Alzheimer's is an entirely different beast than normal mental atrophy and there are plenty of stories of otherwise intelligent people ending up with it.
replyI'm not saying you shouldn't try using your brain more but this is just like saying Stephen Hawking should have tried exercising more.
Would this not be closer to saying Arnold Schwarzenegger should have tried exercising more?
replyBoth Stephen Hawking and Arnold Schwarzenegger would have benefitted from exercising more, if controlled for age
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Collecting a bunch of covariates is never a substitute for recognizing that you can't force people to be taxi drivers for life.
replyHowever, you might be able to find a natural experiment were taxi drivers were randomly prevented from continuing with their driving career?
replyCould just be that whatever factor causes certain cabbies to live much longer than their cohort is also protective from Alzheimer’s. I guess they might have accounted for that too — I’ll have to look at the study.
replyOr, that if you can survive the thing that kills the rest of their cohort, it has beneficial tradeoffs. As in, perhaps smoking protects from Alzheimer's, if it doesn't kill you first.
replyControlling for age in a profession with a high fatality rate like this seems like controlling for high alertness, consciousness, quick reaction times, and well restedness/low stress, low recreational drug and alcohol use.
replyOf those, sleep issues are highly correlated with Alzheimer's and also with auto accidents. Controlling for age alone here would select for low incidence of sleep issues.
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replyLearning new languages (and actually using them) is a great way to do this for all ages!
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