Athletes - An Introduction to Brain Supplements

The exciting and growing field of brain supplements has a number of benefits from improving brain health, to enhancing mental and athletic performance. Nootropics, or brain supplements if you prefer, have been shown to enhance cognition by increasing one’s ability to understand, and use knowledge, while stimulating creativity and producing energy necessary for intense activities.

 

From a mental health point of view, studies have shown that brain supplements can aid in with mood while reducing anxiety, and stress levels. Athletes have also seen improvements in focus, concentration, clarity, and reducing fatigue. These brain supplements may be the key to unlocking human brain potential.

Who Should Take Brain Supplements?

The simple answer to this is that everyone can benefit from brain supplements, in one way or another.

Choline (a type of brain supplement) is great for all athletes. Choline cannot only reduce fatigue levels and improve athletic performance, but it can also help brain function (R).

Can brain supplements affect performance or increase the power of the mind on a daily basis? The short answer to this is that any mental or physical activity can only benefit from the consumption of brain supplements. For example, if you are studying for an exam or want to better focus at work without reducing the level of your performance, brain supplements can help you remain “in the zone” for longer.

People call brain and focus supplements smart drugs and this promising field can aid in improving your creative and cognitive abilities.

Athletes – Improving Brain and Physical Performance

Being around highly skilled professionals like doctors, music artists, surgeons, or athletes, is that they are all incredibly physically skilled. As you would expect, their skill sets differ depending on what they do but their physical skills are always remarkable to watch.

This transition from a beginner to a novice, and ultimately to an expert, has to do with repeating the technique until your mind and muscles have embedded it. In essence, there is a neuromuscular connection that gets trained, strengthened, and improved by practicing a task correctly and repeatedly.

Now, the only challenge here would be to effectively train that skill and become an expert. Professionals believe there is a specific number of reps necessary to become an expert in a particular skill or activity. As with almost everything in life, it doesn’t happen overnight, and that number will most likely take years to accomplish. The physical aspect of the training is easy though. Everyone knows that. It’s the mental side of things that will make or break someone. Can you remain focused on the task at hand whatever the circumstances? Are you determined to do 5,000 or 10,000 reps to master the skill? That is the crucial part.

Let’s say you have indeed done 10,000 repetitions which is quite impressive! This however doesn’t mean that you become the world’s expert; there is probably still a long way. Once you achieve a certain level of expertise in the sport or activity of interest, performance is about 10% physical and 90% mental. This means that at the expert level, the physical skills are a given. You would also need to keep practicing it and improving it with solid mental focus and resilience.

Being able to master or even regulate your mental state will determine your success. And what do we mean by mental state? Mental state may refer to attitude, concentration, recall, controlling nervousness or performance anxiety, clarity, processing of tasks, anticipation and reaction time. Every expert, athlete or not, has adopted a similar state. They have a firm belief in themselves, confidence, motivation, memory and ability to see the outcome ahead of time. They have a willingness to try, and if they fail, to keep trying until they succeed. It is the power of our minds that sets us apart.

The difference resides in the brain.

The Right Supplements for a Healthy Brain and Cognitive Performance

Over the past two decades there has been a substantial increase in the consumption of natural brain supplements and their availability to customers in the marketplace. Occasionally though, the claims made by the suppliers do not match the quality of the ingredients or product itself. 

It is certain however that a healthy cognitive performance and brain nutrition develops to almost a necessity among groups of individuals that constantly strive to excel and perform at optimum levels. That being said, the number of brainsupplements available to the consumer will only increase, making it quite challenging to choose the right and most effective one.

This post aims to outline some of the most important and efficient ingredients that we need to search for when considering to buy or take a natural supplement for your cognitive performance. Our recommendation is that if a brain supplement does not contain at least some of the following ingredients, then search for something that does contain them.

The Right Supplements for a Healthy Brain and Cognitive Performance

1. Ginkgo biloba

One of the most efficient and effective natural supplements for brain health supporting healthy brainperformance. Always included in the best brain supplementsof the market, Ginkgo biloba has been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years.

