PhosphatidylSerine (PS) is a brain nutrient proven to benefit memory and learning through many double-blind clinical trials. But PS contributes to many other features of brain vitality. A major category of brain vitality that benefits from PS is energy, mood and coping with stress. Energy PS is a phospholipid, one of a class of nutrients called “life’s building blocks” because they go to make the membrane systems of cells. Membranes are thin, flexible, extended molecular matrices that house most of the enzymes responsible for generating life energy and otherwise transacting the business of life. All the cells in all living things — from the simplest to the most sophisticated — have such membrane systems, all assembled from PS and other phospholipids. In humans, the brain is richer in PS than any other organ. PS has membrane properties which seemingly are most valuable to the nerve cells of the brain. The brain’s approximately 100 billion nerve cells are energy guzzlers. They’re our largest, longest, most metabolically active cells. They generate, propagate, and integrate electrical signals all through the brain and spinal cord and out into the limbs. Their membrane systems are literally their electrical transmission grids, along as many as 100 trillion pathways. And for all this they need PS. The bulk of the nerve cell’s energy comes from the mitochondria, the “powerhouses” of the cell. These subcellular units must have PS to do their job. The mitochondria import PS from elsewhere in the cell, and use it to make another phospholipid, PE (phosphatidylethanolamine) that is very important for their energy efficiency. PS has numerous membrane functions. It supports the membrane transport enzyme that regulates sodium and potassium movement into and out of the cell. This “Na/K ATPase” uses most of the cell’s energy, and PS support for its efficient action is crucial to the cell’s survival. PS also facilitates membrane – to – membrane fusion processes that release chemical transmitters at the synaptic junctions. PS also optimizes membrane receptor proteins that sense the transmitters; at least nine transmitter systems are supported by PS. Stress Through these and other, higher-level mechanisms PS helps the brain manage stress. Sustained emotional stress is known to cause shrinkage of the hippocampus brain zone and accelerate memory decline. This effect is mediated by long-term blood cortisol elevation. Strenuous physical exercise also can elevate cortisol. In two double-blind trials conducted in Italy, bicyclists given prior to strenuous exercising pedaling experienced significantly less cortisol elevation. Professional bodybuilders develop elevated cortisol when they become “overtrained;” in a U.S. double-blind trial, PS lowered cortisol levels and their day-to-day soreness was relieved. PS benefits acute mental challenge. In a double-blind trial coordinated by noted UK researcher Prof. David Benton, 21-year old male university students were randomly assigned to take either PS or a placebo. After 30 days the subjects were given a test that created acute stress: tough mental arithmetic calculations without a calculator and on a time limit! As the study began, the students filled out a questionnaire on “neuroticism.” People who tend toward neuroticism typically respond poorly to stress and have more difficulty dealing with daily life. Those students who scored more “neurotic” experienced little stress when they took PS, their mood was stable and they reported negligible anxiety. Those who got placebo and not PS reported a highly significant level of stress from the test, and a significant worsening of mood. Therefore PS can help “nervous” types stay clear-headed, composed, and confident as they take on challenging mental tasks Dr. Benton did a second double-blind trial with young male students, this one assessing PS against the heart rate response to the stress of physical exercise. During demanding aerobic physical exercise the heart rate will tend to increase; the faster the heart rate can return to normal, the more healthy is that subject’s stress response. As before, male university students were randomly divided into a PS group and a placebo group. Each took PS (300 mg per day) or placebo for 30 days. Then each subject was fitted with a continuous heart rate monitor and made to ride an ergonomic bicycle vigorously for twenty minutes, followed by rest for forty minutes. During the second 10-minute exercise period, the PS subjects' heart rates increased significantly less than did those on placebo. After the rest period the PS subjects were significantly more confident and composed than were the placebo subjects. Professor Benton’s two double-blind trials with PS for stress are consistent with the two double-blind trials conducted with bicyclists in Italy. These four trials confirm PS empowers young people to confront the stressful challenges of living in today's world. Mood In a double-blind trial on elderly women hospitalized with chronic depression, PS lifted the depression and eased their anxiety. Their memory problems, often linked to depression, also improved. So did their irritability, social interests and cooperativeness. Similar results were obtained for men in other trials. Laboratory testing suggested PS could be deficient in subjects with clinical depression. PS benefits for stress and depression are probably based in its revitalization of the pituitary, our “master gland.” This gland works in tandem with the brain’s hypothalamus zone and the adrenal glands, as the HPAA (hypothalamic – pituitary – adrenal axis), the body’s central system for coping with stress. Studies with elderly men and women found that PS improved dexamethasone suppression, a biochemical measure of adaptability to stress, and could partially restore sleep cycles to a more youthful pattern. Some of the researchers suggested PS has that rare attribute: to influence complex inter-relationships between the nervous system and the hormonal system. Revitalization of the brain by PS has been directly demonstrated in human subjects. The imaging technique PET (Positron Emission Tomography) produces a color map of the brain, with the different colors representing levels of blood glucose consumption. The higher the glucose use, the higher the energy level and the redder the color on the PET scans. In patients with advanced cognitive decline PET shows very little glucose consumption; after a period of PS intake the brain literally lights up on the PET scans. PS can benefit people of all ages, including children. Pilot studies indicate PS can benefit attention, behavior and learning in children diagnosed with such problems. PS is especially suitable for children because it is safe over a wide dosage range (100-500 mg per day). The exceptional safety and tolerability of PS is related to its being an orthomolecule, intrinsic to cell form and function. PS is the safest and most effective nutraceutical for the human brain, enabling its energetics and supporting its vitality and adaptability from birth through old age. |
