The Importance of Balanced Intelligence and Knowledge

Throughout history, many different types of intelligence have been recognized (e.g., physical intelligence and coordination or emotional intelligence). In contrast, our society worships a very specific type of intellectual intelligence that as far as I know has never previously been so highly valued by a society.

In my own experience, I’ve lost count of how many people I’ve interacted with who I know are much smarter than me, yet when I compare and contrast our ability to get things done, to correctly interpret data we are exposed to, help patients, or live a happy life, I come out far ahead of them. Likewise, I’ve lost count of how smart people I’ve met who simply don’t "get it" and frequently are misled by something quite obvious.

Years ago, when I discussed these experiences with a spiritual teacher (as I was frustrated with how easily many of my medical colleagues were being misled) and was told to stop getting upset because "intelligence does not equate to being resistant to mind control."

Modern Education

I’ve long noticed that the educational system builds up a very specific type of intelligence and reciprocally destroys the other ones (e.g., I found the more I was "educated" the more I lost the ability to think and access the deeper capacities of my mind). Because of this, at each level of my education, I was initially an enthusiastic A student, but then become disillusioned, switched to self-study, and in many cases barely passed my classes.

Note: Discovering how to bio-hack the sleep cycle to rapidly memorize large volumes of information was what essentially allowed me to largely boycott the educational system but simultaneously get through it.

That skill set was immensely valuable during my medical training as it allowed me to devote myself to learning what would help my patients rather than be swallowed by the allopathic model. Likewise, both college and medical school followed a similar script. They only wanted you to replicate exactly what your teacher had shown you and harshly reprimanded ever presenting an independent approach to the problem.

Note: Numerous medical school deans and residency directors I’ve spoken have lamented that the newer crops of medical school graduates lack the critical thinking which is needed for them to effectively function as doctors during medical residency — yet they simultaneously fail to recognize how their own actions are removing critical thinking from their trainees.

Ultimately, I was driven by a deep yearning for as much knowledge as possible. Since you’ll never have enough time to study everything, I gradually realized:

The Transformation of Modern Education

Over the last century, there’s been a systematic dismantling of the educational system as its focus shifted from creating an empowered electorate to producing subservient citizens who only existed to fill their pre-designated societal roles. To illustrate:

I believe these points explain why we keep spending more money (and years of schooling) on education, yet have worse and worse outcomes (not unlike modern medicine). Likewise, much of my success as a student came from a desire to develop my mind and the recognition the schooling processes was frequently counterproductive to that — ultimately leading me to seek out the style of education I much later learned pioneers like Gatto and Illich had also advocated for.

Note: Vaccines also provide a critical facet of this picture as the microstrokes and autoimmunity they create frequently create neurological injuries. In turn, suppressed data shows vaccination has profoundly altered the minds of America (e.g., the particularly dangerous DTwP vaccine was released, a wave of misbehavior, developmental delay and violence rippled through the country as each vaccinated generation grew up), forcing the educational system to completely restructure itself. Sadly, this happened so long ago those changes have now been normalized and forgotten.

Counterproductive Cognitive Algorithms

Two approaches are often used to solve problems:

Note: I’ve also observed that the widespread neurological damage from mass vaccination predisposes those injured to left brained thinking.

Many in turn have argued excessive left brain thinking (which schooling drills into us) is the root cause of many ills in our society. I agree and believe balanced left and right brain thinking is essential for our society (e.g., this is why I try to show both the forest and trees while I write).

The problem with left brain thinking is that it tends to lock one into a "solution" which excludes the best answer from being considered. For example, in medicine, I frequently see brilliant doctors who are remarkably skilled at executing their clinical algorithms but cannot help patients their algorithms simply aren’t applicable for.

Likewise, I’ve lost count of how many people I’ve debated with whose logic starts from the premise there is no conceivable way any viewpoint besides their own could be right (which inevitably results in them concocting absurd arguments).

Note: This is somewhat analogous to a hamster trapped in a cage with a hamster wheel. If the hamster does what it knows to do (run on the hamster wheel) no matter how fast it goes, it will never be able to escape the cage, whereas if the hamster got off the wheel it could see an exit and leave the cage.

In turn, when I watch how people’s minds often as they try to execute a flawed algorithm they were given to solve a vexing problem they face, it often seems as though a wheel in their brain is working in overdrive in a futile attempt to solve that problem.

Debating Cognitive Algorithms

I’ve gotten into more debates than I can count with ardent defenders of the orthodoxy. In each case, I’ve noticed three salient features:

In turn, whenever I observe these behaviors, I often will send them one of my favorite articles on the subject — Stanovich’s "Cognitive Sophistication Does Not Attenuate the Bias Blind Spot."⁶

Blindspots, for reference encompass errors in reasoning where someone has an inherent bias that causes them to miss something which is otherwise obvious (e.g., the hamster is so focused on its wheel it cannot leave the cage) and that in many cases, the presence of blindspots appears to be a consequence of them not wanting to make the effort to think through a problem and instead simply asserting the first thing that jumps to mind.

