Reinventing the Fountain of Youth
Posts tagged Memory
The periwinkle path to mental renovation
0303 days
Vinpocetine is derived from the vinca alkaloids found in periwinkles (the little blue flowers, not the little snails also called “periwinkles”). Discovered in Hungary in 1976, vinpocetine’s value for treating brain disorders was quickly appreciated in Eastern Europe but was largely ignored elsewhere until fairly recently.
Oral vinpocetine has been used with good effect in patients with poor circulation in the brain (“chronic cerebral vascular insufficiency”):
- to improve cerebral circulation • to improve speech
- to reduce headache, dizziness, tinnitus, fatigue and insomnia
- to increase attention and concentration
- to improve cognition
- to improve mood
Vinpocetine has also scored successes in the following areas of application:
- memory and cognitive enhancement
- poor spatial memory
- “fetal alcohol spectrum disorders” (FASD)
- epilepsy
- Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
- liver damage
- diabetes-related memory loss
- macular degeneration
- hearing loss, tinnitus, Ménière’s disease
- visceral pain
- recurrent strokes and stroke recovery
- vertigo
- nerve damage due to oxidative and nitritive stress
- tumoral calcinosis (calcium deposits)
The majority of the clinical research into vinpocetine has been done in Hungary and Russia — lands where intellectual achievement has long been highly valued. Despite having been burdened for generations by heavy bureaucracies, these countries have managed to excel in mathematics, physics, engineering, music, chess-playing, and other fields. It’s not surprising that techniques for cognitive enhancement would flourish there. We are fortunate to be able to benefit from their efforts.
Share and Enjoy
Phosphatidylserine — Don’t let it give you a superiority complex!
0353 days
Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a component of the membranes of all cells. Nerve cells are especially sensitive to deficiencies of PS.
Deficiencies of phosphatidylserine can result from dietary habits or simply from aging. After age 50 the body may synthesize too little of this substance, causing declines in mental function and memory. In clinical studies, patients with dementia have shown improvement after taking supplemental PS — even when the dementia is caused by Alzheimer’s Disease.
PS levels also affect athletic performance by mechanisms that are thought to involve the ability to focus on tasks and to reduce psychological stress.
Studies of PS supplementation suggest the following areas of application:
- alertness, focus, and concentration
- Alzheimer’s and other dementias
- memory, learning, and intelligence
- cognitive decline
- language proficiency
- anxiety and depression
- mood and sociability
- disruptive behavior in children
- ability to cope with stress
- brain aging
- athletic performance
- neurotic thinking
The positive benefits seen in medical studies of PS supplementation have convinced many young, healthy people to use PS to enhance memory, raise intelligence, and retard neurological aging. Doses of 100-300 mg/day are usually used. Doses of 800 mg/day are needed to lower cortisol levels.
Caution: If this supplement gives you a superiority complex, LifeLink wants to remind you: “Hey! Don’t be a smart-alec — until recently you were just as dumb as everyone else.”
Share and Enjoy
The brain’s own self-enhancer is back on center stage
2388 days
Pregnenolone is a master hormone from which the body produces many other hormones. But pregnenolone is also involved in learning and memory; it moderates aggression, epilepsy, stress responses, anxiety and depression; and it shows promise for treating fatigue, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, dementia, and even arthritis!
Stress and fatigue.
Experiments in the 1940s showed that 50-100 mg/day of pregnenolone given to factory workers resulted in improved production rates, less fatigue, and an increase in happiness and well-being. Pilots reported less fatigue and an improved ability to fl y airplanes.
These effects occurred after about two weeks of pregnenolone usage.
Arthritis.
Also in the 1940s, rheumatoid arthritis was successfully treated with pregnenolone. At 300 mg/day for 40 days patients experienced “a significant decrease in joint pain, tenderness, and spasticity, with improved strength and range of motion”.
But in the 1950s pregnenolone was pushed aside by new stimulants, painkillers and anti-inflammatories. By the time it was realized that long-term use of these newer drugs led to serious side effects, pregnenolone had become an unfashionable research topic.
During the past two decades, however, pregnenolone has been receiving renewed attention. Many scientific studies have suggested its use in patients with a variety of mental conditions.
Memory.
Pregnenolone is a powerful stimulator of memory formation — significant memoryenhancing effects have been seen in mice when just a few dozen molecules of pregnenolone sulfate are injected into certain areas of the brain. In a recent clinical study, a 500 mg oral dose of pregnenolone “resulted in improved memory in both men and women, improved spatial memory and perception in men, and improved verbal recall memory in women.”
Anxiety.
In patients with anxiety disorders, higher anxiety correlates with lower pregnenolone levels in the blood. Animal experiments have shown that anxiety is significantly reduced when pregnenolone is given to animals in stressful situations. Similar effects occur in humans, as shown by the stress studies in the 1940s. The suggested oral dosage range is 50-200 mg.
