Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's

Posted by jader201 15 hours ago

Taxi drivers rarely die of Alzheimer's(theconversation.com)

236 points | 176 commentspage 4

OutOfHere 10 hours ago|

Eating eggs actually lowers the risk of Alzheimers.

samso26 6 hours ago||

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bpodgursky 13 hours ago|

Guys... Alzheimer's is 60-80% heritable, and driven largely by APOE genotype. No, you cannot get out of it with One Quick Trick. We have to find therapeutics to make real progress here.

This kind of misdirection is not helpful to the research community, or encouraging politicians to fund effective projects. Everyone WANTS a quick lifestyle change and will latch onto these things, but this is a real biological disease that needs real molecular fixes. Sorry, it's just how it is.

jmcgough 13 hours ago||

Half of people with Alzheimer's carry at least one APOE ε4 allele. However, a full quarter of the population carries that mutation, and most carriers never go on to develop Alzheimer's. Lifestyle matters a lot here.

This kind of misdirection is not helpful for educating people on changes they can make now to reduce their risk, rather than waiting for a silver bullet. Alzheimer's research is well-funded in the US as the octogenarians running our congress are personally invested in it.

detourdog 11 hours ago|||

My understanding is that there are forms of dementia more tied to genetics than "Alzheimer's". One that has links to genetics is Frontal temporal Dementia.

bpodgursky 12 hours ago|||

To the extent that lifestyle helps, which is not zero, you need to exercise. "Become a cabbie" is NOT an intervention that is going to help whatsoever.

yfontana 9 hours ago||

> "Become a cabbie" is NOT an intervention that is going to help whatsoever.

How about promoting spatial awareness and reasoning exercises (which is the actual suggestion of the article)?

kelnos 9 hours ago||

I don't think "become a taxi driver" is a "quick lifestyle change".

Studies like this are useful inasmuch as they help us understand a disease more fully. Not sure what you mean by "misdirection"; the study's methodology seems sound?