Infections can lower IQ

So, I was told that in older people, because urinary tract infections do not materialize with itching and burning, they can be over looked, but having the infection can mimic the symptoms of Alzheimer's. How scary is that? So, this finding does not surprise me. Disturbs me, but doesn't surprise me. (And any infection can have this effect on older people, it's the body fighting the infection that causes the problem, but other infections have other symptoms, so doctor's test for it. Doctors apparently do not test for a UTI unless the patient complains about burning and itching, or other types of symptoms.)

And then pile on a course of antibiotics and you are just up shit's creek without a paddle, as discussed here.

Taken from the June 12th print edition of the Week Magazine:

People who are hospitalized with an infection early in life can lose IQ points, new research suggests. Scientists analyzed the hospital records of 190,000 Danish men born between 1974 and 1994. Before taking an IQ test at age 19, about 35 percent of the men had landed in hospitals with serious infections, such as an STD or a urinary tract infection. The average IQ score of those subjects was 1.76 points below average. Those with five or more hospitalizations for infection had an average IQ that was 9.44 points lower than average. The more severe or recent the infection, the lower the score. Researchers theorize that inflammation caused by immune responses may damage the brain. “Infections in the brain affected the cognitive ability the most,” the study’s lead author, Dr. Michael Eriksen Benrós tells Forbes.com. But he said any infection severe enough to require hospitalization had a negative impact on IQ.