A Component Of The New York State Dental Association: Fill & Download for Free

The American Dental Association is the main dental association of the United States. It was founded after the Civil War, and is what is known as a tripartite organization. Membership is voluntary, but most dentists in the US are members.Membership in the ADA starts at the state level. A new dentist in, say, New York State, where I practiced, applies for membership at the New York State Dental Association. Once accepted, he is automatically enrolled in the national society, as well as the local society at the district level. Three societies at once. Hence the name " tripartite". Membership entitles a member to attend a meeting at any of the component or constituent societies, as well as the ADA.The advantages of membership in the ADA are numerous. Continuing education courses, required by all States, are given or sponsored by the national organization, or by one of its components. Various insurance programs are available at favorable rates. Dental meetings also provide dentists to interact with various dental suppliers and manufacturers, and learn about new products.There are many other dental societies. Almost all of them require membership in the ADA first. The American Association of Orthodontists (AAO), of which I am a member, requires proof of membership in The ADA before joining.

Epiphaniae medicorum, uroscopy and ring of flasks (Diagnosing diabetes: a wee taste of honey)… “no essential part of the drink is absorbed by the body while great masses of the flesh are liquefied into urine.”- Aretaeus of Cappadocia[1]Although it seems to have gained notoriety only recently as increasing numbers of people across the globe have fallen prey to the disease, countless brilliant minds have played a part in the fascinating history of diabetes mellitus. Scientists and physicians have been chronicling this devastating medical condition for more than 3,000 years, from the origins of its discovery to the dramatic breakthroughs in its treatment. In antiquity, a diagnosis of diabetes was likely a death sentence.Cedar wood panel depicting Hesy-Ra (Hesy-Ra - Wikipedia)The first known mention of diabetes symptoms was in the Ebers Papyrus 1552 B.C., where Hesy-Ra a third dynasty physician (whose title was Wer-ibeh-senjw, meaning either "Great one of the ivory cutters" or "Great one of the dentists"), documented frequent urination as a symptom of a mysterious disease that also caused emaciation. Hesy-Ra mentions the “too great emptying of the urine'.The following mixture was prescribed for the treatment of polyuria (excessive urination): ‘A measuring glass filled with Water from the Bird pond, Elderberry, Fibres of the asit plant, Fresh Milk, Beer-Swill, Flower of the Cucumber, and Green Dates”.[2]It's unclear whether the condition described was excessive urine (polyuria), which may have been symptomatic of diabetes, or increased frequency of urine, resulting from a urinary tract infection[3] . Urinary troubles were corrected with rectal injections of olive oil, honey, sweet beer, sea salt, and seeds of the wonderfruit.[4]Egyptian medicine influenced the medical practices of neighboring cultures, including the culture of ancient Greece. Although the Greek physician Hippocrates, the father of medicine, did not specifically mention diabetes in his writings, there are accounts in the Hippocratic writings that are consistent with the signs and symptoms of diabetes.[5] There are references to excessive urinary flow with wasting of the body. Hippocrates promoted the concept of preventive medicine, stressimg the influence of diet, exercise, and lifestyle on health.[6](Origin of surgery Sushruta (Origin of surgery Sushruta - Fancy Frindle)The ancient Indian physician, Sushruta (6th century BC), and the surgeon Charaka (400–500 A.D.) were able to identify the two types, later to be named Type I and Type II diabetes.[7] Sushruta called diabetes the disease of madhu-meha, i.e., sweet urine.[8] The first clinical test of diabetes was devised in Ancient India, where patients exhibiting the common diabetes symptoms described above, had their urine analyzed with the help of ants.[9] If the sugar-loving ants came rushing to the urine, a diagnosis of “madhumeha” was given, indicating the patient had “honey urine”, with elevated levels of glucose in the urine.[10]Another ancient Ayurveda physician, Charaka, who lived in the 3rd century BCE called diabetes the disease of prameha, referring to abnormally high outputs of urine.[11] Both physicians advocated abstaining from sweet foods and reducing the intake of rice and other grains as part of the treatment of diabetes.[12]Apollonius of Memphis (A history of Diabetes timeline)There are two contenders for coining the term diabetes meaning to pass through. The first is Apollonius of Memphis, around 250 BC, while the second is Demetrius of Apamea (1st century BCE).[13] Apollonius of Memphis. is credited with naming the disorder for its top symptom: the excessive passing of urine through the body’s system.[14] Demetrius, likened polyuria to the siphoning of wine between pots—a practice now called "racking," which has long been used during fermentation to remove the sediment of dead yeast and promote proper aging.