A surprisingly effective way to keep your mind sharp: Ditch your phone's map apps.

• A recent study, published in the British Medical Journal, looked at rates of death from Alzheimer's disease among people across more than 400 occupations. U.S. taxi and ambulance drivers had the lowest rates.
• The drivers mostly worked before GPS was ubiquitous, The Wall Street Journal's Sumathi Reddy writes.

🧠 Why it matters: Puzzles, tricks and strategies we can try to keep our brains healthy as we age are key as diagnoses increase.

• The number of Americans with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias is expected to jump from 6.7 million in 2023 to 13 million by 2060, Axios' Tina Reed reports.

Zoom in: Researchers looked at death certificates from 2020 and 2022 that listed occupation and cause of death. Taxi and ambulance drivers had Alzheimer's death rates of 1.03% and 0.91%, respectively. The rate for everyone else was around 4%.

• The minute-to-minute decisions drivers make on where to turn, how to reroute after hitting closures and how to dodge traffic may keep their brains healthier longer, researchers hypothesize.

🔎 Between the lines: There are caveats. The study didn't account for other factors that increase risk of Alzheimer's, including genetics or lifestyle, Reddy notes.

• Go deeper: If you don't want to part with maps, here are some other strategies to give your brain a workout.

This otherworldly pic comes from reader JF Bessin, snapped during a family trip to New Mexico's White Sands National Park in December.