The paper⁷ highlights a key facet of blindspots — while people are very good at recognizing them in others, they typically cannot see their own blindspots. Additionally, as Stanovich showed, individuals who demonstrate one type of blindspot are more likely to demonstrate other types of blindspots.

Most importantly, cognitively sophisticated individuals ("intelligent" people) aren’t protected from falling prey to these biases, and if anything, are more likely to engage in them. Here are two examples:

Note: I sampled around 1000 comments and found the majority of them came from people who could not see what was actually happening because they had such a strong anchoring to their initial impression (due to it validating their belief system).

In short, Stanovich’s paper¹⁰ provides an explanation for why more intelligent people are less able to see the things in front of them which challenge their existing beliefs. Likewise, I believe it helps explain why they will frequently adopt incorrect logical premises which they then use as a basis for their arguments.

Anchoring to Reality

"If you don’t stand for something, you fall for anything."

When I’ve looked at what causes people to get led astray, I’ve found the most common thread is a lack of connection to reality, causing them to lose the reflex they would otherwise have reject what something absurd they are being pulled into. For instance:

In my opinion, that transition from intellectualism to decadence is due to the "elites" of society becoming disconnected from the struggles of the empire which built it up and the hardships of day to day life its subjects needed to engage in before they became fabulously wealthy.

As a result, their conception of reality switched to being an intellectual idea in their minds where all they really cared about were the merits of their ideas (e.g., "being right") and before long, they became led down a variety of dysfunctional ideologies, which while at odds with reality, were easy to intellectually rationalize (provided the appropriate cognitive biases were in place). In turn, I would argue that essentially synopsizes the situation our society currently finds itself in.

Conclusion

I was raised to believe that all types of intelligence mattered and that excessively developing one at the expense of the others was highly detrimental. This was because beyond it creating massive blindspots, it would create an imbalance within you that could cause the excessive type of intelligence to become deranged.

Likewise, my teachers repeatedly taught me that if your goal was to develop one type of intelligence (e.g., intellectual intelligence) it was often far more effective to cultivate a related type of intelligence that would support your primary target than it was to just focus on refining the desired intelligence.

Presently, our society is going through a period of immense instability, and I believe much of that is being birthed from how unbalanced much of our culture is. Fortunately, COVID-19 has awakened the public’s eyes to the rot that’s existed behind the scenes and there is now a genuine enthusiasm for a more balanced and expansive way of looking at the world around us, something I believe has a real potential to profoundly improve our society.

Author's note: This is an abridged article. In the full version, I discuss the above points in more detail and explore more of the strategies that allowed me to cultivate a balanced intelligence. For more sources and links on this subject, click here.

A Note from Dr. Mercola About the Author

A Midwestern Doctor (AMD) is a board-certified physician and a longtime reader of Mercola.com. I appreciate AMD’s exceptional insight on a wide range of topics, and I'm grateful to share them with them. I also respect AMD’s desire to remain anonymous since AMD is still on the front lines treating patients. To find more of AMD's work, be sure to check out The Forgotten Side of Medicine on Substack.

Testosterone Shields Against COVID-19, Study Shows

Testosterone, also known as the male sex hormone, is important for the health of both genders. This steroid hormone is primarily produced in men's testicles and, to a lesser extent, in women's ovaries. It's responsible for the development of male secondary sexual characteristics, muscle mass and strength, bone density and the production of red blood cells.¹

It also influences mood, energy levels and cognitive function in both sexes.² However, testosterone levels in men naturally decline with age. Previous research^3,4 suggested that this decline in testosterone affects elderly men's risk of severe COVID-19.

To further investigate the link between testosterone levels and COVID-19 severity, a study published in July 2024 in the journal Andrology⁵ examined testosterone-dependent finger length patterns in hospitalized COVID-19 patients compared to a control group. Their findings uncovered important insights about testosterone's protective role against severe COVID-19 outcomes.

Further Proof of Testosterone's Role in COVID Severity

The featured study,⁶ conducted at the Medical University of Lodz in Poland, examined two competing theories regarding testosterone's impact on COVID-19 prognosis. The first, known as the high-androgen-driven theory, suggests that elevated testosterone levels cause the virus to infect cells more effectively.

Conversely, the second theory purports that lower testosterone levels, particularly common in elderly men, heighten their immune response to COVID-19, resulting in worse outcomes. To investigate these theories, the researchers analyzed finger length ratios — specifically comparing the index and little fingers — in hospitalized COVID-19 patients versus healthy controls.

This approach is based on the theory that digit ratios are influenced by exposure to testosterone and estrogen during fetal development and puberty. Longer index fingers are associated with low testosterone/high estrogen exposure, while longer little or pinkie fingers indicate high testosterone/low estrogen exposure.

Their findings showed that hospitalized COVID-19 patients consistently had shorter little fingers relative to their other fingers when compared to the control group, a "feminized" pattern indicative of lower testosterone levels. This supports the low-androgen-driven theory, which suggests that reduced testosterone contributes to more severe COVID-19 outcomes.

