Multivitamins for brain health are popular supplements that potentially help to improve cognitive performance among older adults. These supplements are useful to improve memory, recall, focus, and clarity. Furthermore, they are believed to slow down cognitive aging. But what exactly is the truth regarding these nutrients for the brain? What is the optimal dose and the right mix of nutrients? What's the science behind how they work?
Let us find out the answers to these queries and dive deep into scientific studies in order to understand the reality behind multivitamins for cognitive health.
What is cognition?
Cognition is simply your brain's ability to remember information and events, pay attention to tasks, solve problems, make decisions, reason, learn and use languages, and perform multiple tasks. These crucial brain functions shape much of you as a person. Nutrients are crucial to enable your brain to perform these functions.
When it's difficult for the brain to carry out these activities, it affects your cognition. It can happen due to:
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Age-related: Your brain shrinks as you get older due to a decrease in producing new cells. Few neuronal connections are observed, and fewer neurotransmitter receptors are produced. All of these affect memory. The first sign, forgetting things, is often the first cognition problem as it becomes noticeable.
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Cognitive impairment: Then comes cognitive impairment when cognitive decline becomes more apparent. It may be mild, at first you forget a conversation you had, or you feel confused or disoriented in formerly familiar places.
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Dementia: Dementia indicates an increasing cognitive decline. It can affect daily activities. The person with dementia tends to forget the names of family members, even the most loved ones. In this condition, they may find self-care to be difficult or hardly remember how to take care of themselves.
Healthy aging involves taking care of cognitive health. Your brain should be able to understand and store information and then use it for learning, solving problems, and making judgments. If you cannot remember something properly, it deeply affects your everyday activities.
For instance, you may forget how to prepare your food, neglect paying the expenses you owe, or become unable to work in an office environment. With more severe cognitive decline, socializing gets affected and it can impact family life too. It can affect your ability to live independently.
Research shows that dietary factors, which are nutrients, impact molecular systems and mechanisms responsible for mental function. Indeed, what one eats highly influences how well the brain works.
People leading busy lifestyles consume a lot of junk food. This kind of processed food has saturated fat and sucrose in large quantities. These types of diets directly affect cognitive performance adversely. A diet with a high amount of saturated fat lowers the important molecular substrates for cognitive processing. An increased risk of neurological dysfunction also arises.
Meanwhile, foods with omega-3 fatty acids provide cognition suppor. These healthy fats consist of DHA and EPA. Other important micronutrients for the brain include zinc, iron, folate, polyphenols, vitamins A, B, C, and antioxidants, as they also act on brain function.
Your diet may not contain some essential brain nutrients, and this gap can be filled with quality supplements like Metagenics Phytomulti without iron. Such multivitamins contain brain-boosting micronutrients in standardized and clinically studied dosages. In this way, they help maintain and improve brain health, even in old age.
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How Nutrients Impact Brain Health?
Brain is an important organ that never takes rest. You may sleep, but your brain keeps working 24/7. Naturally, it needs a constant supply of energy. This comes from the nutrients in your diet. Antioxidants protect the brain from oxidative stress and vitamins and minerals provide the nourishment.
When your brain doesn't get these nutrients in sufficient levels, it can result in an overload of oxidative stress and inflammation. Nutrition deficiency can disrupt immune response and cellular processes and increase the risk of brain injury.
B-Complex Vitamins
Vitamin B keeps the brain young and healthy and prevents the brain from showing cognitive decline says Harvard nutritionists. High levels of homocysteine in the blood also bring an increased risk for cognitive decline. Vitamin B serves to decrease the concentration of homocysteine in the blood. Thus, vitamin B supplements may be considered beneficial for maintaining cognitive health.
Vitamin D
Owing to the presence of vitamin D receptors in brain tissues, this vitamin has neuroprotection effects and has significant effects on cognitive performance. It is said that four times the risk of cognitive impairment occurs among individuals with vitamin D deficiency and vitamin D supplementation for 12 months may enhance cognitive ability.
Another study involving elderly patients with only mild cognitive impairment also suggested that vitamin D supplements lessen oxidative stress and improve the length of telomeres. Vitamin D levels are also correlated with aging-related length of telomeres and genomic stability.
Vitamin E
The increased intake of vitamin E through the diet and high-quality supplements reduces the risk of degenerative diseases like dementia as per a meta-analysis published in the Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. Therefore, for brain health the neuroprotective effects of vitamin E can be useful.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
The Goodness of omega-3 for cognitive performance persists for all age groups. FDA recommendation is that you should consume 3g of omega-3, including both EPA and DHA daily. Dietary supplements can deliver up to 2g daily. The FDA advises not to exceed these levels as it could lead to risk of inflammatory response changes and bleeding problems.
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are needed for the brain activities. When brain DHA decreases, it can result in memory issues because it impacts neurotransmission, neuronal membrane characteristics, electrophysiological qualities, and enzyme activity.
