Are supplements for brain health just a waste of money?

More than a quarter of adults over age 50 take supplements for brain health , but a new report suggests these dietary aids may be ineffective and unnecessary. The report from the Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH) summarizes the opinions of experts who gathered to discuss whether supplements can influence a person’s cognitive function as they age. MOM LEFT PARALYZED AFTER PREGNANCY COMPLICATION TRIGGERS STROKE AT 29 WEEKS The group concluded supplements claiming to boost memory or cognition may be ineffective. “The problem is that people are often wasting their money on products that may only be offering a temporary placebo effect,” Gary Small, MD, director of the UCLA geriatric psychiatry division and one of the experts consulted for the report, told Healthline. “People often assume that if a product is natural then it is safe. However, dietary supplements may have side effects and may interact with other drugs in a way that decreases or increases the effects of those other medications,” he said. The report states that sales of supplements claiming to boost memory have nearly doubled from 2006 to 2015. In 2016, sales of brain health supplements totaled $3 billion. That’s projected to increase to $5.8 billion by 2023. “Given the vast interest people have in maintaining and improving their brain health as they age, the GCBH has no doubt that the use of brain-health supplements targeted at an increasingly aging population worldwide is growing and large numbers of people are already taking them,” the report authors wrote. Jacob Hall, MD, an assistant clinical professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University in California, says the findings of the report are in line with what he sees in his own clinical practice. SELMA BLAIR SHAVES HEAD DURING ONGOING MS BATTLE: ‘GOING BACK TO MY ROOTS’ […]

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