Heathrow which is motorway which I decline. Nobody stabbed or shot but as the population is changing into non Europeans its inevitable in the future.
I understand that it is very difficult to become a taxi driver in London. Requiring a comprehensive geography test of roads and locations. Here in the U.S. just about anyone with a drivers license can drive a taxi.
Have you been in a NYC cab?
This is selection bias -- if a taxi driver does start to show signs of mental impairment, they stop driving and self-select out of the pool of drivers.
Must be the case!
If a Taxi driver stops his job because of sign of dementia he will be counted in the statistics of the study , so no the right reason.
But why would they be slightly more likely to get non-alzeimers, dementia?
@@InformationEngineer59 little physical exercise?
@@InformationEngineer59 Taxi drivers dont have a healthy lifestyle, seating all day probably smoking more than the average, eating poorly, that's probably why they have a short life expectancy.
I spent 28 years driving around a larger city in my telephone co truck. Mostly I was doing repairs. I had to learn when to get on the freeway and went to stay away from it and drive surface streets. MaBell ( and later its many diffrent names) made us hustle so we had to learn every inch of the city. Other then taxi drivers, I would like to see a list of all occupations. Can you post a link to this paper? I have been retired 20 years this month. Am I loosing my touch?? Thank you for a great video.
This makes sense if you think about how long it takes the first time to drive to work to a new job. Your brain records everything you see. After a few trips it starts to only make 'Updates', new construction, tree cut down, etc. Taxi drivers drive to new areas all the time, and meet new people every day.
London taxi drivers differ from other taxi drivers in that they have to study routes to pass a test to get the licence. It's known as "The Knowledge" and can take 2 years of study to pass it. That hippocampus training before driving a licensed taxi is likely why they were the subject of the research.
Yes. I wonder how much the study part affected things. When my mom got Alzheimer's I read a book by a doctor whose father was a church pastor. The older people in the church had a practice of memorizing the Bible and he noted the lack of dementia in the congregation.
New York City taxi drivers must also pass a rigorous test like that. Not so for Uber and Lyft drivers; big difference. I'll take a NYC cab over others any day.
Actually, I’d heard that this requirement was being relaxed now, given the ubiquity of map apps.
He invalidated the study from the BEGINNING. 😂😂😂
To be a taxi driver, ambulance, UPS driver, etc. you must RULE OUT ALL PEOPLE WHO FAILED AT THE LONDON TEST OR BEING HIRED AS A TAXI, AMBULANCE OR DELIVERY DRIVER.
That is a HUGE HUGE HUGE OVERSIGHT!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂
For every person who succeeds at driving … 20-30 people SO NOT EVEN PASS HIRING OR THE TRAINING PROCESS. So you are ALREADY SELECTING THE CREAM OF THE CROP OF HIPPOCAMPI.
That is the FATAL FLAW in this study. You have gotten rid of 75% of your driving population before the third year. Believe me … I have hired drivers and when you do get one, they are golden. Most people could not navigate their way out of a paper bag.
I am one of the FEW exceptions. I should have NEVER been a driver; but since I was already a manager for 5 years and transferred- against my will or expertise - I learned by trial of fire and risk of termination. I was even forced to learn by myself how to drive a tractor trailer on company property.
It takes a SPECIAL BRAIN to do these things or MONTHS TO YEARS of rote memorization for those of us who are severely lacking. Now everything is second nature for me - and it does feel like my brain has been re-wired. (Kinda like trying to tie your shoe for the first time and finally getting it. Or trying to solve those Hinayana puzzles … once you get through all the brute force of getting it down … things flow.
I was DEFINITELY one of those people in the 75% failure rate.
Just ask ANY new driver - not using gps. And it is funny that if I use GPS to get somewhere … it never sticks. But give me a paper map or if I have to ask directions or do it without a map, I only have to go there ONCE and it is on my mind for DECADES!! But GPS, as soon as I get there, it leaves my mind forever. 😂😂😂😂
Beat me to it
I am sedentary, have been most of my life. I have to force myself to walk a little, daily. At 82, I have had memory problems for a decade, slowly getting worse. I find walking helps, but I go online daily, reading, watching podcasts, thinking, writing comments. My interest is philosophy, technology, with a focus in epistemology, politics/economy. These 3 fields are not popular or given the attention/importance they deserve.
I believe my daily academic studies are essential in keeping my brain functions from declining.