The lead researcher, Professor John Manning from Swansea University's Applied Sports, Technology, Exercise and Medicine (A-STEM) research team, explained:⁷

"The patients had digit ratios that indicated low testosterone before and after birth. The pattern was present at the beginning of the pandemic and after widespread vaccination. This means we can conclude that testosterone is protective against severe COVID-19. The effect may arise because the hormone reduces inflammation in the lungs and other organs. The findings have public health and treatment implications."

A Key Gene in Testosterone Metabolism Affects COVID Severity

In an earlier study published in Cell Reports Medicine,⁸ researchers uncovered another testosterone-related factor affecting COVID-19 severity in men — a gene called CYP19A1. The study, led by Gülsah Gabriel from the Leibniz Institute of Virology, builds on a decade of work investigating similar patterns in avian influenza.

CYP19A1 encodes aromatase, an enzyme that converts testosterone to estradiol. The researchers found that a specific mutation in this gene is present in 68.7% of men hospitalized with COVID-19, despite being rare in the general population. This mutation is known to increase aromatase activity, leading to lower testosterone and higher estradiol levels.

Moreover, the researchers found that SARS-CoV-2 infection itself dramatically increases aromatase expression in lung cells, far more than other respiratory viruses. These findings were corroborated through various methods, including analysis of human COVID-19 patients, examination of lung tissue from deceased patients, and experiments with golden hamsters.

In infected male hamsters, CYP19A1 expression increased significantly in the lungs, resulting in decreased testosterone and elevated estradiol levels in their plasma. This hormonal imbalance appears to contribute to more severe COVID-19 outcomes in males.

Interestingly, the researchers found that treating infected male hamsters with letrozole, an aromatase inhibitor, partially restored hormonal balance and improved lung health. These findings not only offer insights into why men face higher risks from COVID-19 but also highlight the often-overlooked role of hormones in respiratory infections.

As Gabriel notes, "It is one of the first studies [showing] that the lung, which is not a classical or typical endocrine organ, suddenly can become an endocrine organ upon infection. It seems that [respiratory viruses] can have long-lasting effects if they dysregulate the enzymes."⁹

What Causes Testosterone Production to Decrease?

Testosterone production in men is regulated by signals from the brain to the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland then signals the testes to produce testosterone, and a "feedback loop" continuously monitors levels of this hormone in the blood. Any disruption to this system leads to declining testosterone levels.¹⁰

In healthy adult males, testosterone levels usually range from 300 to 1,000 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dL).¹¹ Age-related decrease in testosterone production, also known as andropause, begins around age 30, with testosterone decreasing by about 1% per year on average.¹² By the time men reach their 70s, many have testosterone levels 30% less than what they had in their peak years.¹³

Aside from aging, genetic conditions and other illnesses also contribute to a decrease in testosterone levels. These include:^14,15

Symptoms of Low Testosterone Levels

Low levels of circulating testosterone cause symptoms of androgen deficiency. Androgens are a group of sex hormones, which include testosterone. The clinical symptoms of low testosterone vary widely, depending on the onset of androgen deficiency, whether the issue lies in sperm production or testosterone synthesis, is associated with an underlying genetic factor, or whether there's a history of androgen therapy.¹⁶ Symptoms of androgen deficiency include:¹⁷

Men may also experience gynecomastia (enlarged breast tissue), hot flashes, sweating, fatigue, reduced muscle mass and increased body fat.¹⁸ In some cases, unrelated issues like a history of Type 2 diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome or other systemic diseases that affect testosterone physiology are present.¹⁹ A study in the journal Molecular Psychiatry²⁰ also links testosterone deficiency to anxiety disorders.

Niacinamide Naturally Increases Testosterone Levels

One way to increase your testosterone levels naturally is by taking niacinamide (aka, nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3 or niacin), which is also crucial for healthy mitochondrial function and cellular energy production. A February 2022 study published in the journal Nature Aging²¹ demonstrated that niacinamide treats problems associated with declining testosterone levels due to aging.

They found that by raising NAD+, niacinamide improves local testosterone distribution, which is essential for supporting the tissues and organs affected by reduced testosterone levels. These findings confirm that niacinamide is a necessary cofactor to address the nearly universal decline in testosterone in both men and women. As explained by bioenergetic medicine expert Georgi Dinkov:²²

"[T]he findings that androgen (in this case, testosterone) deficiency seen almost universally with advancing age is due primarily to deficiency of the co-factor NAD+, which can be remediated by supplementing NAD+ precursors such as niacinamide.

It appears that the rate-limiting step for androgen (testosterone) synthesis is the enzyme 3b-HSD, for which NAD+ is the main cofactor. Thus, a decline in NAD+ seen in aging (and disease) leads to decline in 3b-HSD activity and thus reduced androgen (testosterone) levels."

To address declining testosterone, I recommend taking:

• 50 mg of niacinamide three times a day
• 5 mg to 10 mg of DHEA orally once a day
• 50 mg of oral pregnenolone once a day

Ideally, take the hormone supplements DHEA and pregnenolone with a saturated fat, like a teaspoon of butter, to make sure they bypass metabolism in the liver, which will radically decrease their effectiveness.

Additional Ways to Optimize Your Testosterone Production

In addition to taking niacinamide, here are some additional strategies to naturally increase testosterone: