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Welcome to the Quality Counts. For those health conscious consumers and medical professionals that are looking to purchase nutritional supplements, vitamins, herbs, learning about medications, losing weight, health food, low carbs, high protein nutrition, and exercise, you have come to the right place. Quality Counts serves both the medical practitioner and consumer interested in nutritional therapy and alternative medicine.
Home > Anti-aging Research > Smart Drugs
Smart Drugs
News & Research:
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Chronic
Administration of Cardanol (Ginkgol) Extracted from Ginkgo biloba Leaves and
Cashew Nutshell Liquid Improves Working Memory-Related Learning in Rats -
Biol Pharm Bull. 2012;35(1):127-9 - "These findings
suggest that cardanol is one of the components in Ginkgo biloba leaves that
improves cognitive learning ability" - See
Ginkgo biloba products at iHerb
 .
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School
performance may be linked to physical activity - Science Daily, 1/2/12 -
"According to the best-evidence synthesis, we found
strong evidence of a significant positive relationship between physical activity
and academic performance. The findings of one high-quality intervention study
and one high-quality observational study suggest that being more physically
active is positively related to improved academic performance in children ...
exercise may help cognition by increasing blood and oxygen flow to the brain,
increasing levels of norepinephrine and endorphins to decrease stress and
improve mood, and increasing growth factors that help create new nerve cells and
support synaptic plasticity"
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IQ isn't fixed at birth, can increase - USATODAY.com, 12/27/11 -
"the average increased by 0.6 points, which correlated
with an increase in IQ of 3.7 points for an addition year of schooling"
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Boosting
mental performance with fish oil? - Science Daily, 10/21/11 -
"overall, taking either of two different types of fish
oil supplement for three months had no consistent impact on mental function in
18 -- 35-year-olds, however they did find evidence of reduced mental fatigue and
faster reaction times. Contrary to popular belief, these results suggest that
taking omega-3 or fish oil supplements may not have an immediate or measureable
impact on mental performance in healthy young adults, possibly due to the fact
that this population is already performing at its mental peak or that higher
doses or longer than 12 weeks supplementation are required ... Interestingly, in
the second of these studies it was found that taking DHA-rich fish oil over the
same time period did increase blood flow to active areas of the brain during
performance of similar mental tasks. The researchers claim these findings could
have implications for mental function later on in life, as evidence suggests
regularly eating oily fish or taking omega-3 supplements may prevent cognitive
decline and dementia, and increased blood flow to the brain may be a mechanism
by which this occurs" - See
Mega Twin EPA at iHerb
and
Jarrow Max DHA at iHerb.
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Primary
schoolchildren that sleep less than 9 hours do not perform as well academically,
study suggests - Science Daily, 9/13/11 - "sleeping
less than nine hours, going to bed late and no bedtime routine generally affects
children's academic skills ... the lacking hours of sleep distorts children's
performance in linguistic knowledge, grammar and spelling rules, and key aspects
in the organisation and comprehension of texts, to name a few examples. They are
basic skills, meaning that if the pupil, due to a lack of sleep, develops
problems in this area, it could have a repercussion on all subjects"
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Exercise
has numerous beneficial effects on brain health and cognition, review suggests
- Science Daily, 7/25/11 - "In a new review article
highlighting the results of more than a hundred recent human and animal studies
on this topic, Michelle W. Voss, of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, and her colleagues show that both aerobic exercise and
strength training play a vital role in maintaining brain and cognitive health
throughout life ... The review suggests that aerobic exercise is important for
getting a head start during childhood on cognitive abilities that are important
throughout life. For example, physical inactivity is associated with poorer
academic performance and results on standard neuropsychological tests, while
exercise programs appear to improve memory, attention, and decision-making.
These effects also extend to young and elderly adults, with solid evidence for
aerobic training benefiting executive functions, including multi-tasking,
planning, and inhibition, and increasing the volume of brain structures
important for memory"
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High
Folate Intake Linked to Better Grades in Swedish Teens - Medscape, 7/15/11 -
"Sweden is a country that does not allow foods to be
fortified ... We have a poor intake of folate compared to people in the US, our
intake is below what is recommended daily. We do not achieve the recommended
daily intake in Sweden ... Blood samples were obtained and assayed for total
homocysteine, a biomarker for folate intake, and mutations in the methylene
tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene, which is known to raise levels of
homocysteine ... teens in the lowest tertile of dietary folate intake had the
poorest academic performance"
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Ingested Oat
Herb Extract (Avena sativa) Changes EEG Spectral Frequencies in Healthy Subjects
- J Altern Complement Med. 2011 May 12 - "These changes suggest that oat herb
extract might be effective in healthy subjects, resulting in a positive impact
on cognitive performance" - See
Avena
sativa products at iHerb.
