Poverty changes your brain to make you less intelligent, study suggests

Researchers find link between low incomes and poorer brain function and say the stress of life with little money could be part of the reason; there is 'little evidence' to suggest falling intelligence pushes people into poverty, they add

Falling into poverty appears to make people become less intelligent and become old before their time, according to a new study.

Researchers found life on the breadline for 20 years was “strongly associated” with “worse cognitive function” and premature aging.

And they suggested the potential causes of this phenomenon included the stress of having little money, inadequate housing and sanitation, and an unhealthy lifestyle – a poor diet, smoking, alcohol and too little exercise.

Writing in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, researchers led by Professor Adina Zeki Al Hazzouri, of Miami University, said the trend was found even among highly educated people who fell on hard times.

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Poverty costs UK £78bn a year in pressure on hospitals and social services, research finds. Poverty is the new normal for middle-income earners. This, they argued, means it is unlikely that people who are becoming less intelligent for some other reason are falling into poverty.

The researchers studied information about 3,400 adults who took part in a study on heart disease. They were all 18 to 30 when the project began in 1985.

As part of that study, details about their income were recorded and they were also given tests used to detect what is known as “cognitive aging”.

What the researchers found was that people who lived continually in poverty “performed significantly worse” than those who had never had to survive on a low income in tests of verbal memory, the brain’s processing speed and its executive function.

“The overall magnitude of the associations suggests that economic adversities experienced in young adulthood are important determinants of cognitive health in midlife,” the paper said.

“From a mechanistic perspective, economic hardship may be on the pathway and an important contributor to clinically significant cognitive deficit and premature aging among economically disadvantaged individuals.

“Furthermore, in analyses restricted to participants with a high level of education, significant associations were still observed, suggesting little evidence that reverse causation could explain these findings.”

They put forward four different possible “pathways” in which poverty could affect people’s brains.

“First, exposure to low income and socioeconomic conditions has been associated with unhealthy behaviours, such as alcohol use, smoking, and inadequate physical activity, which are in turn risk factors for small brain infarcts and poor cognition,” the paper said.

“Second, exposure to low income may influence educational attainment and ultimately shape many of the risk factors of cognition, including adult living environment (inadequate housing and sanitation), health behaviours, and access to resources.

“Third, the stress of exposure to low income has been shown to be associated with dysfunction of the hypothalamic adrenocortical axis [glands inside the brain], which in turn is a pathway leading to worse risk factors of cognition.

“Fourth, income inequality may suggest a lack in public investment and health infrastructure, which then influence health through stress-induced mechanisms and decreased social and physical resources.”

Mr Hammer wrote on Oct 27^th, 2016 at 3:39pm:


I am not from UK.

Mr Hammer wrote on Oct 27^th, 2016 at 4:01pm:


Not there. Ignorance is Mr. Hammer's finest quality.

Darkie?

Mr Hammer wrote on Oct 27^th, 2016 at 4:14pm:



What anti-white prejudice?

I'm white and Unforgiven has always treated me with respect.

The only racism i see on this thread is coming from you.

Typical indeed.

Adding sexism to your growing list of unattractive character traits?

Or was that just the best you could do?

And here's abusive- sit on it punk!!!

Mr Hammer wrote on Oct 27^th, 2016 at 4:30pm:


you call that abuse? 

what are you? a 5 yr old girl?

issuevoter wrote on Oct 27^th, 2016 at 5:21pm:


Aquascoot implements his revolutionary concepts in the transport industry:

http://s3-sa-east-1.amazonaws.com/upload.osvigaristas.com.br/images/780x/6451.jp...

a rightard is all about
1 individual responsibility
2 pulling yourself up by your bootstraps
3 grinding it out to the bitter end
4 NEVER EVER complaining
5 NEVER EVER blaming
6 not worrying about what the group think says
7 NEVER EVER apologising or supplicating to the electorate
8 NEVER EVER pandering to the electorate
9 leading for the pure purpose of contributing.

issuevoter wrote on Oct 27^th, 2016 at 5:21pm:


there is only leftists in australian politics.
there are no true 'rightards".

a rightard is all about
1 individual responsibility
2 pulling yourself up by your bootstraps
3 grinding it out to the bitter end
4 NEVER EVER complaining
5 NEVER EVER blaming
6 not worrying about what the group think says
7 NEVER EVER apologising or supplicating to the electorate
8 NEVER EVER pandering to the electorate
9 leading for the pure purpose of contributing.


i could go on, but labor, liberal, green...they are all leftie parties.
they all play a "weak sauce" game.
they pander and supplicate and dither.
they encourage "victim mentality".
they play the game called "the squeeky door gets the oil"

western social democracies are seeing the average person stuck in the group think go backwards, go into a tailspin in life, because western social democracies see every little problem that confronts a voter as a problem which must be removed, not as an opportunity which should be embraced.  they (our politicians) are like mindless parents who are in a toy store and the kids are nagging them for more toys and they just keep giving in to the tantrums and the whining...then they wonder why their kids (the electorate) turn into garbage human beings who spend their entire lives in taker mode, always asking 'whats in it for me" 
its a sad frame to come from.
and it boils down to leftard ideas that tough love equals abuse when in fact its hard to dish out tough love.
pandering is easy...any fool can be a people pleasing leftie, hand wringing do-gooder .  you will get pitiful results though going down this route

Mr Hammer wrote on Oct 27^th, 2016 at 4:01pm:


Not there. Ignorance is Mr. Hammer's finest quality.

rhino wrote on Oct 27^th, 2016 at 9:47pm:



Lots of generalisations there - you should have stopped at 'eat worse'.  Not all kids from such backgrounds become bad eaters, bad exercisers, fat and abuse substances.

I'm 67 yo - I've lead a life of achievement you cannot understand and few can compare with ... what you mthink you might be - I've been - I am 6' tall and weigh 14 stone with little fat even at my age, and I terrify people who challenge my military record at first sight, just by my basic appearance. I get ex paratroopers approaching me with awe on the street.  For most of my life I never even touched a beer..... and when I go out I look what I am - a well-dressed and very neatly pressed military officer.

I came from such a deprived background, far more deprived than any of you here could possibly understand, and if you had experienced it, I think most likely you would be dead or what you describe here.  There are failures enough in my immediate family to prove that true.

My brother, on the other hand, fitted that bill perfectly - drug abuse, crazy poo - you name it - though he was a thin as a rake from more substance abuse than eating.... I have a niece who is drug-addicted, has AIDS, and has had seven+ children to god knows how many fathers... I have a sister (her mother) who is a recovered drug addict, but is pretty insane.

Been there - done that.  You are what you are and you become what you become - through your own efforts.  Some may choose to fall down - I did not - and many others in similar situations choose not to fall down too - so generalisations are out of line here, Mister!