BRAIN
TRAINING
Any mental exercise helps
cognition by building,
lengthening or strengthening
the pathways that carry
information between
neurons. Generally,
the more pathways you have,
the better your cognition.
When you carry out
a particular mental skill,
connective tissue builds up
in the part of the brain
responsible for it, just like arm
exercises build your biceps.
For all-round cognitive
improvement, therefore, you
should do lots of everything:
motor skills (ie, physical
activity), talking, socialising,
planning, game-playing,
calculating, writing, reading
and talking. But the problem
is that we tend not to do
everything, especially as
we get older.
This is where brain training
comes in. Systems like
Lumosity, Brain HQ andSmartMind claim to exercise
all parts of your brain, and
thus to raise your cognitive
abilities generally, rather
than in one particular area.
Alas, the proof of this is just
not there. Scientists reviewed
the literature that brain-
training companies cite to
support their products and
found that, while people got
better at individual tests,
there was no general
improvement in cognition.
Brain-training apps only improve
the brain’s performance at particular tasksA varied diet should provide all the brain-healthy nutrients
you need, but could you benefit from taking more of them?
Here the answers get much less certain.
Omega-3 is the supplement best known as a brain booster.
It is the type of oil found in fatty fish like herrings, sardines
and mackerel. The literature on oils and the brain would sink
a tanker, but most of it is based on small, commercially
motivated or otherwise unreliable studies. When these are
removed, the evidence that’s left is underwhelming. A 2012
review by the Cochrane organisation – widely acknowledged
as the ultimate authority on health – found no evidence that
omega-3 reduces the risk of cognitive impairment, while
a 2015 meta-analysis by Canadian scientists concluded bluntly:
“Omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, and vitamin E
supplementation did not affect cognition in non-
demented middle-aged and older adults.”
Similarly, evidence for herbal supplements
ginseng and gingko biloba fails to stand up to strict
scrutiny, as does that for practically every other
‘brain-booster’. The Natural Medicines
Comprehensive Database, a non-commercial
organisation that continuously collects and reviews
data, failed to find a single proven effective
supplement among more than 50 they assessed.
They rated a few as “possibly effective” but most simply had
“insufficient evidence” to call.
Lack of proof of efficacy is not, however, proof of lack of
efficacy. The large-scale, expensive research needed to show
beyond doubt if a thing works or not is usually done only for
medicinal drugs, so it’s not surprising that there isn’t any to
show what works for healthy people.
Supplements are not without risk – they can interfere with
medicines and produce nasty side effects, especially if too
many are taken. However, a supplement that gives the
recommended daily dose of required vitamins and minerals
may be a good idea if you feel your brain needs a boost,
especially if you think your diet may be deficient in any way.Found in oily fish, omega-3 is often
touted as being beneficial for
the brain, but the evidence for
this is surprisingly weakNUTRITION
“Evidence
for herbal
supplements
fails to stand
up to
scrutiny”
June 2017 77