While Sagee are all undoubtedly worried by the almost inevitable fact that we will lose some of our physical capabilities as we get older, there’s one thing that worries us even more; memory loss. Memory loss has long been associated with aging and with more and more media attention being devoted to conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, we are now making more of a conscious effort to do everything we can to minimise the chances of suffering this fate. In addition to memory games (such as Nintendo’s “Brain Training”) becoming increasingly popular and helping to keep us mentally active, memory enhancement supplements are being used to help preserve our mental health. But do these supplements genuinely help?
Do Memory Enhancement Supplements Actually Help?
Extensive medical studies are ongoing and aim to try and uncover the best memory enhancement supplements to prevent the problems we outlined above and while further testing must be done, there are certainly encouraging signs that these supplements do help to prevent memory loss. One of the most promising brain health supplements based on current research is Ginkgo Biloba, which is used in numerous countries around the world (predominately in Europe) to improve the condition of people suffering from dementia. While it can’t prevent this condition, it has been known to have a significant positive impact upon individuals that already suffer from it, allowing them to become more mentally alert and improving their mood and state of mind considerably. Other memory enhancement supplements that have showed promise include Omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin E, Huperzine A, Acetyl-L-Carnitine and Asian ginseng.
Conditions that Memory Enhancement Supplements Could Help
As already mentioned, testing to determine the effectiveness of memory enhancement supplements is ongoing, but studies to date have shown that they can in some cases have a positive impact upon the following conditions:
Alzheimer’s Disease
Effective memory enhancement supplements for Alzheimer’s disease are constantly being sought as it is by far the most common form of dementia, accounting for 64 percent of the total number of cases in Canada. Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative disease that destroys brain cells, resulting in memory loss among other symptoms. It can also affect a person’s behaviour and can result in them forgetting how to do everyday activities such as getting dressed or washing themselves. Currently there is no way to stop the disease, but there are memory enhancement supplements that have, in some cases, slowed down its progress.
Dementia
A study that was conducted in 2011 showed that almost 750,000 Canadians suffer from a type of cognitive impairment (which includes dementia), including almost 15 percent of all people aged 65 or older. Dementia is a general term that is used to describe a deterioration in a person’s mental ability to a point that it affects their quality of life. This includes loss of memory, inability to communicate effectively, frequent loss of concentration and lack of reasoning or judgement. Some memory enhancement supplements and brain health supplements have been found to improve these issues.
Memory enhancement supplements have also been found to maintain the condition of the brain and its level of functioning, so the risk of developing the conditions outlined above is lowered.