Mentally stimulating work plays key role in staving off dementia, study finds

Teaching and lecturing are among the most mentally demanding professions, according to the researchers. Photograph: MBI/Alamy

If work is a constant flurry of mind-straining challenges, bursts of creativity and delicate negotiations to keep the troops happy, consider yourself lucky.

Researchers have found that the more people use their brains at work, the better they seem to be protected against thinking and memory problems that come with older age.