How one’s IQ may contribute to one's wellness

Our present culture gives premium to what we produce or achieve than what we are. The standards of success revolve around bank accounts, number of properties, and the amalgamation of power and fame in a person. Our sense of security depends not so much on how we take care of ourselves in terms of body, mind and spirit but how well we manage our finances. It is not to say that they are mutually exclusive—that to take care of one necessarily involves neglecting the other—but that in fact, they are equally important to living life successfully.

When we say body wellness, we refer to not just some parts of our physiology but to our whole state of being—body, mind, and spirit. It is only proper that we similarly give them importance because the standards of the world for success are not departed from the standard of success of our own well-being. Is there a correlation between a healthy body and success? Are the rich people rich because they are healthy or are they healthy because they are rich?

It is argued in this entry that although body, mind and spirit should be given equal treatment in terms of health, it is important that we first take care of our mind’s intelligence quotient (IQ) before we can take care of the other aspects of our health as we pursue the formula health=wealth.

In a study by Linda Gottfredson, a sociologist based at the University of Delaware, and psychologist Ian Deary of the University of Edinburgh, she tried to find a solution to the correlation of health and status. Her proposition was that the rich live longer because they are smarter. The crucial points in the study are that:

(a) social status correlates strongly and positively with IQ and other measures of intelligence;

(b) intelligence correlates strongly with “health literacy,” the ability to understand and follow a prescription for disease prevention and treatment; and

(c) intelligence is also correlated with forward-planning—which means avoidance of health risks as are identified (FORBES, 2004).

In her paper Life, Death, and Intelligence, Gottfredson mentioned that preventing and managing both chronic disease and accidental injury, the leading causes of death today, is a highly cognitive process. In the Journal of Personality; Social Psychology in 2004, Gottfredson cited a 1993 study that shows that more than half of the 1.8 billion prescriptions issued annually in the U.S. are taken incorrectly. The same study reported that 10% of all hospitalizations resulted from patients' inability to manage their drug therapy. These studies only show that the ability to comprehend things around in a more critical way determines not only our success in life but our very own existence.

As what is propounded in the studies mentioned, intelligent people tend to be more knowledgeable about health issues or at least have the propensity to learn more and understand better their health. Health literacy matters to people whose level of intelligence can recognize the importance of knowing the risks of our choices to our health. Our next step requires us to increase our IQ now for a healthier and more successful life.

But the next question is: can we really increase our IQ? If not, are those who have IQ below 100 points doomed to be unwell, hence, less successful? How do we explain the existence of people who have superior IQs and yet are totally in a state of health imbalance?

These things are just some of the few things that I think of in between reading cases and Facebook.