Jeff Cassman

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” — Ernest Hemingway

People with higher IQs are more likely to be happy, research finds.

The finding goes against both Hemingway and the popular idea that being intelligent is somehow predisposes people to unhappiness.

Dr Angela Hassiotis, who led the study, said:

“We found that IQ is associated with self-reported happiness, as levels of happiness were lowest in the lower IQ groups and highest in the higher IQ groups.

This is particularly relevant when considering the current political debates on happiness.”

For the study, data from almost 7,000 people was analysed.

The results showed that people with the lowest IQ (70 – 99) were the least happy in comparison to those with the highest IQs (120 – 129).

It wasn’t just about IQ, though, as Dr Hassiotis explained:

“When looking at the data we saw that people with a lower IQ were less likely to be happier because of higher levels of socio-economic disadvantage such as lower income.

They are also less likely to be happy because they need more help with skills of daily living, have poorer health and report more symptoms of psychological distress.”

Interventions should focus on increasing IQ levels at a young age, said Dr Hassiotis:

“There is also some evidence that long term intensive strategies directed at young children from socially deprived backgrounds can have a positive impact not only on IQ but also on wellbeing and life opportunities.

Such interventions are likely to be costly but the initial costs may be offset by future benefits such as a reduced reliance on state benefits and better mental and physical health.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine (Ali et al., 2012).

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Your blood type might signal whether you are prone to have an early stroke or not.

Besides lifestyle and environment, genes have a big impact on a person’s state of health.

One example is a person’s blood group, which is inherited from genes passed down by the parents.

A meta-analysis of genetic studies reveals that our blood type can determine whether we are at risk of an early stroke or not.

They found that people with blood type A are more at risk of an early stroke.

Also, those with blood type B were more likely to experience a stroke before the age 60 and later on.

The review is based on 48 genetic studies related to ischemic strokes, the most common type of strokes.

Ischemic strokes are life-threatening conditions caused by a blockage of an artery that supplies blood to the brain.

Professor Steven Kittner, the study’s senior author, said:

“The number of people with early strokes is rising.

These people are more likely to die from the life-threatening event, and survivors potentially face decades with disability.

Despite this, there is little research on the causes of early strokes.”

The research team compared genetic data from 17,000 stroke patients with nearly 600,000 healthy adults (non-stroke controls) who were between 18- and 59-years-old.

The team studied the ABO gene located on certain chromosomes in order to find out if there is any link between common genetic variants with the risk of having a stroke before age 60.

Their analysis showed that participants with early stroke were less likely to have blood type O and most likely to have blood type A.

Participants with blood group A were more likely to have an early stroke and those with blood type O had a lower risk of developing strokes.

Those with blood type B were at higher risk of having an early stroke and later in life.

Professor Braxton Mitchell, study co-author, said:

“Our meta-analysis looked at people’s genetic profiles and found associations between blood type and risk of early-onset stroke.

The association of blood type with later-onset stroke was much weaker than what we found with early stroke.”

Compared to people with other blood types, those with blood type A had a 16 percent higher risk of an early stroke.

The authors acknowledged that the increased risk of an early stroke for people with blood type A is small and so they don’t need to worry or do any additional health check and medical tests.

Professor Kittner said:

“We still don’t know why blood type A would confer a higher risk, but it likely has something to do with blood-clotting factors like platelets and cells that line the blood vessels as well as other circulating proteins, all of which play a role in the development of blood clots.”

Past studies have found that people with blood type A are at a slightly increased risk of experiencing deep vein thrombosis.

The study was published in the journal Neurology (Jaworek et al., 2022).

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This modern habit is on the rise — and it is no good for your mental and physical health.

Too much sitting down is killing people — and it is on the rise, according to the latest data.

Getting up and moving about, though, is linked to less anxiety, more happiness, positive changes in personality and even a boost to cognitive function.

Unfortunately, in just over a decade, US adults have increased their average sitting time each day from 5.5 hours to almost 6.5 hours.

Among adolescents, the figure has gone from seven hours per day in 2007 to eight hours per day in 2016.

Time spent in front of a screen increased substantially during this period.

One-quarter of people said they used their computer outside of work or school for at least three hours per day.

Inactivity is linked to a wide range of diseases including heart problems, obesity, diabetes and certain cancers.

Dr Yin Cao, study co-author, said:

“In almost none of the groups we analyzed are the numbers going in the right direction.

We want to raise awareness about this issue on multiple levels — from individuals and families to schools, employers and elected officials.”

The conclusions come from an analysis of over 51,000 people in the US of all different ages who were surveyed between 2001 and 2016.

It tracked how much time people spent sitting, including in front of TVs and computers.

Professor Graham A. Colditz, study co-author, said:

“How we create public policies or promote social change that supports less sitting is unclear and likely to be complicated.

If a neighborhood in a disadvantaged community is unsafe, for example, parents can’t just send their kids outside to play.

Our environments — the way our cities, our school days and working days are designed — play roles in this behavior that are difficult to change.

But at least now, we have a baseline from which to measure whether specific changes are having an impact.”

The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Yang et al., 2019).

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