I (Dr. Chip Travis) have written about multivitamins and magnesium L-threonate as supplements to enhance cognition and memory. While they can and do give increased brain performance to a person of any age, their effects are most powerful in an older group in which some decrease in cognition and memory might be evident (to the individual and their close friends and family). Frailty of the mind, like frailty of the body, can be overcome and reversed; in the research on multivitamins, there was a halting of brain age-related decline; the research on magnesium L-threonate found a 10-year reversal of aging decline.
Some of the ways to reduce risk of excessive, accelerated brain aging leading to dementia of various types are well known. They are very similar to the activities for cardiovascular diseases and stroke prevention. They include exercise and other physical activities, a healthy plant based-diet, good sleep habits, NO SMOKING, maintain normal blood pressure and blood sugar levels. In addition to those actions, brain health improvement includes correction of hearing loss, being curious and interested, learning new things and staying socially engaged and active.
For many of you, I hope I am preaching to the choir and affirming things you know and do. I will cover exercise and basic nutrition for brain health in the future; right now, I want to relay some information most people are unaware of. I mentioned in my first email that I was searching for those substances and activities that reduced pain as well as improved the brain. I have found several, and I have used some of them for years even before knowing of their potential to improve cognition and memory.
Curcumin is the best known and most readily available. Curcumin is the most active portion of turmeric spice. I have used it for years as a replacement for ibuprofen and/or aspirin and/or naproxen, the non-prescription anti-inflammatories. All NSAIDS can cause ulcers as well as kidney and liver damage. Curcumin does not. The principal problem with curcumin is its poor digestibility and utilization percentages, thereby requiring large doses to be effective. There is a novel way of enhancing the bioavailability for improved utilization of curcumin. It is a Life Extension Foundation formula that I have taken for years and provide for my patients. Research demonstrates a huge increase in the blood levels shortly after ingestion, thereby greatly improved health benefits.
Another herb with cognition and memory enhancement effects is quercetin. Again, quercetin is difficult to digest fully to be made bio-available for humans, but in the same manner as the curcumin formula, Life Extension Foundation (LEF) has an enhanced utilization supplement.
A third herb I take and offer to patients is resveratrol, extracted from the Japanese knotweed plant. The LEF formula has the same enhanced bioavailability ingredient that their curcumin and quercetin formulas have—galactomannans from fenugreek seed. It is exciting to me that research on these herbs specifically used the terms “neuroprotective” and “neuro-regenerative” implying a reversal of damage already present.
Yet a fourth herb, this one processed from vinca (periwinkle) plants, is vinpocetine. Vinpocetine has shown efficacy in brain anti-inflammation in both Parkinson’s Disease patients and those with vascular dementias.
I am not going to provide specific scientific references for these, as I suspect nobody has ever bothered to check out online if what I write is true or not for any of the articles I have written (see my blog, drchiptravis.com). The evidence is all on Pubmed.gov. Just go there and type in “cognition curcumin” and repeat with quercetin, vinpocetine and resveratrol. There are dozens of articles in scientific periodicals affirming the improvements in cognition and memory as well as the protection and prevention of brain degeneration. The long-term effects include less dementia, less Alzheimer’s, less Parkinson’s diseases, as well as less age-related mental decline.
My original premise for this series of emails was to illustrate those natural substances that combat physical body inflammation and pain while also reducing brain inflammation that causes mental decline and disease. One of the risk factors for both of these problems is physical injuries and concussion. Physical injury is an obvious cause for physical inflammation and pain. Concussion is inflammation and swelling of the brain from sudden trauma (the brain itself has no pain receptors, otherwise a concussion would be excruciating for days or weeks.) I have suffered approximately 10 concussions, the worst being my aircraft accident in 1970. I was thrown out of the canopy upon ground impact at 180 mph and stopped about 200 yards further on the airport infield. The most serious injuries were a fractured skull and concussion, a fractured neck, 2 dislocated hips, 2 dislocated knees, and an amputation below the right knee. I am not a stranger to physical pain.
I rarely take Aleve (naproxen) or Advil (ibuprofen) but instead rely on the natural supplements of the vitamins and minerals and herbs. As they effective for me, there is good reason to believe they will be effective for you.
I buy and sell all of my supplements from Life Extension Foundation (LEF.org). I sell at a discount from their retail prices.
Author, Chip Travis, DC. Reach him at drchiptravis@yahoo.com for more information.