118 | Top 5 Supplements that Enhance the Brain

Welcome back to another episode of the Real Health Podcast. We are still in the month of brain health and the last episode of the week, or sorry, last episode of the month is going to be on top five brain enhancing supplements. And I'm going to give it to you in two splits. I'm going to give it to you in a short term and a long term. So top five short term, like, hey, you're really trying to create an effect cognitively in the moment or and then top five just longevity brain enhancing supplements.

So what do you wanna do daily? And then I'm gonna throw in a spin there. I'm gonna give you an extra one that I just really love using and talk about dosing of methylene blue. So we'll use we'll we'll talk a little bit about that as well. So today, let's dive into those top five.

Before we do, next Tuesday, April 29 is our Brain Masterclass. Make sure you go to our social media Instagram page and go to our Linktree, sign up, register for our Brain Masterclass, where you can learn everything about how to heal, enhance, and create long term health of the nervous system, specifically the brain itself. All right, let's get into it. Without further ado, what are the top five short term mental performance based supplements? So this is a short term list, and the first one is a stack.

So like right before I came to the office, one of my favorite things to consume is green tea, but specifically, it's caffeine and L theanine. So caffeine, L theanine. So roughly, the same amount of milligrams of caffeine is the same amount of milligrams of L theanine. So if you do a hundred milligram caffeine dose, you wanna do a hundred milligrams of L theanine. And what L theanine does when it's added to caffeine is it creates smoother energy, creates better focus, and reduces the crash and anxiety associated with caffeine.

So if you find yourself, when you drink caffeine, if overstimulates you where you feel good and then it feels like you have a little anxiety, maybe a little tachycardia, a little stress, a little drop down, kind of this lull after, L Theanine when stacked with caffeine can create this amazing cognitive enhancing effect to create a better long term energy, to create a more effective neuro energy, so cognitive performance. So if you drink if you let's just say you consume a two hundred milligram dose of caffeine, two hundred milligrams of L theanine's appropriate. Let's keep it simple. You drink cup of coffee, a hundred milligram tablet of L theanine is to go to. I use a particular company in the office, but L Theanine is virtually all the same across the board.

It's an amino acid that you can get to enhance caffeine and to create a really effective output. So whether it's short term effect that you're looking for or before workout or even just before a project. Caffeine plus the L Theanine is a great stack. The second one is an adaptogen. I really like rhodiola.

Rhodiola is an adaptogen that has a great cognitive enhancement, but particularly it affects mental clarity under stress. So throughout the day, you find like cognitively you are starting to get like brain fog, a little bit less, focus, clarity, rhodiola or an adaptogenic herb is a great enhancing supplement for the brain. But particularly what it does is it helps stabilize cognitive health throughout the day. Adaptogens are typically used as stress reducing herbs, and rhodiola specifically is great for the nervous system. The way I consume it is through a supplement called Power Adapt.

It's from a company called Natura Health Products, and it has a blend of multiple adaptogens, rhodiola being one of them. All right. Number three, if you're looking for an enhancer for the brain, creatine monohydrate. Creatine monohydrate immediately up regulates ATP production of the brain. Your maximal dosage absorption is five grams, so you don't want to consume really more than five grams in a single sitting.

What I like to do for creatine is just take a five gram serving first thing upon awakening. So right when I wake up, I get a little glass of water, four ounces, put a scoop of five grams of creatine, mix that up, and knock it down. Most people think creatine monohydrate is great for muscles, which it is, because it helps drive better energy production. But in large studies, it's been shown as a significant cognitive enhancing product. It's so cheap. Everyone should be on creatine monohydrate.

It is a fantastic supplement to start taking. Five grams creatine monohydrate first thing in the morning every day to enhance performance for the day. All right. The next one, N acetyl L tyrosine. So what we find is that we are dopamine addicts.

We are always looking to increase our dopamine levels and our stimulator dopamine levels. We do that through reward seeking behaviors. We do that through training, through screen time, but our dopamine systems are very depleted. And what we find is that our addiction to these devices or to behaviors is associated with just trying to get your next dopamine hit. When you are low in dopamine, you are seeking more dopamine.

Okay. So how do we enhance our dopamine levels to a healthy pool that we can draw from when needed without exhausting it and feeling like we need to support it? N acetyl L tyrosine is fantastic. It's actually been shown to enhance cognitive performance when you're under stress and even sleep deprivation, and it supports when you're in high pressure situations. Antacetyl L tyrosine is definitely a go to for me.

Again, I usually use these in stacks in certain supplements, and you can search that out, or you can just take it individually. The last one is ginseng. You can take Panic's ginseng in its just most raw form. Mean, go to an oriental store of any sort, an Asian store, and and you'll find ginseng as a supplement. You can take it literally as like a paste, almost like a tea, and mix it in water and drink that.

Ginseng has been used in Chinese medicine for countless, countless decades and is a very great immediate cognitive enhancement without overstimulating the nervous system because it really does. It acts like an adaptogen. So it's not gonna get you high. It's not gonna get you low. It's gonna create this nice even keel of energy specifically to allow your brain to perform the tasks at hand.

So yeah, these are my top five brain enhancing supplements. When we look at short term effects, we are trying to create an effect right now. These five are my go to, okay? Whether my favorite's L theanine caffeine combination with a little bit of an adaptogenic support, and I'm rolling. I feel great pre shift right before I start seeing patients.

Let's talk about the top five long term brain enhancing supplements. So what are the top five supplements I would take for longevity purposes, for the enhancement of my brain long term? Okay? The first one is lion's mane. Lion's mane is a mushroom extract that is fantastic for brain performance.