The study seems to have too few taxi drivers to conclude anything
@@mreese8764 True. More studies required
Taxi drivers also have a low life expectancy compared to most other occupations. Delivery drivers also have low life expectancy. It is very stressful driving around in a big city all day.
Maybe it’s related to increased exposure to car pollutants. Lol.
The drivers are the more exposed to street pollution. EVs could reduce lethal pollution in urban areas, but by the time all vehicles are electric, we won't need drivers anymore.
The Internet generation is screwed. They rely on spoon fed directions from an electronic device.
Scrolleocies
50 people is a really small sample size.
They only did 16 Taxi drivers, LOL!
@@Peekaboo-Kitty Ok I missed that part but if correct then this study means nothing. NUT-thing.
Spoken like someone who has never done a real study or taken advanced courses in statistics and epidemiology. Results are not invalidated because the sample size is small.
Great. I work at two jobs: hospital courier (full-time) and pizaa delivery (part-time), so I know routes all around the city and routes to hospitals in nearby cities, too, (a lot of problem-solving navigation). What I think is more important is that I do not drink alcohol, don't smoke, don't any drugs except the odd aspirin or flu pill, and fully vaccinated against Covid and the flu. Do I notice a difference? I'm physically active, yet, I see my peers, (seniors, a decade younger than myself), using walkers and confused by simple tasks. A clean and active lifestyle does wonders!
This is a pretty small study. If anything, it may lead researchers to investigate other avenues (no pun intended).
They use statistics for 9 millions people, not exactly small, now the percentage of Taxi drivers in the general population is small which might bias the results and they tend to die early.
Sure the 16 for the London Taxi driver is small, too small , but the US deaths over 3 years is hardly small, in fact it's huge.
Hopefully, they will find the road to recovery! 😊
I wonder what effect navigating through nature on foot has on the hippocampus and risk of alzheimers. All my life, every chance I get, I have roamed in the woods, exploring, mostly in the Ozarks. I usually don't follow trails, but just head off in whatever direction interests me. This is more like the navigating our ancestors would have done. Unlike navigating in a car, exploring in nature includes lots of aerobic exercise, as I walk several miles up and down steep hills. It would be hard to study this because in today's world I can't think of any occupation that requires navigating through nature on foot. Most people who do, do it as a hobby.
great thing 👍👍👍
i do the same - since more then 50 jears now - everywhere - in nature - in the city - on foot or bicycle - rooming arround - breathing deep - exploring the landscape - and i go often intentional lost in the unknown
more or less on a daily basis
people are often confused - and asking how do you know all this paths ?
i am reading maps - satellite immages - memorise them - and use this infos - having try and errors
and I discover things - that are not listed on any map and that fascinates me and so I can easily remember all the connections and links between the individual places
but most people are extremely bad navigators - shocking poor spatial awareness - i see it as a disease - long before alzheimer's
@bertkreft9689 It sounds like you and I both have a love of exploring. Maybe that will help prevent alzheimers in both of us.
A lot of people with alzheimers are found wondering in the woods, just saying
The comment at 2:44 , "It might mean that people with naturally larger hippocampi are more likely to end up as taxi drivers, but we'll drop that thread," jumped out at me immediately.
I remember years ago in school watching a film about exercise and health in which it was noted that bus drivers in the UK were three times more likely to die of a heart attack than conductors on those same buses. They even showed an overweight bus driver steering a double-decker bus followed by a normal-sized conductor climbing up to the top deck of a bus in order to bring home the point. They were trying to show how more activity can make you healthier, but then later I thought maybe people who end up driving buses are more attracted to sedentary work than people who end up being conductors. So, the "cause" for fewer heart attacks for conductors may well be a "symptom" of these already healthy and active people's desire to engage in more active work rather than the work itself making them healthier. And people who want to be bus drivers tend to be those who are less active and less healthy, so they are attracted to a job that involves less physical activity.
So, it may be possible that people who choose to drive a taxi or an ambulance are attracted to this type of work because they find getting around by car "easier" due in part to their large hippocampi and since they have large hippocampi to begin with, then this makes the job easier, which makes them better taxi and ambulance drivers and so it's not the job that prevents the disease, but the inherent skills that are needed for that job that attracts a certain group of people who happen to be already negatively correlated with Alzheimer's because they possess a neurological attribute that makes them good at that job and also prevents a certain type of dementia, in this case, Alzheimer's.
the risk/bias of misunderstanding cause -effect-correlation-association
How did you identify former taxi drivers (those who left the profession because their hippocampus disappeared) from the data you investigated? Maybe the job requirements of a taxi driver favor those with large hippocampus.
