People who wear glasses have long been perceived as being smarter, but a major new study has found that actually, there may be some truth to the stereotype.
Conducted by researchers from the University of Edinburgh and published in Nature Communication, the study anaylsed cognitive and genetic data from more than 300,000 people between the ages of 16 and 102.
They found “significant genetic overlap between general cognitive function, reaction time, and many health variables including eyesight, hypertension and longevity.”
People possessing higher than average intelligence were 30 per cent more likely to carry genes indicating they required glasses, Harper’s Bazaar UK reports.
The study is the largest of its kind ever conducted, according to The Guardian, and also found negative correlations between cognitive function and a number of other health problems, including angina, lung cancer and depression.
“The discovery of shared genetic effects on health outcomes and brain structure provides a foundation for exploring the mechanisms by which these differences influence thinking skills throughout a lifetime,” said Dr Gail Davies of University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology.
It’s time to bin those contact lenses and dust off your specs.
