BrainReady Blog - Comment
A great product that contains many of the supplements listed in theis blog including Vinpocetine, Bacopa and Ginkgo Biloba is Think Gum. This chewing gum works by increasing blood-flow to the brain and by the concept of context dependant memory. It is also sugar free, naturally caffiented and loaded with anti-oxidants. Gice it a try and you will be happily suprised! You can buy it at ThinkGum.com
A nice one I've tried is called BrainVigor. I began selling it about 3 months ago, and started taking it last month after a customer convinced me.
Listed ingredients are:
Pantothenic Acid 80mg
B-6 (Pyridoxine HCL) 25mg
Niacinamide 20mg 100%
B-12 (Pyridoxine HCL) 1000mcg
Piracetam 1000mg **
Acetyl L-Carnitine
Choline Bitartrate
Choline CDP (Citicoline)
Centrophenoxine
DMAE 250mg
Bacopa Monniera 250mg
Ginkgo Biloba 24/6 100mg
Rhodiola Rosea Extract 3% Rosavin 100mg **
Panax Ginseng Extract 80% 100mg **
R-Lipoic Acid 100mg **
Vinpocetine
the link is: brainvigor
Great article as I was thinking about starting to take vinpocetine just recently. Time to get some and see if it works, sounds like it does!
Shane
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2003;(1):CD003119.Links
Vinpocetine for cognitive impairment and dementia.
Szatmari SZ, Whitehouse PJ.
4300, Targu Mures, str. Gral I., Dumitrache 22, Romania. szatmari@netsoft.ro
BACKGROUND: Vinpocetine is a synthetic ethyl ester of apovincamine, a vinca alkaloid obtained from the leaves of the Lesser Periwinkle (Vinca minor) and discovered in the late 1960s. Although used in human treatment for over twenty years, it has not been approved by any regulatory body for the treatment of cognitive impairment. Basic sciences studies have been used to claim a variety of potentially important effects in the brain. However, despite these many proposed mechanisms and targets, the relevance of this basic science to clinical studies is unclear. OBJECTIVES: To assess the efficacy and safety of vinpocetine in the treatment of patients with cognitive impairment due to vascular disease, Alzheimer's disease, mixed (vascular and Alzheimer's disease) and other dementias. SEARCH STRATEGY: The Cochrane Dementia & Cognitive Improvement Group's Specialized Register was searched using the terms vinpocetin*, cavinton, kavinton, Rgh-4405, Tcv-3B, "ethyl apovincaminate", vinRx, periwinkle, "myrtle vincapervinc" and cezayirmeneksesi. The manufacturers of vinpocetine were asked for information on trials of vinpocetine for dementia. In addition we tried to collect articles not listed in MEDLINE or other sources on the Internet (e.g. articles in Hungarian and Romanian). SELECTION CRITERIA: All human, unconfounded, double-blind, randomized trials in which treatment with vinpocetine was administered for more than a day and compared to control in patients with vascular dementia, Alzheimer's dementia or mixed Alzheimer's and vascular dementia and other dementias. Non-randomized trials were excluded. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Data were independently extracted by the two reviewers (SzSz and PW) and cross-checked. Data from "washout" periods were not used for the analysis. For continuous or ordinal variables, such as cognitive test results, the main outcomes of interest were the change in score from baseline. The categorical outcome of global impression was transformed to binary data (improved or not improved) as was the occurrence of adverse effects; here the endpoint itself was of interest the Peto method of the "typical odds ratio" was used. A test for heterogeneity of treatment effects between the trials was made if appropriate. Data synthesis and analysis were performed using the Cochrane Review Manager software (RevMan version 4.1). MAIN RESULTS: All identified studies were performed before the 1990s and used various terms and criteria for cognitive decline and dementia. The three studies included in the review involved a total of 583 people with dementia treated with vinpocetine or placebo. The reports of these studies did not make possible any differentiation of effects for degenerative or vascular dementia.
I am a man of science, show me the large, well designed, long term studies that support these claims and I will show you my wallet.
To Mark -- thanks for your comment, and you raise a good point about the need for large, well-designed, long-term studies to really develop a more complete picture of how various supplements such as Vinpocetene (and foods too) really work. The challenge is that most supplements/foods/drinks simply don't receive the funding/attention necessary to do such comprehensive studies, particularly long-term, and perhaps even more importantly, even rigorous long-term studies have significant caveats in that there are so many other factors contributing to the net health effects in people studied that it's still difficult to derive truly empirical data. This is particularly true in the area of brain health and cognitive improvement, as you might imagine, as the brain is one of the least understood areas of the body since it cannot be as easily studied, cognitive mechanisms are still little-understood, and effects such as 'feeling sharper' are difficult to prove empirically.
