Is it possible to improve intelligence?

Question
Dear Tanya, I need a lot of help. I'm a 22 years old female. You see according to my mother I've had eating problems my whole life, since birth I did not want to eat. I was always a very low weight. When I became a teenager this escalated and I stopped eating and began starving myself. Recently I read that intelligence depends on early good nutrition. Well, I notice my own stupidity..sometimes after years of thinking about a certain action or what a person said I only understand what really happened. I have a lot of other examples, but I know my intelligence is not as high as others and I'm so ashamed. Is it true that this is because of early malnutrition and is there anything I can do to reverse this, will I ever be as smart as others?

Answer
Hello,

You are right, early nutrition is very important, however, the later-life environment is equally important. For example, please read "Exercise improves IQ and cognitive scores": http://agelessbrain.com/2010/12/exercise-developmental-retardation/ and "Vitamin  D and mental health" http://agelessbrain.com/2010/05/vitamin-d-and-mental-health-an-easy-solution-for... and "Nutrients for Better Learning" http://agelessbrain.com/2010/03/nutrients-for-better-learning/ This being said, here are some facts.

Research evidence is accumulating, showing that many of the same strategies for maintaining physical health are also applicable for maintaining brain plasticity and good cognitive functioning throughout the lifespan. These studies reinforce the message that exercise梡hysical and mental梚s an essential part of any comprehensive health program (ALTERNATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES桹CTOBER 2006 pp 222-227)

Exercise can help maintain balance, and balance in the elderly has been highly correlated with performance measures of mental abilities such as general intelligence, memory, and reaction time. Balance thus serves as a biomarker of cerebroarterial blood flow
and age-related global neurophysiologic status (Neuropsychologia 2006;44:1978?983).

Meditation and cortex thickness: Magnetic resonance imaging to assess cortical thickness revealed that brain areas梥uch as the prefrontal cortex involved with memory, attention, and sensory processing梬ere approximately 5 percent thicker in the subjects who meditated compared with those who did not. This difference was most pronounced in older participants, suggesting that meditation might offset agerelated cortical thinning (Neuroreport 2005;16:1893?897)

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