Everything you need to know about Brainberry® and brain health
We constantly use the brain to make decisions, to coordinate our movements, to focus and to memorize thousands of things. For this reason it is of utmost importance to make sure our brain is healthy. Every day we learn more about the brain and about how important it is to support our brain’s health. In this article, we will discuss what brain health is, why it is important, and how an ingredient like Brainberry® can help you support it.
What is brain health and why is it important?
The brain is a massive network of neurons, that accounts for 2% of our body weight. It is a very active organ that makes a ton of decisions on a daily basis, and despite its weight, it uses up to 20% of our total oxygen per day!
Other than oxygen, the brain needs a lot of nutrients to keep processes running, even when we are not awake. These nutrients are important to keep the brain healthy, meaning that it can function across cognitive, sensory, social, and motor domains. A healthy brain allows a person to live life to its fullest potential, which is why it’s important to keep your brain healthy.
How can you support brain health?
There are plenty of ways to keep your brain healthy. It has been shown that regular exercise is beneficial, but also that enough sleep is good for keeping a healthy brain. Both staying socially involved and staying mentally active are also good for brain health and have been shown to ward off depression and stress.
Another way to support your brain health is by improving your gut health. The bidirectional communication system between your gut and brain is called the gut-brain axis and research has shown that gut bacteria and their metabolites affect brain health.
Moreover, your diet plays an enormous role in brain health. The Mediterranean diet is seen as supportive of a well-functioning brain because it includes a wide variety of nutrient-providing foods. Examples of these are seafood, fruits, vegetables, and olives.
Also supplementing with specific compounds can be a useful approach to support brain health. Berry anthocyanins are an example of specific compounds that can exhibit a beneficial effect on brain health and function.
More specifically, Aronia Melanocarpa berries, rich in anthocyanins, have been shown to provide health benefits on immune health, cardiovascular function, and brain health due to their antioxidant properties.
What are Aronia Melanocarpa berries?
Aronia berries are little dark fruits that belong to the Rosaceae Family. They are native to North America but are mostly grown in the Baltic region of Europe, where it was introduced in the first half of the 20th century.
As the locations where the plant is cultivated suggest, the Aronia plant is a low-demanding plant and thrives in harsher and colder regions.
What are the health benefits of Aronia berries?
Aronia berries have a lot of health benefits. They contain high levels of vitamin C, but the main reason they are healthy is due to their high level of polyphenols, anthocyanins and proanthocyanins, which are all types of antioxidants. In fact, they contain one of the highest levels of antioxidants among all berries.
The main reason antioxidants are considered to be healthy is because they can help to prevent free radicals from damaging the body’s cells. The health benefits of Aronia berries include strengthening the immune system, improving cardiovascular health, and improving brain health. For this function, they are considered a superfruit (1, 2).
Among the anthocyanins in Aronia berries is the phytocompound cyanidin-3-O-galactoside, which is a key molecule for brain health.
What is Cyanidin-3-O-Galactoside?
Several health benefits of Cy3Gal, also known as Idaein, have been researched in humans due to its excellent antioxidant capacity as well as anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic properties (3). However, the brain health benefits might be the most interesting aspect of Cy3Gal.
Cy3Gal is a water-soluble molecule, which can cross the blood-brain barrier. Consequently, it can exert a health benefit on several brain regions, including the cortex, cerebellum, and hippocampus.
What brain health benefits are associated with Cyanidin-3-O-galatoside?
Cy3Gal can cross the blood-brain barrier, which allows it to impact brain health in multiple regions of the brain. Firstly, in the hippocampus, Cy3Gal can lower the activity of acetylcholine esterase. As a result, acetylcholine is broken down at a slower rate, resulting in higher levels of this neurotransmitter. This leads to improved neuronal signaling.
In mice, Cy3Gal has been shown to relieve neuronal damage in the hippocampus and cortex and there is evidence that Cy3Gal may improve cognitive function (3, 4).