Depression and bipolar disorder.
Dozens of animal studies have convinced many investigators that pregnenolone is a promising treatment for psychiatric illnesses, including depression and bipolar disorder. The clinical trial dosage used for bipolar disorder is 50-100 mg/day.
Schizophrenia.
In a 2005 clinical trial, schizophrenia patients were given pregnenolone for 8 weeks in doses from 100 to 500 mg/day. The researchers reported that patients “who have been on the higher dose … have felt better, with an improved sense of energy.”
Share and Enjoy
We’d all like to learn and remember things better. Now it’s a little easier!
0393 days
NoöRacetam™ is LifeLink’s brand of piracetam. It is a noötropic supplement — that is, a cognitive enhancer that facilitates learning and improves memory. Piracetam also happens to improve blood circulation.
History.
Piracetam has been in clinical and popular use in Europe and elsewhere since the early 1970s — but not in the U.S., thanks to the efforts of government agencies to ‘dumb down’ the U.S. public. Nevertheless, many Americans have quietly imported small quantities from Europe for their own use. Now, at last, this supplement can be bought freely in the U.S.
Applications.
During its more than 30 years of use in Europe, piracetam has been used to treat a variety of conditions, and benefits have been reported in the following areas:
- cognitive enhancement
- dyslexia
- stroke
- epilepsy
- myoclonus
- dementia
- alcoholism
- lipofuscin build-up (a cause of aging)
- Raynaud’s syndrome
- deep vein thrombosis
- tardive dyskinesia
Mechanism of action.
Piracetam’s effects on both nerve cells and on blood may be explained by the fact that it alters the properties of cell membranes. Such a changes would affect the function of various proteins that reside in these membranes — proteins such as ion channels in nerve cell membranes, and metabolic enzymes in mitochondrial membranes — and could also improve the ability of blood cells to pass through small veins and capillaries.
Safety.
Piracetam has an excellent reputation for being nontoxic. Many clinical studies have shown this supplement to be safe to use, even in ridiculously high doses. Human oral doses as high as 45 grams during 12 hours have been reported to be without ill effects.
This supplement won’t turn a dimwit into a genius, but it can sharpen anyone’s ability to learn, think, and remember. Having it available in the U.S. is a major breakthrough!
Share and Enjoy
DMAE a biochemical Trojan horse
0406 days
The body manufactures an important neurohormone called acetylcholine from the B vitamin choline, Acetylcholine is needed to convey motor and sensory signals from one nerve cell to the next along the nerve path. It also regulates the flow of nerve signals and is essential for all brain functions, especially memory. When there isn’t enough acetylcholine in the brain and nerve cells, a person experiences symptoms ranging from depression, sluggish behavior, fatigue, slowed reflexes, muddled thinking, and poor memory to nervousness, anxiety and hyperkinetic behavior. When acetylcholine is adequately supplied, these disappear as brain and nerve functions are normalized. But when acetylcholine levels are further increased by supplementation, energy, reflexes, mental alertness, mood, memory, and learning ability often improve beyond the normal.
Despite good nutrition and plenty of dietary and supplemental choline, many people (perhaps up to 75% of the population) have acetylcholine deficiencies. This generally occurs because of membranous shields which keeps toxic waste products in the circulation from entering the brain and central nervous system can also block some necessary substances from gaining entry.
Choline must be converted by the liver into its lipid soluble form before it can cross these barriers and be turned into acetylcholine. If the body’s ability to produce this form of choline is less than ideal, acetylcholine levels are likely to be low. There is an alternative way to increase acetylcholine, however, Dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE), also known as Deanol, is a safe, natural substance that easily crosses the barriers. In the brain and nerve cells it is converted first to choline and then to acetylcholine. In a sense DMAE may be regarded as a biochemical Trojan horse.
DMAE is a very efficient antioxidant and free-radical deactivator, it stabilizes lyposome membranes, preventing rupture of these scavenger bodies, which would result in leakage of collected toxins and protein-damaging enzymes. It reverses the formation of lipofuscin that causes the so-called aging spots or liver spots. This pigment also tends to clog brain and nerve cells as we age. DMAE also helps prevent sludging or clumping of red blood cells and makes more of them available for carrying oxygen to the tissues. DMAE also has several positive influences on red blood cells. It has been found that the addition of DMAE to whole blood stored for transfusion purposes doubles its storage life. When DMAE was added to the drinking water of mice that were already past their mean expected lifespan, their maximum lifespan was extended to 36.6% longer than the controls. This indicates that it may be one of the only life-extension substances that is significantly effective even when started late in life.
