Andy’s Quick Hits (271): Your Job Can Protect You From Cognitive Decline

If you have the right job that is.

First let’s understand what the researchers were investigating. There is something strange going on with Alzheimer’s — we know that in Alzheimer’s disease there is a build-up of clumps of protein in the brain known as amyloid plaques. These were discovered many, many years ago and seemed to be obviously contributing and causing the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s.

However, over the years something strange was noticed. Namely that some people seem to have high build-up of these plaques but remain cognitively on top of it. Their memory and thinking abilities remain good into a ripe old age with none of the decline noticed in Alzheimer’s — or even through general ageing.

So, what is happening — well, it appears there is a “cognitive reserve” that some people can draw on that protects from cognitive decline — but what contributes to this?

This is precisely what these researchers around Pamela Almeida-Meza for the American Academy of Neurology wanted to find out.

For this they used data from 1’184 people born in 1946 in the UK — they had taken a cognitive test at age 8 and had repeated them at aged 69. They also had done a reading test at age 53 and other factors were measured…