Is your doctor pushing you into one of these complex jobs post-stroke in order to prevent your 33% chance of getting dementia post-stroke?
I probably survived my stroke because my data complex job of computer programmer built up my cognitive reserve.
The Best Jobs for Your Brain
When it comes to keeping your mind sharp well into old age, some job choices are better than others. (Photo by Getty Images)
How did you choose your career? In a recent LinkedIn survey,
the majority of people, 56 percent, said the reputation of a potential
employer is what most heavily influences where they decide to work. But
the truth is, reputation may not be everything. You may also
want to consider how challenging your work is. The mental effort your
job requires affects your health long after you’ve left the company,
according to a new study in the journal Neurology.
British
researchers assessed the cognitive abilities — memory and processing
speed, for example — of more than 1,000 older adults, and analyzed
whether their former jobs influenced their scores. To do this, they
categorized each career by “occupational complexity” in three areas:
people, data, and things.
“A
job regarded as more complex, in terms of work with people, might
include negotiating or mentoring, whereas less complex jobs might
involve taking instructions or helping,” study author Alan Gow tells
Yahoo Health. Complex people-oriented professions include lawyer, social
worker, surgeon, and probation officer, whereas factory worker,
painter, and carpet layer are less socially taxing jobs, he says.
“Similarly,
more complex jobs with data might require coordinating and synthesizing
data,” says Gow, “whereas less complex jobs might be more likely to
include copying or comparing data.” Examples of complex jobs in this
category include architect, civil engineer, graphic designer, and
musician, whereas less data-intensive careers include construction
worker, bus conductor, and telephone operator, he says.
Complexity
of “things” might mean preparing machines for operation or deciding
which tools are appropriate for a job. Examples include machine setter
and instrument maker, while less complex careers in this category are
probation officer and bank manager, says Gow.
So
how did job complexity affect mental sharpness later in life? Although
the effect wasn’t huge, the 70-year-olds whose former occupations
involved high levels of complexity with data and people performed better
on memory and thinking tests — even after the researchers
accounted for their IQ at age 11 and their level of education.
“Complexity of things didn’t seem to be associated with cognitive
ability,” says Gow. (However, he says, this finding needs to be
replicated.)
One
explanation: Careers with high levels of interpersonal and data
complexity may build up something called your “cognitive reserve.”
“The
brain develops a certain way of working — it establishes pathways that
are either efficient or not,” says Ross Andel, an associate professor of
aging studies at the University of South Florida. If you work in a
challenging environment, your brain may form more efficient networks,
potentially masking the negative effects of aging on your mental
abilities. As you get older, “the brain is declining quite a bit, but
because it has been taught how to work well through complex tasks, it
will perform despite the damage,” Andel explains.
A
large cognitive reserve might also mean that you maintain more volume
in the brain over time, or that you have a larger repertoire of
problem-solving skills, says Gow.
“It’s the ‘use it or lose it’ idea,” says Andel. If your line of work mentally challenges you — “we’re
talking eight hours a day, 40 hours a week — that’s a tremendous amount
of mental exercise,” compared to, say, reading a book or working a
crossword puzzle for half an hour each day. “Sitting at a job where
you’re disengaged for eight hours a day — that’s dangerous,” he says.
But
that doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to mental decline if your
office time isn’t exactly mentally demanding. “People may be limited in
how much influence they have over the complexity of their job, but we
can all look at ways to ensure we get more physically or socially
engaged in our leisure time, for example,” says Gow. Train your brain to
perform well long after retirement with these simple strategies:
Find a few hobbies
Your
office isn’t the only place you can challenge your brain. In a 2014
study, Andel found that greater work complexity, both with people and
data, was associated with better mental ability in old age. But so was
participation in leisure activities, especially those with a cognitive
or social element, such as reading books or joining clubs. “For someone
who is stuck in an occupation with low complexity of working with
people, having a good social life might make a difference,” Andel says.
Signing
up for social activities may be especially critical for men, since
their social lives tend to shrink more significantly than women’s after
retirement — a risk factor for cognitive decline, says Deborah Finkel, a
professor of psychology at Indiana University Southeast.
Engage with your coworkers
Chained
to your desk all day? Make a point to engage in face-to-face
interactions with your coworkers. That might mean gathering around the
water cooler or even just talking to your boss in person, rather than
via email, says Andel. Participating in office politics on occasion may
even do your brain a solid: “In the workplace, there are a lot of
complexities of social hierarchies and interactions,” says Finkel.
“Negotiating all of these hierarchies is apparently very good exercise
for your brain.”
Start exercising
Working
on crossword puzzles will help you do one thing well: crossword
puzzles. “Those skills don’t transfer — they’re very specific. So
cognitive training is not the answer. Physical exercise is,” says
Finkel. “You need to maintain your heart health and blood flow to the
brain. That’s the best way to maintain cognitive function.”
No comments:
Post a Comment