The market for brain health supplements reached a staggering value of $7.68 billion last year and is set to increase by 8.3% annually.
These supplements appear to be a hot new trend within the health industry. But what’s making them so popular?
It seems that many have become increasingly aware of the need to be more focused, energetic, and productive. Since a lot of us lead busy lives, it’s no surprise why brain supplements are on the rise.
When trying to find one to buy, maybe you’re left wondering: what is the best supplement for brain health? We’re here to clear that up for you.
Read on to find out more about what the top brain supplement is.
What Is the Best Supplement for Brain Health?
Although many supplements are being used for the benefit of brain health, the most widely studied and best one might be creatine.
While creatine is most commonly known for the effects it has on strength and athleticism, it also shows great potential for use as a brain health supplement. As with them all, a good creatine supplement will obtain its ingredients from a trusted ingredient distributor.
Here, we’re going to explore the different areas of brain health that creatine might help with. These include:
- Neurological disorders
- Memory and recall
- Intelligence
- Focus and attention
- Parkinson’s disease
- Traumatic brain injury
- Depression
Let’s look at each one in turn. This can be your brain health supplement guide.
Neurological Disorders
A key area of interest within the health industry lately has been to look at ways to protect against neurological disease. With more than 10 million new cases every year, dementia is on the rise. Therefore, it’s a very important area that requires close attention.
Neurological disorders have been linked with a decrease in brain levels of phosphocreatine. As creatine supplementation can help improve such levels, it may be beneficial in delaying the onset of neurological issues.
A study found that creatine was able to increase phosphocreatine back to 72% of its normal level in mice suffering from Huntington’s disease (a neurological condition).
Memory and Recall
In order for your brain to succeed in performing complex tasks, such as recalling events, you need a healthy level of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Creatine helps to replenish ATP stores, therefore suggesting that it might help improve memory and recall.
A study looked at the ability of elderly people to recall information. After two weeks of taking creatine, the participants demonstrated vast improvements in their memory and recall.
Intelligence
Since creatine shows promise in other areas of brain function, such as memory and focus, researchers wanted to test if it might help with intelligence, too. To do this, they tested to see if people consuming a diet low in creatine would score better on intelligence tests after supplementing with it.
The participants first took the tests, then supplemented with creatine for six weeks and repeated the tests again. They scored between 20% and 50% better on the tests after supplementing with creatine.
Focus and Attention
How creatine works to help prevent muscle fatigue is well documented and understood. The same level of attention, however, hasn’t been given to its potential to relieve mental fatigue. But the truth is: we could all be doing something that could give us a little extra boost.
It’s important to look at ways in which we may improve our mental game by reducing brain fatigue. A better functioning brain means more focus and concentration, which can then lead to improved productivity at work and in other areas of life. If there was a supplement that might help here, would that be something that interests you?
Participants took creatine over five days at a dose of 8g per day to see how it affected mental focus and fatigue. Concentration improved while levels of fatigue dropped. This allowed those participating to effectively complete mathematics tasks with more success.
Parkinson’s Disease
Parkinson’s is a brain disease whereby damage to the nervous system results in issues such as a lack of muscle function, speech impairment, and shaking uncontrollably.
Severely low levels of dopamine within the brain leads to Parkinson’s disease. When dopamine falls too low, cells begin to die, causing severe symptoms to result.
In one study, mice that suffered from Parkinson’s took creatine supplementation. This led to a 90% better protection of dopamine levels than what generally occurs as a result of the disease. While it does show some potential, more human research still needs carried out.
Brain Injury Recovery
There appears to be a link between the function of the nervous system and the role creatine plays within related cells, as shown above in the case of Parkinson’s. There’s evidence of creatine levels dropping after one has suffered from a traumatic brain injury. This seems to support that the two are associated: nerve health and creatine.
Supplementing with creatine has shown potential for alleviating symptoms associated with nerve damage, maintaining cell integrity, and improving brain health. Therefore, taking a closer look at the possible link between traumatic brain injury, damage to the nervous system, and creatine supplementation could be an exciting new area of research.
Depression
Changes in brain energy systems are associated with symptoms of depression. Early research suggests that creatine may have the ability to alleviate such feelings since it can enhance these energy pathways within the brain.
Ten patients took part in a study, eight of which had a major depressive disorder and two suffering from bipolar depression. They took between 3 and 5g of creatine per day, along with their already prescribed antidepressant medicine. The study lasted for four weeks.
While those suffering from bipolar depression withdrew, seven out of eight of those with major depression showed great improvements in their symptoms. This further supports the potential of creatine as a supplement for brain health.
Find Out More About the Benefits of Creatine
Here, we’ve set out to answer the question: what is the best supplement for brain health? While there are many on the market, we’ve looked at why creatine might be the best.
For more blog posts about the benefits of creatine, head on over to our website. Learn why this supplement has become so widely used.