{"id":3944,"date":"2013-02-18T09:53:02","date_gmt":"2013-02-18T09:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=3944"},"modified":"2013-02-18T09:53:02","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T09:53:02","slug":"human-intelligence-is-slowly-declining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=3944","title":{"rendered":"Human intelligence is slowly declining"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Would you be surprised to hear that the human race is slowly becoming dumber, and dumber? Despite our advancements over the last tens or even hundreds of years, some \u2018experts\u2019 believe that humans are losing cognitive capabilities and becoming more emotionally unstable. One Stanford University researcher and geneticist, Dr. Gerald Crabtree, believes that our intellectual decline as a race has much to do with adverse genetic mutations. But there is more to it than that.<\/p>\n

\n

According to Crabtree, our cognitive and emotional capabilities are fueled and determined by the combined effort of thousands of genes. If a mutation occurred in any of of these genes, which is quite likely, then intelligence or emotional stability can be negatively impacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would wager that if an average citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our colleagues and companions, with a good memory, a broad range of ideas, and a clear-sighted view of important issues. Furthermore, I would guess that he or she would be among the most emotionally stable of our friends and colleagues,\u201d the geneticist began his article in the scientific journal\u00a0Trends in Genetics<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Further, the geneticist explains that people with specific adverse genetic mutations are more likely than ever to survive and live amongst the \u2018strong.\u2019 Darwin\u2019s theory of \u2018survival of the fittest\u2019 is less applicable in today\u2019s society, therefore those with better genes will not necessarily dominate in society as they would have in the past.While this hypothesis does have some<\/em> merit: are genes really the primary reason for the overall cognitive decline of the human race? If humans really are lacking in intelligence more than before, it\u2019s important to recognize other possible causes. Let\u2019s take a look at how our food system plays a role in all of this.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s sad, but true; our food system today is contributing to lower intelligence across the board.<\/p>\n

Researchers from Harvard have found that a substance rampant in the nation\u2019s water supply,\u00a0fluoride,\u00a0<\/strong> is lowering IQ and dumbing down the population. The researchers, who had their findings published in\u00a0the prominent journal\u00a0Environmental Health Perspectives,\u00a0<\/em>a\u00a0federal government medical journal\u00a0stemming from the\u00a0U.S National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, concluded that\u00a0\u201dour results support the possibility of adverse effects of fluoride exposures on children\u2019s neurodevelopment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this study we found a significant dose-response relation between fluoride level in serum and children\u2019s IQ\u2026This is the 24th study that has found this association\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One attorney,\u00a0Paul Beeber, NYSCOF President,\u00a0weighs in on the research by saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s senseless to keep subjecting our children to this ongoing fluoridation experiment to satisfy the political agenda of special-interest groups. Even if fluoridation reduced cavities, is tooth health more important than brain health? It\u2019s time to put politics aside and stop artificial fluoridation<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One study\u00a0published in\u00a0the\u00a0Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that pesticides, which are rampant among the food supply, are\u00a0creating lasting changes in overall brain structure \u2014 changes that have been linked to\u00a0lower intelligence levels and decreased cognitive function<\/strong>. Specifically, the researchers found that a pesticide known as chlorpyrifos (CPF) has been linked to\u00a0\u201dsignificant abnormalities\u201d. Further, the negative impact was found to occur even at low levels of exposure.<\/p>\n

Lead researcher Virginia Rauh, a professor at the\u00a0Mailman School of Public Health, summarized the findings:<\/p>\n

\u201cToxic exposure during this critical period can have far-reaching effects on brain development and behavioral functioning.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Following 14,000 children, British researchers uncovered the connection between processed foods and reduced IQ. After recording the children\u2019s\u2019 diets and analyzing questionnaires submitting by the parents, the\u00a0researchers found\u00a0that if children were consuming a processed diet at age 3,\u00a0IQ decline could begin over the next five years.<\/strong>\u00a0The study found that by age 8, the children had suffered the IQ decline. On the contrary,\u00a0children who ate a nutrient-rich diet including fruit and vegetables were found to increase their IQ over the 3 year period.<\/em>\u00a0The foods considered nutrient-rich by the researchers were most likely conventional fruits and vegetables.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, one particular ingredient ubiquitous in processed foods and sugary beverages across the globe -high fructose corn syrup \u2013 has been tied to reduced IQ. The UCLA researchers coming to these findings found that HFCS\u00a0may be damaging the brain functions of consumers worldwide, sabotaging learning and memory. In fact, the\u00a0official release\u00a0goes as far\u00a0to say that high-fructose corn syrup can make you \u2018stupid\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gene mutations may have something to do with our ongoing decline in intelligence, but let\u2019s stop to think for a moment what we\u2019re doing to ourselves to make this decline even more prominent.- http:\/\/naturalsociety.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Would you be surprised to hear that the human race is slowly becoming dumber, and dumber? Despite our advancements over the last tens or even hundreds of years, some \u2018experts\u2019 believe that humans are losing cognitive capabilities and becoming more emotionally unstable. One Stanford University researcher and geneticist, Dr. Gerald Crabtree, believes that our intellectual … Continue reading “Human intelligence is slowly declining”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,123],"tags":[2561,2562,1302,2559,2560],"class_list":["post-3944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-cognitive-and-emotional-capabilities","tag-fluoride","tag-genetics","tag-human-intelligence","tag-intellectual-decline"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/humanintelligence.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3944"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3947,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944\/revisions\/3947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}