Dietary Supplements Improve Cognitive Function - Research Paper Example

Dietary Supplements Improve Cognitive Function Introduction Cognition refers to the abilities of learning, perceiving and reasoning. The cognitive ability of all the individuals decline along with the passage of age. In most of the cases the decline of the cognitive ability badly affects the memory of the people and often attention and visual spatial abilities of the people are also affected by cognition ability decline (Irwin, p1260). The decline of the cognitive abilities badly affects the social, personal and professional lives of the people because along with time they became unable to perform certain task in adequate manner. It is not possible to avoid the impairment of cognitive skills along with age and the cognitive impairment appears to be inevitable as the people climb towards the elderly phase of their lives. The decline of the cognitive abilities varies from people to people and there are certain factors that play role in determining the pace of cognitive ability decline like the educational level, professional engagements, health conditions, life styles and standard, personality attributes and cognitive style. These factors determine the cognitive abilities impairment. There are certain other important factors that have the capabilities to maintain the cognition abilities and skills despite aging. For instance, the absence of diseases that could result in autonomy lost, maintaining the cognitive and physical abilities, taking regular and adequate sleep, healthy diet patterns, taking too much worries and mental tension and avoidance of smoking and drinking in excessive manner. Along with these factors there is another important source of maintaining and improving the cognitive abilities. This source is the intake of dietary supplements because it has been provided by several research studies that the appropriate use of certain nutritional diet supplements could lead towards cognitive abilities improvement (Vermeer et al, p21). The nutrition and human brain development experts commonly agreed upon the fact that the herbs and vitamins based diet supplements could support the brain functions resulting in the improvement of the cognitive abilities. Moreover, these diet supplements also help in minimizing the pace and possibilities of cognition decline that is obvious among the people along with aging (Irwin, p1260). There are wide ranges of dietary supplements that could help in the maintenance and improvement of the cognitive abilities. For instance, there are dozens of herbal and nutrients available in the market place of today that could help the humans in combating with the problems of cognitive impairment, cognitive decline or cognitive disorders. The dietary supplements work for the circulation of blood in brain by proving natural brain chemicals. Consequently, the brain functions are affected by getting the natural brain chemicals and the person become able to improve his cognitive abilities. The paper is based upon the objective of exploring the issues and facts related with the role of dietary supplements in improving cognitive ability. The paper argues that the natural herbal and nutritious dietary supplements have the capability of fighting against the cognitive abilities decline however, the people must be well informed about the selection and use of the dietary supplements so that it could be assured that the human health will not be badly affected from nay harmful consequences of using the dietary products and the well informed people could decide the intake of the dietary supplements for expecting the improvement in their cognitive abilities. Critical Issues The issue of cognitive ability improvement possesses great importance for the human being because the cognitive ability could increase the vocabulary of the people and reduces the possibilities of memory and attention lost. It is very important to explore the issue in details because it affects the everyday lives and lifestyles of the human being at large. When the cognitive skills of the people are decline all of their life functions and activities are also declined and they became unable to perform their routine activities and work responsibilities due to memory lost and other cognition problems (Vermeer et al, p21). The role of diet supplements in preventing cognition lost and the improvement of cognition skills possesses great importance for the human beings because through these supplements they could be able to continue their life functions and role despite aging and could play constructive and positive role in the society and their personal and professional lives. However, if people will neglect the important of taking dietary supplements during the younger ages they will be at high risk of cognition lost in their later phases of the life (Wood, p132). People often remain unaware of the importance of the dietary supplements due to which they don’t give it first priority to make the dietary supplements an essential part of their daily intake. As a result, people will cognition impairment in the elderly lives increase in the country and the entire nation has to witness the presence of a generation with reduced cognition skills. There are several research studies emphasizing upon the issue that people must be well aware of the high nutritious value of the dietary supplements could that they could be able to determine the role and contribution of these supplements in their diets. Well informed and aware people would be in better position to find out what dietary supplements should they take for reducing the risks of cognition disorders and lost. The healthcare professionals also have an important role to play in the situation as they have the responsibility of convincing people towards the regular use of the diet supplements. In this way they could save the upcoming generations from the cognition disorders and lost. Hence, it is very important that the benefits and role of dietary supplements in improving the cognition must be known to the people so that they can take the well informed decision of taking the dietary supplements on regular basis (Whalley, p1657). Literature Review The literature surrounding the topic of cognitive abilities has unveiled certain important facts about dietary supplements effects. The experts widely agree that the intake of natural herbs and vitamins could significantly improve the cognitive ability and impairment and the dietary supplements could be regarded as a supportive mean of cognitive ability impairment and improvement. The social scientists have explored the issue in detailed from many perspective and the effects of different type of dietary supplements upon the human brain functioning have been explained in details in the light of extensive research studies conducted by the health and nutrition experts from time to time (Coutts, p176). The health and nutrition experts have explored the effects of diet supplements upon the functioning of human brain in detailed manner