When we look at lion's mane, we see it as its effect on like growth factors of the nervous system, specifically neuronal growth factor or NGF we call it. It stimulates growth factors of the brain. Lion's mane is typically consumed in a powder form. So you would get it, there's a company I get it from, it's called Real Mushrooms. You can also get it from, I think Four Sigmatic is another company that has high quality mushroom extracts.

But you don't want to get low quality lion's mane. You wanna make sure the company grows it properly, not on a bed of a bunch of junk starch, but they grow it properly. Lion's mane mushroom is a long term cognitive enhancer and has even been shown and studied in Alzheimer's and dementia. It's great if you're also trying to learn new behavior. As we see lion's mane effect in neuroplasticity is pretty significant.

Number two, DHA. DHA is a type of omega-three fatty acid that reduces inflammation of the brain. It's anti inflammatory. It's also crucial for the actual brain structure, the structure of the cells of the brain. DHA is 100% a necessary supplement for everyone to be on.

I mean, honestly, unless you're consuming a ton of sardines, slam down a bunch of wild caught Alaskan fish every week, then you need to be on omega-three fatty acids, specifically DHA. And out there for all the pregnant mamas or those that are looking to get pregnant in the future, make sure you are taking DHA right now, right now to increase your current level of DHA so you can form that baby because that baby's brain is really developing those first twelve weeks of life. It is the most crucial time to have adequate levels of DHA. And if you're sick at all and you don't find out you're pregnant till six-seven, eight weeks, you're missing these critical windows of DHA support. Lion's mane number one, omega three fatty acids number two.

Number three, glutathione. Glutathione is the most powerful antioxidant. And when we look at long term brain health, what we realize is our brain is under aggressive attack from toxins in our environment, whether that's heavy metals, whether it's chemicals, whether it's microplastics. The detoxification of heavy metals and chemicals is so important to prevent neurodegenerative effects. So aluminum, for instance, is studied in Alzheimer's and dementia, and when we look at brain health over time, adequate levels of glutathione are necessary, are essential at long term brain health and preventing neurodegeneration.

So number three, glutathione. A good quality liposomal glutathione. I really like one from called Apex Energetics, it's one I use. It's fantastic. All right, number five, curcuminoids, or curcumin.

It is in essence extracts of turmeric. When you look at curcumin as a polyphenol, it would be hard to not consume it. When you really study it and its effects on inflammation of the body, curcuminoids or curcumin has such a powerful anti inflammatory effect of the brain. And as you know, as we age, our inflammation levels typically increase. Anything we can do that's an anti inflammatory effect is substantial.

It supports brain aging, it supports brain mood, it supports brain memory formation. Curcumin, particularly when it's added with black pepper extract, and even in a liquid form, again, I get this from Apex Energetics, is a fantastic supplement to take. It's amazing. Number five. Number five, one of my favorites to consume is phosphatidylserine.

Phosphatidylserine. When you look at phosphatidylserine, and even its similar product called phosphatidylcholine, choline and serine are very important to the health of the brain. Choline in particular is essential for the structural support of the brain. So, when you look at like removing microplastics from the brain, which is where they like to store, phosphatidylcholine or PC and phosphatidylserine long term are really important supplements to consider. And honestly, just a small dose over time is all you need.

It supports mainly the cell membrane of the nervous system. But it also helps improve memory and cognition performance. What it really, what we see is that it improves the signaling of neuron to neuron to neuron, so the communication of the brain. Phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylcholine are massive, are massive to start taking when we look at long term brain health. I'm gonna give you one more, and it's something that I take intermittently, and I kind of cycle on and cycle off.

But it's called methylene blue. And I was talking to a patient actually earlier today about methylene blue, were asking me about it. And originally it was a textile dye that then went from industry to pharmaceuticals. It was used to treat malaria. It was actually used to treat urinary tract infections.

But what it's being studied today is that it in essence stains your mitochondria. And the mitochondria are the power plant of the cell. So in order to generate energy, ATP production, the mitochondria are so important to care for. When we look at any neurodegenerative condition, or even neurodevelopment disorder in kids, the mitochondria are suffering. Anything to enhance mitochondrial function is always gonna play a massive role in preventing any type of disease or degenerative change.

So methylene blue is something that you can take at about like zero point five milligrams per kilogram of body weight. You gotta take a high quality pharmaceutical grade. You don't take it all the time, take it about five days on, two days off, but you build up this blue stain in your cells, particularly mitochondria, and then it even has an enhancing effect when you add a photobiomodulation to it, specifically red light. When you add red light to a stained blue mitochondria, it actually makes the entire cell come alive. The mitochondria come alive, this power plant come alive and drive more ATP production.

It is shown to be antioxidant, anti inflammatory, neuroprotective, enhances mitochondria function, enhances memory, creates a better mood. There's some cautions that you gotta be mindful of. That's why any supplement recommendation today is just about learning, right? Teaching you, help you understand more about supplements, but work with a practitioner who can properly support you, whether it's methylene blue, or glutathione levels, or even just adaption GERD's. What's right?

How much do I take? That's where having expert advice is so important. So if you look at the short term effects, my go to, L theanine and caffeine stack. Long term for most people, it's going to be DHA, I think is probably the most important. And then when you look at like stacking or biohacking the brain, Methylene Blue should definitely be considered.

These are top five short term, top five long term brain enhancing supplements, plus methylene blue. Don't forget to sign up for our workshop next let's see, April 29, which is Tuesday of next week, April 29 at 6:30pm Eastern Standard Time. You can sign up at our linktree at Instagram, RealHealthCo. So thanks again for listening to another episode of the Real Health Co. podcast.

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