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Childhood Brain Power Tied to Adult Heart Health
Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Babies
Could studying hard put your kids on a path to a healthier adulthood?
Credit: tobias.munich, Flickr
A study of nearly 10,000 British adults who have been monitored since their birth in 1958 shows a connection between childhood intellect and healthy hearts during adulthood. Previous studies have suggested that smarter kids become healthier adults. These researchers wanted to understand that connection.
"We sought to establish whether associations between childhood cognition and risk factors for cardiovascular disease in adulthood are explained by common causes, or adult social position or health behavior," the study explains.
The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, finds that the connection is a matter of circumstance, rather than physiology. Study subjects who showed higher intellect as children were more likely to end up with a better education and better jobs, which often means access to good health care and information about healthy living.
Rather than suggesting any physical connection between brain power and heart health, the research indicates that childhood intellect tends to put people on a path toward a lifestyle that helps protect them from heart disease risk factors.
Related: Heart Disease: It's Partly in Your Head, Children's Health Insurance Program's Future Uncertain
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
1-08-2010 @ 1:53PM
SKL said...Is anyone else out there tired of seeing our tax money going toward studies like this? I mean, what % of these hack "studies" is delivered with a conclusion that "this doesn't actually prove anything, other than what any dimwit could have figured out in one minute's unassisted thought"?
Just this morning, I was thinking they ought to do a study to see if hearing swear words makes kids dumb. I was cussing up a storm at the apparent effects of global warming as I cleaned the ice & snow off my car and hustled my kids into their car seats, and I thought, how much you wanna bet that a study would show I was making my kids stupid by this very act. I mean, you know people with dumb kids do more cussing, right? Just like they do more spanking, more smoking, etc. I'm sure we'll see such a study within the next 12 months, right here on ParentDish.
Ugh. I want my tax money back.
Reply
1-09-2010 @ 10:48PM
Sifrina said...SKL - Not sure what you mean when you say you want *your* tax money back? This is clearly a British study that happened to be published in the APHJ by the American Public Health Assn.
1-10-2010 @ 11:29AM
SKL said...I was talking about all the US tax money that has gone into similarly lame studies. Really, if you look into the grants the US government gives for research, some of it will blow your mind. Why do dogs turn around three times before lying down? Why do monkeys grit their teeth? Stuff about "unconventional" sex in Thailand and various other countries . . . the list goes on ad nauseum . . . wouldn't this money do more good in the pockets of the US taxpayers? Or in our elementary schools? Maybe this happens in the UK too, but that's not my issue.
2-11-2010 @ 2:29PM
Lindsey said...Excuse science for not stereotyping and actually looking at data rather than making broad assumptions.
Furthermore, science does not prove anything, but rather supports or does not support hypotheses and theories.
Quoting SKL: "wouldn't this money do more good in the pockets of the US taxpayers? Or in our elementary schools?"
It is a study such as this that could be used as evidence during legislation negotiation in favor of increased funding for schools, because it clearly states with supporting data that children who have intelligence tend to have greater heart health.
Also, in order to show how insignificant scientific and medical research is on taxes, I have provided the following information:
Of all the tax money collected, only 3% is used for research. Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Assuming a person has an adjusted gross income of $40,000, their tax liability would be $5,169 before taking into account tax credits according to the 2009 IRS tax tables. Of this, only $155.07 goes towards research. Certainly a family spends at least that much on non-essentials per year that could be forgone if they were that concerned with having that money in their pockets.