This page has two jobs. First, it explains every one of the ingredients printed on the label of the capsules we sell, what each is, and what the research does and does not say about it. Second, and this is the part most advertising pages leave out, it lists the headlines we run, tells you which ones are exaggerated, and separates the small number of things that are genuinely supported by evidence from the many that are not.
You almost certainly arrived here from an advertisement. The headline you clicked was written by us and paid for by us to appear next to real news stories. It was designed to make you stop scrolling. Several of our headlines overstate what science actually shows, and a few attribute statements to doctors who do not exist.
Everything on this site is a paid advertisement for a product we sell. If you buy through a link on any of our pages, we are paid a commission. That is the reason this site exists.
The product is a vegetable capsule taken two at a time: 1,000 milligrams of choline bitartrate, 150 milligrams of a bacopa extract standardized to 50 percent bacosides, 120 milligrams of lemon balm powder and 60 milligrams of ginkgo leaf powder, sold online by BioYouth Labs LLC as a dietary supplement. It contains no caffeine. It is not a medicine. It does not treat, prevent, cure or slow Alzheimer's disease, dementia, or any other medical condition, and no study has ever tested these capsules. The front of the bottle prints five promises; two concern memory and focus and are measured against the research below, and three concern things this page makes no claim about. The label carries the standard statement that its claims have not been evaluated by the FDA. No food, drink or supplement on this page is a substitute for a doctor.
If you are genuinely worried about your memory, the single most useful thing you can do is book an appointment with your doctor. That costs you nothing from us, and some causes of memory trouble are reversible when they are found early. Your health matters more than anything we are selling. We would rather you close this page and call your doctor than buy something under a false impression.
These are the headlines we have run, grouped by the claim they make. The right-hand column is our own plain assessment. We have marked each family of headlines as Exaggerated, Partly true, Withdrawn or Broadly supported.
| The headline as you saw it | What is actually behind it |
|---|---|
| "Mental Decline Begins When Seniors Can't Spell These 3 Words. Test Now""Top Doctors Say Mental Decline Begins When Seniors Can't Pronounce These 3 Phrases. Can You?""MDs Say Mental Decline Begins When Seniors Can't Pronounce These 3 Phrases. Can You?""Memory Decline Begins When Seniors Say These 3 Phrases (See The List)""Declining Memory Begins When Seniors Say These 7 Phrases. See Which Ones" | Exaggerated There is no set of three words, three phrases or seven phrases whose spelling or pronunciation marks the beginning of mental decline. Nothing "begins" at a word. Word-finding and naming tasks do appear inside real cognitive screening tools, but those tools are administered and interpreted by a clinician alongside your history, your medications and a physical exam. Failing a word online means nothing on its own: plenty of people with perfectly healthy brains stumble over a word when they are tired, anxious, or being timed. "Top doctors" and "MDs" refer to no specific doctor. See section 5. |
| "Japan's Oldest Doctors Say Memory Loss Isn't Age: Just Avoid Drinking These 3 Beverages""Japan's Greatest Doctors Say Memory Loss Isn't Age: Just Avoid Drinking These 3 Beverages""Japan's Oldest Doctors Say Memory Loss Isn't Age: Just Avoid Eating These 3 Foods""Japan's Oldest Doctors Say Memory Loss Isn't Age: Just Stop Eating These 3 Foods" | Exaggerated No group of Japanese doctors issued this statement. There is no such panel, no such list, and no source we can point you to. Japan appears in the headline because it is widely associated with long life, which makes the claim feel credible. That is a marketing decision, not a citation. The second half is also wrong in an important way. Memory loss is strongly related to age. Age is the single largest risk factor for dementia, and no diet removes it. What is true is narrower: certain long-term drinking and eating patterns are associated with faster cognitive decline in large population studies. Association is not proof of cause, and "just avoid these three" is not how any of it works. |
| "Nobel Prize's Doctors Say Memory Loss Isn't Age: Just Stop Eating These 3 Foods" | Withdrawn We retract this one outright. No Nobel laureate has endorsed this page, this product, or any list of three foods on our behalf. Attaching the Nobel Prize to an advertisement implies an authority that does not exist and we should not have run it. |
