6 Best Supplements for Brain Health

 SUMMARY

• Discover my 6 Best Supplements for Brain Health 
• Watch how NOT to take probiotics LOL
• Learn two additional powerful and yummy brain-boosting nutrients
• Check out my Modern Brain Apothecary to get access to the highest quality brain-boosting supplements available, that I personally take and recommend to all my patients, friends, and loved ones

FULL TRANSCRIPT

[The following is the full transcript of this video blog. Please note that this video, like all of Dr. Chiu's blog videos, features Dr. Chiu speaking extemporaneously–he is unscripted and unedited for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!]

Welcome to the Modern Brain. My name is Dr. Titus Chiu, and this is my first Facebook Live so I'm super excited to share this information with you guys. All throughout my practice as Functional Neurologist, I get asked this question all the time, "What are the best supplements I could take for brain health?"

And so I decided to put together this little Facebook Live to answer that question for you guys. So, as I said I've worked with many patients throughout the years, people suffering from all kinds of complex neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Concussion. And I've just noticed different patterns and did a bunch of research to be able to help them get better, focusing on things such as diet, supplements and lifestyle, has really made a huge impact on my patients lives.

I actually have a family history of Alzheimer's. And so I do whatever I can to decrease the risk for that– things such as diet, supplements and, lifestyle has made a huge impact on my life, not even just talking about some far off chance of getting a disease, maybe 20-30 years down the line. But actually taking action on these things has made a profound impact on my life today– I have a lot more energy than I used to have as well as better focus and concentration, and my memory has improved and my overall mood as well.

So without further ado, let's get started.

6 Best Supplements for Brain Health

Brain Health Supplement #1:

Liquid sunshine, or otherwise known as vitamin D.

I prefer taking this in a liquid form because vitamin D is actually not a vitamin– it's actually a hormone, but it's a fat soluble vitamin and so that means that it gets better absorbed with other fats, so the one I take comes with MCT oil, or medium chain triglyceride oil. What that does, it helps improve the absorption of vitamin D.

The reason why this is really important for brain health is because one of the biggest things that is an enemy to brain health is what's known as inflammation, and vitamin D has been shown time after time to really help decrease brain or neuroinflammation, and it also helps to boost your mood and improve your immune system.

Brain Health Supplement #2:

B-vitamins with activated forms of folate. This is a formulation of B vitamins and I prefer this formulation Homocysteine Supreme because it has an activated form of folate, as well as vitamins B12 and B6 are really important for once again decreasing inflammation and specifically decreasing what's known as homocysteine.

Homocysteine is a pro-inflammatory amino acid that can do major damage to your brain, increase your risk for dementia, as well as impact your neurotransmitters which wreaks havoc on your mood as well as your cognition. When we lower homocysteine, we lower inflammation by taking B vitamins, we actually improve oxygenation to our brains as well. So that's the number two supplement that I recommend for brain health.

Brain Health Supplement #3:

Moving right along this guy here, this little bad boy, is known as alpha lipoic acid.

Alpha lipoic acid is a fatty acid that's really, really important for energy production in what's known as your mitochondria. And it's also a very very powerful antioxidant and so it can protect your brain from free radicals. So, like I said before one of the major enemies of brain health is known as inflammation. A second one is known as free radicals. And so when you have too many free radicals– you can think of it like your brain getting rusty– then you want to make sure that you combat that with antioxidants and alpha lipic acid is a really really important one for that.

Brain Health Supplement #4:

The fourth supplement I recommend for brain health is what's known as probiotics. So you guys are probably familiar with probiotics and you're definitely familiar with what are known as antibiotics. Probiotics what they actually are they're these little bacteria, and we actually should have a bunch of them in our guts if we're balanced and healthy.

Now the reason why it's really important to take probiotics and to have a good balance of good bacteria, because of what's known as the microbiota-gut-brain connection– meaning what happens in your gut doesn't stay in your gut. What happens in your gut can actually travel up and have huge impacts on your brain.

And so if you have an imbalance of the good bacteria in your gut, it can actually lead to things like depression, anxiety, autism even ADHD. There's all this research looking at the impact of our gut health on our brain health, and a big star of the show is probiotics.

Brain Health Supplement #5:

Fish oils or specifically DHA, what's known as docosahexaenoic acid. You guys have probably heard about omega three fatty acids, and if not, just know that omega three fatty acids are really really important for brain health. In addition to DHA, there's also what's known as EPA, and so DHA is super important for brain health, while EPA is really good for decreasing inflammation. So I prefer a fish oil blend, when we talk about brain health, that has high levels of DHA.

Brain Health Supplement #6:

Finally, we have turmeric. Turmeric is actually, it's a curry spice, and the active ingredient is what's known as curcumin. So as an example, if you actually look here, turmeric is a root that's found in the ginger family. Super cool looking. And so there's many ways of taking this, ingesting it.

Some people like to take a supplement, I actually prefer it in a supplement form as well. This one specifically has black pepper in it, and black pepper helps the absorption of turmeric to cross your blood-brain barrier and has powerful anti-inflammatory effects.

And then over here is the actual raw form, it's a root in the ginger family and so there's different ways that can prepare it. You can also go to the grocery store and get it in a powder form to be used for cooking. The active ingredient, like I said, is curcumin found in turmeric. Curcumin has been shown to have huge anti-inflammatory properties, antioxidant properties, and they've done studies showing people that have a higher intake of curcumin or turmeric in their diet, like who eat a lot of curry have a lower risk for Alzheimer's and dementia. It's been used for thousands of years in Chinese and Indian medicine.

So that's the top six best supplements I recommend for brain health, but there's two other ones that really aren't supplements that I want to bring into the show. These are big superstars so let me grab them for you.

Additional Yummy Brain-Boosting Nutrients

The first bonus brain-boosting nutrient is coconut oil. Coconut oil is fantastic because it is very high in what are known as medium chain triglycerides. Medium chain triglycerides are a type of fat that gets easily converted in your body to what are known as ketones. There is a ton of research looking at how ketones act as a super fuel for your brain, decreasing inflammation and increasing mitochondrial health as well as boosting your energy, and giving you great cognition and focus.

You can either take coconut oil as a supplement with a spoon, or we actually use it a lot for cooking which is a really great way to go about doing it.

And then, finally, another superstar is what's known as resveratrol. Resveratrol is similar to curcumin in that its a polyphenol, and it's found in high amounts in red grapes. It's super powerful for fat burning for increasing oxygenation to your brain, anti-aging, and being very delicious.

And what I'm talking about here is actually my preferred method– is red wine, and specifically I love Pinot Noir. A glass of red wine obviously wouldn't have as high a dose as high dose liquid supplementation of resveratrol, but when you drink about a glass of wine at night or two or three glasses of red wine throughout the week as part of your lifestyle can really do great things for your brain health.

So that being said, that is the 6 Top Best Supplements I recommend for brain health. After many years of research, working with patients, and experimenting with my own brain health, I've curated the highest quality supplements available today. You can find them at my BrainSAVE! Apothecary

I look forward to seeing you at my next Facebook Live. And in the meantime, check out my website for brain healthy tips at DrTitusChiu.com, and also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Thanks for tuning in and for joining me for some laughs!

To Your Total Health,

Dr. Titus Chiu

#1 Bestselling Author 

Concussion Expert

PS. Know anyone who could benefit from these brain-boosting supplements? Share this video with them so they can learn how to coat their faces with probiotics LOL!