5 Surprising Conditions That Can Affect Your IQ

It is essential to understand that there is a strong and instrumental connection between the body and the mind, and researchers are increasingly highlighting the claim that certain bodily ailments can cause serious brain impairments.

We have picked out all the scary conditions that can negative impact your IQ.

Here, take a look:

1. Concussions

Recent research reveals that hitting your head or suffering even a minor bump can cause a severely damage impact on a person’s working memory, particularly if that person is a woman. Researchers attempted to study these claims with a sample group of women who had suffered a mild traumatic brain injury, mainly concussions.

After conducting some tests on their working memory using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the woman who had suffered concussions had a much lower score than those who hadn’t suffered a brain injury, or even the sample of men who had suffered a brain injury.

The researchers concluded that women are at a greater risk of sustaining brain injuries as compared to men, and they also take a much longer time to heal.

2. Infections

Minor infections, such as a mild case of sniffles, can cause negative effects on a person’s intellect. A new study reveals that infections and associated immune responses are capable of causing a damaging effect on the IQ on the patient. However, early signs of minor infections, such as a bout of sinusitis, are not capable of lowering a person’s IQ, for it takes much more severe infections.

Researchers attempted to study these claims with a series of cognitive ability tests conducted amongst a sample group of people who had suffered infections and were hospitalized. The results revealed that the patients who were hospitalized scored 1.76 units less on a cognitive ability test as opposed to those who weren’t hospitalized to cure the infection.

Moreover, the patient’s IQ dropped as the number of instances he/she was hospitalized increased. For instance, those who had been hospitalized 10 times or more scored 5.54 unites less as compared to the healthier participants. The researchers concluded that our body’s immune response to the infection, particularly inflammation, can cause a reduction in our brainpower, which alters the pattern of cell communication within the brain.

3. Lyme Disease

Lyme disease is gravely dangerous disease that requires you to make effective use of a bug spray and nicely tuck in your socks to protect your body and your IQ before you go hiking, trekking or running in the wild. The most common symptoms of Lyme disease include aching joints, muscle pain, weariness, fatigue and impaired brain functioning.

Researchers believe that Lyme disease can cause severe brain impairments, a sharp decline in the functioning of brain processes, memory problems, lack of concentration, a shortened attention span and an inability to perform multitasking.

Experts point out that these impairments occur because of the increased pressure suffered by the head, which also causes the severe headaches that most patients suffering with Lyme disease complain of. Moreover, this disease also reduces and limits the blood flow received by the brain, hence depriving the brain of sufficient oxygen levels required for optimal functioning.

4. Insomnia

Insomnia not only renders the body extremely fatigued and exhausted, but those sleepless nights of tossing and turning also tend to make us cranky and bitter. Researchers attempted to study the impact of chronic sleep loss on a sample group of mice. The results revealed that staying awake for extended periods of time causes irreversible damage to the brain, which leads to excessive loss of brain cells, particularly the cells responsible for regulating efficient cognition and alertness.

Experts have concluded that insomnia brings about a damaging reduction in an essential protein, known as sirtuin type 3 (SirT3), which provides protection to the neurons. A lack of sufficient sleep prevents the neurons from recovering from staying awake for prolonged periods of time, and this eventually damages their performance.

5. Cancer

Cancer, as a disease itself, does not directly cast any effects on the patient’s IQ, however, most common treatments to cure cancer tend to have a negative impact on the intellect. Doctors have thus coined the term of chemo brain.

A recent study reveals that some common treatments to heal early-stage breast cancer including, methotrexate, cyclophosphamide, and fluorouracil (CMF) chemotherapy, tends to cause reduced cognitive performance.

Researchers further investigated these findings by giving a sample of women who had undergone chemotherapy a series of cognitive tests that studied their processing speed and memory. The results revealed that they performed extremely worse than the women who weren’t exposed to chemotherapy. The researchers concluded that these results were long-lasting, and these women had to endure them for more than 20 years.

Even though the researchers were unable to find the exact cause to understand the negative impacts of chemotherapy on cognitive performance, it is evident that structural differences occur in the brain matter when the brain is exposed to chemotherapy.