[15]Caelius Aurelianus prepared a Latin version of the works of Soranus, including in the index a subject heading for "Diabetes”. Caelius quotes Apollonius of Memphis as separating two forms of dropsy, one marked by retention of fluid and the other by the inability to retain fluid; the patient discharges whatever he drinks as if it were passed through a pipe. Caelius Aurelianus continues by stating that Demetrius distinguishes this disease from dropsy in which any fluid that is drunk is discharged as urine. Demetrius calls this condition diabetes.[16]Aulus (Aurelius) Cornelius Celsus, a Roman physician, was credited with the first recording of the cardinal signs of inflammation, which included calor (warmth), dolor (pain), tumor (swelling), and rubor (redness and hyperemia).[17] He describes a condition likely to be diabetes, calling it "excessive pouring out of urine" causing "emaciation and danger”.[18]In the first century A.D., ancient Greek physician Aretaeus vividly described the destructive nature of an illness which he named diabetes derived from the Greek word “siphon” (meaning flowing through).[19]Diabetes is … not very frequent ... being a melting down of the flesh and limbs into urine … for the patients never stop making water, but the flow is incessant, as if from the opening of aqueducts. It consists in the flesh and bones running together into the urine … the illness develops very slowly. The nature of the disease is chronic, and it takes a long period to form; but the patient does not live long once the disease is fully established; for the melting is rapid, the death speedy. Moreover life is disgusting and painful; thirst, unquenchable … and one cannot stop them either from drinking or making water".[20]Diabetes indeed appears to have been a death sentence in the ancient era: Aretaeus did attempt to treat it, but could not provide a good prognosis. He commented that "life (with diabetes) is short, disgusting and painful”.[21] In 164 AD, building upon Aretaeus’ assessment, Greek physician, Galen of Pergamum, categorized diabetes as an ailment of the kidneys.[22]The Origins of Diabetes | St. Hope FoundationFor several hundred years, the treatises of Aretaeus and Galen remained the definitive reference for the diagnosis of diabetes, but offered no cures. To the east, Chinese physicians described the disease similarly, labeling it xiao ke (wasting and thirsting), a term still used today.[23] Xiaoke tea, a traditional Chinese treatment for diabetes mellitus was thought to lower blood glucose concentrations.[24]As the Middle Ages began, diabetes was known as the “pissing evil”[25] , commonly diagnosed by “water tasters”, who tasted the urine of people thought to have diabetes to see if the excretion was sweet like honey.[26] Avicenna (980–1037 A.D.), the great Persian physician, in The Canon of Medicine not only referred to abnormal appetite and the decline of sexual functions, but observed diabetic gangrene but also concocted a mixture of seeds (lupin, fenugreek, zedoary) as a panacea.[27]Thomas Willis in the late 1600s added the term mellitus or "from honey" to separate the condition from diabetes insipidus, which is also associated with frequent urination.[28] Willis was infamous for his diagnosis of diabetes, which involved tasting the urine of his patients.[29] He associated diabetes with depression (“diabetes is caused by melancholy”), an observation that was only rediscovered three centuries later.[30]With little understanding of pathophysiology, early remedies for diabetes included diverse and interesting prescriptions like “oil of roses, dates, raw quinces and gruel, jelly of viper’s flesh, broken red coral, sweet almonds and fresh flowers of blind nettles” representing a variety of beliefs and practices of the times.[31] The prescribed treatment was exercise, which is consistent with medical advice for today, but with one difference: the preferred method of exercise was horseback riding.[32] It was thought that this would decrease urination frequency.Later, in the pre-insulin era, calorie restriction reigned supreme, and graphic accounts of the terminal gasping and sighing and sweet smell (ketosis) surrounding the patient in a diabetic coma abound in the volumes written on the disease.[33]Research published in the journal ‘Nature’ reveals that the likelihood of non-African Homo sapiens developing conditions, particularly auto-immune disorders, which can be determined by Neanderthal alleles. DNA sequencing was conducted on a recent skeletal discovery from Denisova Cave, indicating that what were considered modern diseases originated in our Neanderthal ancestors.[34] The diseases included type two diabetes, Crohn's disease, lupus and biliary cirrhosis.[35]The deep roots of diabetesThe diagnosis of diabetes mellitus from skeletal remains is very difficult given the complexity of the disease and the fact that there are no pathological skeletal characteristics exclusively associated with the condition.[36] Skeletal identification of diabetes mellitus may only be possible through differential diagnosis, when several pathological changes are present. Skeletal and dental changes associated with diabetes mellitus include Charcot's joint (neuropathic arthropathy), osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH, or Forestier's disease), adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder), dental caries, periodontal disease, and antemortem tooth loss.[37]It should not be understood that Neanderthals had diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a disease of the modern world, borne of a mismatch between modern, unhealthy lifestyles and a metabolism that, for the vast majority of our evolutionary history, existed in an environment where food was relatively scarce and lots of physical activity was necessary to survive.