Once upon a time, as the story goes, there were two little boys. One of them said to the other, "Gee, I sure wish I were smarter." The other little boy said, "Well I know about some smart pills you can take." And the second little boy gave the first one some smart pills. A few days passed and the little boys met again.

"Howzit goin' with those smart pills?"

"Oh, I'm not taking them anymore."

"Why not?"

"They look like rabbit droppings to me."

"See that, they're working. You're getting smarter already. "

Classic American Joke

In a way things really haven't changed much since this old chestnut was first told. We still have times when we wish we were smarter. In this high tech world we're sharing today, “smart pills” really exist. There are nutrients that we can get from our food and supplements that we can take that help us to think better, have better memory, improve our mood and coordination – just LIVE better! 

The brain is a sensitive organ. Very small amounts of specific substances can cause changes in mood, personality, thought and behavior. There are changes in the biochemical composition of the brain that occur normally after eating a meal. The brain has a high metabolic rate. It receives fifteen percent of the total blood pumped by the heart, and uses 25 percent of the body’s total oxygen intake, although it takes up only two percent of our total body weight.

This fabulous control center for the central nervous system contains about six billion neurons, approximately half of all the neurons in the body, A neuron, or nerve cell, is the basic unit of the nervous system, These functional cellular units are involved in all aspects of behavior, including thought, speech, mood, movement, and sensation, They also control the functions mediated by the endocrine system and by the autonomic nervous system. The actions of all these systems depend upon the communication between the neurons. Surprisingly, neurons never touch each other. There is always a small gap between them called a synapse. The correct stimulus causes the release of a particular chemical which jumps across the synapse to the next nerve cell. This chemical is called a neurotransmitter.  Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry messages between neurons. Learning, memory, and intelligence are all facilitated by neurotransmitters. And, they control more than IQ: they wake you up and put you to sleep, they make you tense or calm, happy or sad, they influence your appetite, your dreams and your sex life. Furthermore, they control your coordination, so you can't make a move without them. At least 20-30 groups of neurons each make, store, and release specific neurotrans­mitters. But keep this in mind, diet controls these controllers, and you control your diet. Our nervous system, to function properly, must have an abundant supply of these “chemical messengers.” 

Prior to current research findings, it was believed that what we ate had nothing to do with the production of neurotransmitters. This was based on ideas about the function of the blood brain barrier. It is normal for there to be water soluble, toxic wastes in the circulatory system. They are carried to the liver to be detoxified and to the kidneys to be eliminated. These toxins would have a catastrophic effect on the brain if it weren't for the blood brain barrier. It keeps them from getting there. It was thought that this barrier afforded the same protection from dietary variations. Now we know that the production of neurotransmitters is directly related to the amount of precursor nutrients we eat in our meals.  A precursor nutrient is one that the brain neuron needs as raw material to make its particular type of neurotransmitter.  We can purposely stimulate the brain's production of some of these chemicals by taking, in supplement form, nutrients that can be used in the process of making them or are used by the brain directly.  We will go into more detail later. 

As we grow older, the levels of many neurotransmitters decrease. Sometimes the receptor sites for these chemicals also decrease and/or lessen in sensitivity to the transmitter. Nutrient substances have been shown to slow or reverse some aspects of aging in the brain in addition to increasing alertness. Mental performance can be improved in young people as well.

The most important of all the neurotransmitters is a material called acetylcholine that can be manufactured by the neurons themselves. Acetylcholine is a primitive neurotransmitter found in frogs and even in insects. It is used by the brain in areas that are involved in long term planning, concentration and focus, controlling the rate of stimuli entering the brain, motor activity, learning and memory, stimuli input during sleep, and other functions. Choline, a member of the B-complex family, is necessary to the production of acetylcholine. The more choline that is available to the brain, the more acetylcholine it produces.  In order for the neurons to manufacture acetylcholine, they must use phosphatidyl-choline. For this reason choline is known as a precursor to acetylcholine.

Lecithin is a naturally occurring source of phosphatidyl-choline. Lecithin is the popular name for a mixture of compounds that are called phospholipids. These phospholipids have the property of emulsifying or breaking down fatty deposits in the body. This is the property that has made lecithin famous for use in the treatment of atherosclerosis (fat deposits in the blood vessels), gallstones (fat deposits in the gall bladder), and liver problems caused by fat deposits. Chemically lecithin contains choline, glycerol and fats, including the nutrient inositol.  Lecithin is essential to every cell in the body, serving as structural material especially for the brain and nerves. Lecithin makes up 30 percent of the dry brain. Using choline, inositol, vitamin B6 and magnesium, the body can manufacture its own lecithin. The identical lecithin manufactured by the body is found in foods such as eggs, fish, liver, beans (especially soybeans), nuts and grains.  We need this additional choline source. Even though our brains can produce choline from the breakdown of phosphatidyl-choline normally found in our body cells, and from synthesis within our bodies, eventually the level of choline in our brains would be depleted if we did not have another source. This effect becomes even more pronounced as we get older. The more rapidly those neurons which use acetylcholine are firing, the more Important it is that we supply our brain with the raw material choline.

A deficiency of this transmitter in the human brain will cause a person to display symptoms ranging from muddled thinking to nervousness, anxiety, and hyperkinetic patterns (usually in children), narcolepsy (brief attacks of sleep during waking hours), depression, sluggish behavior and slowed reflexes.

In the next article, we will tell you about some of the more recent findings about the importance of “brain food.”  Spurred by the rise in Alzheimer’s disease, the role of nutrition in mental capacity and function is being intensely researched.  We will also tell you about some other supplements that have been shown to improve mental function.