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Smarter, Fitter Stay Sharp in Old Age

Posted on: Monday, 9 October 2006, 18:00 CDT

By CHRISTINE DELL'AMORE

Call it survival of the smartest: A study has found people with higher IQs are more physically fit and enjoy healthier cognitive abilities as they age.

A team of British researchers has shown physical fitness contributes more than 3 percent to a measure of cognitive ability in old age. In addition, the research suggested higher childhood IQ is related to better lung function in old age -- a remarkable result, according to lead author Ian Deary, a psychology professor at the University of Edinburgh.

The study, in the new issue of the journal Neurology, is one of the most thorough and lengthy research efforts on the topic of IQ, fitness and aging.

Deary and colleagues studied data from the 460 surviving participants of the Scottish Mental Survey of 1932. The participants, who were all born in 1921, were tested with the same general cognitive test twice, at age 11 and 79. The researchers assessed the fitness of the participants at 79 by measuring how long it took for each person to walk about 20 feet, the strength of the person's grip and lung function.

The connection of childhood IQ to robust lung function was quite strong, although the 20-foot walking test and grip strength did not show any relationship.

Because mental ability is a stable lifetime trait, it's more likely IQ is a reason for increased fitness in old age, the authors noted.

The brightest kids in the class are still the sharpest tacks in the toolbox even when they're 79, said Dr. Lawrence Whalley, a study co-author and a professor of mental health at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

Likewise, the availability of the childhood IQ data strengthens the study. That's a unique thing. No one else in the world has a population-based sample like that, Whalley said.

However, the research was limited by the fact grip strength, lung function and walking ability were not measured at an earlier age. Because the study is also observational and not an intervention, it's impossible to prove that higher IQ causes healthy cognition in later life.

The authors surmise that people with higher intelligence might understand and act on public-health messages -- such as advice to stay fit -- more than those with lower IQs. People with poor health habits may also die prematurely from avoidable causes, Whalley added.

Tying exercise to cognitive function is nothing new, said Dr. Alan Mintz, longevity expert and CEO of Cenegenics Medical Institute, which promotes a particular age-management medical system.

It's just intuitive ... but our country seems to have forgotten about it, he said.

People have only had the luxury of being sedentary in the last 100 years. In this new context of inactivity, society must heed the message that exercise is critical.

We need to be our own best friends, he said.

The research is also couched in a larger debate over whether social disparities in health can somehow be explained by intelligence. For instance, poor people historically also have the poorest health, and it may be that intelligence is a manifestation of the ability to make clever choices, Whalley said.

Intervention studies geared to making older people more physically fit are good candidates to improve cognitive aging, the authors noted.

Source: United Press International

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