[38] In the harsh environment of the Ice Age, even individuals carrying genes that contribute to diabetes when food is plentiful and sedentary lifestyles are common are unlikely to develop diabetes.Skeletal remains of an adult male from the Egyptian archaeological site of Dayr al Barsha dated to the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2055–1650 BC), display a myriad of pathological conditions that, when considered together, indicate the presence of diabetes mellitus.[39] This diagnosis represents the earliest, and possibly the only recorded, archaeological Raf inhibitor skeletal evidence for this disease.(Ancient Mummy Suffered Rare And Painful Disease)Around 2,900 years ago, an ancient Egyptian man, likely in his 20s, passed away after suffering from a rare, cancer-like disease that may also have left him with a type of diabetes. His mummy showed telltale signs that he suffered from Hand-Schuller-Christian disease an enigmatic condition in which Langerhans cells, a type of immune cell found in the skin, multiply rapidly.[40] They tend to replace normal structure of the bone and all other soft tissues.The disease seems to have taken a terrible toll on the ancient man’s body, as it destroyed parts of his skeleton, leaving lytic lesions throughout his spine and skull.[41] Scans also indicated what looks like a giant hole in his skull’s frontal-parietal bone, and destruction of a section of one of his eye sockets, known as the orbital wall. The effects of the disease would have been excruciating and would have affected the man’s appearance. In addition, it may have led him to suffer from a form of diabetes. The scans show that his sella turcica, part of the skull that holds the pituitary gland, is shallow, which suggests that this gland was also affected by the disease.[42]Researchers believe the condition could have lead to diabetes insipius. The condition would have made it difficult for his kidneys to conserve water, something that would have worsened the man’s predicament.[43] In all likelihood, he suffered from continuous thirst and hunger, urinating frequently.Hatsheput (Metropolitan Museum of Art - Wikipedia)Recent examination of a mummy considered to be Hatshesput (Pharoah of the XVIIIth dynasty 1503 and 1482BC) suggests she probably died of an infection caused by an abscessed tooth, with complications from advanced bone cancer and possibly diabetes.[44] Amenhotep III, the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, may have suffered from diabetes as well.[45]Archaeological evidence indicates that certain groups of Paleo-Indians maintained an arctic-like hunter-gatherer life-style in temperate areas of North America ranging from Wyoming to Arizona. This life-style featured a reliance on unpredictable big game species as a major food source. However, at this time, big game species were becoming extinct. It is hypothesized that those Paleo-Indians who relied on big game as a food source developed a “thrifty” genotype,[46] that allowed a selective advantage during the periods of fasting that occurred between big game kills.Insulin resistance has previously been proposed as a mechanism for coping with variable food intake during evolution. Neel's thrifty gene hypothesis postulates that cycles of feast and famine selected for a “quick insulin trigger” (postprandial hyperinsulinemia) as a mechanism to increase fat stores during food abundance and available during food scarcity.[47]There is a high prevalence of (Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes (NIDDM) susceptible genotypes in several distinct populations: American Indians, Australian Aborigines, and Pacific Islanders.[48] The susceptible genotype may have been selected into these populations because of unusually frequent food shortages that occurred during the initial colonization of 'new worlds'. NIDDM has been shown to have a strong genetic component that may include a 'thrifty' genotypes.[49] The 'thrifty' genotypes may have once allowed founding populations to survive feast' and 'famine' conditions for several generations. With an assured food supply and a sedentary lifestyle, however, the 'thrifty' genotype(s) becomes disadvantageous, leading to obesity, increased insulin resistance, beta cell decompensation, and NIDDM.[50]New DNA techniques will spark archeology revolution, expert saysDuring the same time period, across the Atlantic Ocean, it is believed that inhabitants began to exhibit symptoms of what would eventually be classified as Juvenile diabetes. During a 1000 year climatic reversal known as the Younger Dryas, temperatures dropped by 10 degrees Fahrenheit, causing those who did not die from the artic conditions to move South.[51] Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York suggest that some individuals adapted to the extreme conditions. High levels of blood glucose prevent cells and tissue form forming ice crystals. Basically, Type 1 diabetes prevented some from freezing to death.