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   HEALTHY LIVING   
      
   Severe Infections In Childhood Linked To Lower IQ   
      
      
    4 days ago | Updated 3 days ago   
      
   By: Julia Calderone Published: May 22, 2015 11:16am ET on LiveScience. People   
   who have had an infection that made them so sick they had to be hospitalized   
   may have IQs that are slightly lower than average, a new study suggests.   
      
   	Researchers from the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University in   
   Denmark examined the hospital records of 190,000 Danish men born between 1974   
   and 1994. All the men took IQ tests at age 19, as part of the process of   
   signing up for Denmark's    
   mandatory draft. The tests were designed to assess their logical, verbal,   
   numerical and spatial reasoning.   
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   	After adjusting for factors known to track with people's IQ scores, such as   
   social conditions and the education levels of their parents, the researchers   
   found that the average IQ score of the men who had been hospitalized for an   
   infection before they    
   took the IQ test -- about 35 percent of the study cohort -- were 1.76 points   
   below the average of the men in the study who had not been hospitalized for an   
   infection.   
      
   	"Infections in the brain affected the cognitive ability the most, but many   
   other types of infections severe enough to require hospitalization can also   
   impair a patient's cognitive ability," study author Dr. Michael Eriksen   
   Benrós, a researcher at the    
   National Centre for Register-Based Research, said in a statement.   
      
   	Moreover, the more times a person was hospitalized, the lower his IQ,   
   researchers found. Those with five or more hospitalizations for infection had   
   an average IQ that was 9.44 points below the average of those who were not   
   hospitalized. [10 Ways to Keep    
   Your Mind Sharp]   
      
   	Hospitalization for bacterial infections tended to lower cognitive scores by   
   about 1.55 points, and hospitalizations for viral infections lowered them by   
   about 1.34 points, the researchers said.   
      
   	The study shows that there is a strong relationship between the number and   
   severity of infections a person has and that person's cognitive ability,   
   according to the authors. The infections seen in the study included those of   
   the stomach, urinary tract    
   and skin, as well as some sexually transmitted infections such as herpes.   
      
   	Infections have previously been linked to increased risks of depression and   
   schizophrenia, and may even worsen the cognitive declines associated with   
   dementia, according to the study. But this is the first study to suggest that   
   infection may harm the    
   brain and cognition of healthy people.   
      
   	Although it's not clear exactly how infections may affect a person's IQ, the   
   study authors said it's possible that the immune system, and not the infection   
   itself, affects the brain. When the body launches an attack against a foreign   
   invader, it    
   activates an immune response that can lead to inflammation. The brain is   
   generally protected from this attack, but perhaps sometimes the brain can be   
   affected.   
      
   	"It seems that the immune system itself can affect the brain to such an   
   extent that the person's cognitive ability measured by an IQ test will also be   
   impaired many years after the infection has been cured," said Benrós in a   
   statement.   
      
   	It could also be that inflammation elsewhere in the body negatively affects   
   the brain, the researchers suggest. Animal experiments and some recent, small   
   studies on people have indicated that the immune system may contribute to   
   cognitive decline.    
   However, more research is needed to determine whether genetic or environmental   
   factors may play a role, the researchers said.   
      
   	The study authors said they hope that their results will spark more research   
   into the immune system's possible role in the development of psychiatric   
   disorders. It is unclear whether infection-related inflammation may actually   
   cause mental disorders to    
   develop, or whether other factors may be involved, such as a genetic   
   predisposition toward both infection and a lowered cognitive ability, the   
   researchers said.   
      
   The study was published May 13 in the journal PLOS ONE.   
      
   Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on   
   Live Science.   
      
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