Evolutionary perspective on raising intelligence (2013) [pdf]

I've been thinking about this A LOT as a football player (American). I'm certain I've dropped a few IQ points after seven years of being a defensive lineman. It takes me a little longer to process things; my memory is a little worse. Right now I'm debating if I'm going to make this past season my last.

That being said, if I could do it all over again, I'd still choose to play. Totally worth it. On one hand, I get protecting your intelligence as much as possible (intelligence being a critical component in my career path). But on the other hand, there's more to life than simply maximizing your brain power.

So essentially, the most beneficial course here is getting into healthy habits and pursuing loss prevention. I haven't seen much evidence at all that otherwise well nurished and healthy people can raise their actual intelligence, but there seems to be a lot of things which can effectively reduce it, both short term and long. Removing or mitigating these can get folks closer to their potential. I think this has a lot of applications for people who worry about this. Like I've read studies quantifying I.Q loss per day of losing just 1 hour of sleep a night. After a few days parts of cognition can be effected heavily.

It's very important for the brain to be in a thriving environment where all it's faculties are being used.

Great study!