[52]Food during the last Ice Age was almost certainly limited, meaning that dietary blood sugar likely followed suit. Therefore, the insulin of a diabetic from this epoch may have never come close to reaching dangerous levels.The following quote is from Sharon Moalem:Imagine that some small group of people had a different response to the cold. Faced with year-round frigid temperatures, their insulin supply slowed, allowing their blood sugar to rise somewhat. As in the wood frog, this would have lowered the freezing point of their blood. They urinated frequently, to keep internal water levels low… Suppose these people used their brown fat to burn that oversupply of sugar in their blood to create heat. Perhaps they even produced additional clotting factor to repair tissue damage caused by particularly deep cold snaps. It’s not hard to imagine that these people might have had enough of an advantage over other humans… to make it more likely that they would survive long enough to reach reproductive age.”[53]Many in the medical community are skeptical, asserting that the study fails to account for dangerous complications such as ketoacidosis and early death.[54] However, since the average age of death was 25, those with high glucose would not have lived long enough to succomb to complications. They would however, despite the extreme conditions, live long enough to reproduce, resulting in genetic adaptations over a few generations.[55]While this may sound highly speculative, there’s actually a decent amount of evidence to support the notion. Lab rats essentially become diabetic (that is, they grow resistant to their own insulin) when exposed to cold temperatures.[56]More Northern Hemisphere inhabitants are diagnosed with diabetes between November and February than between June and September, theoretically due to the noticable drop in temperature during the former period.[57] Almost invariably, children are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes during the late fall as temperatures drop. An extensive study of U.S. veterans, revealed that not only do the subjects’ blood sugar levels spike while winter is at hand, but that those who hail from environments with a great deal of variation in seasonal temperature (ie: colder districts) had a particularly extreme physiological contrast in this regard.[58]Footnotes[1] Aretaeus of Cappadocia[2] Polyuria - Genitourinary Disorders - Merck Manuals Professional Edition[3] MECHANISMS OF PAIN FROM URINARY TRACT INFECTION[4] The Ebers Papyrus: Medico-Magical Beliefs and Treatments Revealed in Ancient Egyptian Medical Text[5] Historical Diabetes Remedies[6] Diagnosing Diabetes: A Practitioner's Plea: Keep It Simple[7] The History of Diabetes Mellitus[8] History of Diabetes Mellitus[9] https://mysugr.com/en/blog/ants-with-diabetes[10] https://www.nhp.gov.in/Madhumeha-(Diabetes-mellitus)_mtl[11] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.jsirjournal.com/Vol4_Issue4_08.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiqseuKlpzlAhUQpJ4KHWgLBZ8QFjAFegQICxAB&usg=AOvVaw275X45OeYFJcauml-J1PW7[12] Diabetes in Ancient Literature[13] Diabetes Detectives[14] The Origins of Diabetes | St. Hope Foundation[15] The Discovery of Insulin: An Important Milestone in the History of Medicine[16] Diabetes Its Medical and Cultural History[17] Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, and Type 2 Diabetes: Back to the Future?[18] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://friedmanfellows.com/assets/pdfs/elibrary/Principles%2520of%2520Diabetes%2520Mellitus%2520-%2520Ch1Final.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiM6b2smJzlAhXYvJ4KHSVgCQEQFjAKegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw0kllZ_wHWefc_uHQif9Eqd&cshid=1571071278134[19] Aretaeus of Cappadocia and the first description of diabetes.[20] Aretaeus of Cappadocia[21] History of diabetes: early science, early treatment, insulin[22] On the term diabetes in the works of Aretaeus and Galen | Medical History | Cambridge Core[23] Xiaoke, a traditional Chinese treatment for diabetes. Studies in streptozotocin diabetic mice and spontaneously diabetic BB/E rats.[24] Xiaoke Tea, a Chinese Herbal Treatment for Diabetes Mellitus[25] Dark Ages of Diabetes[26] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://vanderbilt.edu/olli/class-materials/2017Winter.ISWk1.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwji5NfznJzlAhXuFzQIHRCVBqUQFjACegQIDxAI&usg=AOvVaw1p-b95HZqhfFGFvH7c8NKE[27] The History of Diabetes Mellitus[28] Sickening Sweet[29] Diapedia, The Living Textbook of Diabetes[30] Diabetes and Depression[31] http://diabeteshealth.com/read/2008/12/17/715/the-history-of-diabetes/[32] History of Diabetes[33] Diabetic Coma - an overview[34] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/deadthings/2019/01/30/denisova-cave-dates/&ved=2ahUKEwiE652zoZzlAhWnmuAKHYgmA54QFjAAegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw3DibYrT_iwjzC4z6WNvVpW[35] Neanderthal genes linked to diseases in modern day humans including[36] Determinants of Bone Strength and Quality in Diabetes Mellitus in Humans[37] Pathological skeletal remains from ancient Egypt: the earliest case of diabetes mellitus?[38] The deep roots of diabetes[39] Skeletal and dental changes associated with diabetes mellitus inc[40] Hand–Schüller–Christian disease - Wikipedia[41] Ancient Mummy Suffered Rare And Painful Disease[42] Ancient Egyptian Mummies Show Signs of Crippling Spinal Disease[43] McDougall Newsletter: May 2011[44] The King Herself[45] Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamun's Family[46] Archaeology of NIDDM: Excavation of the “Thrifty” Genotype[47] Evolutionary origins of insulin resistance: a behavioral switch hypothesis[48] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/1991567/[49] Google Scholar[50] Archaeology of NIDDM: Excavation of the “Thrifty” Genotype[51] Ice Age Diabetics?[52] Is diabetes a result of ice age?[53] Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease[54] Ice Age Diabetics?[55] The sweet thing about Type 1 diabetes: a cryoprotective evolutionary adaptation.[56] Ice Age Diabetics?[57] Diabetic-level glucose spikes seen in healthy people[58] Diabetes in the Military - Learning About Diabetes | Diabetes Self-Management