One of the most interesting effects of Cy3Gal is that it can increase the activity of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which has many beneficial effects.
What is brain-derived neurotrophic factor?
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein highly expressed in the central nervous system and especially in the brain. It promotes the growth of neurons, more specifically the dendrites and dendritic spines. This supports the hippocampus, a brain region good for learning and long-term memory. BDNF is also involved in repairing brain damage.
An ideal ingredient to target brain health is the Aronia Melanocarpa extract Brainberry®.
What is Brainberry®?
Brainberry® is an Aronia Melanocarpa extract that is standardized for high levels of Cy3Gal. It is designed to enhance cognitive performance and brain fitness and it has been clinically tested in multiple studies.
Brainberry® contains high levels of Cy3Gal, which makes it an interesting ingredient for brain health formulations to target benefits mentioned before. Even more so, because Brainberry® has been clinically tested in several studies that are further described in its White Paper.
It has been shown that Brainberry® has beneficial effects on cognitive performance, such as attention and psychomotor speed, executive function, and memory. Moreover, effects on vascular function and cardiometabolic risk markers were investigated.
Provided its health benefits, Brainberry® is an interesting ingredient for a wide variety of consumers, such as athletes, gamers and students.
How can Brainberry® support athletes?
Power, endurance and focus are important during sports. Increasing psychomotor speed and hand-eye coordination is an important goal for many athletes. For this reason, there is a diverse collection of products focused on increasing these parameters.
Pre-workout formulas are an example of this. These products are consumed by athletes from all disciplines briefly prior to their workout or training. The goal of consuming these types of formulas is to enhance acute exercise performance (5). Brainberry® can increase focus, psychomotor speed and mental flexibility, which is why it is a good ingredient for a pre-workout formula.
Additionally, Brainberry® has been demonstrated to significantly enhance cognitive performance in 35 professional basketball players. It also improved basketball-specific skills like shooting, rebounding, and dribbling.
How can Brainberry® help gamers?
Gaming requires many skills, such as visual-spatial skills that allow you to analyze, recognize, and rapidly respond to changes on the screen. Besides, gaming sessions can last for hours, which means enhanced attention and focus are crucial.
Brainberry®’s high levels of Cy3Gal, which improves focus and psychomotor control, make it a relevant ingredient for gaming supplements.
This is further supported by a consumer study done with Brainberry® in young, healthy e-gamers. In this study, Brainberry® significantly improved relevant measures for gaming performance, such as hand-eye coordination, focus, reaction time and energy.
How could students benefit from Brainberry®?
There is a lot of pressure on students to perform well during their studies while also being involved in a social environment. They study for entire days, especially during exam periods.
Coffee seems to be a common good for students in these periods, but did you know there are quite some substitutes for coffee that don’t have the downsides of causing stress, anxiety and sometimes sleeping problems?
Brainberry® could be an interesting solution for students who want to stay focused on their studies but don’t want the well-known caffeine rush later followed by a crash in energy levels.
That’s because Cy3Gal, the hero component of Brainberry®, is a powerful antioxidant that supports brain function and focus, without the sometimes-troublesome side effects of caffeine.
Other benefits of Brainberry®
Except for being clinically proven to enhance psychomotor speed, focus and attention, Brainberry® has other benefits as well. It is 100% natural as it is extracted from high-quality Aronia berries from the Baltics.
The dosage of Brainberry® is very low at 65 mg and it does not contain any stimulants that are usually associated with undesired side effects. This makes Brainberry® a healthier option compared to many stimulants.
The bioavailability of Cy3Gal is very high, which means it is rapidly absorbed by the body. Also, Brainberry® is easy to formulate thanks to its excellent solubility and pleasant taste.
Lastly, there are many environmental benefits of Aronia Melanocarpa. The Aronia plant helps keep bees healthy and happy, consumes little water and is naturally organic.
Learn more about Brainberry®
If you are curious to know more about Brainberry®, you can check out the product page of Brainberry® or its website.
