Research Raises the Alarm About Jobs Associated With a 60% Higher Risk of Developing Dementia. Here’s What They Are.
Some jobs would be bad for our brain health and would greatly increase – up to 60% – the risk of developing dementia. The warning comes from an expert like Professor David Raichlen, a brain scholar specializing in human and evolutionary biology at the University of Southern California.
Raichlen shared his concerns during one of the latest episodes of Steven Bartlett’s podcast, Diary of a CEO. He has long been studying the links between physical exercise and brain health and warned against a working method that is not good for our precious organ in the long run.
According to Raichlen, the riskiest jobs that lead people to sit for many hours during the day are at the greatest risk of developing dementia. An excessive sedentary lifestyle at work is not good for the health of our brain, as shown by a September 2023 study that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study found that moving little for 10 hours or more a day increases the likelihood of later contracting dementia, based on the research involving 50,000 people without dementia wearing a wrist accelerometer for a week to monitor their daily movements.
Six years later, the researchers looked at how many of the participants had received a diagnosis of dementia. They found that people who were inactive for at least 10 hours a day were more likely to develop dementia compared to those that moved more. If someone sits for 10 hours a day compared to 9 hours a day, the risk of dementia increases by about 10%. If they sit for 12 hours a day, the risk of dementia increases by about 60%.
The list of jobs that are at risk of making individuals ill with dementia includes professions such as receptionist, bus driver, freelance writer, pilot, train driver, judge, software engineer, accountant, graphic designer, dispatcher, data entry clerk, and driver of heavy vehicles.
However, Raichlen explained that it is possible to generate new neurons, especially in key areas of the brain associated with memory, such as the hippocampus, which could hold the key to preventing neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia. To create new brain cells, physical activity is required, with the optimal quantity being 150 minutes a week. Despite this, only a quarter of American adults fall into this range, and the elderly are limited to two to four minutes of physical activity daily.
Raichlen also mentioned that other studies suggest that staying active can help our brains age less rapidly. It is clear that a sedentary lifestyle at work is not only detrimental to physical health but also poses significant risks to brain health. It is essential for individuals in sedentary jobs to find ways to incorporate physical activity into their daily routines to reduce the risk of developing dementia in the future.