Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Expert Discussion: Energy and Immunity by Jerry Hickey, R.Ph. Why are you so tired? Because the power-plants inside your cells are old and wrinkly! Within each of your trillions of cells (with few exceptions) there are tiny power plants called mitochondria. Some cells have a …
Jerry Hickey is a pharmacist and radio personality and fills the esteemed role of Scientific Director and President of Invite Health. He has spent his professional life analyzing nutritional information and medical studies with the aim of creating the highest quality and most natural nutraceuticals …
Jerry Hickey is a pharmacist and radio personality and fills the esteemed role of Scientific Director and President of Invite Health. He has spent his professional life analyzing nutritional information and medical studies with the aim of creating the highest quality and most natural nutraceuticals for user’s maximum health benefits. Here, Jerry speaks about the benefits of Phosphatidylserine…
We’re going to talk about a brain health nutrient. It’s considered completely safe by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and there are about 2 ounces of it in your body, with 1 ounce residing in your brain. That’s how important it is for your brain. And it’s one of the reasons why eating fish is good for your brain; Fish oils interact with this nutrient and suck it into the brain cells, regenerating them. It’s called Phosphatidylserine.
Sixty percent of our brain is made out of lipids (or fats). A very important fat in your brain is called phosphatidylserine. It’s an important player for cognitive function, for executive functions, and especially for your memory. Phosphatidylserine levels drop with age. This supplement has been clinically proven to improve your cognitive functions that have suffered due to age. You know you get that forgetfulness, that absentmindedness, you don’t remember where you put your keys, you can’t remember your friend’s name, whatever it might be. Clinical studies indicate that that it can slow down and even reverse that normal decline seen in the aging brain that has to do with memory.
Here is some research from the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease from the University of Sherbrooke up in Quebec, Canada. They show that there is a drop in Phosphatidylserine levels in the aging brain. This is not an Alzheimer’s study; it is a study proving it really is a cocktail of nutrients that are important for the aging brain to help support normal memory functions. Low levels of Phosphatidylserine affects the health of the memory banks of the brain because it gets into the regions where the brain cells communicate which each other and it just helps restore that function.
A study from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center published in a journal called Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders took 157 people who were older and starting to develop some memory issues over the course of 15 weeks. They were given Phosphatidylserine and also made sure they were either eating fish or taking fish oils. Verbal immediate recall significantly improved in less than three months. A tremendous improvement in memory and cognitive performance on different types of tests occurred, as well. Word recall, the ability to learn and remember, and the ability to copy complex figures all were improved simply by giving them this nutrient.
Here’s another study from The Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences – for three months, they gave elderly patients who had typical cognitive decline and memory issues doses of Phosphatidylserine. It improved their brain function all around, their memory and their word recall.
Read more about Phosphatidylserine from Nicole Crane, BS, NTP by clicking here!
Here’s a different spin on it: if you’re aging, you want to put this back in your brain and you want to eat fish. Salmon is great for the brain, and provides an antioxidant called astaxanthin that shields it. It has choline, the B vitamin involved in brain function. It has magnesium and taurine to calm down the brain and create neurotransmitters and it also has fish oils. The missing component is the Phosphatidylserine. So if you’re eating salmon two to three times a week, that’s a treat for your brain. If you add the Phosphatidylserine, it’s an amazing treat for your brain.
Another study from Angelo State University took a group of their athletes from this college and gave them Phosphatidylserine. Within two weeks, Phosphatidylserine improved the focus and brain function of these athletes. Their math scores also improved; In just two weeks, it improved their math performance time by 20% and reduced a number of errors on the math test by 40% within two weeks.
I have customers and listeners asking me, “My kid has a little trouble focusing; he’s not paying attention in school”. So I suggest two or three things that are really good for their focus. Phosphatidylserine is one of them. If you need to perform and you need to focus, start taking this nutrient two weeks in advance and you’ll find it really has an impact.
So it’s for memory functions, for focus, for concentration, for remembering, for all those executive functions such as planning a vacation, figuring out how much you have in the bank or doing math in your grocery store to figure out your change. Your ability to do all of these things are greatly improved. It also helps school kids pay attention; It helps their grades. And it helps athletes keep their eye on the ball.