and it has been unveiled by most of the research studies that the benefits of herbal and nutritional diet supplements could not be over looked in maintaining and retaining the cognitive skills. For instance, it has been unveiled that the low level of Vitamin D in the human body could result in decline of the cognitive abilities among the elderly population (Manuchair, p87). However, if these people successfully maintain the level of Vitamin D in their body by taking some diet supplements it could be expected that their cognitive skills would be improves and they would be able to perform their different routine activities and functions in adequate manner without facing the problems of memory and attention lost (Carla et al. p485). It has been unveiled in a research report published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that the regular use of the natural diet supplements could result in the improvement of the cognition skills. The diet supplements like fish oil containing the n-3 fatty acids during the life allows scoring high cognition skills as compared with those who didn’t use the fish oil regularly in their lives. This is because the IQ source from the fish oil supplements is very high and the seniors consuming fish oil are found more cognitively skilled as compared with other people of their age groups (Whalley, p1650). On the basis of the results of this research study, the diet experts widely recommend that people should make it habit to take diet supplements so that they could reduce the chances of losing their memories and other cogitation skills along with getting older and older (Nurk et al, p1470). Similarly, the diet supplements like green tea and other herbal product have the ability of slowing down the aging of the brain. The herbal supplements have also proved their significance in improving the memory, learning capabilities and cognition that generally decline in elderly. The herbal diet supplements are the power antioxidants having eh potential of increasing the blood flow to the brain due to which the functions of the brain are also improved and people using these supplements became able to defeat the aging effects. When the process of brain aging gets slow the person became able to prevent the memory lost, cognitive impairment, dementia and Alzheimer. It has been discovered that the daily intake of the green tea reduces the odds of cognitive impairment because its intake has been proved supportive in lowering the risks of decline of cognitive skills. There is numerous research studies conducted in order to find out the effects of different other types of diet supplements upon the human health especially upon the brain and the outcomes of these research studies clarify the significant role of dietary supplements in supporting the cognition skills and abilities (Vermeer et al, p21). Position on the topic The paper stands on the position that the people should be made well aware of the potential effects of the dietary supplements upon their cognition capabilities so that they could pay more attention towards regular intake of these supplements in their daily lives. The awareness and information about the role of dietary supplements in improving the cognitive skills could result in increased use of the diet supplements and eventually the entire population of the country would become able to perform in better way even after entering the elderly phase of their lives. The well informed population would be able to have strong cognition skills that will have very positive and strong impact upon the overall functioning of the society (Manuchair, p87). When the people will become well aware and well informed about the positive effects of diet supplements they will widely pay attention towards the regular use of these supplements in their daily routine. with the support of these supplements the people would be able to confront the issues of memory and attention lost and would be able to perform their responsibilities and duties as effectively as they do in their young ages however, for this it is very important that the people must know what dietary supplements could provide them benefits and what would be the patterns of using the dietary supplements in their daily life routines. Directions for Further Research The review of the existing literature around the topic has uncovered several important facts about the supportive role of the dietary supplements in improving the cognition abilities. There is great scope for research work in their area of study and better understanding of the issue would also be gained by having an insight to the personal experiences of the people who have used the dietary supplements in their lives and now witnessing improved cognitive abilities even in the elderly. The real life examples could act as great source of inspiration for the common people that they should also regularly use the dietary supplements so that they could also remain a useful and constructive part of the society regardless of their age. The research studies could also work for gathering the experiences of the people having problems in maintaining and improving their cognition skills in elderly because these examples could also provide lesson to other people that if they will neglect the use of dietary supplements they will also face the problems of memory and attention lost in the later phases of their lives. It would convince people towards the use of dietary supplements and ultimately it could be expected that the overall cognitive abilities of the people will be improved and the society would be benefited due to the presence of mentally fit and capable people performing different professional and social roles in adequate manners. References Carla Dullemeijer et al. “n–3 Fatty acid proportions in plasma and cognitive performance in older adults”, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 86, No. 5, 1479-1485, 2007 Coutts, RT. The Psychopharmacology of Herbal Medicine: Plant Drugs That Alter Mind, Brain and Behaviour. Spinella M. Cambridge (MA), the MIT Press, 2001 Irwin H Rosenberg. “Rethinking brain food”, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2007, Vol. 86, No. 5, pp1259-1260. Matthew Wood. The book of herbal wisdom: using plants as medicine. North Atlantic Books, 1997. Manuchair S. E. Pharmacodynamic basis of herbal medicine. NY: CRC/Taylor & Francis. Nurk E, Drevon CA, Refsum H, et al. “Cognitive performance among the elderly and dietary fish intake: the Hordaland Health Study”. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2007; 86: 1470–8 Vermeer SE, Koudstaal PJ, Oudkerk M, Hofman A, Breteler MM. “Prevalence and risk factors of silent brain infarcts in the population-based Rotterdam Scan Study”. Stroke, 2002; 33: 21–5 Whalley, L.J., Helen C Fox, Klaus W Wahle, John M Starr and Ian J Deary. “Cognitive aging, childhood intelligence, and the use of food supplements: possible involvement of n–3 fatty acids”, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 80, No. 6, pp1650-1657, 2004 Read More