Here is ques­tion 17 of 25 from Brain Fit­ness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Ques­tions.

Ques­tion:
Are there herbal and vit­a­min sup­ple­ments that will pro­tect my memory?

Key Points:

• Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids found in cold-water fish may be help­ful to long term brain health.
• Folic acid may also be help­ful to both cog­ni­tive func­tion and hearing.
• Ginkgo biloba and DHEA do not appear to help your brain.
• There is still more research to be done and never dis­miss the placebo effect!

Answer:

Per­haps. The New Eng­land Jour­nal of Med­i­cine pub­lished an arti­cle debunk­ing DHEA, a steroid pre­cur­sor to testos­terone and estro­gen used to fight aging. The con­clu­sion of a two-year study at the Mayo Clinic in Min­nesota and Uni­ver­sity of Padua in Italy showed it did not improve strength, phys­i­cal per­for­mance, or other mea­sures of health. The study’s lead author, Dr. Nair said, “No ben­e­fi­cial effects on qual­ity of life were observed. There’s no evi­dence based on this study that DHEA has an anti­ag­ing effect.”

Ginkgo biloba is another over-the-counter memory-enhancing sup­ple­ment fre­quently men­tioned. Yet, Paul Solomon from Williams Col­lege found “when taken fol­low­ing the manufacturer’s instruc­tions, ginkgo pro­vides no mea­sur­able ben­e­fit in mem­ory or related cog­ni­tive func­tion to adults with healthy cog­ni­tive func­tion.” Nicholas Burns from the Uni­ver­sity of Ade­laide, Aus­tralia found longer-term mem­ory improved in healthy 55–79 year olds, but no other cog­ni­tive mea­sure improved for either younger or older par­tic­i­pants. Sarah Elsabagh from King’s Col­lege Lon­don found ginkgo ini­tially improved atten­tion and mem­ory. How­ever, there were no ben­e­fits after 6 weeks, sug­gest­ing that a tol­er­ance devel­ops quickly. Not an over­whelm­ing endorsement.

Omega-3 fatty acids found in cold-water fish such as mack­erel, her­ring, salmon, and tuna look more promis­ing. Giu­liano Fontani’s work at the Uni­ver­sity of Siena in Italy asso­ci­ated omega-3 sup­ple­men­ta­tion with improved atten­tional and phys­i­o­log­i­cal func­tions, par­tic­u­larly those involv­ing com­plex cor­ti­cal processing.

Folic acid sup­ple­men­ta­tion also shows promise of pro­tect­ing and improv­ing cog­ni­tive func­tion in older adults, accord­ing to a 2007 study pub­lished in Lancet by Jane Durga and col­leagues. It may also reduce age-related decline in hearing.

What can you do right now?

1. Eat a bal­anced diet with plenty of green leafy veg­eta­bles such as spinach, kale and collards.
2. Get plenty of phys­i­cal exercise.
3. Stay cog­ni­tively active.
4. Reduce your stress.
5. And as always, talk with your doc­tor about any health concerns.

Fur­ther Reading

• Durga J, Ver­hoef P, Ante­u­nis LJ, Schouten EG, Kok FJ. Effects of folic acid sup­ple­men­ta­tion on hear­ing in older adults: a ran­dom­ized, con­trolled trial. Ann Intern Med. 2007;146:1–9.
• Durga J, van Box­tel MP, Schouten EG, Kok FJ, Jolles J, Katan MB, Ver­hoef P. Effect of 3-year folic acid sup­ple­men­ta­tion on cog­ni­tive func­tion in older adults in the FACIT trial: a ran­domised, dou­ble blind, con­trolled trial. Lancet. 2007;369:208–16.
• Fontani G, Cor­rade­schi F, Felici A, Alfatti F, Miglior­ini S, Lodi L. Cog­ni­tive and phys­i­o­log­i­cal effects of Omega-3 polyun­sat­u­rated fatty acid sup­ple­men­ta­tion in healthy sub­jects. Eur J Clin Invest. 2005;35:691–9.
• Mor­ris MC, Evans DA, Tangney CC, Bienias JL, Wil­son RS. Asso­ci­a­tions of veg­etable and fruit con­sump­tion with age-related cog­ni­tive change. Neu­rol­ogy. 2006;67:1370–1376.
• Nair KS, Rizza RA, O’Brien P, et al. DHEA in elderly women and DHEA or testos­terone in elderly men. N Engl J Med. 2006;355:1647–59.
• Solomon PR, Adams F, Sil­ver A, Zim­mer J, DeVeaux R. Ginkgo for mem­ory enhance­ment: a ran­dom­ized con­trolled trial. JAMA. 2002;288:835–40.

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