IQ tests measure abilities which are quantifiable. What is able to be tested and real life intelligence are not always the same thing. The human mind is more complex than a simple test can measure. But there are some correlations between testing well on an IQ test and one’s first semester grades in college. The tests are not predictive past the first semester.That which is testable is influenced by cultural factors. Even language is tied to cognitive framing and different thinking styles. These styles influence how IQ tests are answered. For example, Inuit have several different words for “ice.” Imagine if an American that was a native English speaker took an IQ test with a question on it about a special form of ice. The English speaker would have no knowledge of it. Does this make the English speaker less intelligent? Even if the English speaker learned Intuit he would be at a disadvantage taking a test in Inuit covering Intuit usage.The IQ testers decided to check to see how intelligent different European immigrants were after coming to America. Guess what—the Italians and Poles were considered less intelligent than those from England. Native Americans were tested at English speaking only schools and did not do as well—they were accused of being less intelligent as well.Intelligence is between 50–70% genetic. It tends to be a combination of several genes and not one or two that leads to intelligence. Some have argued that intelligent brains are more efficient while processing information. Using fMRI scans, people of varying intelligence were measured while engaged in a cognitively demanding task. Those who performed the best also seems to use the least amount of mental energy to do so. Interestingly, when people are learning a new task their brains show more activity and use more energy. But after repeating a task the brain wires up and becomes more efficient, using less brain space and less energy to do the task.Height is genetically influenced. Within a population there will be a bell curve with most people average in height and shorter at the far left and taller at the far right tail of the curve. Some populations of people—such as those from Denmark are on average taller than those from Japan, for example. But if you picked one person from Denmark and one person from Japan randomly you may find the Japanese person be taller than the person from Denmark.Complicating the matter is nutrition and environment. In populations with better nutrition and less serious illnesses people grow taller. Their genes have not changed, but, like fertilizer, crops and people grow under more beneficial environmental conditions.Korea is an interesting example of a genetically similar population split by war and thus changing the environment. Sanctions on North Korea by the U.S. have led to famines and undernourishment as part of the U.S. led sanctions.IQ has a similar patterns as height. Nutrition helps lift IQ. Avoiding pollutants like lead has increased IQ, as has reducing birth defects by avoid drugs during pregnancy, etc.The best way to understand the genetic influence of IQ is to study identical twins reared apart. And the results are astonishing.So about 50-72% of IQ may be related to genes. May is the operating factor when you consider that identical twins reared apart may have more similar homes than you might imagine. Most adopted children are raised in middle or upper middle class homes. Many who adopt really want children and have the means to care for children and provide them a good home environment. It would be interesting to see the results of identical twins reared apart coming from very different socioeconomic backgrounds.Studies of the bell curves of various populations have been done. But all of these are going to be subject to the problems we discussed earlier. The other factor is that not all demographic groups have similar environments.Another complicating factor has been the Flynn Effect.The Flynn EffectJames Flynn has hypothesized that the environment of people through time has become more cognitively demanding. Prior to 1900 many people lived in small villages and did farming. They went to school when it was out of farming season. Abstract analysis of philosophical and cultural matters was not demanded of them. Most of the things you needed to learn you could master before the age of 25. Change was slow. Then came the urbanization of many to work in factories. More technology was invented, such as radios, computers, etc. Living in a city is a higher mentally demanding task. Then a few years later people are required to use computers to do their jobs, analyze data, etc. Thinking is a skill. As these skills are developed at younger ages people would test better.A way to test this is to watch some of the old movies your great grandparents liked. The humor is more slapstick, and the themes are usually more simple. The narratives are less nuanced and complex. “How could somebody think this was great?” you might ask yourself. They did. Even propaganda has become more complex as people are more sophisticated.Consider this anti-Russian propaganda that people took seriously.After first seeing this I thought only idiots would be convinced by it. But this was considered normal propaganda.Or consider anti-marijuana propaganda. The movie Reefer Madness led people to believe that smoking marijuana would turn you into a crazed murderer.Flynn extends this to moral issues as well.His father had made a racist statement about blacks.