Boomers how decline in conitive function vs previous generations

[corybroo]

As a boomer, I found this study worrying:

Baby boomers show concerning decline in cognitive functioning

Findings showed that average cognition scores of adults aged 50 and older increased from generation to generation, beginning with the greatest generation (born 1890-1923) and peaking among war babies (born 1942-1947).

"It is shocking to see this decline in cognitive functioning among baby boomers after generations of increases in test scores," Zheng said.

"But what was most surprising to me is that this decline is seen in all groups: men and women, across all races and ethnicities and across all education, income and wealth levels."

Other research has shown that overall rates of mortality and illness have increased in baby boomers, but generally found that the highly educated and wealthiest were mostly spared.

"That's why it was so surprising to me to see cognitive declines in all groups in this study," Zheng said. "The declines were only slightly lower among the wealthiest and most highly educated."

The biggest factors linked to lower cognition scores among baby boomers in the study were lower wealth, higher levels of self-reported loneliness and depression, lack of physical activity and obesity.

One of the biggest concerns is that cognitive functioning when people are in their 50s and 60s is related to their likelihood of having dementia when they are older.

[Mike41]

So that explains it, I’ve often wondered how Trump got elected. Now I understand! 😂 

[Alex K Chen]

Do you think it's lead? Environmental pollution (esp mass-halogenation)? Too much corn oil/soybean oil/omega-6's?

[TomBAvoider]

The biggest factors linked to lower cognition scores among baby boomers in the study were lower wealth, higher levels of self-reported loneliness and depression, lack of physical activity and obesity.

Maybe that's a clue? To what degree are these factors are under your control? Wealth - borderline, as it may not be fully under your control, depression might be clinical manifestation of a disease that's not under your control at least when not medicated, loneliness again is a borderline case as not everyone is in a social situation they can control. Physical activity and obesity - what if there are medical reasons someone can't exercise, and obesity perhaps can be driven by medication, f.ex. some antidrepressants lead to weight gain. These are somewhat squishy - what's the difference between boomers and the previous generations? I thought - perhaps wrongly - that boomers in general were wealthier than previous generations, so this is somewhat puzzling.

[Gordo]

I think it’s mostly related to sugar intake which correlates with obesity.

Negative Impact of Sugar on the Brain

“Throughout the body, excess sugar is harmful. Even a single instance of elevated glucose in the bloodstream can be harmful to the brain, resulting in slowed cognitive function and deficits in memory and attention.”

[Ron Put]

It's not just the boomers.  While obesity and high sugar diets may contribute, this is a world trend:

The decline of the world's IQ

Dysgenic fertility means that there is a negative correlation between intelligence and number of children. Its presence during the last century has been demonstrated in several countries. We show here that there is dysgenic fertility in the world population quantified by a correlation of − 0.73 between IQ and fertility across nations. It is estimated that the effect of this has been a decline in the world's genotypic IQ of 0.86 IQ points for the years 1950–2000. A further decline of 1.28 IQ points in the world's genotypic IQ is projected for the years 2000–2050. In the period 1950–2000 this decline has been compensated for by a rise in phenotypic intelligence known as the Flynn Effect, but recent studies in four economically developed countries have found that this has now ceased or gone into reverse. It seems probable that this “negative Flynn Effect” will spread to economically developing countries and the whole world will move into a period of declining genotypic and phenotypic intelligence. It is possible that “the new eugenics” of biotechnology may evolve to counteract dysgenic fertility.

[Alex K Chen]

It might just be lead.

[Alex K Chen]

on dysgenic effects - it might be worth seeing emil kierkegaard's blog. he's controversial af but sometimes worth listening in on

[Alex K Chen]

https://sph.unc.edu/sph-news/only-12-percent-of-american-adults-are-metabolically-healthy-study-finds/#:~:text=Only 12 percent of American adults are metabolically healthy, study finds,-Biostatistics News, Epidemiology&text=The prevalence of optimal metabolic,weight, a new study finds.

[Mike41]

And we know this is a huge factor wrt covid and do any of the scientists who blab on and on about wearing masks ever once mention this to the millions of listeners. They never do. I have yet to hear Fauci, Gupta etc ever mention it.

[AlPater]

What is "this" and "it", Mike?  I can only guess masks, but you say they discuss them often.

[Mike41]

Al, I’m talking about the post prior to mine wrt metabolic disorders and the risk associated with covid. The White House covid task force scientists continually tell us to social distance and to wear masks. Why are they never, ever discussing and informing Americans about lifestyle and how important that is in reducing the risk of covid??

[Ron Put]

On 8/8/2020 at 9:34 AM, Mike41 said:

Why are they never, ever discussing and informing Americans about lifestyle and how important that is in reducing the risk of covid

Because they may hurt people's feelings....  We must not judge and must "love all bodies" (except all the "anorexic" models, of course) and even some high fashion is going Rubenesque as the demographics and the market change.

And what politician is going to risk their career by offending close to 70% of the population?