13 - Raising IQ level by vitamin and mineral supplementation

Summary

Introduction

It is well known that high IQ levels are important for individuals and societies alike. Social status, financial earnings, and educational success are all closely linked with high IQ; similarly, social failure, unemployment, and poverty are often associated with low IQ (Cattell, 1983; Itzkoff, 1991,1994). Attempts to raise IQ levels through special environmental manipulation (i.e. special educational measures like Head Start) have been failures on the whole, producing short-lived improvements only, with many of the claims made for large improvements clearly fraudulent (Spitz, 1986). Such an outcome is not unexpected in view of the strong determination of IQ differences by genetic and generally biological factors (Brody, 1992; Plomin, 1993; Vernon, 1989). Alternative possibilities, making use of biological determinants, do not seem to have figured prominently in these efforts to raise IQ levels, possibly because of the environmentalistic prejudices of the prevailing behavioristic climate, with its antibiological orientation. Recent changes in this general orientation may herald a less blinkered approach.

One possible venue is through micronutrient supplementation (Schoenthaler, 1991). Micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) play an important part in our physical and mental well-being (Essman, 1987), and undisciplined eating habits may produce significant deficiencies in some important vitamins and minerals in spite of adequate calorie intake (Axelson & Brinberg, 1989). There are claims that such supplementation may have the effect of raising IQ (Dean & Morgenthaler, 1990; Dean, Morgenthaler, & Fowkes, 1993), and some at least seem well founded.