What cognitive studies show is a well balanced healthy diet, along with taking certain supplements to fill in the gaps when it comes to nutrition for the brain, does is helps you function better cognitively, especially once you begin to age.
The brain is the chief command center for every muscle and organ movement in the body, so as a result, it deserves the best possible help to perform at its maximum peak.
What consuming these nutrients does is they will facilitate better executive decisions, which enables you to remember better, act and react precisely, and will tell the muscles exactly what to do quicker.
Better nutrition is able to help the brain cells burn glucose more efficiently, which is the primary fuel to keep it running on time.
Nutrients also protects the brain cells from oxidation damage, as well as helping the brain cells to connect with the neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers which the cells use, so they can communicate with one other, as well as with the rest of the body.
Recommended Nutritional Health For The Brain
What researchers are doing is increasing their efforts to find better nutritional ways of improving brain health, this especially to aid the increasingly aging population.
These efforts appear to be paying off, since there’s evidence that not only better overall nutrition is required, but also better supplementation of just a few key nutrients can avoid the diminishing of brain cells.
These studies support the need to maintain a healthy diet, along with taking supplements to improve cognitive function.
A typical dietary pattern includes higher levels of fish consumption, fruits and vegetables, olive oil, and certain cereals.
These sources all have been associated with protecting age related cognitive function.
What adopting this type of diet does:
• It delivers higher amounts of omega-3 fatty acids from the fish
• Higher monounsaturated fatty acids from the olive oil and vegetables, and
• Antioxidants from the fruits and vegetables
There are also the B vitamins which is provided by the cereal.
All of these types of foods are extremely beneficial to the health of both the brain and the heart, this especially once saturated fat is replaced by the empty calories.
Nutrients Required By The Brain
The B vitamins, especially vitamins B6 and B12, niacin, thiamin, and folate, are all vital for better brain health.
The recommended levels of these nutrients are also needed for the efficient metabolism of glucose.
Dementia, for instance, is a known symptom when it comes to the deficiency of vitamins B6 and B12.
Folate and the B vitamins are all involved in the metabolic cycle which regulates homocysteine, which is an amino acid that’s formed during the breakdown of protein.
Elevated levels of homocysteine has proven to be a risk factor when it comes to impaired cognitive abilities, especially for the elderly, and those experiencing a decline in memory function.
4 Supplements For Brain Health
At times, it becomes difficult to get all the proper nutrients that are needed to keep the brain operating at its optimal level.
Once this occurs, it may need additional vitamins along with supplemental compounds, including:
1.) – CoQ10
Coenzyme Q10, known as CoQ10 is a natural substance which is found in the body, that helps turn food into energy.
CoQ10 is also found in almost every cell that’s in the body, thus being an extremely powerful and valuable antioxidant.
There’s a group of researchers who believes that CoQ10, may also potentially help with heart related conditions.
The reason being it’s able to improve the production of energy in the cells, while preventing blood clots to form since it acts as an antioxidant.
2.) – Magnesium
The various regions in the brain which are associated with memory and learning, both experienced notable improvement when it came to synaptic function, this because of taking magnesium supplementation.
3.) – Ginkgo Biloba
The extract from the ginkgo leaf has shown to protect the neurons from oxidative damage, while also preventing the progression of tissue degeneration in patients experiencing dementia.
4.) – Citicoline
What citicoline supplements does, is it raise the brains levels of acetylcholine, while improving memory and mental performance in individuals.
There are studies which support citicoline may be able to potentially reverse the aging process, while improving mild memory loss issues.
Also, in addition to raising neurotransmitter levels, citicoline is known to increase the amounts of phospholipids which are found in the brain cell membranes, that protects against further oxidative damage.
What this protection as a result does, is it saves a vast number of brain cells which may be lost or damaged as one begins to age.
The Need For Antioxidants
Once oxidative damage occurs in the brain cells, it strongly implicates Alzheimer’s, as well as other forms of cognitive and memory decline.
Oxidative damage will usually occur as a result of metabolic reactions which releases unstable molecules, which are known as free radicals.
What these free radicals will do, is attack the fats which are in the cell membranes, as well as the other critical cell structures.
Since the brain happens to be extremely rich in fat, it becomes extremely vulnerable to oxidation.
There are certain identified nutrients, such as vitamins C and E, which are antioxidants that’s been proven to neutralize these free radicals, which protects the cells and tissues against oxidative damage.
For this reason, researchers have been looking for a possible protective role, between these vitamins found in the brain and the nervous system.
Lower levels of vitamin E, for instance, has been found in Alzheimer patients, which makes them vulnerable to oxidation.
Other groups of antioxidants and plant compounds including: alpha-lipoic acid, polyphenols and curcumin, are also all currently being studied for potentially benefiting improved brain health.
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