The Most Proven Nutrient for Memory and Brain Health: PhosphatidylSerine (PS)

The Most Proven Brain Health Nutrient for Memory: PhosphatidylSerine (PS)

Trying to make your brain work better? Tired of hearing about “miracle memory cures” that don’t work and may not even be safe to take? How about a nutrient that’s concentrated in the human brain and has extensive research proving it works? PS (PhosphatidylSerine, pronounced fos-fa-tie-dil-see-reen) isn’t a miracle memory cure but it can make a noticeably positive difference to your memory and overall brain health.

What is PhosphatidylSerine?

PhosphatidylSerine (PS) is a chemically unique nutrient that is an essential building block for all known forms of life, and it’s most highly concentrated in the human brain. Our brain cells – all of them – need PS to generate and manage the high energy, complex electrical activity, and intense information processing that makes our brains work.

PS has been put through more than 30 years of gold standard clinical research involving randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials. It consistently improves memory for words, faces, names, and numbers, as well as learning, attention, and overall mental sharpness, even in children. After all this clinical experience with PS, not one serious side effect was reported.

How Does PhosphatidylSerine Work?

Chemically, PS is a phospholipid, a type of substance that the body needs for making cell membranes. These are thin sheets of highly dynamic structures that power most of the life processes in all known living things, including in every single human cell. From its strategic positioning in the membranes of our brain cells, PS facilitates key cell activities:

  • Energy generation by the membranes of the mitochondria located within all these cells.
  • Utilization of this energy by the nerve cells to generate electrical activity.
  • Conversion of this electrical activity into information transfer at the trillions of junctions between the nerve cells (synapses). Here PS functions closely with omega-3 DHA.
  • Information transfer at the synapses by brain messenger substances (neurotransmitters).
  • Packaging of these neurotransmitters within the cells, and their release at the synapses.
  • Sensitivity to nerve growth factor, which supports nerve cell renewal and brain maintenance.

These fundamental contributions of PS to our brain cells cannot be substituted for any other substance, and their effects at the individual brain cell level scale up into the impressive brain benefits observed with PS in double-blind clinical trials. In one such trial, PS partly restored declining memory in healthy over-50 volunteers (see Further Reading, below).

PS has also been found to improve learning and attention in children with such challenges. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, after 2 months PS had improved attention, impulsive actions, learning of numbers, and school behavior in children aged 4-14 years (see Further Reading).

The credentials of PS as a safe and effective brain nutrient are established from 29 double-blind clinical trials, hundreds of other clinical studies, and thousands of basic science research papers, all published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Though not allowed to endorse its use, the U.S. FDA granted PS not just one but two prestigious qualified health claims for its brain benefits.

What Foods Contain PhosphatidylSerine?

Technically, PS is not a vitamin since the body can make it. And it is available in small amounts from the diet: though plants provide very little PS, eggs (yolk), muscle meats and organ foods do provide some. But a high-grade PS supplement can double or triple your dietary intake and improve your brain function within weeks. BrainMD’s PS is non-allergenic and is all-natural since it derives from sunflowers.

How to Take PhosphatidylSerine for Memory?

To help ensure you can get help from PS, BrainMD provides PS via several supplement products, including the NeuroVite Plus enhanced multiple vitamin supplement (try finding PS in any other multiples on the market!). We also provide PS in our popular Brain & Memory Power Boost and in our Attention Support product. If you want to try a high-potency PS, it’s available as NeuroPS in a 150 mg capsule.

BrainMD’s powerful supplement systems Brain & Body Power and Brain & Body Power MAX provide capsules from 3 of our core brain supplements in convenient to use packets. Capsules of NeuroVite Plus and Brain & Memory Power Boost provide a generous amount of PS, which is complemented by ample omega-3 DHA and EPA from our ultrapure, high-potency Omega-3 Power softgels.

For those who prefer not to take capsules, the BrainMD team developed BRIGHT MINDSTM Memory Powder with the full clinical dose of 300 mg PS per serving and a wide array of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients for brain health. PS, along with our other leading brain supplements, assist the Amen Clinics’ comprehensive Memory Rescue program, which includes breakthrough SPECT functional imaging of the brain.

Is PhosphatidylSerine Safe for Brain Health?

I’ve worked with PS for 25 years to establish it with consumers and physicians in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It’s extremely safe and I take it every day for my brain. I urge you to try it too. If you want to improve your mental focus and your memory for words, faces, names and numbers, try adding PS to your supplement regimen.

Further Reading

  • Crook TH, others. Neurology 1991;41:644-649. Double-blind trial with over-50 volunteers.
  • Hirayama S, others. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics 2014;27 (Suppl. 2):284-291. Double-blind trial with children having attentional and behavioral issues.
  • BrainMD Product Description: BRIGHT MINDSTM Memory Powder.

Dr. Parris Kidd
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