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There’s been a lot of very interesting discussion about Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor lately.
Some people on Reddit were questioning why this topic isn’t more discussed online. They were quite rightly questioning the lack of attention given to BDNF by supplement manufacturers.
Indeed, few brain supplements today include any kind of BDNF-stimulating content.
Hell, very few try to stimulate neurotrophic factors of any kind.
But before we get into why this might be the case, or how it can be rectified, let’s take a step back.
What is BDNF?
What is a neurotrophic factor?
Can these things actually be targeted through supplementation?
Would we even want it if it were possible?
Let’s get into it.
What Is BDNF?
Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) is a naturally-occurring protein.
It is a member of the neurotrophin family of growth factors. You may be familiar with Nerve Growth Factor (NGF); this is often thought of as the prototypical growth factor, both because it was the first to be described and because it seems to have the broadest action.
Neurotrophic factors are responsible for the growth, maintenance, proliferation, differentiation, and death of brain cells.
Almost all neurotrophic factors are small proteins or peptides, and BDNF is no different.
It is neurotrophic factors that dictate which type of cell your developing neurons will become. To some degree, neurotrophic factors can differentiate mature neurons too.
They control how well maintained your neurons are, how quickly they grow, how quickly they proliferate, and when they die.
They dictate everything from dendrite pruning to axon growth.
So yeah, they’re pretty important.
I actually can’t think of a single molecule that has a more profound effect on the physical brain than neurotrophic factors – the possible exception being acetylcholine.
What Does BDNF Do?
So what about BDNF in particular?
Well, BDNF seems to be directly responsible for the regulation of the growth of select neurons and synapses.
The presence of BDNF tells certain neurons and synaptic cells that they need to grow, repair themselves, and proliferate.
It is also directly responsible for neuron differentiation; it tells your brain cells exactly what they’re going to be when they grow up.
Most importantly, as far as I’m concerned, is where it operates.
BDNF seems to be concentrated in the hippocampus, basal forebrain, and the cortex – areas critical for memory, learning, and higher, abstract thought.
So if you were going to try to target these cognitive faculties through neurotrophic factors, then BDNF would be the one to use.
Can It Be Targeted Through Supplements?
You may not think that something like BDNF can be manipulated with simple dietary interventions.
After all, if certain foods were able to amplify brain cell growth and development, you’d think we’d have figured that out by now, right?
Well, maybe we have – we just aren’t conscious of it.
It’s possible that we owe the rapid development of our big brains in part to certain substances found naturally in a healthy, balanced diet.
Preliminary research seems to suggest this might be right. There are some common, everyday herbs, minerals and amino acids that seem to significantly increase the expression of BDNF in human beings.
For example, this study looked at the role magnesium plays in the regulation of depression. The conclusion here is pretty straightforward: “For the first time, the present results demonstrate the antidepressant-like activity of magnesium in the OB animal model of depression and indicate the potential involvement of the AMPA/BDNF pathway in this activity.”
It seems that magnesium may increase the amount of BDNF present in the brain. The researchers noted that this link was sound. Whether or not BDNF or some other protein helped with the depression is neither here nor there as far as I’m concerned. I’m more interested in the BDNF itself, and that seems to be reliably increased with magnesium.
Interestingly, another study found that BDNF might be preserved by Bacopa monnieri supplementation. Here the researchers gave rats Bacopa monnieri extract on a daily basis and measured their cognitive performance after subjecting them to random stressful events.
They found a pretty remarkable link: “Daily administration of the graded doses of BM extract during the 4-week period of CUS significantly suppressed behavioral changes and attenuated the CUS-induced decrease in BDNF protein and mRNA levels in the hippocampus and frontal cortex.”
So while magnesium seems to boost BDNF levels, Bacopa monnieri supplementation may well prevent it from being depressed due to chronic stress.
What would that mean practically?
It would mean eating more walnuts, spinach, almonds, black beans, and making sure you take your multivitamins.
It would also mean supplementing with Bacopa monnieri. This is fairly simple – this stuff is in most nootropic supplements these days.
So Why Does Nobody Care?
The answer to this is quite simple: supplement manufacturers are not at the cutting edge of research.
Or to put it another way, they don’t care about BDNF!
It isn’t that it doesn’t work.
It’s just that most of their customers don’t know about BDNF, what it can do, or that it can be influenced.
Most won’t even know it exists.
They therefore have little incentive to start investing serious money researching how to best influence BDNF through their supplements.
It is amazing to me how little credit we give phosphatidylserine (PS).
This simple phospholipid has the power to support brain cell formation and to regulate proper brain cell cycling.
Its benefits have been demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt. Scientific study after scientific study have been publishing attesting to its immense potential as a cognitive enhancer.
So many studies have found the same thing that I have no problem telling people that it definitely works – unlike so many other substances, PS actually supports brain function.
It is relatively easy to get hold of, and it is seemingly very safe to consume – even long-term.
Yet only a minority of people are using this stuff.
Many people could benefit from PS supplementation, but by and large these people have no idea that this is the case.
So let’s take a look at phosphatidylserine and see why this stuff really deserves to be in everybody’s stack.
A Look At The Science
I don’t make any claims about supplements unless I’m able to back them up with empirical evidence.
I don’t just regurgitate the claims made by manufacturers.
I don’t look for bloggers who back up what I want to believe and use them as references.
