Conclusion: The better the mental health the better the physical health

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by JC Spencer

Thousands of children and adults from different countries and with different mental capacities participated in longitudinal scientific evaluations. Today’s lesson is in cognitive epidemiology where we will connect the dots between brain function and physical health from accumulated research data gathered over the past 90 years.

Together, these large population studies reveal strong links between good brain function and physical health. Lower intelligence correlates with high health risks of many diseases and illnesses. The population risk factor increases gradually as the intelligence scale decreases.

Researchers sifted through mountains of information and uncovered some fascinating unequivocal findings of correlating trends. A clear pattern is formed from the mental scores of a myriad of tests.

It stands to reason that humans who use their brains make wiser choices than those with less intelligence. It seems logical that wiser individuals would make more healthy choices like not smoking or drinking and taking drugs. The lower a person’s measured intelligence, the greater risk of living a shorter life, having more accidents, developing more diseases, committing more suicide, and endangering themselves and others in ways like having accidents.

The following evidence comes from a survey of nearly one million Scandinavian military men. Connecting the dots of young people in their twenties with lower intelligence face greater risks of developing crisis during mid-life, especially in illnesses, depression, mood disorders, and alcohol-related problems. The correlation continued to the increased potential of physical harm and time spent in the hospital.

As the participants with low intelligence test scores got older, there was a stronger implication towards poorer health. Research of the Vietnam Experience Study cohort confirmed the same trend as did the study of British and Swedish school children.

Here is a quote from Scientific American Mind magazine dated July/August 2011, “Data on unintentional injuries such as those received in traffic accidents also matched this trend, with a doubling of risk for individuals at the lower end of the intelligence range as compared to those at the top.”

Researchers in 2008 investigated a landmark study known as the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932 where virtually the whole population of school children (87,498) were evaluated over years. The report indicates that those with lower mental scores from the childhood test were a higher risk for late-onset vascular dementia but not Alzheimer’s type of dementia. The cause of vascular dementia is tied to physical health risk factors as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension acerbated by poor diet.

Several research studies have been evaluated and correlated lower intelligence with later cardiovascular disease. This again is probably due to smoking and other poor life choices. We know that intelligent response is regulated up or down by the amount of pure oxygen supplied to the brain. The oxygen factor is further regulated up or down by the integrity of your cardiovascular system. Toxins damage the oxygen intake.

The poor mental development of the fetus and that of a new born baby contributes to a life-time of poor mental health. Many of the Royal Sugars discussed in these lessons are present in human mother’s breast milk. Studies show that the infant immune system depends on these sugars. Other studies show that an infant’s mental capacity is improved with the sugars and that the intelligence remains over the years. Those young people made better grades in college than those who were not fed human mother’s milk when they were babies.

Royal Sugars with other excellent nutrients are needed to maintain and improve brain function. Improve your brain function and you lower your risk factor for diseases and accidents, and raise the bar for a longer life expectancy with more alertness, vitality, and improved motor skills.

Source: Outsmarting Mortality by Ian J. Deary, Alexander Weiss, and G. David Batty in Scientific American Mind magazine July/August 2011

the e-textbook Expand Your Mind - Improve Your Brain by JC Spencer

Human Cognitive Abilities: A Survey of Factor-Analytic Studies by John B. Carroll. Cambridge University Press, 1993; Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns. Ulric Neisser et all, in American Psychologist Vol. 51, No. 2 pages 77-101; Feb 1996; Intelligence: A Very Short Introduction. Ian J. Deary. Oxford University Press, 2001.; The Mental Wealth of Nations. John Beddington et al. In Nature, Vol. 455, pages 1057-1060; Oct 23, 2008.; Breastfeeding Stimulates the Infant Immune System by Lars Å. Hanson in Science & Medicine Vol. 4, Number 6 Nov/Dec 1997.

© The Endowment for Medical Research, Inc
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