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DHA may improve early memory and reduce the chances of learning deficiencies
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EPA may result in higher cognitive performance
Omega-3 supplementation through omega-3 supplements can ensure you get enough levels in your daily intake. It helps to:
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Improve blood circulation
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Improve oxygen saturation of hemoglobin and total hemoglobin levels
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Elevate levels of phosphatides
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Promote the release of neurotransmitters
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Improve cognition and mental performance
Iron
Some studies have uncovered a connection between poor cognition, behavior problems, and motor development in a sample of subjects with iron deficiency anemia. Thus, iron deficiency leads to adverse cognitive effects.
Selenium
It is documented that the brain is one of the most sensitive organs concerning oxidative stress. It may lead to mood disturbances and behavioral issues as well as being associated with cognitive impairment. Selenium is an important mineral that protects against oxidative damage and improves cognitive function.
Lithium
The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties with neuroprotection make lithium capable of mood stabilization. MRI scans conducted for healthy males who took low doses of lithium orotate as supplements indicated that there was good absorption. Therefore, a small dose from supplements like Pure Encapsulations Lithium Orotate 5 mg may improve a person's mood, emotional health, and mental wellness.
Popular Multivitamins for Healthy Brain Function
Daily multivitamins containing brain-supportive nutrients can go a long way toward improving brain health in terms of protecting cognition. Top options are:
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Neurovite Plus: This is doctor-formulated with evidence-based ingredients like acetyl-L-carnitine, Phosphatidyl Serine, Alpha-Lipoic acid, and CoQ10.
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Brain and Body Power Max: It is a 3-in-1 health solution including daily multivitamins, nootropics for the brain, and double the dosage (3200 mg) of omega-3s. Advanced support for body and brain is available with the addition of phosphatidylserine, acetylcarnitine, alpha-lipoic acid, ginkgo biloba extract, n-acetylcysteine and huperzine A. The improvements in memory, mental sharpness, cognition, focus, and energy really empower the mind.
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BrainMD Brain & Body Power: It's another great multivitamin from BrainMD for memory, cognition, mood, immunity, and digestion. This high-quality supplement gives its nutrients in a readily absorbable and utilizable form.
Science Behind How a Daily Multivitamin Affects My Brain
The presence of all essential nutrients in clinical doses in multivitamin formulas supports brain health. Some studies show that this could also be of some use for cognitive function. Some premium multivitamins contain as many as 20 essential nutrients or more, and they slow down cognitive aging.
Scientific evidence on multivitamins is mentioned below:
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In a study, multivitamins were found to enhance immediate recall memory.
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Studies published by the National Institute of Aging reveal that preventive treatment for cognitive decline among elderly is essential since over 46 million people are affected. Vitamins, minerals, and nutrients are all crucial for normal brain function; lacking them may increase risk for cognitive decline. Memory, global cognition, and executive functions were tested and evaluated and participants who took a multivitamin showed higher overall scores in global cognition.
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According to a published article by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, using safe daily multivitamins would improve the memory of the person, which could be equivalent to slowing down age-related memory change by 3.1 years.
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According to research from Columbia University, daily multivitamin supplements can reduce memory decline associated with age. Therefore, multivitamins can be helpful by addressing the nutrient deficiency caused as people age.
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The COSMOS study discovered that the intake of multivitamin-mineral supplements by older adults for 3 years might lead to better episodic memory, global cognition, and executive functions. It's a landmark study indicating that a safe, inexpensive, and easily available multivitamin supplement for older adults could potentially shield and enhance cognitive performance.
Are CBD products useful to the brain?
Cannabidiol-rich (CBD) products contain the CBD cannabinoid element from hemp. Different from the psychoactive molecule tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is addictive and makes you high, it is not an intoxicating substance and has no addiction potential. It instead works by modulating the signaling pathways of the brain.
The majority of the people who consume CBD products said during an online survey that they experience deep sleep, minimal stress and anxiety, and a healthier overall state. MRI examinations also revealed a relationship between CBD consumption and reduced anxiety levels.
As a powerful antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties, CBD can also help with episodic memory. To experience these health benefits, select high bioavailability CBD products. A famous option for this is the 10 mg full-spectrum CBD Charlotte's Web Calm gummy. It can help calm anxiety and evaluate daily stressors.
Conclusion
Nourishment to the brain improves emotional, behavioral, and psychological wellness. Hence, eat foods with omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals for better brain health. Taking scientifically formulated supplements with B vitamins, iron, selenium, and so on, along with your diet, can enhance brain health. It's much easier to take a multivitamin with the key nutrients for the brain since those will include standardized dosages, best suited for the modern lifestyle. Scientific evidence also supports that taking daily multivitamin supplements to fill the gap of nutrient deficiencies may boost cognitive function.