| "The Overlooked Boxed Cereal Now Tied to 8 Out of 10 Memory Cases" | Our headline was wrong There is no such statistic. No study ties any cereal to eight out of ten cases of anything, "memory cases" is not a category any researcher uses, and no cereal has been "overlooked" by anyone: the sugar figure is printed on the side of every box. The number was invented for the headline and we withdraw it. The grain of truth is the same as for the other cereal headlines below: sugary cereals are mostly refined starch and added sugar, and diets heavy in both are associated in population studies with poorer memory scores [1] and with faster cognitive decline over years. [2] That is a modest association across thousands of people, not eight in ten of anyone. See section 3. |
| "Brain Experts Now Say These 3 Cereals Age the Brain Faster Than Time""Scientists Now Say This 1 Cereal Ages the Brain Faster Than Time" | Exaggerated No food ages the brain "faster than time." That phrase was written for effect and it is not a finding from any study. It is also internally inconsistent: in one version it is three cereals, in another it is one, because the number is something we test for click-through, not something we measured. The grain of truth: diets high in added sugar and refined starch are associated with poorer memory scores and greater cardiovascular risk over years. That is a modest effect across a population, not a fate sealed by a bowl of cereal. See section 3. |
| "Doctors Now Say This Popular Evening Drink Is Behind Memory Loss""Doctors Now Say This Popular Evening Drink Is Behind Brain Health Decline" | Partly true The "evening drink" is alcohol, and of everything our ads point at, this is where the evidence is strongest. Heavy and even moderate regular drinking has been linked in long-running studies to worse brain outcomes, including shrinkage of the hippocampus, the region most involved in forming memories. Excessive alcohol is one of the risk factors named in the 2024 Lancet Commission on dementia. [3] [4] What is overstated is the word "behind." Alcohol is one contributing risk factor among many, not the cause of memory loss. Cutting back is a genuinely good idea. It is not a cure, and it will not undo damage already done. It is also worth saying plainly: the gel pack we sell contains no alcohol; it contains 40 milligrams of caffeine, about half a cup of coffee, and two grams of added sugar. |
| "Doctors Name 5 Popular Drinks Now Tied To Memory Decline. Coffee Tops The List""Seniors: These 4 Drinks May Be Aging Your Brain Faster""The 4 Drinks Brain Doctors Want Seniors to Quit""Neurologists Say Cognitive Decline Isn't Age: Just Stop Drinking These 2 Popular Drinks""Doctors: 3 Popular Drinks Now Tied to Memory Loss in Seniors" | Exaggerated Notice that the count changes: two drinks, three, four, five. It changes because it is an advertising variable we rotate, not a number that came out of a study. No neurologist is named in any version, because none was consulted. "Coffee tops the list" is the clearest thing we have got wrong. Large reviews of coffee and cognition have generally not found ordinary coffee drinking to be a risk factor for dementia; several report a neutral or modestly favourable association. If you drink coffee and enjoy it, this headline gave you a reason to worry that the evidence does not support. Our own article about this extract suggests no coffee after two in the afternoon, for the sake of sleep. That is a timing point, not a claim that coffee harms memory. See section 2. |
| "Brain Doctors: Quit These 4 Drinks Before It's Too Late" | Exaggerated No brain doctor was consulted for this headline, and there is no "too late." The deadline was invented to make you click. The four drinks are the ones in section 2: alcohol, sugar-sweetened soft drinks, energy drinks and sweetened coffee-shop drinks. Cutting back on them is sensible for your heart, your sleep and your weight, and long-running population studies link heavy use of the first two to poorer cognitive outcomes over years. There is no evidence that quitting them on any particular day changes anything about your memory, and there is no age after which the change stops being worth making. See section 2. |
| "Memory Slipping? Check These 4 Everyday Drinks First" | Partly true Half right, in the wrong order. If your memory is slipping, the first thing to check is not a drink; it is your doctor, because several treatable causes listed in section 6 look exactly like memory loss and none of them is fixed by changing what you pour. The four drinks are the everyday ones in section 2: alcohol, sugary soft drinks, energy drinks and sweetened coffee drinks. Reviewing them is a reasonable second step, mostly for sleep and for your heart. Not enough plain water belongs on the list too, and it is the one our own article dwells on. See sections 2 and 6. |