We could write a book on this topic, but suffice to say that the most *relevant* thing we believe to distill from all of this is that one needs to determine what actually works for them...what provides tangible improvements that affect quality of life, quality and efficacy of mental performance in real life, and do what works...particularly when it's backed by even some scientific research showing that there may indeed be benefits. In the case of Vinpocetene, the multitudes of people who swear by its benefits to memory and overall cognitive ability, combined with the existing scientific research, make for a very strong likelihood that there is indeed benefit. For most, this is enough reason to give it a try, particularly when the safety profile is good.
As for opening up your wallet, we're certainly not asking anyone to do that...quite the contrary; we provide information that you can take or leave and then decide whether you're interested in giving a supplement/food/drink a try and then buying it from whomever you like.
But we agree with the larger point that one should not be fooled by supplement/product marketing claims that are unsupported by evidence, and we try to belabor that point in nearly every article we write... 
Thanks for the post -
The BrainReady Team
Hi Brainready Team, thanks for the response, I would first like to say that I really enjoy your podcasts and use them almost daily, that being said I would contend that using anecdotal evidence and a few short, small studies for making the claim that a supplement is a member of the "best natural brain supplements" is flawed and dangerous. You noted in your response that numerous people feel that vinpocetine is helping them and in the short term its been shown to be safe a certain dosages, well the same could be said for Vioxx, which I took for years, I can tell you that myself and many many others felt that it really worked and we believed that it was safe to use. Wrong!! This is serious stuff, if we are going to be advising people to take drugs, supplements, etc. everyday for years, we should try our very best, and yes I know that their are limitations, to ensure that they are safe to use. How about we do in the USA what many other countries do around the world, we require supplements to prove safety and efficacy?
Hi Mark, thanks much...we actually completely agree with your premise; there are so many cases in which a given drug or supplement are deemed to be 'safe' only to later be found dangerous in some way, and this is most common with pharmaceuticals/non-natural substances (which often reach the market before long-term or more comprehensive studies can really take effect). That's a big reason why we at BrainReady focus on natural foods, drinks, and all-natural supplements, but it's certainly not to imply that "natural" ones are always safe/effective/right for everyone. We try to belabor that point in our articles as you've probably seen, saying that people should always check with their health care provider before adding any new supplement or even foods/drinks to the diet if there is any concern at all...
Bottom line is that people need to make up their own minds as to whether they want to try a natural supplement/food/drink based on the data available, whether little data or a lot, and as with almost anything, there's always SOME inherent risk. Fortunately the risk tends to be lower when dealing with 100% natural foods/supplements that have a history of successful (or at least few issues) usage over hundreds or even thousands of years, compared to brand-new pharmaceutical drugs about which very little is known other than the often 'accidental' effects upon which they are marketed. One doesn't need to read a long-term safety report from the government to feel reasonably confident that celery is going to be fine, or that if tens of thousands have found benefits from an extract of the Periwinkle plant (Vinpocetine) that...well, the benefits might outweigh the potential risks. It's personal freedom choice to make.
As a side note, just think for a moment about all the foods, drinks and drugs that ARE all 'government and safety- approved'-- the sodas, OTC and prescription drugs, chemical-laden foods, the toxic garbage the lines the store shelves, and then the idea of potential side effects from an all-natural food or supplement gets put into quite a different perspective by comparison
Thanks again for bringing up this important topic (and also, thanks very much for the comments about BrainReady and glad you've been enjoying the brain exercise podcasts etc.!)
Best regards,
The BrainReady Team
Why is it that brainready fails to recognize creatine supplementation?
1: Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2007 Sep;14(5):517-28. Links
Creatine supplementation and cognitive performance in elderly individuals.McMorris T, Mielcarz G, Harris RC, Swain JP, Howard A.
School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Chichester.
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of creatine supplementation on the cognitive performance of elderly people. Participants were divided into two groups, which were tested on random number generation, forward and backward number and spatial recall, and long-term memory tasks to establish a baseline level. Group 1 (n = 15) were given 5 g four times a day of placebo for 1 week, followed by the same dosage of creatine for the second week. Group 2 (n = 17) were given placebo both weeks. Participants were retested at the end of each week. Results showed a significant effect of creatine supplementation on all tasks except backward number recall. It was concluded that creatine supplementation aids cognition in the elderly.
Hi Ryan -- actually, Creatine is among the next topics on our list! 
-The BrainReady Team
Can you recommend a supplement containing the ingredients you think are best at improving mental clarity and memory sharpness?
Try this one: Intelectol. It's the purest form of vinpocetine available on the market. I've been taking it since december, and it works!! The first benefit I have noticed is that I sleep much better than before!
I've been debating whether or not to try taking BrainVigor. It's not cheap and I havn't seen any reviews of this supplement that I would consider unbiased. Has anyone used this? Can they supply a trustworthy review?
Also, I am worried about safety and possible side effects. Are there any?
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