There are lots of things we need to be doing daily to make sure we are getting the most out of our days and brain – but did you know there are some activities which most of us indulge in that can seriously hinder your brain and mental capacity. Here’s 16 things making you dumber and what you should stay away from:
1. Pointless Meetings – Meetings about a meeting. We’ve all been there. Studies have shown that some meetings like this can “alter the expression of IQ in some susceptible people”.
2. Attractive People – Behaviours like multitasking and problem solving are affected because we sue most of our mental energy thinking about our lust worth conquest.
3. Chewing Gym – Chewing gum and “chewing” in general reduces the general capacity to process sequences like letter lists, planning or recalling certain items in sequence.
4. Smoking And Heavy Drinking – These can co-exist when they do occur a study has shown that smokers who also drank alcohol heavily had a 36% faster cognitive decline, particularly from mid-life onwards.
5. City-Life – The university of Michigan has found that being in an urban environment impairs basic mental processes.
6. Fluoride – This debates just keeps coming. But recently research was carried our which conclusively showed that “children in high-fluoride areas had significantly lower IQ scores than those who lived in low-fluoride areas.
7. Obesity – High blood pressure and inflammation irritate the brain communication system of an obese person. The brains of obese people work harder than those of average-weight people to achieve the same results.
8. Eating Junk – As they say “You are what you eat”. Foods loaded with saturated fats, Trans fats or foods high in cholesterol might speed up the formation of beta-amyloid plaque in the brain.
9. Jet Lag – causes learning and memory problems and continue until your body is able to return to a regular 24-hour schedule.
10. Lack of ZZZ’s – A lack of sleep can really affect your mental ability. Chronic sleep deprivation will also affect cognitive performance, especially memory consolidation as well as the sympathetic nerous system which can greatly increase blood pressure.
11. Reality TV – Watching reality TV and reading trash can affect your brain. If someone watches a story about a stupid person this can make you act as stupid and act this out…
12. Driving – Were not talking about driving in general but driving 1 block around the corner to the dairy? A lack of exercise can affect the brains performance and a 2011 study of the brains striatum showed that this executive functioning part of your grey matter was smaller in non-athletics. Exercise can balance the brains chemical cocktail, strengthen connections and boost overall power.
13. Staring At Your Facebook Profile – A Psychology study clearly showed that even brief exposure to your own profile raised the state self-esteem, but it also hampered cognitive performance by decreasing the motivation to perform well. The online self-presentation provides theoretical confirmation to the “Self-affirmation theory”.
14. Getting Smacked – University of New Hampshire research clearly showed that children who were smacked had lower IQs 4 years later than those who were not spanked.
15. Being The Younger Sibling – Several studies found that firstborn children score higher on IQ tests – a fact supported by history as most Nobel prize winners and US presidents are firstborns.
16. Too Much Stress – A yale stress centre study concluded that high levels of cumulative stress will affect the gray matter in the prefrontal cortex, creating a decrease in number of connections between neurons and therefore the brains ability to retain information and respond to outside stimuli.