| "America's Top Experts Say Mental Decline Isn't Aging: Just Avoid These 5 Kitchen Drinks" | Exaggerated The same construction as the "Japan's doctors" headline above, with the country changed. No panel of American experts issued this statement, and we cannot point you to one. Mental decline is strongly tied to age, and no drink removes that. The five kitchen drinks are alcohol, sugar-sweetened sodas, diet sodas, energy drinks and sweetened coffee-shop drinks, all in section 2, where the honest version of each is written out. "Just avoid" overstates what any of that evidence shows. See section 2. |
| "Still Sharp at 90? Seniors Are Rethinking These 3 Everyday Foods" | Partly true The gentlest of our headlines, and still an overstatement. Nobody knows what keeps a particular person sharp at 90. The largest studies point to blood pressure, hearing, physical activity, social contact and education far more than to any food; see section 7. The three everyday foods are sugary breakfast cereals, processed meats and packaged baked goods, all in section 3. Eating less of them is associated in population studies with better long-term brain and heart outcomes. That is a modest, slow effect across a population, and no food is a guarantee at any age. See sections 3 and 7. |
| "Drink one cup a day and watch your memory change" | Exaggerated There is no cup; the product is two capsules with water before breakfast and lunch. Nothing in them has been shown to change memory: the choline is a real nutrient at about three quarters of a day's need once the salt is counted honestly, [5] with a dietary cohort behind choline [6] and no trial of the salt; the bacopa is half the dose of its trials in adults over 55; [7] the lemon balm is a fifth of a mixed single-dose study; [8] and the ginkgo is leaf powder at a quarter of the extract dose of a six-year trial that found nothing. [9] What two daily capsules can honestly give you is a choline habit and a thirty-day test with a notebook. "Watch your memory change" should not have been written. See sections 7 and 9, and the ingredients below. |
| "Two capsules a day built around a gram of a choline salt, with half-doses of bacopa, lemon balm and ginkgo leaf beside it: what the 180 percent on the panel actually counts, and what the label promises that this page won't" | Broadly supported This is the reading our article is built on, and it is on the label. The panel prints 1,000 milligrams of choline "as dl-choline bitartrate" at 180 percent of the Daily Value; the salt is about 41 percent choline by weight, so the honest figure is about 410 milligrams, roughly 75 percent of the 550-milligram Daily Value. [5] The bacopa is 150 milligrams of a 50 percent extract against the 300 milligrams of its trials, [7] the lemon balm 120 milligrams of powder against 600 of an extract in a mixed single-dose study, [8] and the ginkgo 60 milligrams of leaf powder against 240 of extract in a trial of 3,069 people that found nothing. [9] The article names the three promises on the front of the bottle it does not discuss. The headline is meant to lower expectations, not raise them. It is not a claim that the capsules work. |
| "Neurologists Name 5 Popular Prescriptions Now Tied to Memory Decline" | Partly true, and the most dangerous to act on This one is closest to real research. Several widely prescribed drug classes have been linked in large studies to higher dementia risk, and prescribing guidelines already flag some of them as poor choices for older adults. [10] [11] [12] But an advertisement is the worst possible reason to change a prescription. Stopping some of these medicines suddenly can cause seizures, dangerous rebound anxiety, or a return of the condition being treated. Never stop or change a prescribed medicine because of something you read in an ad, including ours. Read section 4 before you do anything. |
An honest answer: these headlines appear beside real news stories, competing for attention with everything else on the page, and dramatic phrasing gets clicked. That is the incentive, and we are subject to it like every other advertiser.
It is also why this page exists. Once you are here, you are entitled to know exactly which claims we can stand behind and which ones were written to get your attention. Everything below is the sober version.
Our headlines have referred, in different versions, to "3 beverages", "4 drinks", "5 popular drinks", "2 popular drinks" and "this popular evening drink" without ever naming them. Here is the complete list of what we were pointing at, and what the research actually supports for each one. Where a study is cited, it is observational unless stated otherwise: it can show that two things travel together in a population, not that one causes the other.
