By feeding your brain the right nutrients you can effectively enhance creativity, improve mental focus, and reduce anxiety and stress. This is the exact reason why nootropic supplements such as phosphatidylserine have become increasingly popular. Better focus leads to increased productivity, improved critical thinking, better memory recall, and enhanced creativity.

What Is Phosphatidylserine?

Found in the myelin sheath that encases the brain’s cellular membrane phosphatidylserine is a brain-specific acidic phospholipid and a key component for optimal brain function. In fact, it accounts for a sizeable portion of the human brain., It allows glucose (blood sugar) to be used more efficiently, which helps you think more clearly and process faster. 

Phosphatidylserine is found in many nootropic supplements, due to it’s proven ability to improve cognitive function and elevating mood state. Studies have shown that supplementation with Phosphatidylserine, can improve cognition, reduce inflammation, and even attenuate cortisol response to exercise-induced stress, specifically by improving mental acuity and focus.

Phosphatidylserine is semi-conditional or essential meaning that while it is naturally produced in the human body most of our Phosphatidylserine is obtained through food. Yet the modern American diet, is not typically filled with foods such as atlantic mackerel, chicken heart, bovine brain, and soy lecithin. So if you’re not chowing down on heart or brain, chances are you’ll need to supplement, in order to get the therapeutic brain benefits from phosphatidylserine

The Health Benefits Of Phosphatidylserine

Phosphatidylserine Reduces Cortisol (The Stress Hormone) 

Most studies involving Phosphatidylserine, have investigated the benefits it has on brain function, memory, recall, and acuity. However, recent evidence suggests that Phosphatidylserine might be able to enhance athletic performance through reducing cortisol (the body’s stress hormone) through rebalancing cortisol levels and improving exercise capacity.

When cortisol levels fall out of their natural pattern, the body can lose equilibrium, creating an undulating waves or levels of chronic stress. With more stress, you can lose focus, attention, and become distracted. By effectively reducing anxiety and stress, you’re simply able to focus at a higher level.

RELATED ARTICLES How To Reduce Cortisol Levels

Phosphatidylserine Improves Athletic Performance

In a double blind, controlled study, published in the Journal of The International Society of Sports Nutrition, 10 healthy male subjects were administered 600mg of Phosphatidylserine, or placebo for a test period of ten days. Blood samples were taken at rest, after a 15 minute moderate intensity exercise protocol on a cycle ergometer that consisted of five 3-minute incremental stages beginning at 65% and ending at 85% VO2 max, and during a 65 minute passive recovery. Plasma samples were assessed for cortisol, growth hormone, testosterone, lactate and testosterone to cortisol ratio for treatment.

The results indicated that mean peak cortisol levels dropped when compared to placebo, indicating that Phosphatidylserine is an effective supplement for combating exercise-induced stress, preventing the physiological deterioration from overtraining, and optimized hormonal balance [R]. Thus, supplementing with Phosphatidylserine can help improve cycling time and exercise capacity.

Two other double-blind controlled studies conducted in the UK at the University Of Wales, reported that supplementation with Phosphatidylserine for a period of ten days, improved exercise capacity and had a significant effect on exercise time to exhaustion during intermittent running [R, R]

By effectively reducing anxiety and stress, you can therefore increase your exercise time to exhaustion by enhancing focus. Anxiety can cripple your ability to focus. This is why high-level athletes take nootropics, such as Phosphatidylserine. It’s amazing how much you can improve your athletic performance by prolonging workouts and improving mental acuity, from reduced anxiety and stress. This can be extremely beneficial, especially when you’re keeping track of reps and sequences during your WOD. How many times have you lost track of what rep you’re on, or what workout is next, because your mental fatigue takes over? Anxiety leads to lack of focus and during a competition, mental focus is just as important as athletic ability.

RELATED ARTICLE How To Overcome Mental Fatigue To Improve Athletic Performance

I recommend Swolverine’s Nootropic supplement, Elitrope since it contains 125mg of Phosphatidylserine.

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Phosphatidylserine Improves Memory

The most well-known and studied health benefit of Phosphatidylserine is its ability to improve cognition through augmenting memory. Phosphatidylserine is required for healthy nerve cell brains and myelin formation. Phosphatidylserine crosses the blood-brain barrier, and safely slows, halts, and even reverses biochemical alterations and structural deterioration in nerve cells [R]. 

Extensive evidence suggests that phosphatidylserine can help with memory, including the formation of short-term memory, the consolidation of long-term memory, the ability to create new memories, and the ability to retrieve memories. Additionally, phosphatidylserine directly affects the brains the aptitude to learn and recall information, the ability to focus attention and concentrate, enhances reasoning and problem solving, language skills, and enhances our ability to communicate. It also supports locomotor functions, especially rapid reactions and reflexes [R].

Phosphatidylserine Slows Down The Aging Process

Phosphatidylserine has also been widely studied, to potentially treat Dementia, Alzheimers, and memory impairment in elderly patients.

In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 78 elderly patients ranging from the age of 50-69, were randomly divided into three groups. Subjects in the first group were administered 100mg of phosphatidylserine, group two 300mg, and the third group was administered a placebo for a period of 6 months. Cognitive function was evaluated at 1,3, and 6 month marks.

The results indicated positive cognitive improvement with patients exhibiting neurological deficit, or memory impairment. Measured outcomes that improved were memory function, specifically memory recall. The effect was observed equally between both phosphatidylserine groups, showing no difference in outcomes between a higher dose [R]. Therefore, supplementing with phosphatidylserine can provide a great preventative measure against the aging process and memory impairment. If you want to keep your memories and be fresh when you get older, you should consider supplementing with phosphatidylserine.

How Much Phosphatidylserine Should You Take?

To achieve therapeutic efficacy, it is recommended to take a dose of 100mg 1-2 times per day. Each person is unique, and will, therefore, need a higher dose to achieve the desired effect

The Benefits Of Phosphatidylserine: Takeaway

Phosphatidylserine is a critical component in optimal brain function. Evidence supports, that Phosphatidylserine can help improve memory and focus through effectively reducing anxiety and stress, by directly boosting brain processing through efficiently utilizing glucose. Supplementing a once a day nootropic, can help protect you against the aging process and enhance your focus. It’s something that we can all benefit from.

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References

Starks, Michael A et al. “The effects of phosphatidylserine on endocrine response to moderate intensity exercise.” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition vol. 5 11. 28 Jul. 2008, doi:10.1186/1550-2783-5-11

Kingsley MI, Miller M, Kilduff LP, Mceneny J, Benton D. Effects of phosphatidylserine on exercise capacity during cycling in active males. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2006;38(1):64-71.

Kingsley MI, Wadsworth D, Kilduff LP, Mceneny J, Benton D. Effects of phosphatidylserine on oxidative stress following intermittent running. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2005;37(8):1300-6.

Kingsley M. Effects of phosphatidylserine supplementation on exercising humans. Sports Med. 2006;36(8):657-69.

Glade MJ, Smith K. Phosphatidylserine and the human brain. Nutrition. 2015;31(6):781-6. 

Kato-Kataoka, Akito et al. “Soybean-derived phosphatidylserine improves memory function of the elderly Japanese subjects with memory complaints.” Journal of clinical biochemistry and nutrition vol. 47,3 (2010): 246-55. doi:10.3164/jcbn.10-62