dietary supplements

Study: Over-the-counter “brain enhancement” supplements in the US found both to a) contain multiple unapproved drugs and b) lack some ingredients listed on the label

by

Study: Your Brain Sup­ple­ments Could Con­tain Dan­ger­ous, Ille­gal Ingre­di­ents (Being Patient):

Brain sup­ple­ments that claim to boost cog­ni­tive func­tion are increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar, grow­ing from a $4 bil­lion indus­try of about 4,000 unique prod­ucts to a $40 bil­lion indus­try with as many as 80,000 dif­fer­ent prod­ucts on the mar­ket. [Read more…] about Study: Over-the-counter “brain enhance­ment” sup­ple­ments in the US found both to a) con­tain mul­ti­ple unap­proved drugs and b) lack some ingre­di­ents list­ed on the label

Study: Some “brain-boosting” supplements sold in the US contain not-approved drugs at supratherapeutic doses, exposing users to unknown side effects

by

___

Some brain-boost­ing sup­ple­ments con­tain an unap­proved drug that could harm users, study warns (STAT news):

“Promis­ing to lift brain fog or improve mem­o­ry, brain-boost­ing sup­ple­ments have joined sex­u­al-enhance­ment and weight-loss reme­dies in the light­ly reg­u­lat­ed world of dietary sup­ple­ments. These prod­ucts may be sold legal­ly with broad-brush come-ons like these, as long as they don’t make spe­cif­ic claims about treat­ing a dis­ease — or con­tain actu­al drugs.

New research led by Dr. Pieter Cohen of Har­vard Med­ical School doc­u­ments five sup­ple­ment brands for sale in the U.S. that con­tain var­i­ous amounts of pirac­etam [Read more…] about Study: Some “brain-boost­ing” sup­ple­ments sold in the US con­tain not-approved drugs at suprather­a­peu­tic dos­es, expos­ing users to unknown side effects

Limitless evidenceless trend: The growth of nootropic supplements

by

_______

The all-too-under­stand­able urge to buy a bet­ter brain (Vox):

“… unfor­tu­nate­ly, Bradley Coop­er is part­ly to blame for the boom of the edi­ble brain-improve­ment industry.

In 2011, he starred in Lim­it­less, a movie about a man who takes a spe­cial pill and becomes smarter and more capa­ble than any­one else on Earth. I’m jok­ing about the cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance of this movie, but I’m also not. It was a wild card and an unex­pect­ed hit, and it main­streamed an idea that had already been tak­ing hold among Sil­i­con Val­ley bio­hack­ers and human opti­miza­tion zealots. [Read more…] about Lim­it­less evi­dence­less trend: The growth of nootrop­ic supplements

AARP: A majority of Americans believe dietary supplements improve brain health, despite the lack of evidence

by

_____

New Report Dis­cour­ages Adults From Using Brain Health Sup­ple­ments (Pre­ven­tion):

“This morn­ing, the Glob­al Coun­sel on Brain Health released a report con­clud­ing that dietary sup­ple­ments do not improve brain health or pre­vent cog­ni­tive decline, demen­tia, or Alzheimer’s dis­ease. The report, released by the AARP, flat­ly rec­om­mends that most con­sumers do not take sup­ple­ments for this pur­pose. [Read more…] about AARP: A major­i­ty of Amer­i­cans believe dietary sup­ple­ments improve brain health, despite the lack of evidence

The FDA cracks down on dozens of supplements claiming to prevent or cure Alzheimer’s Disease

by

___

FDA takes action against 17 com­pa­nies for ille­gal­ly sell­ing prod­ucts claim­ing to treat Alzheimer’s dis­ease (US Food & Drug Administration):

“The U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion today post­ed 12 warn­ing let­ters and 5 online advi­so­ry let­ters issued to for­eign and domes­tic com­pa­nies that are ille­gal­ly sell­ing more than 58 prod­ucts, many that are sold as dietary sup­ple­ments, which are unap­proved new drugs and/or mis­brand­ed drugs that claim to pre­vent, treat or cure Alzheimer’s dis­ease [Read more…] about The FDA cracks down on dozens of sup­ple­ments claim­ing to pre­vent or cure Alzheimer’s Disease

Time to update the regulatory framework for cognitive enhancement–especially nootropics?

by

smart-drugs-nootropicsSeek­ing an edge, these brain hack­ers mix up risky chem­i­cal cock­tails for break­fast (Stat):

“…A 31-year-old entre­pre­neur, Gutiér­rez has thrown him­self into the emerg­ing move­ment of body hack­ing — or, more pre­cise­ly, brain hack­ing. He’s a con­nois­seur of “nootrop­ics,” a broad cat­e­go­ry that includes phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal drugs, dietary sup­ple­ments, and do-it-your­self con­coc­tions, all of them meant to turn the brain up a notch. [Read more…] about Time to update the reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work for cog­ni­tive enhancement–especially nootropics?