This is the "popular evening drink" · Best-supported of the group
What the research says. Heavy drinking is consistently associated with cognitive decline and higher dementia risk, and excessive alcohol is one of the modifiable risk factors named by the Lancet Commission. [3] A long-running study of British civil servants found that even moderate intake was associated with hippocampal atrophy and faster decline in language fluency. [4] Alcohol also raises blood pressure, disrupts sleep and interacts with many medications: three separate routes to worse brain health.
Honest verdict. Of everything on this list, cutting back on alcohol has the strongest case behind it. It is still not "the cause" of memory loss, and no amount of cutting back guarantees anything.
About the product we sell. It contains no alcohol and no caffeine. It is a choline salt and three herbs in a vegetable capsule with rice flour and magnesium stearate.
Important. If you drink heavily every day, do not stop abruptly on your own. Alcohol withdrawal can be medically serious. Ask your doctor how to reduce safely.
Part of the "3 popular drinks" and "4 drinks" · Partly supported
What the research says. In the Framingham Heart Study community sample, higher intake of sugary beverages was associated with lower total brain volume and poorer memory scores. [1] The more established harm is indirect and well documented: sugary drinks contribute to weight gain, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, and diabetes, obesity and hypertension are each independent risk factors for dementia. [3]
Honest verdict. A reasonable thing to cut down on, mostly for reasons that have nothing to do with a dramatic headline. Replacing them with water is a cheap, low-risk change.
Often the "surprising" drink in our ads · Weak evidence
What the research says. One widely reported analysis found artificially sweetened soft drink intake associated with higher risk of stroke and dementia. [13] The authors themselves cautioned that this does not establish cause, and reverse causation is a real possibility: people already managing diabetes or weight problems are more likely to choose diet drinks in the first place.
Honest verdict. Interesting, unresolved, and not a reason to panic. Anyone who tells you diet soda has been proven to cause dementia is going beyond the evidence.
Part of the "4 drinks brain doctors want seniors to quit" · Indirect concern
What the research says. There is little direct research linking energy drinks to dementia. The concern for older adults is more immediate: high caffeine loads combined with sugar can raise blood pressure, trigger palpitations in susceptible people, and badly disrupt sleep. Persistently short sleep is itself linked to worse brain outcomes. [14]
Honest verdict. Worth avoiding if you are over 65, on heart or blood pressure medication, or sleeping poorly. But for heart and sleep reasons, not because of any proven memory effect.
The version of "coffee" our ads should have named · Partly supported
What the research says. These are sugary drinks that happen to contain coffee. Whatever applies to sugar-sweetened beverages applies to them. A large flavoured frappé can carry as much added sugar as a soft drink.
Honest verdict. If our "coffee" headline had meant this, it would have been defensible. It did not, and we should have been specific.
Part of the "3 beverages" · Partly supported
What the research says. Same story: the sugar is the issue, not the tea or the fruit. Whole fruit behaves quite differently from fruit juice, which delivers the sugar without the fibre; in the Framingham sample, daily fruit juice was associated with lower brain volume and poorer memory scores. [1]
Honest verdict. Treat these as soft drinks, because nutritionally that is largely what they are. The capsules we sell contain no sugar of any kind.
Named in our headline as the worst offender · Our headline was wrong
What the research says. Ordinary black coffee and tea, without added sugar, are not established risk factors for cognitive decline. Reviews of coffee consumption and dementia have generally found neutral or modestly favourable associations, and tea is a routine part of dietary patterns studied for brain health. Caffeine late in the day can wreck your sleep, and short sleep is genuinely linked to dementia risk, [14] so timing matters more than the drink itself. The capsules we sell contain no caffeine; the seller's schedule puts them before breakfast and before lunch.
Honest verdict. "Coffee Tops The List" was a bad headline. If you drink coffee, enjoy it, and it does not keep you awake, the evidence does not ask you to give it up.
The food headlines referred to "3 foods" and to "cereals": one cereal in some versions, three in others. Again, the number was ours, not a finding. Here is what was meant, and what stands behind it.
The "3 cereals" / "1 cereal" that "age the brain faster than time" · Partly supported
What the research says. Frosted, honey-coated and chocolate cereals are mostly refined starch and added sugar, and many contain more sugar per serving than a biscuit. Diets high in refined carbohydrate and added sugar are associated with poorer cognitive scores and with the metabolic conditions that raise dementia risk. [3] [1] No study has found that any cereal "ages the brain faster than time." That phrase is ours and it is not defensible.
Honest verdict. Reading the sugar figure on the box is a sensible habit. Plain oats, plain wheat biscuits and unsweetened whole-grain cereals are inexpensive swaps.
The honest version of all our food headlines · Partly supported
What the research says. A large Brazilian cohort found that adults with the highest intake of ultra-processed foods showed faster decline in global cognition and executive function over roughly eight years than those who ate the least. [2] This is observational, the effect size was modest, and diet is tangled up with income, education and dozens of other factors.
Honest verdict. The pattern of your diet over years matters more than any single food. That is a duller message than "these 3 foods", which is exactly why our headlines do not say it.
Usually one of the "3 foods" · Partly supported
What the research says. High processed-meat intake is associated with cardiovascular disease and, in some cohorts, with higher dementia risk. Because what is bad for your blood vessels is generally bad for your brain, the cardiovascular link alone is reason enough to take it seriously.
Honest verdict. Worth moderating. Not an emergency, and not undone by any supplement or any bottle of herbs.
Usually one of the "3 foods" · Partly supported
What the research says. Frequent fried-food intake is associated in observational studies with poorer cognitive performance, largely through the same cardiovascular and inflammatory pathways.
Honest verdict. Same as above: pattern over years, not any one meal.
The refined-carbohydrate group · Partly supported
What the research says. Dietary patterns built on refined starch and added sugar score poorly on measures such as the MIND diet, which was associated with slower cognitive decline in older adults. [15] Swapping toward whole grains, leafy greens, berries, beans, nuts, olive oil and fish is the version of "eat this, not that" with actual research behind it. Berries, leafy greens, beans, nuts, olive oil and fish are ordinary groceries in that pattern; eating them is free and untroubled by any of the cautions below.
Honest verdict. The useful advice was never "stop eating these 3 foods." It is "shift the overall pattern," which takes months and cannot be sold in a headline.
Drink less alcohol. Drink less sugar. Keep your coffee, earlier in the day if it costs you sleep. Eat more like the MIND or Mediterranean pattern (vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, olive oil, fish, berries) and less like a vending machine. Every one of those changes is free, and none of them requires anything we sell.
Do not stop, reduce or skip any prescribed medicine because of this page. Some of the drugs below cause seizures, severe rebound anxiety or dangerous withdrawal if stopped abruptly. Others are treating a condition that will come back, sometimes worse, if the medicine is dropped.
The right action is simple and safe: put every medicine, vitamin and over-the-counter product you take into one bag or one list, and take it to your doctor or pharmacist. Ask specifically: "Is anything on this list a poor choice at my age, and is there a safer alternative?" That review is often free, takes fifteen minutes, and is far more valuable than anything on this page.
Our headline said "5 popular prescriptions now tied to memory decline." It named none of them. These are the drug classes that research has actually flagged. "Tied to" means associated in observational studies, not proven to cause.
Older sedating allergy and sleep aids, including many "PM" formulas · diphenhydramine, chlorpheniramine
A prospective cohort study found that higher cumulative use of strong anticholinergic drugs was associated with an increased risk of dementia. [10] A later large case-control study reported similar findings across several anticholinergic classes. [11] Note that many of these are bought without a prescription, in products sold for sleep, and the 2023 Beers Criteria list first-generation antihistamines among the medicines older adults are generally best avoiding. [12]
Prescribed for overactive bladder · oxybutynin and relatives
Included in the same anticholinergic-burden research above. [10] [11] Alternatives with a lower anticholinergic burden exist for some people, which is a conversation to have with the prescriber.
Anxiety and sleep · diazepam, lorazepam, alprazolam, clonazepam
Associated with confusion, falls and impaired memory in older adults, and listed in the American Geriatrics Society Beers Criteria as generally best avoided in this age group. [12] Whether they raise long-term dementia risk is genuinely disputed in the literature. These must never be stopped abruptly: abrupt withdrawal can cause seizures.
zolpidem, zopiclone, eszopiclone
Also flagged in the Beers Criteria for older adults because of confusion, night-time falls and next-day impairment. [12]
amitriptyline and relatives; ongoing opioid pain treatment
Tricyclics carry a high anticholinergic burden. [10] [11] Long-term opioids are associated with confusion and falls in older adults. [12] Both are often prescribed for good reasons, and both deserve a periodic "is this still the best option for me?" review rather than a unilateral stop.
What this section is not. It is not a claim that these medicines cause dementia, not medical advice, and not a suggestion that a choline capsule with three herbs is an alternative to any of them. It is a prompt to have one specific conversation with a professional who knows your history. Two things in the capsules we sell deserve a mention in that conversation of their own accord: ginkgo, which is worth naming if you take anything that affects clotting, and a gram of a choline salt, worth naming if a doctor is watching your diet. One more reason to have that conversation before you make it a daily habit.
Several of our headlines invite you to test yourself on words or phrases: spell these three words, pronounce these three phrases, see whether you say these seven phrases. There is no such validated test, and we cannot give you a real one, because a real one does not work that way.
What actual cognitive screening looks like. Clinicians use short structured tools. The Mini-Cog, the MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment) and the MMSE are the common ones. They do include word tasks: recalling three unrelated words after a delay, naming animals, repeating a sentence. But three things make them different from an online quiz:
Screening tools also produce false alarms. Anxiety, poor sleep, hearing loss, depression, pain and simply being nervous all lower scores in people whose brains are fine. This is precisely why an online word quiz is meaningless: it has none of the context that makes the real instrument useful.
We are sorry. Take it as a prompt rather than a verdict: if the worry is real, bring it to your doctor and ask for a proper cognitive assessment. If it was just a startling headline, the reassurance you are looking for cannot come from a quiz on an advertising page, including this one.
The genuinely useful list is not about spelling. It is about whether memory or thinking has changed enough to interfere with everyday life. Signs that deserve a medical appointment include:
Ordinary ageing looks different: occasionally forgetting a name and recalling it later, misplacing your glasses and finding them, needing help with an unfamiliar device, taking a moment to find a word, rereading a paragraph after lunch and getting it on the second pass. That is normal and common at every age.
Before anyone concludes anything about dementia, a good clinician rules out conditions that cause memory and thinking problems and can improve when treated:
None of these are found by a bottle of choline capsules, a food list, or an online quiz. They are found by a doctor with a blood test and fifteen minutes of your history.
United States. The Alzheimer's Association operates a free, confidential 24/7 helpline at 800-272-3900, staffed by specialists who can talk through symptoms, next steps and local resources. They sell nothing.
Anywhere. Your regular doctor is the right first call. If someone is in immediate danger or crisis, use your local emergency number.
If we only had one section to be useful in, this would be it. The 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission on dementia concluded that nearly half of dementia cases worldwide, around 45%, could potentially be prevented or delayed by addressing fourteen modifiable risk factors across the life course. [3] Not one of them is a supplement, a liquid extract, or a list of three foods.
These are unglamorous. They cannot be delivered in a headline, they take years, and none of them can be sold to you by us. They are also, by a wide margin, the best-supported things on this entire page.
What each of the ingredients printed on the label of BioYouth Labs NeuroGro is, what it is traditionally used for, and what the cited research says. The panel prints an amount for every line, per two capsules: choline as dl-choline bitartrate 1,000 milligrams, bacopa extract standardized to 50 percent bacosides 150 milligrams, lemon balm powder 120 milligrams and ginkgo leaf powder 60 milligrams, in a vegetable capsule with brown rice flour and magnesium stearate, and no caffeine. The label counts the choline line as 180 percent of the Daily Value; as the bitartrate salt it is about 410 milligrams of choline, roughly 75 percent. Where a study is cited below, it used one ingredient at a time, in a measured dose; none of it tested these capsules. Read the statement at the end of this section before you buy anything.
An essential nutrient that is not strictly a vitamin. The body uses it to make acetylcholine, a messenger chemical involved in muscle control, memory and many other nerve functions, and phosphatidylcholine, a building block of every cell membrane. Eggs, meat, poultry, fish, cruciferous vegetables, peanuts and dairy are the main food sources. Vitacholine is a branded choline bitartrate, the common supplement salt.
What the research says. In a dementia-free community cohort of 1,391 adults aged 36 to 83, higher choline intake from food was associated with better scores on verbal and visual memory tests.[6] That is an association with diet, not a trial of a supplement, and it does not show that adding choline improves memory.
Amount per serving in NeuroGro™. 1,000 mg (the label counts it as 180 % of the Daily Value; as the bitartrate salt it is about 410 mg of choline, roughly 75 %)
Good to know. The upper limit for adults is 3,500 mg a day; very large intakes have been associated with low blood pressure, sweating, a fishy body odour and stomach upset. The amount here is far below that. Talk to your doctor before use if you are under a doctor's care.
A creeping perennial of wet ground and pond edges across India, with small oblong leaves and white to pale purple flowers. In some parts of India the name "brahmi" is also given to gotu kola, which is a different plant; some products list both.
Traditional and everyday use. One of the best-known plants of Ayurvedic practice, traditionally associated with memory, calm and sleep.
What the research says. This is the one ingredient on the tin with trials in the right age group. In 54 healthy adults aged 65 and older, 300 mg a day of a standardized extract for 12 weeks was associated with better delayed word recall and better performance on a task of ignoring distractions than placebo, with no effect on divided attention or working memory.[7] In 98 healthy adults over 55, the same daily amount for 12 weeks was associated with better verbal learning and delayed recall, while other measures did not differ.[16] A meta-analysis of nine such trials found faster performance on two attention-speed tests, by milliseconds, and called for a large well-designed trial.[17] All of that used standardized extracts in tablets for at least three months. A pinch of dried plant steeped in a twelve-ingredient tea blend, or a fraction of a milligram of glycosides in a spray, is not the same thing, and nobody has tested either.
Amount per serving in NeuroGro™. 150 mg (half the 300 mg a day of the trials in adults over 55)
Good to know. The trials reported more stomach upset, looser stools, cramps and nausea than placebo.[16] Reference texts advise caution or avoidance in people with a thyroid condition or taking thyroid hormone, note it may slow the heart rate, and note it can affect how the liver processes some medicines. Talk to your doctor before taking it daily if you take anything daily.
A lemon-scented member of the mint family, native to southern Europe and grown in herb gardens everywhere; the leaves are used for tea and to flavor food.
Traditional and everyday use. Used in European herbal tradition since antiquity as a calming tea and for digestion; part of many 'melissa' preparations.
What the research says. In a placebo-controlled crossover study of 20 healthy young adults, single doses of a standardized lemon balm extract were associated with better accuracy of attention after 600 mg, but with lower scores on secondary and working memory at some doses and times, and with reduced self-rated alertness after 900 mg.[8] No trial in healthy older adults was found in our search. Nootropic Focus lists organic lemon balm inside an 800 mg blend with spearmint, without a split.
Amount per serving in NeuroGro™. 120 mg (the single-dose study used 600 mg of a standardized extract, with mixed results)
Good to know. Generally regarded as safe as a food and tea. Because it is traditionally used as a mild sedative, it may add to the effect of other sedating substances; ask a pharmacist if you take daily medicine.
Pieces of the fan-shaped leaf of the ginkgo tree, a species so ancient it is called a living fossil, planted along city streets across the world. Here it is the dried leaf in a tea blend, a different thing from the standardized leaf extract sold in capsules and from the homeopathic dilution found in some sprays. The front of this tin prints it as "Ginko Biloba".
Traditional and everyday use. Ginkgo leaf extract has been sold as a "memory herb" for decades; the dried leaf is also brewed as a tea.
What the research says. In the largest trial to date, 3,069 adults aged 72 to 96 took 120 mg of a standardized extract twice a day for a median of 6.1 years and declined at the same rate as the placebo group in memory, attention, language and every other domain measured.[9] The National Institutes of Health states there is no conclusive evidence that ginkgo is helpful for any health condition.[18] A pinch of dried leaf in a teaspoon of blend is far less than the 240 mg of extract a day that failed that trial.
