Well, the idea that you can just pop a pill to improve your mem­ory and atten­tion lost some ground today.

The Asso­ci­ated Press released an arti­cle on DHEA, a steroid pre­cur­sor to testos­terone and estro­gen used to improve ath­letic per­for­mance, increase sex drive, and reduce fat as well as fight dia­betes and heart dis­ease. The con­clu­sion of a two-year study at the Mayo Clinic in Min­nesota and Uni­ver­sity of Padua in Italy was that it did not improve strength, phys­i­cal per­for­mance, or other mea­sures of health. The pos­i­tive news was:

No harm­ful side effects were detected. That is good news, but it does not mean the sup­ple­ments are alto­gether safe, said Simon Yeung, man­ager of the Web site on sup­ple­ments and inte­gra­tive med­i­cine at the Memo­r­ial Sloan-Kettering Can­cer Cen­ter in New York.

Glad to hear it’s not harm­ful, but not an over­whelm­ing endorse­ment either! Fur­ther­more, some prior research sug­gests “DHEA car­ries risks and may cause side effects.” I wouldn’t run to the store just yet to get DHEA supplements.

Ginkgo biloba is another over-the-counter memory-enhancing sup­ple­ment we have heard a lot about recently. Paul Solomon from Williams Col­lege found “these data sug­gest that when taken fol­low­ing the manufacturer’s instruc­tions, ginkgo pro­vides no mea­sur­able ben­e­fit in mem­ory or related cog­ni­tive func­tion to adults with healthy cog­ni­tive func­tion.” Nicholas Burns from the Uni­ver­sity of Ade­laide, Aus­tralia just pub­lished his results from a double-blind, placebo-controlled study assess­ing the effects of ginkgo on a wide range of mea­sures of cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties, exec­u­tive func­tion, atten­tion and mood in healthy 55–79 year olds as well as 18–43 year olds. He found longer-term mem­ory improved in the older pop­u­la­tion, but no improve­ment on any other mea­sure for either the younger or older par­tic­i­pants. On a pos­i­tive note, the reported side effects were mild. Sarah Elsabagh from King’s Col­lege Lon­don found ginkgo improved atten­tion and mem­ory in the short term. How­ever, there were no ben­e­fits after 6 weeks, sug­gest­ing that a tol­er­ance devel­ops quickly. Again, not an over­whelm­ing endorsement.

And what about the omega-3 fatty acids found in cold-water fish such as mack­erel, her­ring, salmon, and tuna? They fare bet­ter with Giu­liano Fontani’s work at the Uni­ver­sity of Siena in Italy. He asso­ci­ated omega-3 sup­ple­men­ta­tion with an improve­ment of atten­tional and phys­i­o­log­i­cal func­tions, par­tic­u­larly those involv­ing com­plex cor­ti­cal pro­cess­ing. He con­cludes his study by saying:

This was shown by the improve­ment of reac­tiv­ity, atten­tion and cog­ni­tive per­for­mances in addi­tion to the improve­ment of mood state and the mod­i­fi­ca­tions of some neuro-electrical para­me­ters. These results have been obtained from a small study group and need fur­ther con­fir­ma­tion in a wider group of sub­jects and in par­tic­u­lar for the pos­si­ble influ­ences of age and gender.

While the news looks promis­ing for omega-3 fatty acids, there are still many out­stand­ing ques­tions and more research needs to be done.

What can you do right now? Eat a bal­anced diet, get plenty of phys­i­cal exer­cise, stay cog­ni­tively active, and reduce your stress. And as always, talk with your doc­tor about any con­cerns. Com­bine these things, and you should stay healthy and active well into your later years.

Fur­ther Links
Fish Food for Thought
Classes on Brain Fit­ness
Brain Gyms Explained
Phys­i­cal Fit­ness and Brain Fit­ness
Man­ag­ing Stress

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