The brain is our most sophisticated organ but often the most vulnerable. It's easily damaged by dietary deficiencies, emotional challenges, toxic exposures, the numerous other stresses of modern life. One of the kindest things we can do for our brain is to feed it PS (PhosphatidylSerine).
PhosphatidylSerine (pronounced fos-fa-tie-dil-ser-een) is a neuroceutical, a nutrient natural to the brain’s biochemistry. PS is also an orthomolecule, a molecule integral to life since the beginning. Its synthesis in the body is complicated, and it is limited in the food supply. No wonder, then, that PS has such salutary benefits as a dietary supplement. PS is extensively documented for its neuroceutical benefits, through more than twenty double-blind trials, many other human studies, and thousands of scientific papers. PS offers a variety of benefits for people of all ages, and in the over-50 population can sometimes even reverse memory decline—an effect unmatched by other brain nutrients. For middle-aged people (ages 50-65), PS can produce meaningful improvement in memory, learning, concentration, and word recall. Three controlled trials were conducted in the United States by renowned memory expert Dr. Thomas Crook and his colleagues. Among their findings was that PS could restore up to 14 years' worth of memory function in subjects with abnormally accelerated memory decline. Dr Crook recommended PS as the best option for those seeking to rebuild their circuits before their memory loss might become unmanageable. PS can mildly improve personality, sociability, and the activities of daily living in some persons with severe cognitive breakdown. Dharma Singh Khalsa, MD at his Alzheimer’s Prevention Foundation in Arizona has used PS in combination with other potent brain nutrients in his wholistic brain regeneration program. He prescribes dietary improvements, stress reduction, dietary supplements, mind-body exercises, and where necessary even pharmacologic (prescription drug) therapy. For those people over 65 still clinically healthy but with age-associated brain decline, PS offers partial revitalization of a variety of mental functions. In addition to its cognitive benefits, PS offers these individuals improved mood control and adaptability to stress. PS Benefits The Healthy Young Professor David Benton is internationally recognized for his research on brain function. In 2001 his team published a double-blind trial that demonstrated PS can benefit young, clinically healthy people. Male university students in their early twenties who were prone to neuroticism benefited from PS (300 mg/day) with improved tolerance to a mental stress test, administered as a challenging time trial with mental arithmetic. Benton’s group did another double-blind trial on PS and stress management in his students, this time using demanding physical exercise. In this trial, the students experienced better heart rate recovery following strenuous exercise on an ergonomic bicycle. PS also improved mood and self-confidence during both these stress trials. The Benton findings are consistent with two other double-blind trials in which PS lowered stress hormone production from exercise exertion. Although young women were not included in these trials, there is good reason to expect they would benefit similarly: in an earlier double-blind trial, elderly women experienced lessened anxiety and improved mood from PS. Dr.
C.A. Ryser, a physician who routinely sees children with attention
deficit, hyperactivity, and learning problems, conducted a preliminary
open study with PS. With parents’ informed consent, each child
received optimal individualized treatment as per her usual protocols,
then she added PS into their treatment plans (at 200 or 300 mg per
day, depending on body size). Twenty-seven (27) children aged 3-19
years completed the four-month study. Additional study is needed, but the apparent benefits to children from PS in the Ryser study are consistent with its other benefits to memory conservation, brain revitalization, and stress management. PS Presents Unique Neuroceutical Benefits Being orthomolecular—deeply integrated into human biochemistry— endows PS with exceptional efficacy, tolerability and safety. This helps explain its superiority over herbal preparations like Ginkgo biloba extract, vinpocetine and huperzine, none of which has substantial orthomolecular character. PS is present in all our cells, tissues, and organs, and it has profound roles in energetics, repair and renewal. But it is in the brain that PS most shines. PS is a key cell membrane phospholipid, important for the brain cells to make energy via their mitochondrial membrane systems. PS also is essential to the packaging of the nerve transmitters into membrane vesicles, to transmitter release via membrane fusion, and to transmitter actions on receptors embedded in the nerve cell membranes. Altogether, these activities translate into whole-brain effects that explain the documented clinical benefits of PS. Recently it was discovered that the brain can produce new nerve cells, under the influence of growth factors. In animal experiments PS protected the receptors for nerve growth factor (NGF) against age-related loss, while conserving the existing circuits. This is consistent with its clinical brain revitalization effects. A good dosing strategy with PS is to preload the body's cell membrane systems with the clinically verified dose of 300 mg per day for a minimum one month, or for longer depending on need. Most people experience benefit within three weeks to three months. Then depending on need, a maintenance dose can be implemented, minimally 100 mg up to 300 mg per day. The
premier status of PS as a neuroceutical grows out of decades of controlled
clinical application. Its unique biochemistry, metabolism and range
of proven benefits take it beyond the drugs and other nutrients that
target the brain. For people of all ages, taking PS offers hope for
a level of brain sharpness that defies the passing of the years. |