He suggested just that.
As a former taxi driver, I rarely saw a taxi driver that doesn't have a metabolic disease such as diabetes or high blood pressure and I have seen lots of them die young. But man do I miss those deep personal conversation with my passengers.
Amazing, I agree. People open up to someone they know they'll never see again, and who can't look them in the eye.
Basketball players are taller on average. Should we play basketball if we wish to be taller?
in order to be a good basketball player, you benefit from being tall. in order to be a good taco driver, you don’t need to not have Alzheimer’s
@@griffinrupe True. To be a good taco driver, you don’t need to not have Alzheimer’s But in order to be a good taco driver, you benefit from not having alzheimer's. So we would expect the population of taxi drivers to have a lower incidence of it whether it is caused by driving a taxi of it is just a negatively selected precondition for becoming a taxi driver in the first place. Correlation doesn't prove causation.
Wrong analogy. Plus he mentioned selection bias at the start.
I’m going to stop playing basketball, hopefully I’ll shrink.
No, you may lack talent.
In London, all licensed taxi drivers must go to school and learn the entire city layout in intricate detail. This has been the case for a very long time too. While it definitely makes for good service, Id imagine it also makes for strengthening memory and various associated processes, at least. If you've ever taken one in London, you'll understand just how challenging this is, to know the entire city is such detail and know how to get from A to B to C with little delay or confusion. London actually was the city I thought of first when I started to play this video. Makes perfect sense. But frankly, often by the time most dementia starts to make symptoms known, Alzheimer's included, drivers are likely retired. Also, a certain 'type' might be more likely to seek out being a taxi driver and/or be able to pass the exam. I could say the same for many other cities...while not necessarily school taught and tested about direction, to be even somewhat successful, you need to know the city layout well and be flexible with it depending on specific conditions and rider requests.
Years ago I did a relief courier driver job in my city. I already knew the street layout pretty well but learned how to short cut for speedy deliveries. Now I still have that map in my head but the road layout has changed so much that I cannot use that old knowledge, particularly one way streets. No other alzheimer symptoms at 75.
A small point. In Sydney, Australia I had to pass a medical and a literacy/numeracy test before I could get my taxi driver's authority (not licence). In a way that weeds out people who are unfit before they even start.
I don't want to get into a sexist argument here, but I have found that men (who are still in the majority as taxi drivers and ambulance drivers) are often naturally more 'spatially aware' than women. My husband could plan a route in the evening to somewhere fairly distant we'd never been, hand me the map to navigate the next day, and actually not even need it, but remember the route without my assistance. I can't remember a route half an hour after I've looked at a map!!
When you add that to the fact that women are supposed to be more prone to Alzheimer's, it may well be a telling factor.
I rode my bicycle for 45 years in NYC, I know every crevice of my city does that help? Maybe taxi drivers interact with people helps their brain.
If taxi drivers and ambulance drivers die younger on average, as shown in the graph, then the higher rates (percentage) of what is causing those younger deaths could reduce the percentage of deaths by Alzheimer's, without working as a driver in itself reducing the odds of getting Alzheimer's, as described as a possibility near the end of the video.
Excellent. Explained in a simple manner without sacrificing science.
Taxi drivers are protected? I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure I’ve encountered a fair share who were certifiably nuts.
There are lots of interesting factors not considered. Alzheimer's seems to be nearly non-existent in societies with an almost 100% devotion to plant-based diets. And these are covering huge population samplings, in the many millions, not just 400+ people. Relatively wealthy societies can afford to eat animal-based foods. People groups tend to discount the likelihood of anything that interferes with favorite elements of their lifestyle, like eating meat and dairy. Animal-based foods are the 800 pound gorilla in the room.
I've been driving cab off n on since 2000, been waiting 15 years for a Correct Video such as this, our memories are constantly being challenged
My mother lived to 92 and had little to no cognitive decline at all. She put a minimum of 30,000 miles per year on her car, driving almost totally solo, retired, no job, from 50 to 92. She could travel the entire continental US, solo, with no map, on her various whims, until her mid 80s. After 85, she kept to 2-3 states.