That’s a totally irresponsible way to approach brain supplementation. Doing that will inevitably see you losing a lot of money, and might even put your health at risk.
If you limit yourself to the latest scientific research, you’ll be in a much better position to make good decisions.
Thankfully, phosphatidylserine has a lot of hard, independent scientific backing.
First of all, let’s look at ameliorating cognitive decline.
This study found that 300mg of PS supplementation was able to significantly reduce the memory complaints of older Japanese people. The authors concluded: “Soy-PS used in this study is considered as safety food ingredient and 6 months of Soy-PS supplementation could improve the memory functions of the elderly with memory complaints.”
Another study, published in Psychopharmacology Bulletin in 1992, looked at PS and its ability to slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease. The authors found the following: “Results suggest that phosphatidylserine may be a promising candidate for study in the early stages of AD.”
The authors noted that the best results were observed in people with less severe cognitive impairment. Phosphatidylserine’s effects are increasingly limited when you are dealing with more and more advanced cognitive impairment.
It is important to note that these researchers do not suggest that PS may be a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease. This is an incredibly complex disease that we don’t yet fully understand, and there is no known cure. It just seems that PS might help ameliorate some of the symptoms of AD.
So what about younger people?
Well, phosphatidylserine has actually been shown to have a meaningful impact on cognitive function in young people too.
This study, published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics in 2014, looked at whether phosphatidylserine supplementation had any impact on the symptoms of children with ADHD.
The results were fascinating: “PS significantly improved ADHD symptoms and short-term auditory memory in children. PS supplementation might be a safe and natural nutritional strategy for improving mental performance in young children suffering from ADHD.”
Another study looked at the effects of PS supplementation on resistance-trained, college-aged men. As this study looked at healthy volunteers between the ages of 18 and 30, it may prove to be more enlightening to the people reading this article!
These researchers reached very similar conclusions to the other studies looking at PS and cognitive function: “PS supplementation significantly increased cognitive function prior to exercise. Improved cognitive function could benefit athletes and non-athletes alike. PS did not appear to affect mood or endocrine response prior to or following resistance exercise.”
So it looks like PS really works.
But why?
What does it do?
What Phosphatidylserine Does
PS has multiple different functions in the body.
Of these, the most commonly discussed is its role in cell membrane formation.
Phosphatidylserine is found in great abundance in cell membranes.
It actually covers your nerve cell membranes, as well as the myelin sheaths which wrap around the axons projecting from your neurons.
These axons are basically the “communication cables” between neurons. As you can see from the diagram below, they lead from the neuron to the synaptic terminals, which transfer electro-chemical signals from their neuro to another neuron or to another effector cell.
That phosphatidylserine forms a large proportion of this myelin sheath, as well as forming an important part of the cell membrane itself, is no small matter.
Without sufficient levels of PS, we simply couldn’t produce enough of the neurons, axons, or protective myelin sheaths. We would therefore leave our brain operating under its potential capacity.
As this study states, the importance of PS for general cognitive function is well known. Its role as a raw material in the construction of brain nerve cells (or neurons) is a major reason for this. Supplementation with PS is an effective way to ensure that we have enough of the stuff to keep our brains operating at 100% capacity.
In the words of the study authors: “Phosphatidylserine is required for healthy nerve cell membranes and myelin. Aging of the human brain is associated with biochemical alterations and structural deterioration that impair neurotransmission. Exogenous PS (300-800 mg/d) is absorbed efficiently in humans, crosses the blood-brain barrier, and safely slows, halts, or reverses biochemical alterations and structural deterioration in nerve cells.”
The authors went on to say: “It supports human cognitive functions, including the formation of short-term memory, the consolidation of long-term memory, the ability to create new memories, the ability to retrieve memories, the ability to learn and recall information, the ability to focus attention and concentrate, the ability to reason and solve problems, language skills, and the ability to communicate. It also supports locomotor functions, especially rapid reactions and reflexes.”
But what’s more interesting to me is the fact that PS seems to be involved in cell signalling.
More specifically, PS is thought to play a role in apoptosis (programmed cell death).
As this article explains, phosphatidylserine seems to be at least partly responsible for the triggering of cell destruction.
Basically, when cells are ready to end their life cycle, phosphatidylserine begins to appear on the outer leaf of the cell’s membrane: “Exposure of phosphatidylserine on the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane is a surface change common to many apoptotic cells.”
Phagocytes (immune cells) seem to recognize the appearance of PS on the outside of the membrane, and they begin to “attack” the cell, destroying it and ending its life cycle.
This is really fascinating to me right now.
If PS is involved in making sure that apoptosis occurs properly and at the right time, then it definitely ranks among the best natural nootropics in existence.
Properly functioning apoptosis is absolutely necessary if you want to stay healthy and functional for as long as possible.
If your brain cells aren’t dying when they need to, then you will have gradually have more and more degraded brain cells carrying out your cognitive functions. If these cells aren’t destroyed and removed, then new, healthy, more efficient cells can’t be grown in their place!
More work is needed here, obviously.
That’s always true.
But as it stands, PS looks like it is going to turn out to be one of the most effective natural nootropic substances in existence.
It is safe and well tolerated.
You don’t need large amounts to see benefits.
It is relatively cheap and widely available.
That more people don’t use this substance to enhance long-term cognitive performance is a total mystery, and a tragedy!
