Your IQ may lower or raise your risk of dying from heart disease. Scottish researchers studied data on 4,289 former U.S. soldiers and found that IQ accounted for 23 percent of the deaths from heart disease and stroke. Those with lower IQs were more likely to die of heart disease and those with higher IQs were less likely. The difference remained even after factors such as smoking and obesity were taken into consideration.
“We already know that socio-economically disadvantaged people have worse health and tend to die earlier from conditions such as heart disease, cancer and accidents,” said Dr. David Batty, an epidemiologist at the Medical Research Council’s Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow.
“Environmental exposures and health-related behaviors, such as smoking and diet and physical activity, can explain some of this difference, but not all of it,” he said.
A study released earlier this year of one million Swedish men also showed a strong link between cognitive ability and the risk of death.
Dr. Batty believes part of the difference may be due to conflicting messages the public often gets about health issues. “I think the public health messages on things like diet, exercise and smoking could be simplified,” he said. “For instance, we often read about how some types of alcohol are good for you while others, or even the same ones, are not. The messages can be difficult to interpret, even by knowledgeable people.”
Other experts believe that those with lower IQs have less preventive healthcare, including checkups and taking preventive medicine, than their more intelligent brothers.
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