“How would you feel if someone said that about you if you were black?” Flynn said to his father.“But I’m not black” his father responded.“But what if you were?”This line of questioning was considered unthinkable to his father’s generation. His father could not relate to racial discrimination. His father was Irish and hated the British. He also faced anti-Irish immigrant discrimination.“How would you feel if there were a sign that said “’No Irish served here’ at a restaurant?”“That would be terrible,” his father replied.“That is how black people in the South feel under Segregation at restaurants.”“But I’m Irish, not black. That is a silly question,” said his father.“How is that different from a black person being denied service by whites?”Modern children are raised differently than their ancestors.IQ scores are increasing faster in nations which are becoming more developed.Eyferth study - Wikipedia“The children studied had been raised by their unmarried German mothers. Most of the fathers, white or black, had been members of the US occupation forces stationed in Germany. At the time of the study, the children were aged between 5 and 13 (mean age: 10). The mothers of the children were approximately matched for socio-economic status; they were mostly of low SES. There were about 98 mixed race (black-white), and about 83 white children in the sample. The total sample consisted of about 5 percent of the German children known to have been fathered by black soldiers between 1945 and 1953, in addition to a matched sample of 83 German children whose fathers were white soldiers. Of the fathers of the mixed-race children, about 80 percent were French Africans and the remaining approximately 20 percent were African Americans. For assessing IQ, a German version of the WISC intelligence test (Hamburg Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, HAWIK) was used.” Id.ResultsThe white children studied averaged an IQ of 97.2, whereas the average of the racially mixed children was 96.5. Id.But despite this there remain group differences in IQ based on race. Flynn explains that studies have been done to show how the average white family has a more verbally rich environment than the average black family. White parents speak to (and with) their children more. And it has been shown that speaking with your child tends to increase your child’s IQ. Some of this is related to socioeconomic status. Multiple generations of poverty have reduced the overall education, number of words spoken, and levels of demanded complexity of information.But why has welfare not helped? Because welfare in America never kept you from being poor. It just kept you from homelessness and starvation. But this is far from the ideal for human beings to thrive. Poverty in the inner city is not an intellectually enriching experience. For this reason Flynn looked at the results of welfare in the Nordic countries and compared them to the U.S. In the Nordic countries they are far more humane and lift people up to more of a middle class standard. This lifts the entire socioeconomic environment up. The problems of poverty like addiction, violence, gangs, and child abuse drop considerably. Flynn argues that the answer to disparities in IQ differences is not caused by poverty because of the existence of welfare. It is caused by a lack of well funded welfare programs. Clinton’s disastrous “welfare to work” requirements destroyed the welfare state and millions of children are raised by daycare centers and people other than their parents. Poverty also causes a person’s IQ to drop due to constant stressors to the brain.It's Poverty, Stupid!Direct effects“At its most basic, poverty can be defined as a lack of necessary material resources, which can directly affect poor children's overall development and, specifically, their development in reading. For example, children in poverty are likely to have fewer books and less access to the Internet, and we know that availability of reading materials in the home is directly connected to reading development. Poor children also tend to own fewer toys and have fewer experiences with novel or stimulating environments, all of which can adversely impact their oral language and general knowledge, which in turn will hinder their reading development.But most children in poverty face more fundamental problems than simple lack of books and experiences. Children in poverty frequently experience food-insecurity, and in this country, many also go without basic health and dental care, putting them at serious risk for both current illness and longer-term health issues. Poor health, painful teeth, and lack of nutritious food impact children's physical and cognitive development, and they also make it harder to learn to read.Family-mediated effectsPoverty also affects children indirectly, through its adverse effects on their families. Families that cannot afford even inadequate housing move frequently and may suffer periods of homelessness, causing some poor children to routinely change schools two or three times within a single year. Working adults in