Over the passage of time, Ginkgo biloba has been provedto successfully relieve various common conditions that affect cognitive performance such as dementia, memory loss, lack of concentration and focus, depression and anxiety.

In specific, the last couple of decades the scientific community has been employing Gingko biloba as a credible alternative solution to various common prescribed medications. Recent research studies even argued that the Ginkgo biloba extract could be taken not only for memory and concentration improvement but also for reducing altitude sickness, eye disorders due to ageing and damage done to internal organs caused by chemotherapy.

2. Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR)

If we could rank ALCAR, we would give it the first place along with Gingko Biloba. Acetyl-L-Carnitine (or ALCAR)is a brain booster amino acid that is naturally produced in the body and is an essential building block for proteins. The use of ALCAR over the years mainly covered age-associated mental disorders like Alzheimer’s and depression, while supporting reverse the brain damage caused byalcoholism and Lyme disease.

Acetyl-L-carnitine is key in assisting the body produce energy that is vital for brain performance, processing speed and efficient heart and muscle function. ALCAR is even used to improve men’s low testosterone levels that can result to libido loss or erectile dysfunction.

3. L- Theanine

Similarly to Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR), L-Theanine is a naturally occurring amino acid that has been evidencedto produce a large number of health benefits to body and mind over the years.

L-Theanine is considered to significantly improve cognitive and brain performance by neutralising the effects of anxiety and stress on the central nervous system. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that L-Theanine enhances immunity and resistance to multiple minor ailments while assisting the withdrawal of depression and prevention of obesity, as well as improving overall brain performance.

It should be taken into consideration that L-Theanine is most commonly found in the best brainsupplements seen in the market as well as in green tea. A few small research studies completed in the Far East support the overall health benefits to drinkers of green tea. However, the excessive amounts of green tea, e.g. more than 5 cups a day, may result to insomnia, headaches and mild bad temper. These effects are caused by the consumption of large amounts caffeine content found in green tea where this is not the case when it comes to L-Theanine.

4. Vitamin B-12

Vitamin B12 is an essential brain nutrient seen in almost all brain supplements and is responsible for maintaining the health of the central nervous system as well as theblood cells that deliver essential oxygen to the brain. Research has concluded that individuals lacking the sufficient amounts of Vitamin B12 in their diet, may develop memory loss and inability to recall properly, body fatigue and mild forms of psychosis.

Vitamin B12 can be found in foods such as dairy, eggs, fish, liver, chicken and other poultry; so make sure to eat healthy and support your diet with a natural brain supplement.

5. Vitamin B-6

Vitamin B6 is a key nerve assisting nutrient that can be found in a wide variety of foods. It helpsdefend the immune system of our body while producing both serotonin and dopamine; essential neurotransmitters that regulate our mood. Research studies have shown that Vitamin B6 supplementscan help prevent depression and anxiety as well as other types of mood dysfunctions or even Parkinson’s disease.

Vitamin B6 can also be found in vegetables that contain starch like potatoes or non-citrus fruit like bananas, fish and red meat.

6. Other key ingredients

Otheramino acids or vitamins to look for either in foods that are part of your diet or in nutrition supplements are: L-Tyrosine, L-Methionine, Choline, Omega-3 (Fish Oil),Vitamin B-5 and Vitamin B9.

 

Choosing the Right Brain Supplement

The list of ingredients provided above is the most extensively researched and easily available but by no means absolute or definite, which means that there are many more brain boosting amino acids and vitamins that can increase cognitive performance.

When it comes to brain boosting supplements containing either amino acids or vitamins (or both), our recommendation is to research as much as you can. We all have different metabolism thus responding differently to certain vitamins or amino acids based on our physical or mental complexity. As a results, when research for and buying brain or nutrition supplements try to make certain that most of ingredients listed above are contained in your final product choice.