Low I.Q. Predicts Heart Disease

February 10, 2010, 1:23 PM

Low I.Q. Predicts Heart Disease

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Smoking, obesity and high blood pressure are well-known risk factors for heart disease, but now British researchers have identified a powerful new predictor of heart problems: low intelligence.

In a new study, a low I.Q. score was a stronger predictor of heart disease than most traditional risk factors, second only to smoking. The study tracked 1,145 men and women in Scotland over 20 years, documenting I.Q., weight, education and income as well as traditional heart risk factors like obesity, high blood pressure and smoking.

Low physical activity doubled the risk for heart attack, whereas risk was about three times higher for people with high blood pressure or low income.

However, low I.Q. was a much stronger predictor than these traditional risk factors. People with lower I.Q.’s had four times higher risk of heart disease. By comparison, smokers were nearly six times more likely to have heart problems, according to the findings published in The European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation.

Why would low I.Q. predict heart risk? Researchers pose a number of theories. It may be that some of the factors in early life that lead to low I.Q. may also lead to poorer heart health.

“I.Q. is a marker of lifetime insults, physiological insults,’’ said David Batty, a Wellcome Trust fellow and scientist at the Medical Research Council in Glasgow, the U.K. government’s national health research agency. ”We know kids with poor diets, kids who have repeated infections, have a lower I.Q., so it could be an I.Q. is capturing something about lifelong misery.’’

People with lower intelligence also are known to adopt less healthful behaviors — they smoke and drink more and are more likely to have a poor diet. It may be that people with low I.Q. have a more difficult time understanding complex health messages and don’t fully understand the long-term health effects of an unhealthy lifestyle.

The U.K. researchers have also posed a provocative theory that a high I.Q. is not just a marker for a better education, higher income and overall better life circumstances. It may also be that a high I.Q. is associated with better overall neurological and physiological “wiring,’’ meaning all the body systems, from brain to heart to liver to kidneys, function at a more efficient level.

For instance, some studies suggest that people with high I.Q. also have faster physical reaction times.

“Scores on those kinds of reaction time tests are also predictive of heart disease,’’ Dr. Batty said. “If you have a better functioning brain, you may have a better functioning heart — physiologically, maybe the integrity of the whole body is superior.”

Dr. Batty noted that the study wasn’t intended to explain why low I.Q. predicts higher heart risk. The study also didn’t specify specific I.Q. numbers that predict heart risk, only noting that those on the lower end of the I.Q. spectrum in the Scottish study were at higher heart risk.

Future areas of study may focus on whether raising I.Q. with early life interventions can affect long-time heart risk. Simplifying health messages to better reach people with lower intelligence may also be a solution.

“We’ve done a lot of research showing I.Q. is a powerful risk factor,’’ Dr. Batty said. “But we were surprised it was higher than things like obesity and high blood pressure and poverty.’’

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/low-i-q-predicts-heart-disease/

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I thought this article was very interesting because it talks about possible predictors of heart disease. In the article the author explains how the researchers actually thought that low I. Q. scores was a better predictor than most risk factors. Of course the author does explain that the lifestyle the person leads is highly dependent on their I. Q. since normally a higher I.Q. person has better opportunities. I thought the connection these researchers made from I.Q scores to directly Heart Disease problems was very interesting since not a lot is understood in many heart disease problems such as Hypertension.

David Figueroa