Do Food Supplements Boost Memory?

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There's a desire to find anything that can enhance our failing memories. Unfortunately, no over-the-counter supplements can increase memory.

Doctors recommend regular physical exercise. That can be too much trouble, people would like to be able to take a pill or eat something instead.

The Truth About Memory Enhancers

A recent study considered some of the evidence regarding the usefulness of popular dietary supplements and over-the-counter preparations. Essentially, they offer no real benefits to your brain.

Fish oil supplements are popular. Dietary research does show that dementia is less common in people who have a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are contained in fish oil supplements. What's interesting is studies have not shown benefits from taking supplements.

Studies do show that a diet high in naturally occurring omega-3 fatty acids, which you would get either from deep water fish like salmon or tuna or conversely from certain nuts like walnuts or pecans, is associated with a lower risk of dementia. But, taking the supplements is not associated with any change in the risk of dementia.

Common B vitamins, identified early on as possibly having something to do with memory, are popular. It's understandable why people think vitamin B-12 has something to do with memory because doctors check the B-12 level of anyone with dementia. However, studies have failed to show that there's ever been a case of someone with dementia caused by low B-12.

Doctors check it because people who have dementia frequently don't eat right and often become deficient in B12, which causes other problems like anemia and spinal cord problems. Studies have failed to show that supplementing B vitamins boosts memory. It doesn't help memory in the short run or decrease the risk of dementia in the long run.

Think Twice About Memory Supplements

Lion's mane mushroom has become popular lately. Some recent evidence-based studies have reported that this mushroom may increase the production of the nerve growth factor in astrocytes; whether this has any clinical benefits remains unknown.

Rhodiola extracts have become popular lately. Marketers claim it reduces stress, combats fatigue, increases mental performance, and improves physical and mental fitness and resilience. Whenever anything sounds amazing, you should question whether the benefits are due to the placebo effect.

Ashwagandha is an herb commonly used in traditional Indian medicine. Ashwagandha has anti-inflammatory and antioxidative properties. That sounds good, but all plants have anti-inflammatory and antioxidative properties. The evidence of its ability to improve memory is questionable at best. Overall, recent reports of the clinical benefits of ashwagandha must be interpreted with caution, given the paucity of randomized clinical trials and their poor methodological rigor.

Very few compounds have produced as many positive assertions as choline supplements. Choline does not appear to regulate memory. I spent 40 years studying the cholinergic system in the brain and testing the claims about choline.

Choline supplements only work in rats; it has never been shown to improve cognitive symptoms in human trials, especially in patients with Alzheimer's disease. Given that about 90 percent of humans are choline deficient, adding choline supplements might be slightly beneficial for older people.

Ginger is yet another plant with anti-inflammatory actions. One small study in middle-aged women reported that ginger might enhance cognitive function at doses determined from rat studies. The results of this study, while statistically significant, were quite minor. In addition, the study appeared in a questionable periodicall that publishes any report for a fee.

Memory Essential Reads

How to Hold On to Your Best Memories

Borrowing Other People’s Memories

TV commercials about memory enhancers seem so believable. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration forbids older commercials showing results from human studies for being misleading, so now we see only vague testimonials from friendly older people claiming, "I'm so much sharper now that I'm taking this." This bypasses any requirement to provide actual scientific evidence.

Apoaequorin is found in certain jellyfish and is the "active ingredient" in the supplement Prevagen. Unfortunately, there is limited clinical research on this besides the information provided by the manufacturer. You would be wrong if you think you can depend upon your government to protect you.

In 2017, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Prevagen. In 2018, the Federal Trade Commission, FTC, filed an appeal and won. The FTC and others point to statements by the makers of Prevagen that their memory study did not show any significant improvement in the treatment group over the placebo group. Indeed, because their results were so unimpressive and indecisive, the makers of Prevagen required over 30 different post hoc statistical analyses of the results to find a significant outcome of any kind on day 60.

You will notice on their TV commercial that they do not show data after day 60 because the Prevagen participants performed significantly worse after taking this product for over two months.

The Placebo Effect

When it comes to foods claiming to enhance memory, never underestimate the power of your expectations. Your mind plays a major role in how these foods affect you.

We all want to believe that these magical foods or drugs will help us feel and function better; fortunately, thanks to the poorly understood phenomenon of the placebo effect, we do sometimes, but only for a while, benefit a little.

The internet and TV are bursting with special pills and elixirs that will enhance your focus, mental energy, and memory. Fortunately, most of them will not harm you. At this point in the 21st century, nothing—let me repeat that—nothing exists that can truly make us smarter.