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Do Fathers Who Exercise Have Smarter Babies?

nytimes.com

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Re: Do Fathers Who Exercise Have Smarter Babies?

#31

Post by fortythirteen »

DannyBee wrote: post #24
fortythirteen wrote: post #10

Correlation implied as causation. Here is another correlation into causation article linking cardiovascular fitness to IQ[0] Another way to look at it can be from the per-capita relation of economic class to fitness[1]. It is entirely possible that, because people higher up the economic ladder are more likely to be fit, and because they are more likely to receive better prenatal care, generally have better nutrition,…

Actually, it is not correlation implied as causation. See https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(18)304... "Highlights •Exercising male mice pass a cognitive benefit to their offspring •This phenomenon is mediated by altered expression of sperm RNA •Levels of miR212/132 in sperm play a key role in this intergenerational effect" This appears to be causation implied as causation.

It's actually a perfect example of correlation to causation. The title could easily have been "fathers perpetually kept in cramped quarters produce dumb babies".

Re: Do Fathers Who Exercise Have Smarter Babies?

#32

Post by Someone1234 »

gsteinb88 wrote: post #20
yakuza00000 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So wouldn't the study just need to compare athelete's children with a rocket scientist's children?

Most of the rocket scientists I know also exercise

I know a handful at Boeing (inc. family) and they're pretty representative of the American male population for their ages (meaning some healthy, some less healthy, with more in the latter than the former categories).

By the way, I'm talking literal rocket engineers in the sense that they work on ICBMs and counter systems as contractors for the US Government.

Re: Do Fathers Who Exercise Have Smarter Babies?

#33

Post by xstartup »

ct0 wrote: post #16
xstartup wrote: post #15

Most people don't exercise because no one is paying them to exercise. If a government wants healthy people, they should pay up $100 per hour to just exercise. I think this is the conspiracy of rich people to make poor people fat so that they get sick and rich people sell medicines, fast food, and garcinia combogia, gym membership (which is just another name for drugs like cocaine, meth etc.... but licensed and regula…

There are plenty of fat rich people.

Yes, but they are fat by choice not due to lack of choice.

Re: Do Fathers Who Exercise Have Smarter Babies?

#34

Post by jacurtis »

fortythirteen wrote: post #10

Correlation implied as causation. Here is another correlation into causation article linking cardiovascular fitness to IQ[0] Another way to look at it can be from the per-capita relation of economic class to fitness[1]. It is entirely possible that, because people higher up the economic ladder are more likely to be fit, and because they are more likely to receive better prenatal care, generally have better nutrition,…

Actually its a case of "Read the whole article, and NOT just the headline, before leaving a comment" syndrome.

The study was presented on mice who all lived in the same laboratory in identical little cages. They were not exposed to various economic classes. We don't need to run a per-capita relational analysis on them because they were mice... living in cages. One group of mice was provided tools like an exercise wheel in their cages after they reached adulthood to provide them means of exercising, which they took advantage of. The male mice that exercised sired "smarter" offspring (details into how they make that determination are in the article) even when paired with sedentary females.

Now yes I agree with you that there is a strong relationship in humans between exercise and economic class. On average humans with higher economic status tend to be more fit. There are numerous reasons for this. However, that really doesn't have anything to do with this study. This study concluded that adult males who exercise regularly, pass positive mental traits to their offspring. You could later argue that therefore a higher percentages of kids from high economic classes will display these same desirable mental traits... which I would probably agree with, but that is an entirely different argument than what is made in this study.

So yes take the 3 minutes that it takes to read this 1,200 or so word article before leaving a comment claiming that the article is wrong.

Re: Do Fathers Who Exercise Have Smarter Babies?

#35

Post by gascan »

xstartup wrote: post #15

Most people don't exercise because no one is paying them to exercise. If a government wants healthy people, they should pay up $100 per hour to just exercise. I think this is the conspiracy of rich people to make poor people fat so that they get sick and rich people sell medicines, fast food, and garcinia combogia, gym membership (which is just another name for drugs like cocaine, meth etc.... but licensed and regula…

Not paying people to take care of themselves is a conspiracy? Is paying people to take care of themselves, somehow the natural state of the world?

Re: Do Fathers Who Exercise Have Smarter Babies?

#36

Post by nostrademons »

l5870uoo9y wrote: post #13

The title makes it sound like a dull statistical correlation was found in some sociology report, but they did some actual measuring. From the report summary: > We show that this effect is mediated through sperm RNA and especially miRs 212/132. In conclusion, our study reports intergenerational inheritance of an acquired cognitive benefit and points to specific miRs as candidates mechanistically involved in this type…

In mice, though. It's an open question to what extent rodent results apply to humans. This result should open doors to future research, but by itself should be taken with the appropriate grain of salt.

Re: Do Fathers Who Exercise Have Smarter Babies?

#37

Post by nadezhda18 »

wanderr wrote: post #22
andai wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people don't exercise because they can't be bothered to. They think that they need energy before they can exercise, when it works exactly the other way around.

Maybe for some people. Exercise doesn't give me energy. I do it anyway and find ways to make it enjoyable, but if I'm tired it's a slog.

I would suggest to eat some carbs 1 h before exersising

Re: Do Fathers Who Exercise Have Smarter Babies?

#39

Post by Jagat »

tankerdude wrote: post #21

So that would imply that people who actually must exercise for their job (construction workers) would have smarter children, on average? And how would that be measured if the child gets stuck in a poorly performing school and no real academic challenges?

Maybe, unless there's a correlation (or inverse correlation) between smartness and those who must exercise for their job (vs those who don't).

Makes me think about the old question about those who have a higher paying mostly mental desk job. Is it because they're smarter (say through some genetic predisposition), or is it because of all the socioeconomic situations that led them to that job?

(Yes there are exceptions, like you, the one who's about to quote an anecdote. I'm talking about the majority)

Re: Do Fathers Who Exercise Have Smarter Babies?

#40

Post by xstartup »

gascan wrote: post #35
xstartup wrote: post #15

Most people don't exercise because no one is paying them to exercise. If a government wants healthy people, they should pay up $100 per hour to just exercise. I think this is the conspiracy of rich people to make poor people fat so that they get sick and rich people sell medicines, fast food, and garcinia combogia, gym membership (which is just another name for drugs like cocaine, meth etc.... but licensed and regula…

Not paying people to take care of themselves is a conspiracy? Is paying people to take care of themselves, somehow the natural state of the world?

Assuming that everyone knows how to take care of themselves is ignorance.

We don't live in a natural state, otherwise, it would have been fine for me to kill you for my survival.

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