WHAT OCCUPATIONS HAVE THE LOWEST RATE OF ALZHEIMER'S?

Harvard researchers published in the British Medical Journal a study of which occupations lowered the rate of Alzheimer's deaths.

• They looked at American Alzheimer's death records of more than 400 occupations, including when they died.

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  The two occupations with the lowest rate of Alzheimer's death were taxi and ambulance drivers.
• More specifically, these two jobs had death rates 56% lower than the general population at any given age.

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  An earlier British study provided some clues.
• Since 1865, London taxi drivers had too pass what's known as "the Knowledge," a grueling test of a person's memory of thousands of streets, landmarks and routes within the city.
• They had to study for years to become qualified.
• In 2000, London neuroscientists compared MRI brain scans of cabbies and other occupations, and  found that the former had changes in the hippocampus, the brain region dedicated to memory and navigation.  

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  The longer cabbies worked, the larger their hippocampus.
• The hippocampus is where Alzheimer's develops.
• About the recent Harvard study:
• Surprisingly, bus drivers, aircraft pilots and ship captains, with fewer spontaneous decision-making, had Alzheimer death rates typical of the general population.
• But maybe this should have been anticipated, for a 2006 neuroscientists follow-up study found that bus drivers in London did not have a enlarged hippocampus as experienced by taxi drivers.
• What is confounding, though, is that taxi drivers as a group have a lower life expectancy than most other occupations.

So what professions have the highest longevity?  I couldn't find a definitive answer.  Google's AI Overview provided the following.

There is no single job that guarantees a longer lifespan. Factors like genetics, lifestyle choices, and access to healthcare play a much larger role in determining how long someone lives.

Jobs with higher life expectancy

• Executives and managers: Have the highest mean total life expectancy 
• Clerical workers: Have a higher mean total life expectancy than unskilled blue collar workers 
• Public health workers: Have been reported to live the longest, up to almost 84 years 
• High skilled white-collar workers: Have been reported to be expected to live longer and healthier 
• Lawyers, judges, paralegals, and legal assistants: Are likely to work past age 65 

Jobs with shorter life expectancy

• Unskilled blue collar workers: Have a lower mean total life expectancy than clerical workers 
• Transport workers: Have been reported to have the shortest life expectancy.

Taxi and ambulance drivers thus should be among those jobs with the lowest longevity.  So what good is a low Alzheimer's rate if you don't live long?

Here is an article entitled, Life Expectancy by Profession.

• However, it goes on to say:

Unfortunately, we don’t currently have the data to definitively state which profession has the longest life expectancy. However, we can infer that certain groups of workers have longer life expectancies than others.

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  It does say, white-collar worker have longer life expectancies than blue-collar workers.
• Also, higher-earning workers live longer than lower-income workers.  For example, men in the top 1% of wealth live almost 15 years longer than men in the bottom 1%.

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  Finally, working in a high-stress profession shortness your life expectancies by as much as 33 years.
• Business New Daily lists the least stressful jobs, with the the least.

1. Diagnostic medical sonographer
2. Compliance officer
3. Hair stylist
4. Audiologist
5. Tenured university professor
6. Medical records technician
7. Jeweler
8. Operations research analyst
9. Pharmacy technician
10. Massage therapist

I'm a tenured university professor.  Nice to know I'll probably live longer than most.

These are the top 10 most stressful and dangerous jobs:

1. Enlisted military personnel
2. Firefighter
3. Airline pilot
4. Police officer
5. Broadcaster
6. Event coordinator
7. Newspaper reporter
8. Public relations executive
9. Senior corporate executive
10. Taxi driver

So a taxi driver has a stressful job.  Again, not much value in a low Alzheimer's rate if you die early, for dementia mostly hits older people.

Further:

And here are the country’s most dangerous jobs, courtesy of Forbes:

1. Logging worker
2. Fishing/hunting worker
3. Roofer
4. Aircraft pilot/flight engineer
5. Structural iron or steel worker
6. Delivery or truck driver
7. Refuse and recyclable material collector
8. Underground mining machine operator
9. Construction trade worker
10. Electrical power-line installer/repairer

Here is a life expectancy graphic.  If it's longevity you want, become a billionaire.  I'm close, for I have a PhD in biochemical engineering.  You don't want to be a professional rapper, for your life expectancy is 34.

Finally, a site you can reach to calculate your life expectancy.  Takes only a couple of minutes.  You need to give them  your e-mail address so they can send you the results.  I am 84, already 4 years past the life expectancy of billionaires, and should live 10 years longer.

In short, don't worry about Alzheimer's Disease nor longevity.  The best kind of life is one filled with meaningful relationships, good health, a sense of purpose and personal fulfillment.  Be secure, satisfied and happy.

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