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Too much
or too little sleep may accelerate cognitive aging, study shows - Science
Daily, 5/1/11 - "women and men who begin sleeping more
or less than 6 to 8 hours per night are subject to an accelerated cognitive
decline that is equivalent to four to seven years of aging ... The researchers
also found that, in women, sleep duration of 7 hours of sleep per night was
associated with the highest score for every cognitive measure, followed closely
by 6 hours of nightly sleep. Among men, cognitive function was similar for those
who reported sleeping 6, 7 or 8 hours; only short and long sleep durations of
less than 6 hours or more than 8 hours appeared to be associated with lower
scores"
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Giftedness linked to prenatal exposure of higher levels of testosterone -
Science Daily, 3/12/11 - "There seems to be some
evidence that excessive prenatal exposure to testosterone facilitates increased
connections in the brain, especially in the right prefrontal cortex ... That's
why we see some intellectually gifted people with distinct personality
characteristics that you don't see in the normal population ... Based on their
observations, the researchers made the hypothesis that this hormonal "glitch" in
the in-utero neurobiological development means that gifted children are born
with an affinity for certain areas such as the arts, math or science"
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Neurophysiologic and neurobehavioral evidence of beneficial effects of prenatal
omega-3 fatty acid intake on memory function at school age - Am J Clin Nutr.
2011 Mar 9 - "The beneficial effects of prenatal and
early postnatal intakes of omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) on
cognitive development during infancy are well recognized. However, few studies
have examined the extent to which these benefits continue to be evident in
childhood ... Repeated-measures analyses of variance revealed that children with
higher cord plasma concentrations of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which is an
important n-3 PUFA, had a shorter FN400 latency and a larger LPC amplitude; and
higher plasma DHA concentrations at the time of testing were associated with
increased FN400 amplitude. Cord DHA-related effects were observed regardless of
seafood-contaminant amounts. Multiple regression analyses also showed positive
associations between cord DHA concentrations and performance on neurobehavioral
assessments of memory ... To our knowledge, this study provides the first
neurophysiologic and neurobehavioral evidence of long-term beneficial effects of
n-3 PUFA intake in utero on memory function in school-age children" - See
Mega Twin EPA at iHerb
and
Jarrow Max DHA at iHerb.
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Exercise
helps overweight children think better, do better in math - Science Daily,
2/10/11 - "Regular exercise improves the ability of
overweight, previously inactive children to think, plan and even do math ...
MRIs showed those who exercised experienced increased brain activity in the
prefrontal cortex -- an area associated with complex thinking, decision making
and correct social behavior -- and decreased activity in an area of the brain
that sits behind it. The shift forward appears consistent with more rapidly
developing cognitive skills ... And the more they exercised, the better the
result. Intelligence scores increased an average 3.8 points in those exercising
40 minutes per day after school for three months with a smaller benefit in those
exercising 20 minutes daily ... Animal studies have shown that aerobic activity
increases growth factors so the brain gets more blood vessels, more neurons and
more connections between neurons. Studies in older adults have shown exercise
benefits the brain and Davis's study extends the science to children and their
ability to learn in school"
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Phys Ed: Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter? - NYTimes.com, 9/15/10 -
"among more than a million 18-year-old boys who joined
the army, better fitness was correlated with higher I.Q.’s, even among identical
twins. The fitter the twin, the higher his I.Q. The fittest of them were also
more likely to go on to lucrative careers than the least fit, rendering them
less likely, you would hope, to live in their parents’ basements. No correlation
was found between muscular strength and I.Q. scores. There’s no evidence that
exercise leads to a higher I.Q., but the researchers suspect that aerobic
exercise, not strength training, produces specific growth factors and proteins
that stimulate the brain"
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Inflammation is associated with lower intelligence and premature death -
Science Daily, 9/6/10 - "with low-grade inflammation
performed more poorly on standardised intelligence tests, even after excluding
those with signs of current illness. Inflammation also predicted an increased
risk of premature death ... This suggests that even low levels of inflammation
can have detrimental consequences for health and brain function ... it is the
largest study to date to show that low-grade inflammation in young adulthood is
associated with intelligence and mortality"
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Regular
aerobic exercise is good for the brain - Science Daily, 4/26/10 -
"Regular exercise speeds learning and improves blood
flow to the brain ... monkeys who exercised regularly at an intensity that would
improve fitness in middle-aged people learned to do tests of cognitive function
faster and had greater blood volume in the brain's motor cortex than their
sedentary counterparts ... This suggests people who exercise are getting similar
benefits ... When the researchers examined tissue samples from the brain's motor
cortex, they found that mature monkeys that ran had greater vascular volume than
middle-aged runners or sedentary animals. But those blood flow changes reversed
in monkeys that were sedentary after exercising for five months"
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Ritalin
boosts learning by increasing brain plasticity - Science Daily, 3/7/10 -
"Ritalin boosts both of these cognitive abilities by
increasing the activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine deep inside the brain.
Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers neurons use to communicate with
each other. They release the molecule, which then docks onto receptors of other
neurons. The research demonstrated that one type of dopamine receptor aids the
ability to focus, and another type improves the learning itself"
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DHA brain benefits may extend to middle age - Nutra USA, 3/1/10 -
"Higher
DHA was related to better performance on tests of nonverbal reasoning and mental
flexibility, working memory, and vocabulary ... increasing levels of DHA were
associated with improved mental function in a “generally linear" - [Abstract] - See
Jarrow Max DHA at iHerb.
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Serum
Phospholipid Docosahexaenonic Acid Is Associated with Cognitive Functioning
during Middle Adulthood - J Nutr. 2010 Feb 24 - "higher DHA (mol %) was
related to better performance on tests of nonverbal reasoning and mental
flexibility, working memory, and vocabulary (P </= 0.05). These associations
were generally linear. Associations between DHA and nonverbal reasoning and
working memory persisted with additional adjustment for participant education
and vocabulary scores ... Among the 3 key (n-3) PUFA, only DHA is associated
with major aspects of cognitive performance in nonpatient adults <55 y old.
These findings suggest that DHA is related to brain health throughout the
lifespan and may have implications for clinical trials of neuropsychiatric
disorders" - See
Jarrow Max DHA at iHerb.
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Can a Mid-Day Nap Make You Smarter? - WebMD, 2/22/10 -
"People in the group which didn't nap had a slight
reduction of about 10% in their learning capacity during the day ...
''whereas the people who had a nap in between the first time they tried to
learn relative to the second time they tried to learn actually improved
their ability to learn by 10% ... The total time the participants slept
during the 90-minute window didn't matter much in their later performance,
Walker found. But the greater the amount of stage 2 non-REM sleep, a lighter
form of non-dreaming sleep, the better their performance"
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Magnesium May Improve Memory - WebMD, 1/27/10 -
"increasing brain magnesium using a newly developed compound, magnesium-L-threonate
(MgT), improves learning abilities, working memory, and short- and-long-term
memory in rats. The magnesium also helped older rats perform better on a
battery of learning tests ... The researchers cite that only 32% of
Americans get the recommended daily allowance of magnesium" - See
Jarrow Formulas, Magnesium Optimizer Citrate, 100 Easy-Solv Tablets at iHerb.
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Coffee Break Boosts Memory - WebMD, 1/27/10 -
"Taking a coffee break after class can actually help you retain that
information you just learned"
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Running Boosts Brainpower - WebMD, 1/19/10 -
"Running may do more than improve your cardiovascular fitness and overall
physique. It might actually make you smarter ... Scientists reporting in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences say that running has a
profound impact on the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for
learning and memory"
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Young adults who exercise get higher IQ Scores - Science Daily, 12/2/09
- "The study shows a clear link between good
physical fitness and better results for the IQ test. The strongest links are
for logical thinking and verbal comprehension ... Being fit means that you
also have good heart and lung capacity and that your brain gets plenty of
oxygen ... This may be one of the reasons why we can see a clear link with
fitness, but not with muscular strength. We are also seeing that there are
growth factors that are important"
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Cardiovascular Fitness May Sharpen Mind - WebMD, 11/30/09 -
"A large new study links cardiovascular fitness in
early adulthood to increased intelligence, better performance on cognitive
tests, and higher educational achievement later in life ... When researchers
looked at twins, they found that environmental factors rather than genetics
appeared to play the largest role in these associations. Non-shared
environmental influences accounted for 80% or more of differences in
academic achievement, whereas genetics accounted for less than 15% of these
differences"
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Teenage Boys Who Eat Fish At Least Once A Week Achieve Higher Intelligence
Scores - Science Daily, 3/9/09 - "Eating fish
once a week was enough to increase combined, verbal and visuospatial
intelligence scores by an average of six per cent, while eating fish more
than once a week increased them by just under 11 per cent"
- See
Mega Twin EPA at iHerb
and
Jarrow Max DHA at iHerb.
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Eat
Fish, Get Smarter? - WebMD, 11/8/07 - "Most
participants ate fish, and the more fish they ate, the better their test
scores were -- up to a point ... Test scores leveled off for people who ate
more than about 2.5 to 2.8 daily ounces of fish" - Note: The
article includes a total of three studies. - See Mega Twin EPA at
iHerb.
- Inadequate Iodine Intake Linked to Low Intelligence Quotient - Medscape, 8/9/04 -
"This study demonstrates that the IQ of schoolchildren in a developed
country can be influenced by iodine intake"
- Can a Pill Make You Smarter? - WebMD, 7/13/04
- What Creates Smarts? - WebMD, 1/17/02
- Study Finds "Smart Drug" Doesn't Work In Children With Down Syndrome - Intelihealth, 4/12/01 -
"does not boost children's intellectual ability ... the drug, called piracetam, had
side effects such as aggression, irritability and poor sleep in some of the youngsters"
- Attention Deficit Discovery - WebMD, 11/6/00 -
""When we gave these animals [Prozac], which affects the serotonin system, it had a dramatic effect on learning and memory, improving performance
fourfold." Wetsel says."
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