I wonder about computer programmers, particularly those who follow changes in hardware, languages, and environments?
Funny. The only person I ever personally knew with Alzheimer's was a taxi driver.
I was going to say the same thing.
Would love to see a study of UPS and FedEx drivers, who generally have to have active flexible minds. I worked in the industry and liked that my brain was almost never on ‘automatic,” constantly recalculating most efficient moves.
So I guess that means that it's not a good thing that taxi drivers use GPS for orientation nowadays...
So online gaming could also help ?
Example of those war games, like world of tanks, you have to make constant adjustments of the game situation and guess Enemy moves.
Maybe younger taxi drivers, but the older ones have brains that have done the real work, at least those who don't drive for Uber or Lyft.
Damn straight. I know adults who don't know East from West or North from South.
@@petertraveller6421 That's not geo/spatial orientation in real life.
There eas a study that showed that people studying for the taxi exam grew their hippocampuses. What does this say about programs that discourage people from studying hard?
Paul McCartney has spoken of a weird pastime for him and his family that entails driving out down random roads making random turns, getting completely lost, and then finding your way home again. It's what the song, The Two of Us, is about. I wonder if that has helped to keep him sharp into his old age.
Maybe breathing in all the exhaust fumes in cities was a factor.
Yes, London taxi drivers are required to pass an exceptionally difficult test, remembering thousands of street names and navigation routes.
However, many of them seem to be physically unfit and overweight from being in a sedentary occupation.
I wonder if mapping out game worlds in your head helps the same
It's exactly the same activity, just with somewhat less physical activity and association with physical movement and more association with reflexes and planning based on a much smaller area of consideration. Maybe that second one would mitigate the benefit, as if a taxi driver only did the same city.
I think it's way more simple. Being in a car all day and driving the body - muscles and the nervous system never stops working and become dormant. Similar to doing minimal cardio always
I can tell you because I did it for many years. It is horrible on your body particularly the extremities. And what exercise you get is lifting HEAVY suitcases maybe going up multiple flights of stairs with no warmup. Quite challenging to the heart.
The vast majority of guesses in this comment section were already addressed in the video. Folks, please pay attention while watching it. Dr Wilson is good at this, he didn't "forget that they're dying earlier".
My mother wasn't a taxi driver, but she had an amazing memory for navigating all the most obscure, out-of-the way cul-de-sacs in the area, which she used for bargain hunting at garage sales each weekend. We joked that she had "The Knowledge" like a London cabbie. But she ended up dying of dementia, seemingly going against the finding reported here. Except that her dementia wasn't Alzheimer's; it was vascular--fitting the data of the study. Maybe navigation exercise builds up the hippocampus to delay Alzheimer's disease, like aerobic exercise builds up the heart to delay heart attacks. What other diseases might be delayed by targeted exercise?
I drove taxis for a couple of years in a small city, pre Google maps.
Not only do taxi drivers navigate, conditions are constantly changing. People talking to you, for example. Also, it's not merely reading a 2 dimensional map. You're taking into account factors like how many traffic lights there are, one way streets, crossing traffic flows, places to set down passengers, best places to go to collect more fares, etc. And you're doing it for 12 hours a day.
Taxi drivers die young from diseases associated with obesity. They tend not to get enough exercise and grab junk food instead of eating proper meals. The ones who don't do that remain razor sharp mentally.
Btw, I loved it. I left because the company would only give me shifts deemed "safe" for a woman, although when I did work nights I had zero problems.
Shouldn't that red line representing the US National Average have a positive slope from lower left to upper right? If the likelihood of Alzheimer's death increases with age then surely that line shouldn't be horizontal? A horizontal line would indicate the same likelihood of Alzheimer's at all ages 50 to 85.
Yeah but, guys don’t need maps or gps, we just know where to go.
Indirectly related to this topic, but I hate people telling me to look up places by googling the google map. I can memorize better the verbal directions faster and more compregensively, if they tell me by talking. At the same time, the ability to give a direction clearly is a learnt task. Not everyone can do it easily.
I long ago gave up trying to give people directions. Few people know how to follow instructions, IMHO.
No, it's not me. Research out there on it.
Thanks for the statistical precautions added, on top of the findings from the study.
1:25 that's horrible, why was it removed?
To treat his epilepsy
@IzzaatKhaaan oh that makes sense
@@8lec_R it was not in knowledge of the doctors at that time that hippocampus had any role in memory until after removing Henry’s hippocampus
Fascinating research. Thank you for the presentation.
