Every person is a unique entity of characteristics inherited from parents and the influences of the environment in which the person lives. Environment cannot influence the colour of the eyes and the natural hair colour, but it’s influence on many human characteristics has been proven. In the last 100 years, scientists have often asked themselves if there is any possibility that we can influence our intelligence quotient alone during the development after birth. The IQ is a proportion between the age and the level of mental capacity expressed with number, and believe it or not, it is also connected with breastfeeding, which is one of the first things a newborn experiences. Recent studies have shown that in early childhood about 25 - 40% of individual variation in measurable intelligence can be attributed to genetics.
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Citations: Caspi et al. (2007) . Moderation of breastfeeding effects on the IQ by genetic variation in fatty acid metabolism. Proc Natl Acad Sci 104(47): 18860 - 18865
Study size: 
| Your result |
If you were fed with mother`s milk when child you have slightly increased IQ (about 4 to 7 points). Due to presence of A variation in one FADS2 gene copy you possess, being breastfed in childhood had positive effect on you. Reason for this is that A variation causes better intelligence development when individuals possessing it are breastfed. If you haven`t been breasted than you will achieve little less points on IQ test than people who were breastfed and like you have two A variations. In combination with A form of FADS2 gene mother milk is supposed to stimulate better brain development. |
More detailed about effect of breastfeeding on IQ
Many studies have been made about the influence of breastfeeding on the IQ. Among others, a study was made also by English scientists. They analyzed data of over 3000 children from New Zealand and Great Britain at the age of 5 to 13 years. Breastfeeding is supposed to have a positive influence on the development of the child’s brains due to the presence of two unsaturated fatty acids (DHA - docosahexanoic acid, and AA - arachidonic acid), which are present only in mother’s milk and not also cow’s milk or powdered milk. In the time of breastfeeding, the mentioned fatty acids are accumulated in the brains and stimulate better memory of children, the ability to learn and solve problem tasks, which is evident also later in the adulthood. But the study has shown that breastfeeding has no influence on the increase in the IQ in the case of all children. The reason for this was found in the FADS2 gene, a part of our hereditary record that we carry in all cells of our body, and its several possible forms.
These possible forms of the gene are alleles, which can be presented in a very simplified way as combinations of the letters AA, AG or GG. Children, who have the “A” allele (over 90% of all children) and are breastfed by their mothers, can according to the results of studies thus develop a higher IQ. If children do not have this type of gene, breastfeeding is supposed not to have any influence on their intelligence. Scientists have at the same time excluded possible influence of a mother’s genotype on the effect that breastfeeding has on a child as well as the socio-economic situation of the breastfeeding mother (namely, initially they searched for the connection between a higher IQ of children and wealthier situation of their family). Why should a certain type of the FADS2 gene have a positive influence on the development of the brain and consequently on a higher IQ, is still not completely clear. But scientists presume that among other things, the unsaturated fatty acids DHA and AA in mother’s milk are supposed to influence the expression of genes of certain biosynthetic pathways that influence the development of brains.
In order to make the connection between breastfeeding and a higher IQ of breastfed children completely clear, additional scientific studies are required. But with regard to the results obtained so far, we can nevertheless conclude that breastfeeding significantly contributes to better cognitive development and it can influence the increase in the IQ of those children who have the corresponding type of the FADS2 gene.