poor families are more likely to hold low-wage, service jobs, with no benefits, no paid sick or family leave, and unpredictable hours, which means that routine health or dental care is often out of reach, quality child care is rarely available and difficult to arrange and pay for, and one car break-down, late bus, or sick child can cause tardiness or absence for both children and working parents.According to medical researchers Wadsworth & Rienks (2012), living in that kind of stress results in "constant wear and tear on the body, dysregulating and damaging the body's stress response system, and reducing cognitive and psychological resources for battling adversity and stress" (p. 1). Such stress, along with unhealthy housing conditions, can lead to chronic health problems like asthma, which is 66 percent more common in children living below the poverty level. Higher levels of stress can also impact family relationships. Hart and Risley's classic 1995 study found that parents living in poverty even communicated with their children more negatively, averaging “five affirmatives [to] 11 prohibitions per hour” (p. 117).Poverty also seems to be specifically related to the amount and types of reading done in families. In part due to lack of time and resources, parents in high-poverty homes are less likely to model literate behaviors like reading for pleasure, and also less likely to read aloud to their young children, who thus miss a vital foundation for school learning.Community-mediated effectsRather than helping to make up for the disadvantages they face, the characteristics of the communities in which many poor children live are more likely to pose additional barriers. Neighborhoods in which poor families are increasingly concentrated in this country have higher than average rates of violent and property crime as well as more open enticements to harmful behaviors such as drug or alcohol use. Because poor people have less political influence, such neighborhoods also often lack adequate civic services, from police and fire protection to trash collection. They are more likely to experience dangerous levels of traffic, outdoor air and water pollution from nearby industry and agriculture, and indoor pollution from mold, insects, and lead paint. Again, these factors all negatively impact children's emotional, physical, and cognitive health, and thus their ability to learn to read.Susan Neuman and her colleagues at New York University have found that poorer neighborhoods also have significantly fewer reading-related resources of all kinds, from bookstores and public libraries to the very signs in the stores, and of course, the deep disparities between schools in poor and well-off neighborhoods are well-known and long-standing.Societally-mediated effectsInterwoven and often causal in all the above-discussed issues is the way our country continues to treat people in poverty, including children. New voter-identification laws, recent restriction of advance voting and voting hours, and inadequate polling places in poor neighborhoods combine to discourage poor people from using their votes to improve their lot. The increasing influence on our political process of massive political spending also works to silence their voices. The zoning of dangerous traffic and polluting industries into poor neighborhoods, unequal school funding, deliberate concentration of poverty housing coupled with restrictive housing codes in more affluent neighborhoods, lax enforcement of housing codes and unconcern for civic services in poor neighborhoods are all common because most people in poverty lack the political power to effectively oppose them. At the same time, families in poverty are often blamed for not surmounting these societally-erected barriers, while teachers and schools lower their expectations for poor children because their parents are perceived as "not caring." Id.'Back-and-forth' conversations with young kids may aid brain...“We found that the most relevant component of children’s language exposure is not the sheer number of words they hear, but the amount of back-and-forth adult-child conversation they experience,” said lead study author Rachel Romeo of Boston Children’s Hospital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.“These ‘conversational turns’ are strongly related to the physical strength of white-matter connections between the two key language regions in the left hemisphere of the brain,” Romeo said by email. “Most importantly, this relationship between conversational turns and brain structure held independent of family socioeconomic status, indicating the importance of turns across all sociodemographic backgrounds.”Much of the advice parents get on the importance of talking to young kids dates to a landmark study in the early 1990s that found by the time children enter elementary school, kids from low-income families have typically been exposed to 30 million fewer words than kids from more affluent households. Since then, researchers and educators have been examining how increased language exposure in early childhood might help close income-based achievement gaps in school-age children.For the current study, researchers examined data from recordings of all conversations between 40 children and their parents over two consecutive weekend days. Children ranged in age from 4 to 6 years old, and their parents came from diverse income and education levels.From the recordings, researchers calculated how many words children