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JOBS AND ALZHEIMER’S RISK

Is your job keeping you mentally active, enough so, that it can help protect you from going senile? There’s new research which shows the type of job you hold could play a role in the prevention of Alzheimer’s.

Milton Wolson is getting on in years, but he keeps his brain working with his law practice. “I find that I’m learning new things all the time,” says Milton.
Now, new research out of the American Academy of Neurology shows if you hold a job that keeps your mind active, it can help lower your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
This study looked at 122 people with Alzheimer’s and 235 people without, and reviewed their occupation history. It found on average, people with Alzheimer’s disease held jobs with lower mental demands than people who did not have Alzheimer’s.
Those who did not have Alzheimer’s tended to move on to jobs with higher mental demands in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
The mental demands of those with Alzheimer’s remained the same in the later decades. However, the researchers also found that those with Alzheimer’s had jobs with more physical demands than those who did not have Alzheimer’s. The researchers don’t know what the link is between prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and less mentally demanding occupations.
Several theories exist on the connection between occupation and Alzheimer’s risk.
Dr. Gary Kaplan, Director of Neurophysiology at North Shore University Hospital, says, “Maybe it’s because of the continuous use of our brain circuits that involve the cerebral cortex that we’re at less risk for losing that circuitry.”
“Routine only leads to memory loss down the road. You really have to keep yourself stimulated and you cannot start that stimulation at age 65 and think it’s going to help in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease,” says Janet Walsh of Memory Concepts, an online company which specializes in providing mental exercises designed to keep one’s memory intact. “Even the most demanding job can become routine. It’s really about learning new things.”
There is also the possibility that jobs with higher mental demands require skills that enhance an individual’s ability to perform well on the tests used to diagnose Alzheimer’s.
If this is the case, then the disease may go undetected in these people until the disease is much farther along than in those whose jobs pose lower mental demands.
The researchers say also that it could be that the disease has a very early effect on the individual’s capacity to pursue a mentally challenging occupation, sort of a subtle sign very early on in life that the person was going to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
Educational level wasn’t an effect, and in fact, the researchers point out educational level had no effect, that even those who go to college don’t lower their risk compared to someone who just finished high school.
It could be that higher levels of mental demands result in increased brain cell activity, which may help maintain a ‘reserve’ of brain cells that help in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease.
“If unfortunately you have the genetic predisposition to develop Alzheimer’s disease, perhaps you could slow the progression of it or perhaps forestall it to a certain extent by continuing to be mentally active. So I think it helps, but I think it’s only a small part of the story,” says Dr. Kaplan.

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