5 Supplements to Support Brain Health as You Age
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Kristine Profeta, MD, wants people to understand that we can have healthy cognition well into old age. “The aged brain is not inevitable. The aged brain is a disease,” she says. In her precision medicine practice, where she mostly works with complex chronic illness, she sees patients with brain health concerns across the board: Many of them would like to be a little quicker; others come in with severe brain fog that could indicate early-onset dementia. “And then there are 80-year-olds who have taken care of their brains and bodies and are as sharp as any 30 or 40-year-olds that I talk to,” she says.
With the right care, Profeta says, we can all maintain healthy cognition well into old age. The first thing to understand is that the body is a single system that can’t be segmented; how you care for your body in its entirety will show up in the health of your brain. The second is that the root of most dysfunction is missing nutrients and chronic, systemic inflammation.
Her brain health strategy starts right there: Provide nutrients for structural support and activate the body’s innate anti-inflammatory abilities, with benefits for the entire system. Here, her recommendations to support brain health (and overall wellness):
Phosphaditylcholine
Phospolipids make up the double-layered membranes of nearly every single cell in your body, including your brain. Ideally, your body would get all the building blocks it needs to build and maintain these membranes through the food you eat. Profeta says that because our food systems often don’t provide all the nutrients we need to support optimal health—you can point a finger at industrial agriculture for that one—she recommends her patients test for what nutrients they’re missing and make up the gaps with well-formulated supplements.
For healthy cell membranes, Profeta likes BodyBio’s liquid phosphaditylcholine, which they call BodyBio PC (Phospholipid Complex). It’s manufactured so that the phosphaditylcholine molecules inside are organized into liposomes: bubbles of phospholipids with the same double-layered structure as the membranes in your body. “Liposomes can cross cell membranes and get absorbed more readily,” she says.
Omega-3s and Omega-6s
Studies show that the optimal ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3s in our diets is four to one, Profeta says. That’s been established since the ‘90s. But today, you usually hear people pushing for omega-3s and condemning omega-6s—especially those that come from seed oils. (On seed oils, Profeta says: Unadulterated oils extracted from raw seeds are typically good for us.)
Overdoing omega-3s eventually does more harm than good. She suggests making a trail mix with a blend of natural nuts and seeds, including walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and hemp seeds to get closer to the ideal ratio to fight inflammation in the body.
Specialized Pro-Resolving Mediators (SPMs)
Typically, Profeta says, people think of inflammation as something that gets turned on in the body when we’re unhealthy. Really though, she explains, our bodies are set up for inflammation, and an unhealthy system simply fails to turn inflammation off.
Specialized pro-resolving mediators, or SPMs, are omega-3 derivatives that help the body manage inflammation, including the low-grade inflammation that can damage brain health long-term. She chooses to supplement with SPMs.
Methylated B Vitamins
Methylation is a complex pathway that impacts thousands of reactions in the body. It is one of the core detoxification pathways, and among hundreds of other things, it is necessary to make optimal neurotransmitters. That’s why it’s essential to support methylation in today’s world: If we don’t get enough B vitamins and methyl groups (methylated B vitamins are a way to get both) then we will not be able to optimally detoxify or support brain health, Profeta says.
Trace Minerals
“It’s super, super important to be drinking a mineralized form of water or taking a mineral supplement as an active supplement every day,” Profeta says. Minerals play fundamental and vital roles in the body’s communication systems as ions and enzyme mediators.
Profeta is concerned that, like other nutrient building blocks in our bodies, we don’t get enough minerals from our food—and that the presence of potentially-toxic heavy metals outcompete the healthy ones for the same enzymes.
A Note On Sleep
Lastly, Profeta emphasizes the importance of good sleep, which allows the brain to clear out cellular debris. She advocates for good sleep hygiene and a wind-down routine, which trains the brain’s limbic system—putting away screens, turning the lights down low, and reading something light.
This article is for informational purposes only, even if and regardless of whether it features the advice of physicians and medical practitioners. This article is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment and should never be relied upon for specific medical advice. The views expressed in this article are the views of the expert and do not necessarily represent the views of goop.
