Why do people keep making this same mistake about longevity?! > Readers have a 20% reduction in the risk of dying before their time. > Readers are 2.5 times less likely to contract Alzheimers. As usual, mixing up cause and effect. Reading requires mental effort--those starting down the path to Alzheimers will find it harder and thus do less of it. It's like the stunt the medicare advantage plan providers used to pull…
Could be that reading makes you less likely to expose to dangers that could kill you by entertaining you in a safer environment, could be that reading makes you have better decisions for your health, could be that your brain has more neural connections that can be used redundantly to mask Alzheimer’s.
And what you mentioned is also combined with the above, and uncountable other relationships, causality going both ways.