heard adults speak and how many words the kids spoke. They also looked for conversational turns by measuring how many exchanges occurred with no more than five seconds passing between something said by the child and a response from the adult.Then, researchers looked at brain scans of the children and found greater conversational turn-taking associated with stronger connections between two brain regions, known as Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area, that are central to the comprehension and production of speech.Families’ socioeconomic backgrounds did not appear to influence the results, researchers report in The Journal of Neuroscience.Beyond its small size, another limitation of the study is that many parents of girls failed to complete the home recordings, leaving 27 boys and only 13 girls in the analysis. It’s also possible that parents’ conversations with their kids on recording days differed from what they might sound like at other times.Even so, the results add to a large and growing body of evidence suggesting that efforts to increase conversations in low-income households might help reduce the chance that these children will underperform relative to more affluent kids in school, the authors conclude.“Previous studies have demonstrated that the quality of early language interactions have a significant impact on later language and cognitive skills,” said Natalie Brito a developmental psychologist at New York University in New York City who wasn’t involved in the study.“But this is the first study to find associations connecting home language exposure, brain structure, and language skills,” Brito said by email.While children in the current study did have better scores on tests of verbal skills when parents had higher income and education levels, conversation turns still independently influenced these scores, noted Dr. Caroline Kistin, a pediatrics researcher at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center.In the current study, higher parental income and education levels were associated with higher verbal scores. But when the authors statistically controlled for those factors in their analysis, conversational turns were still associated with higher verbal scores, indicating that the differences were not due solely to socioeconomic status.“Back-and-forth adult-child conversation likely improves language development for all children,” Kistin, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “Organizations that work with young children should recognize the importance of the caregiver-child bond and support families in caring for their children and forming supportive relationships that have been shown to positively influence child development.” Id.SOURCE: bit.ly/2OA9DDf The Journal of Neuroscience, online August 13, 2018.Denmark, Finland, and Sweden are proof that poverty in the US doesn't have to be this highJames Flynn discusses the Flynn Effect, economics, and IQ.Ted Talk about how are lives are more cognitively demanding than those of our grandparents.An Important ConsiderationAsking why one group tests better than others is not really a useful question. The reason is because as a society we treat people as individuals, not demographics. And this makes sense because if I were to randomly select one black person and one Japanese person to teach a class in physics I could pull out Neil DeGrasse Tyson and some random Japanese person. Tyson has a PhD. The random Japanese person in this case is a high school graduate but he has always struggled with science and math. Which one should I choose?Studies have also shown that affirmative action in law school and medical school has not led to a decrease in performance by those professionals. Lower entrance exam scores only correlate to first semester grade performance.Research comparing demographics and IQ also do a disservice to people because they increase stereotypes which harms actual individual people. Imagine if you happened to be black and you scored well on your LSAT. You entered law school and graduate having graded onto law review.“So did you get in on affirmative action?” a person says to you.It would hurt to hear that, greatly.ConclusionIQ is influenced by nature and nurture. The exact percentage of each contribution has not been proven. It has been estimated at 50–70% genetic.Different racial populations score differently in America. However, there is evidence from the Evferth Study that given a good environment blacks and whites have IQ’s which are similar.The IQ test has to be renormalized back to 100 as average, as subsequent generations seem to be doing better on the tests. This may be because the increased complexity of modern society is more cognitively demanding than in the past.Asking which demographic scores better is not a good question. The reason is because human beings are individuals, not demographics. You have to look at each person individually. Within any given sample you may find a genius black person and a less intelligent Japanese person. The other problem is that studying the group differences has no practical purpose and increases stereotypes that hurt real individuals.It is highly likely that the difference in IQ scores among American populations are due to poverty and the implications of poverty on the developing brain. Therefore, programs that lift people out of poverty will also have the effect of decreasing group to group IQ differences.IQ scores are increasing faster in developing countries.