A recent study has found that driving for more than two hours a day progressively reduces intelligence.
Researchers at the University of Leicester investigating how sedentary behaviour influences brainpower discovered that IQ scores fell faster in middle-aged Britons who drove long distances every day.
The researchers studied the lifestyles of over 500,000 Britons aged between 37 and 73 over a five-year period, during which intelligence and memory tests were arranged.
Around 93,000 of the people analysed drove more than two to three hours a day. This same group of people typically had lower brainpower at the start of the study, which kept on declining throughout, at a faster rate than those who did little or no driving.
A similar result was also discovered when studying people who watched TV for more than three hours a day.
A medical epidemiologist at the University of Leicester, Kishan Bakrania, told The Sunday Times: “We know that regularly driving for more than two to three hours a day is bad for your heart.
“This research suggests it is bad for your brain, too, perhaps because your mind is less active in those hours.
Bakrania added: “Cognitive decline is measurable over five years because it can happen fast in middle-aged and older people. This is associated with lifestyle factors such as smoking and bad diet — and now with time spent driving.”
