You may have personally experienced, or just heard from other people, of the mental boost that they get from smoking. Perhaps, for a short period of time, such a boost may be true, however in the long run, the effect of tobacco consumption may be more dangerous to your brain than what you have expected. If you want to better your brain’s well-being, you have to worry about what affects your IQ.
An Addiction Research Center conducted research regarding the long-term effects of alcohol on an alcoholic’s brain functioning. As expected, alcohol was found to be associated with mental problems and lower IQ scores. And as an addition to their findings, they also found out that long-term smoking has an effect on decreased brainpower.
The results showed that alcohol has more severe effects on the thinking skills of alcoholic men who have been smoking for quite some time already. It has an adverse effect on memory, problem-solving skills and even the IQ of these men.
Among these alcoholic subjects, cigarette smoking was seen to be related to reduced mental functioning. However, even though the cause-and-effect relationship between smoking and the decreased mental performance was not clearly established, there are still some things that point out to the fact that cigarettes are the cause to such an effect. In order to prove this point, more studies will have to be conducted.
Aside from these bad vices, there are still other things which may cause the reduction of your brain power.
Other Short-term Causes for Poor Thinking Performance
According to some more studies, foods which include artificial food coloring and sweeteners may be bad for the brain, more especially if they are consumed in large quantities. Usually, the children are the ones more affected negatively by these artificial flavorings and colorings. Examples of these kinds of foods are colas, white bread and hydrogenated oils.
The hydrogenated oils may cause the clogging of the arteries, and thus may result to heart diseases. Because of the clogs, it would be harder for the blood to flow to the brain. Artificially sweetened foods are unhealthy as well because they can cause fluctuations in blood sugar levels. These fluctuations may cause short-term brain fogging and even diabetes. Thus, it would be wiser for you to stay away from excessive sugar products.
Aside from these foods, other intangible things are believed to cause decrease of brain power. Personal problems such as egotism may be a factor. Because of egotism, a person may limit his ideas into just one view, which is his own. Because of egotism, he becomes settled with just his original thought and he would think that since his thoughts are more important than others then there is no more need to look at the ideas that come from others.
As you may have noticed, the effects of the bad eating habits as well as the personal problems may just be temporary. Thus, if you stop eating all those junk foods and start eating healthy; and likewise stop being so egocentric, then your brain functioning may just return to its normal performance. Fortunately, these factors affect the brain efficiency temporarily; unlike with alcoholism and smoking wherein the effects really do affect the IQ.
However, despite the effects’ permanence, the fact still remains that you should take care of your brain. You should keep it healthy all the time by doing things beneficial to your mental health. Whether or not the efficiency of your brain is affected temporarily or permanently, the truth is that it is still harmed for a certain period of time. You should know better, your brain performance should always be at its prime.
