Time to volunteer, methinks …
Tim Holford-Smith demands his fair share
A few hours ago now, I just ‘came to’ for the second time today, nipped across to pick up my papers, had a spot of breakfast and settled down in front of the BBC Breakfast Show … as you do.
You can criticise me on principle for ever buying it but, for all its naffness, I do find the Daily Mail superficially entertaining if you don’t take it too seriously. What’s more, in the old days when I worked for a living, it was the perfect paper for my commuting journey – it could be read from cover to cover, getting you up to speed on all the news and gossip, in less than 40 minutes.
However, today I came across a report within its pages that causes me some disquiet.
According to a survey conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland, having more sex boosts your intelligence. Never mind the common knowledge that sex is good for you on the level of reducing stress and burning up calories, this latest research – carried out on mice – has shown that love-making considerably increases the creation of neutrons within the hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for the formation of long-term memory.
Apparently increased sexual activity floods the brain cells with oxygen. In contrast, over a period of time, having less sexual activity tends to a lead to a fall-off in intelligence.
Let’s ignore the lame jokes we all could make about how every human alive was probably a certified Einstein during their teens and twenties … and has then been going downhill ever since.
I’m slightly more concerned at the moment about those of us who are over the age of sixty, now retain only the residual brainpower of an amoeba, would desperately like to train or improve our brain cells whilst we still have any, and yet don’t currently have the means to do so.
Forget the flooding in the Somerset Levels, surely the Government should be setting aside a £10 billion found to help we senior citizens stay brain-healthy for as long as possible?
After all, there’s a hell of a lot of us and – at least, the last time I looked – they hadn’t taken yet the vote away from us. Cameron’s talking about wanting to have nothing to do with coalitions after the 2015 General Election, here’s his chance …
