Nutrition. Vitamins. You.
Are you having a hard time maintaining focus or attention throughout the day? This may be brought on by stress. Turn to powerful nutrients that have been shown to support the body’s ability to fight stress and promote brain function.
As we age, we lose phosphatidylserine, a nutrient that is crucial for learning and memory. This can impact our memory, mood and brain health.
Phosphatidylserine
Invite Health Podcast, Episode hosted by Jerry Hickey. Ph
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There are certain ingredients in foods and supplements that can help support brain health in children and adults with ADHD and ADD. ADHD is Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder and ADD is Attention Deficit Disorder, the difference mostly being one is very hyperactive and can’t sit still, and the other is not. Either way, you can improve the way the brain functions, and this has to do with fats and certain nutrients that are incorporated into the fats.
Why does the brain need healthy fats?
Our brain is about 60% fat. The right fats are very important for your memory, mood, attention span, and we’ve known this for decades. These fats come from fish oils or flaxseed oil, omega-3 oils or omega-6 oils, which come from vegetable oils. These are very important for the housing of the brain cells. The outside of the brain cell is not hard. It’s mostly made out of lipids, which are fatty-type substances like the fish oils and the vegetable oils. This is important. The malleability of the outer layers of the brain cell allows nutrients to get into the cell quickly and toxins to leave the cell, but also the transfer of energy and information from cell to cell more efficiently.
We’ve known for decades that fish oils are really important for the brain. They rescue memory in elderly adults. They help control your mood. They help fight off the symptoms of stress and anxiety. But, unless you have key nutrients impregnated into these oils in the brain cell, it’s not going to help. The fish oils are not going to be able to protect you from memory loss. A key one of these nutrients is called Phosphatidylserine.†
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What is Phosphatidylserine?
There’s a lot of evidence that Phosphatidylserine, along with vegetable oils and especially fish oils, improves the brain function of children and adults with ADD and ADHD.†
Phosphatidylserine is primarily used for improving memory, learning and attention span. We can get it from fish, egg yolks, and legumes. The problem is that, for many of us, what we get through our diet is not enough. In fact, as we age, the amount of Phosphatidylserine, just like fish oil, in the brain declines. Also, people with ADHD do not utilize these oils from foods very effectively, so giving them additional fish oils or an evening primrose oil capsule helps them. But if you add Phosphatidylserine, that’s really key.†
Phosphatidylserine comprises a lot of the phospholipid layer of the brain. It was first discovered in 1941. It very quickly became popular in Europe because they did some pioneering clinical studies in Italy where they found it helped with the memory of aging people. We make Phosphatidylserine in our body a little bit and we get it from food. There’s an ounce in our body from the neck down and there’s an ounce in our brain. The American diet typically lacks Phosphatidylserine, so taking a capsule for anybody is often a good idea.†
Phosphatidylserine gets incorporated into the bilipid layer, the membrane of the brain cell. It helps keep it elastic, resilient and malleable, which allows nutrition to get into the cell. It also allows toxins to leave the brain cell. In addition to that, the Phosphatidylserine content of the brain cell facilitates the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin and melatonin.†
Combating Stress-Induced Loss of Focus and Attention – InVite Health Podcast, Episode 212. Listen Now >>
For more details on the role Phosphatidylserine plays in the brain and how it can help with hyperactivity, tune into the full podcast episode.
Thank you for tuning in to the Invite Health Podcast. You can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to podcasts or by visiting www.invitehealth.com/podcast. Make sure you subscribe and leave us a review! Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at Invite Health today. We’ll see you next time on another episode of the Invite Health Podcast.
Let’s discuss nutrients that can be beneficial for optimizing attention, focus and overall brain-supporting power when dealing with stress.
On top of living through a global pandemic, students and employees are heading back to school and work. This could mean a time of chronic stress is upon us. But you should know about Phosphatidylserine – a powerful brain health nutrient for learning and memory.
In order to achieve peak performance, athletes need good nutrition and specific vitamins and minerals to keep their bodies in optimal health. Female athletes have special nutritional needs, due to hormones and menstruation. The three commonly suggested minerals for female athletes are iron, copper and zinc. But a new study shows that a combination of those minerals with carnitine and phosphatidylserine will further improve aerobic exercise performance for women.
The mineral iron is an essential component of proteins and enzymes in our body. Iron transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body via the hemoglobin within red blood cells. During physical activity, iron helps match the supply of oxygen to the demand of working muscles and is important for endurance; people who engage in regular exercise may have a 30% higher-than-usual iron requirement. The prevalence of iron deficiency anemia in the US population is 2% in men and 9-12% in women. Symptoms of an iron deficiency include fatigue, loss of energy, shortness of breath, and headaches (particularly with exercise). Vegetarians, vegans and females in their menstruating years may benefit from iron supplementation. Speak with your doctor or a nutritionist before starting an iron supplementation regimen.
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Copper is a mineral that helps the body make blood cells and keeps your nerve cells and immune system healthy. It also helps to form collagen, reducing free radical damage. Copper helps the body to absorb iron and is needed to make energy. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, signs of a possible copper deficiency include bone fractures, osteoporosis, and anemia. Speak with your doctor or a nutritionist before starting a copper supplementation regimen.
Zinc is a very important, essential mineral in the body. It helps to support your immune system, is essential for wound healing and supports healthy growth and development of the body during adolescence, childhood and pregnancy. Most of the zinc in the body is found in the muscle tissue and the bone. The risk of zinc deficiency is much greater in women than in men, especially when they are breastfeeding.
Published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, researchers argued that “aerobic exercise performance can respond to some type of increased micronutrient intake. For active, young adult women, intake of these three minerals – iron, copper, and zinc – may often fall below optimal amounts.”
Researchers set out to perform two small clinical trials, each with a different set of participants to test reproducibility of the results.
For the first trial, 42 aerobically fit young women were randomly divided into three different groups. One group received a ‘generic’ mineral complex (iron, copper, zinc, carnitine, and phosphatidylserine). The next received the same combination but with ‘more absorbable’ minerals – iron bisglycinate, copper glycinate, zinc glycinate, carnitine and phosphatidylserine. The placebo group received only cornstarch. All of the supplements were in powdered form and split into two servings, taken daily.
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In the second trial, a new set of 34 participants were divided into two groups; the first received a similar ‘generic’ combination as in the first trial, but with half the amount of carnitine. The placebo control group for trial two also received a cornstarch capsule.
In both trials, researchers found that participants who ingested the glycinate mineral combination ran faster in three miles than the other groups. Distance covered in a cycling test increased, as well.