Amount per serving in NeuroGro™. 60 mg (leaf powder, not the standardized extract; the six-year trial used 240 mg of extract and found nothing)
Good to know. Ginkgo may increase the risk of bleeding in people who take anything that thins the blood; fresh ginkgo seeds are toxic. Talk to your doctor before use if you are under a doctor's care or due for an operation.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This information does not constitute medical advice and it should not be relied upon as such. This product is not a substitute for medication or other treatment prescribed by a physician or health care provider. Consult your doctor before starting any dietary supplement.
Set against the headlines that brought you here, this is the complete and honest position.
Things we cannot promise, and that nobody selling you a supplement can:
Things we can say honestly:
No. Those attributions are advertising language. No named or identifiable expert made those statements, and none has endorsed this product.
Ordinary coffee is not an established risk factor for cognitive decline, and reviews generally find neutral to modestly favourable associations. Our "Coffee Tops The List" headline overstated it. What is worth watching is added sugar in coffee drinks, and caffeine late enough in the day to spoil your sleep. That last point is the only reason our article suggests no coffee after two.
Not on your own, and not because of an advertisement. Some of these drugs cause seizures or severe rebound symptoms if stopped abruptly. Take your full medication list to your doctor or pharmacist and ask whether anything on it is a poor fit for your age. See section 4.
No. It is not a treatment for any disease. If you or a family member is facing a diagnosis, the people to talk to are your doctor and a support organisation such as the Alzheimer's Association helpline listed above.
Because the label counts the 1,000 milligrams as if it were pure choline, and the same line says the choline comes "as dl-choline bitartrate," a salt that is about 41 percent choline by weight. One of the two readings is right, and the label does not say which; we take the chemistry's. The same label carries the statement that its claims have not been evaluated by the FDA and that the product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
None of the three. A choline salt and three herbs in a vegetable capsule, taken with water before meals.
The bacopa comes closest: 150 milligrams of a 50 percent extract, the right form at half the 300 milligrams of the trials in people over 55. The choline is a real nutrient at about three quarters of a day's need, with a dietary cohort behind it and no trial of the salt. Lemon balm is at a fifth of a mixed single-dose study, and ginkgo leaf is at a quarter of a six-year trial that found nothing. The article goes through them one at a time.
Because one of our headlines pointed at "5 prescriptions", and you deserve to know what was behind it. Nothing in section 4 is advice to change a medicine, and the product is not an alternative to any of them.
A fair question. Do not take our word for it. The references below are real, published sources you can look up yourself, and nothing in sections 5, 6 and 7 requires you to buy anything or trust us. If this page and our headlines disagree, believe this page.
No. It is free, there is nothing to sign up for, and you are welcome to read it, close the tab and never come back.
Yes, and you should. Every numbered reference below can be found by searching its title. For general information, the National Institute on Aging (nia.nih.gov) and the Alzheimer's Association (alz.org) publish plain-language material and sell nothing.
These are the sources behind the claims marked with a number above. Most are observational studies, which can show association but not cause; the bacopa trials were twelve weeks in people over 55, the lemon balm study was a single dose in twenty young adults, the ginkgo trial was six years in 3,069 older adults and found nothing, and the Daily Value is a labelling figure, not a trial. We have deliberately not cited anything for the claims we describe as exaggerated, because there is nothing to cite.
Citing a study does not mean the study is about this product. None of the research above tested BioYouth Labs NeuroGro, and none of it supports it.
This site is an advertising publication. Second Half Living is not a news organisation, is not affiliated with any news outlet whose page our advertisements appear on, and is not affiliated with the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer's Association, The Lancet, the Nobel Foundation, the European Medicines Agency, or any medical body, university or government agency named on this page. Logos and names of publishers appear in our reporting dashboards only to describe where advertisements were placed; they imply no endorsement whatsoever.
Headlines used in our advertising are promotional and may be dramatised, generalised or exaggerated for attention. Where a headline conflicts with this page, this page is correct. Individual results, testimonials and endorsements do not represent typical results. We are compensated when readers purchase products through our links.
Medical disclaimer. Nothing on this page is medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Do not delay seeking professional advice, and do not stop or change any prescribed medicine, because of anything you read here. If you are worried about memory, thinking or mood, your own or a family member's, speak to a qualified healthcare professional. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.