Does drinking lower IQ?

[ennui]

Hey all,

 

People often tell me that drinking lowers your IQ. And that if you drink regularly, it will be a permanent effect. I even remember a biology teacher once telling a class this.

 

Do you think that alcohol consumption has any permanent effect on intelligence? Can you drink heavily for say, 5 years, and still have the same IQ once you stop?

 

I wonder if there's any research to shed some light on this issue.

[DrDNA]

Yeppers.

 

".........person who drinks heavily over a long period of time may have brain deficits that persist well after he or she achieves sobriety. Exactly how alcohol affects the brain and the likelihood of reversing the impact of heavy drinking on the brain remain hot topics in alcohol research today.

 

We do know that heavy drinking may have extensive and far–reaching effects on the brain, ranging from simple “slips” in memory to permanent and debilitating conditions that require lifetime custodial care."

 

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa63/aa63.htm

 

There's a whole bunch of references on that NIH site.

[ennui]

Oh dear. That's pretty depressing.

 

I'm just going to tell myself that when I get drunk, the alcohol is thinning my blood, thus allowing more blood to reach my brain.

 

Or something like that.

[Durro]

Ahhhh, denial - it isn't just a river in Egypt.

 

Excessive alcohol intake comes with a number of negative health effects, brain impairment and permanent damage being just one part of the spectrum. Cirrhosis, oesophageal varices, pancreatitis, several types of cancer, obesity, diabetes and the like can be added to the plethora of neurological impairments and psychiatric conditions that are closely associated with alcoholism.

 

To try to justify a large intake of alcohol as anything other than risky behaviour is a dangerous thing, particularly if it's a regular occurence. I hope that you are joking about justifying a large alcohol intake with a fallacy.

 

As always, "all good things in moderation" and it probably goes without saying, all bad things in minimal amounts.

 

Stay healthy.

 

Durro

[DrP]

Ahem! Just to play advocate here (tee hee) I conducted a scientific experiment a few years back. 'Test the Nation' was on the telly (not that I usually watch such drivel - it was on at the time and I got sucked in) - where they do IQ tests for the audience members and the people watching at home (or as close as they can over the TV). They set people into groups - Doctors, White van drivers, blondes, brunnettes etcc. They also tried different stimuli - coffe drinkers, sleep deprivation etc. They didn't have alcoholics though! Well, not one to let the side down I thought I'd bat for the Beer drinkers team!!

 

 

I cracked open a couple of cans of guinness and quickly toked down a couple of fat doobies as preparation for test. I scored, which I thought was a rather reasonable, 135 points and beat all of their studio audience, doctors and blondes alike. Apparently, the highest score from people that had phoned in or done the test on the internet was 134 IIRC.

 

Conclusions: Either,

a)Beer and gear make you cleaverer than everyone else in the country.

b)It's just me - I am the cleaverest person in the country, even with the disadvantage of being drunk and stoned.

c)Everyone in the country who was more clever than me was TOO cleaver to get involed in the stupid test in the first place.

 

You decide!

[Durro]

My working hypothesis was that you were so relaxed before the test that it enhanced your ability to answer the questions. Either that, or you have an IQ in the stratosphere that even under your self imposed handicapping system outshines most of the rest of us.

 

Obviously, as shown by your rigorous scientific experiment, the results show that alcohol and drug intake is beneficial. This might explain why so many university students are perpetually stoned - they're enhancing their studying abilities. Further to this, it just might be time to lobby governments to remove those needless drink-driving laws, so that we are all safer on the roads.

 

 

Durro

[Dr Fell]

many young earth creationists are teatotal

[SkepticLance]

DrP

It is all those B group vitamins in Guiness. Next time, before the IQ test begins, down half a litre of Jamiesons whiskey, which is still Irish, and see how you do! Did you not know that the true cause of 'the troubles' was Jamiesons?

[iNow]

DrP

It is all those B group vitamins in Guiness. Next time, before the IQ test begins, down half a litre of Jamiesons whiskey, which is still Irish, and see how you do! Did you not know that the true cause of 'the troubles' was Jamiesons?

 

I can't say that I've ever had Jamiesons... However, I do quite enjoy Jamesons.

 

All in all though, I consider myself more of a Bushmill's man.

[stereologist]

It's interesting to learn that drinking does not kill off brain cells. The hangover is not due to cell death as conventional wisdom would suggest. A person that dies of alcoholism has the same number of neurons as someone that does not drink. Clearly, the neurons are not working the same in an alcoholic.