I wonder why the ambulance drivers have such a short life expectancy in us (only 64 according to the graph) it must be a very stressful job ?
Or it could be because they spend nearly all their day sitting and this causes health problems.
They're often paramedics too. Huge burnout rate from the stress.
Thank you for this video. I have consciously (no pun intended, lol) been studying my own brain for years now. I treat my brain like a 'muscle' that must get used daily. I get out of my house for errands/walking/going to the seaside. I take lots of buses. I practice deep breathing. I jog a little. I laugh as much as possible, even when alone. I gave up alcohol and smoking many years ago. I eat what my body tells me it needs. I am a painter, aquatics student, comedian, dancer, knitter, poet, chef and pet-keeper. I live in the moment. I stay as close to Jesus as He will let me. I am 66 years old. I live one hour at a time, sometimes 1/2 hr at a time. I take no one and nothing for granted. I like to learn and stay alert, using all of my senses. USA
What percentage of the study did cab drivers make up in the 400+ occupations?
This survey was from 24 years ago. Now many taxi drivers use satellite navigation apps.
I used to own 5 taxis in Houston Texas. The Covid vaccine left me without the ability to think. For 3 years I hadn't left my home. This last month, I started to chew 4 to 6 mg of nicotine gum. It changed my life. From my first dose, everyone around me exclaimed "you're back".
And you suddenly remembered that you're D.B. Cooper, and you survived Little Big Horn. I think the vac. left you without the ability to tell the truth.
And the 5 people who liked this BS also have lost "the ability to think"
I'm still waiting for a reply selling blockchain clairvoyant or some sh!t. Disappointed.
Can't navigate out of your house, in 3 years? Let's do some nicotine? Sounds like an unhealthy lifestyle. And, "you're back"? Don't blame the Covid vaccine, otherwise you would probably either be one of a million American Covid deaths, or suffer from Covid "brain fog"!
You may be ADHD. Nicotine has been shown to help people with ADHD.
OK let's put the title of this video into perspective - Of nearly 9 million people who had died with occupational information, 3.9% (348,328) had Alzheimer's disease listed as a cause of death. Of 16,658 taxi drivers, 171 (1.03%) died from Alzheimer's disease, while among ambulance drivers, the rate was 0.74% (10 of 1,348).
As taxis are embracing GPS like crazy, I presume this effect is diminishing.
What is the name of the study?
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Taxi drivers don't get Alzheimer's disease in the United States because they die of gun shot wounds.😢
omg ur back!!!! youtube just suggested this to me!
The golden rule since creation is that any single cell if not used & stimulated daily definitely will be lost , that’s all
The study covered the risk of death from Alzheimer's, not the risk of getting Alzheimer's as the video's title says. The narrator briefly acknowledged this.
If you are talking about London cabbies, they are distinct from cabbies elsewhere in the world because of the extremely harsh exam they must take which requires them to essentially memorize the entire street plan of London.
Correlation or causation? An older person with Alzheimers can't be a taxi driver.
Ugh, I remember I didn't drive for about10 years outside of town, then went to Edmonton, and kept getting lost.
Dr Wilson - does the use of navigation apps decrease this effect?
Interesting and thanks. Might bring up the question of those with a trained memory, as in the 'Memory Palace?' Such mnemonic devices or widgets, take practice to use, continuous practice to be proficient. Just a thought, but going to Las Vegas to talk to memory stage performers to get a MRI might be interesting. If such devices do work, then there are books and so on or maybe the techniques can be taught in school?
Im up at 4am watching this because i couldnt sleep due to sadness from losing my father to alzheimers several years ago.
The conclusions are highly flawed, as is evidenced by the title: "The Strange Reason Taxi Drivers Rarely GET Alzheimer's Disease".... it should be, "The Strange Reason Taxi Drivers Rarely DIE FROM Alzheimer's Disease".
They have no time to snack on refined carbohydrates.
I don't know about other countries, but in Australia you have to pass a medical before you can become a taxi driver. So perhaps people with health issues are screened out of the data sample they surveyed?
What a wonderfully interesting video, thank you!!
Where's the link to the paper? I'd be interested in knowing the other lowend occupations. I think taxi drivers have a higher mortality rate because they are sitting for so long everyday.
As a man with absolutely no sense of direction and not very happy about it, how might this affect me?
