Recent research on brain-boosting nutrients

Everyone wants the best brain they can have. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defined a healthy brain as "one that can perform all the mental processes that are collectively known as cognition, including the ability to learn new things, intuition, judgment, language and remembering." Several dietary ingredients have recently shown promise for safely improving human cognition.

In these studies, "significantly improved" indicates superior benefit, with a probability ("P value") of at least 95 percent that the finding is real. Animal studies are not covered because they do not consistently predict human benefit.

The brain makes and consumes huge amounts of energy, for which it needs supplies of nutrients out of proportion to its small size (Frontiers Mol Neurosci 2018 Jun 22;11:216. DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2018.00216.) But the current food supply falls far short of being sufficient for brain (or body) health. Based on ongoing findings from large CDC surveys, the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans listed magnesium; vitamins C, D and E; and choline among "underconsumed nutrients." All are vital to cognitive performance.

This gives consumers a good reason to take a good multivitamin. Analyses of the national U.S. population survey data established taking a daily multi vitamin-mineral helps offset the nutrient gap in the U.S. food supply (Nutrients. 2017 Dec 22;10(1). pii: E4. DOI: 10.3390/nu10010004 and Nutrients. 2017 Aug 9;9(8). pii: E849. DOI: 10.3390/nu9080849).

Taking a multivitamin formulated with the most proven ingredients provides a steady supply of the nutrient "nuts and bolts" needed by the enzymes that make cognition possible.

Read the full version of this article in INSIDER’s Healthy Aging digital magazine to learn more research on these cognitive health ingredients:

Parris Kidd, Ph.D., earned his doctorate in cell biology-zoology from the University of California, Berkeley. Beginning in 1984, while a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research investigator at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center, he published authoritative texts on antioxidants that launched him into nutritional medicine. In 1994, Kidd helped establish phosphatidylserine (PS), then glycerophosphocholine (GPC). His brain formulas have earned awards from the dietary supplement industry. Kidd is chief science officer and director of quality for BrainMD Health. He collaborates with the Amen Clinics to develop clinically validated products for memory, mood, behavior and healthy aging.