Cholesterol is one of the most confusing topics in today’s medical world. Many times, those who ask me for help have questions regarding their cholesterol. They often start by telling me their total cholesterol number. But, unknown to them and many others, that is just one …
Jerry Hickey is a pharmacist and radio personality and fills the esteemed role of Scientific Director and President of Invite Health. He has spent his professional life analyzing nutritional information and medical studies with the aim of creating the highest quality and most natural nutraceuticals …
Jerry Hickey is a pharmacist and radio personality and fills the esteemed role of Scientific Director and President of Invite Health. He has spent his professional life analyzing nutritional information and medical studies with the aim of creating the highest quality and most natural nutraceuticals for user’s maximum health benefits. Here, Jerry speaks about the benefits of InVite® Health multivitamins…
We use amazing technology in these multivitamins; the highest quality technology. We actually make the liquid-filled capsules robotically because we don’t want people with gloves on touching capsule after capsule and loading machines with their fingers (which I’ve seen in other factories and I can’t believe it). Then, they scratch their nose and then they go back and they’re touching the capsules again. I don’t use those factories. We actually use robotic technology to create this. All of the liquids are mixed together in an oxygen-free room; where the oxygen has been completely removed. Then, the robot shoots the liquid into the capsule and it seals the capsule with a spray of fine water, and that capsule is made of vegetable. It has a tight weave that keeps those ingredients clean and fresh and improves the absorption of these very important nutrients for the eyes, brain, breast tissue and your bones.
We actually study the technology with Cornell University and the research shows that this technology is superb for improving absorption. We use a number of ingredients for these multi’s that have been used in human clinical trials published in medical journals. For instance, the CoQ10 we use is from Kaneka® and has been used in human clinical trials for heart health and for exercise. The lycopene we use has been used in studies for skin (for protecting the skin from the sun and wrinkling). Lutein is very good for the skin, has some effect in the breasts, and has a magnificent effect in men’s prostate. The luteins included have been used in eye studies and the Tocomin tocotrienols have been used in multiple human clinical trials; trials specifically focusing on hair follicle, the brain, carotid arteries, keeping the arteries in the neck clean, the skin, helping maintain healthy cholesterol, as an antioxidant in the vascular system, etc. So, there are great ingredients in this multi. Everything we use is high quality. There’s nothing we skimp on.
There’s a difference in the characteristics, the quality, and the abilities of each ingredient used to protect you. We only use the highest quality ingredients. There are no genetically modified oils. We don’t get the ingredients from places you don’t want the ingredients from; we get it from really high-quality places like the United States, Switzerland, France, Brazil, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Even the capsule itself, we use the highest quality, and then, we use the highest quality technology. Everything that’s in these multis is high quality; there’s no cutting corners. If you go out and you get cheap stuff…well, there’s a reason why it’s cheap.
There is a study from the University of Melbourne and Swinburne University of Technology, both in Australia, that found that when people took a high potency multivitamin and mineral with the inclusion of antioxidants, they had a better mood and they had better energy levels. That’s very plausible. When you gather all of your vitamins and your minerals, everything starts to work better, which can improve your energy. There are things in the multivitamin, like vitamin D and B vitamins that are needed for energy. And vitamin E and vitamin C that protect physical health. When you calm down free radicals in the brain, you’re generally happier. When you had a lot of free radicals in the brain and the brain is inflamed, nothing is working properly and you become depressed, you become sad, you become anxious, you become nervous, you become confused. I mean, there’s a lot of research showing this now. You calm down that storm of free radical production in the brain, the antidotes to free radicals, the anti-oxidants and multivitamins, and the brain starts to do better and it can really help improve depression. Listen, taking a walk, taking vitamin D, taking fish oils, taking a multivitamin, they could all be very helpful with depression, there’s no two ways about it because for the brain to work properly, you need the mineral magnesium, you need vitamin D, you need vitamin E, you need vitamin C, you need iron and zinc and copper and manganese. You need all the B vitamins for the brain to work properly. And guess what? That’s in the multivitamin.