I'd advise you to get a real map and look at it once in a while. Also don't use Gurgle Maps unless necessary. Memorize routes. Think about where north, south east and west actually are sometimes.
@@willhunt7355
Yeah, if only it were that simple. Fortunately there are now sat navs. Before their invention I spent a lot of time lost.
Good advice 👍🏼
What about truck drivers? Their navigation is not as complex but they have to pay attention and stay focused for a long period of time. They don’t interact with people much while driving like taxi driver. I would be interested to know how they compare.
Yes! I don't have a 'smart' phone. No GPS. I do have a compass, pen and paper with me all the time. And I do make my own maps when going somewhere new. One good trick is to always be turning around and observe where you've come from and remembering something that sticks out. I did the souk in Tangier this way and it was still difficult as hell.
I'd be curious to see if there's a similar study done on other vocations where one needs to think quickly and accurately on the fly like surgeons or orchestral conductors.
London taxi drivers, The Knowledge
At the time of the study they had to master The Knowledge to qualify as drivers.
I don't play video games but I will start if there's one out there that will help. I would love to exercise that spatial type of intelligence.
I'm not a fan of gaming - but I did it occasionaly with a friend for a while and surprisingly - i found that i was the one who found all sorts of places and had to navigate - because he couldn't remember very well and was realy surprised how i did it - of course I don't know if that helps me learning spacial skills - but it was significant and really amazed me to see
I play a game called GeoGuessr where you take clues from a picture to find the location of that picture. This isn't a game of spacial memory as much as it is of finding clues but it takes you to google maps places all over the globe. I've heard that actively learning helps to ward off dementia so I think this might help keep the memory demons at bay.
You mentioned that both groups studied were right handed. Is there any indication that left handed people have a different risk?
Just eliminating a variable.
Professional athletes also do not get the disease. Could it have anything to do with the age of those employed in the profession?
You posited that perhaps people who have a larger hippocampus. And mentioned the hippocampus is larger the longer the London taxi driver worked. How do the newest drivers compare with a control population of non-drivers? How much larger were the hippocampus of the newest drivers in studies?
I did Uber driving for a couple years and you know your your brain remembers these locations even if you use GPS... I would drive somewhere in 2 weeks later I could remember shortcuts in different routes to take without any assistance from a map it was like my brain mapped out the area...
Could it relate to light quality within an automobile?
Welp. Im screwed. Im 45 and cant tell you the general direction of the grocery store i go to every two days
Hello, I’m from the Netherlands. Here people that want to ride a taxi, must do an exam. One of subject is knowing the streets in your city. I don’t think you need to know all the streets, but enough. This exam is notoriously difficult, although I don’t live in a big city. So it seems to me that this is a case of correlation. But we will find out with if the effect disappears with the use of navigation systems.
The real factor not mentioned in this study that has to be considered is: does driving on the wrong side of the road prevent Alzheimer disease?Remember that is mandatory in London.
"You talkin' to me? You're talking to me. Then who the hell else are you talking to?" Sounds like dementia to me.
I was a taxi driver for many years and I actually said that to a doctor who was trying to get me to come out of anesthesia. YOU TALKING TO ME? lol. I was actually embarrassed by that and I never had a chance to apologize. There about isn't any way to ask that question that doesn't sound threatening.
I badly need to become a taxi driver very soon before it's too late! And don't most of us?
I'm really glad you didn't give out the five or ten worst professions. We'd have to see if we can make rational decisions about how we make a living.
It may be relevant to take into consideration the entire lifestyle of the taxi drivers. Consider that those who are serious/successful taxi drivers must take care of themselves. That means not drinking alcohol to excess and getting proper sleep etc.
Of course taxi drivers have a greater chance of dying. So find similar professions with equally elevated chances of dying and see if there is also an apparent increase in the rate of Alzheimer's in those populations.
Labour and thought saving devices certainly make you less aware. I've learnt not to use sat nav and use maps instead otherwise I'll never remember the route.
Hey Jim. What does a yellow light mean?
S l o w d o w n.
There is flaw in this analysis because older people die from Alzeheimer while younger taxi drivers die more generally. That means when taxy driver dies from any other reason, one will not even get a chance to die from Alzeheimer in late age as rest of population would. That would definitely seam to look like taxy drivers die less from alzeheimer which is a consequence, not reason.
We know… and you too. Only you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds you. Smart Dr.