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SolveIt comments on Open Thread, May 12 - 18, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Does anyone have a good grasp of the literature on the relationship between drinking and intelligence?
Corretational or causational e.g. how it affects intelligence or how much intelligent people usually drink?
I'm interested in the causal aspects to help me decide how much I should be drinking.
Smart people are less likely to abstain from drinking (search for the word "floored"). I suspect that the quantitative trend is driven by the choice to drink or not and thus the correlation, even if were causal, is not relevant to the question of how much to drink.
Are you just asking how much drinking will make you stupider, long-term?
Yes. I presume it does make you stupider?
Not that I know of, at least in reasonable amounts (where "reasonable" is defined as not causing clinical-grade medical symptoms, like a failing liver).
I haven't seen any evidence that moderate drinking lowers IQ. And if your drinking is immoderate, cognitive effects are probably not what you should be worried about.
I see. Google tells me that smarter people tend to drink more. Would I be right in assuming that this doesn't mean I should drink to get smarter?
Yes, you would be right. I don't think drinking helps with IQ -- it's mostly used as a stress reliever and a social lubricant, in which roles it functions well.
High certainty assigned to binge drinking causing some brain damage (if you have a hangover, you definitely binge-drank) via a combination of toxicity and depletion of key resources.
Low certainty assigned to moderate drinking possibly having protective effects on the aging brain via its blood thinning properties preventing stroke.
Medium certainty assigned to absolutely no protective or beneficial effects for moderate drinking in youth (beyond fun and social benefits).
Medium certainty assigned to the notion that for youth, the major drawback of moderate alcohol consumption is the risk of physically injuring yourself while intoxicated, not the actual toxicity.
I really doubt there is significant damage associated with moderate drinking in youth. With the number of studies that have been done on this, if there were a huge noticeable difference in brain structure and function we would have found them by now. However, I do think it will damage you at least a little bit.
There have been a couple of studies which say that, but I believe meta-analysis says the opposite: even moderate drinking is associated with increased rates of ischemic strokes (not just hemorrhagic). The only cause of death reduced among moderate drinkers is ischemic heart disease.