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   Phosphatidylserine   
      
      
   En Español (Spanish Version)   
   Principal Proposed Uses     
   Age-related Memory Loss; Alzheimer's Disease   
   Other Proposed Uses     
   Depression; Enhancing Mental Function in Young People; Sports and Fitness   
   Support: Enhancing Performance; Sports and Fitness Support: Enhancing   
   Recovery; Stress   
   Page Navigation   
      
   SourcesTherapeutic DosagesTherapeutic UsesWhat Is the Scientific Evidence for   
   Phosphatidylserine?Safety IssuesInteractions You Should Know About   
   Phosphatidylserine, or PS for short, is a member of a class of chemical   
   compounds known as phospholipids. PS is an essential component in all our   
   cells; specifically, it is a major component of the cell membrane. The cell   
   membrane is a kind of "skin"    
   that surrounds living cells. Besides keeping cells intact, this membrane   
   performs vital functions such as moving nutrients into cells and pumping waste   
   products out of them. PS plays an important role in many of these functions.   
      
   Good evidence suggests that PS can help declining mental function and   
   depression in the elderly, and it is widely used for this purpose in Italy,   
   Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe. PS has also been marketed as a "brain   
   booster" for people of all    
   ages, said to sharpen memory and increase thinking ability. However, the   
   evidence to support this use is incomplete and inconsistent.   
      
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   Sources     
      
   Your body makes all the PS it needs. However, the only way to get a   
   therapeutic dosage of PS is to take a supplement.   
      
   PS was originally manufactured from the brains of cows, and all the studies   
   described here used this form. However, because animal brain cells can harbor   
   viruses, that form is no longer available. Most PS today is made from soybeans   
   or other plant    
   sources.   
      
   There are reasons to expect that plant-source PS should function very   
   similarly to PS made from cows' brains, and some animal studies suggest that   
   it is indeed effective. 1-5,43-45 However, in preliminary trials, soy-based PS   
   and cabbage-based PS failed    
   to prove beneficial. 7,47   
      
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   Therapeutic Dosages     
      
   For the purpose of improving mental function, PS is usually taken in dosages   
   of 100 mg two to three times daily. After maximum effect is achieved, the   
   dosage can reportedly be reduced to 100 mg daily without losing benefit. PS   
   can be taken with or    
   without meals.   
      
   When taking PS for sports purposes, athletes sometimes take as much as 800 mg   
   daily.   
      
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   Therapeutic Uses     
      
   Meaningful evidence from numerous double-blind studies suggests that   
   animal-source PS is an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease and other   
   forms of age-related mental decline. 8-17 Vegetable-derived PS has little   
   supporting evidence.   
      
   PS is widely marketed as a treatment for ordinary age-related memory loss as   
   well. While there is little direct evidence that it works, in studies of   
   severe mental decline, PS appears to have been equally effective whether the   
   cause was Alzheimer's    
   disease or something entirely unrelated, such as multiple small strokes. This   
   certainly suggests that PS may have a positive impact on the brain that is not   
   specific to any one condition. From this observation, it is not a great leap   
   to suspect that it    
   might be useful for much less severe problems with memory and mental function,   
   such as those that seem to occur in nearly all of us who are older than 40.   
   Indeed, double-blind studies have found that phosphatidylserine could improve   
   mental function in    
   people with age-related memory loss. 18,53 However, two studies failed to find   
   plant-source PS effective for this condition. 7,47 PS has also been proposed   
   for enhancing mental function in young people, but there is no direct evidence   
   at all that any    
   form is effective.   
      
   Animal-source PS has also shown a slight bit of promise for depression . 19,20   
      
   Recently, PS has become popular among athletes who hope it can help them build   
   muscle more efficiently. This use is based on weak evidence that PS slows the   
   release of cortisol following heavy exercise. 21-23 Cortisol is a hormone that   
   causes muscle    
   tissue to break down. For reasons that are unclear, the body produces   
   increased levels of cortisol after heavy exercise. Strength athletes believe   
   that this natural cortisol release works against their efforts to rapidly   
   build muscle mass and hope that    
   PS will help them advance more quickly. However, only two double-blind   
   placebo-controlled studies of PS as a sports supplement have been reported,   
   and neither one found effects on cortisol levels. 48-49 Of these small trials,   
   one found a possible    
   ergogenic benefit, and the other did not.   
      
   Interestingly, PS has also been advocated as an aid to recovery from heavy   
   exercise , according to the theory that use of PS would help reduce muscle   
   soreness. This would seem to contradict the proposed effects on cortisol, as   
   cortisol has anti-   
   inflammatory properties. Nonetheless, researchers performed a double-blind   
   study to evaluate whether 750 mg daily of soy-source PS would reduce muscle   
   soreness following downhill racing; no benefits were seen. 51   
      
   One study found preliminary evidence that a combination of soy-based PS and   
   lecithin may moderate the body's reaction to mental stress . 50 Another study   
   evaluated use of phosphatidylserine for reducing stress in golfers, but the   
   benefits seen failed to    
   reach statistical significance . 52 Participants who were given    
   hosphatidylserine did, however, tee-off successfully at a greater rate than   
   those given placebo.   
      
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   What Is the Scientific Evidence for Phosphatidylserine?     
      
   Alzheimer's Disease and Other Forms of Dementia     
      
   Overall, the evidence for animal-source PS in dementia is fairly strong.   
   Double-blind studies involving a total of more than 1,000 people suggest that   
   phosphatidylserine is an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease and other   
   forms of dementia.   
      
   The largest of these studies followed 494 elderly subjects in northeastern   
   Italy over a course of 6 months. 24 All suffered from moderate to severe   
   mental decline, as measured by standard tests. Treatment consisted of either   
   300 mg daily of PS or placebo    
   . The group that took PS did significantly better in both behavior and mental   
   function than the placebo group. Symptoms of depression also improved.   
      
      
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