Japanese (日本語) | Site Map

Improving Brain Function

Clinical research showed that Enzogenol may improve brain activities and cognitive performance in cognitive tests that are predictive of loss of cognitive function with age.

The effects of Enzogenol on cognitive performance and brain neurological function was studied in a clinical trial:

Study 4. Double-blind, controlled study of the effects of Enzogenol on neurological cognitive function

This study was carried out by Dr. Andrew Pipingas and Prof. Richard Silberstein at the Brain Sciences Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. In this trial 42 male participants, 50-65 years of age, were assigned to treatment and control groups. The 22 treatment subjects received 960 mg of Enzogenol + 120 mg Vitamin C per day for 5 weeks. The control subjects received 120 mg Vitamin C only. This fourth formal clinical study once again confirmed the excellent safety profile and tolerability of Enzogenol at high dosage levels. The data indicated that taking Enzogenol was associated with significant beneficial effects for brain function shown below.
Participants were tested with computer-based tasks to assess cognitive functions that involve short to medium term memory, concentration ability and decision making. These are typical cognitive abilities that normally decline when people age.

Improvements in Spatial Working Memory and Recognition MemoryShown here is the effect of Enzogenol + Vitamin C supplementation on cognitive performance on two independent memory tasks controlled against Vitamin C only supplementation (n=42). On computer-based tasks designed to test the working memory of participants the Enzogenol group showed significant improvements in performance in form of faster reaction times after 5 weeks of supplementation over the vitamin C control group (p<0.05). Working memory is the combination of memory and decision making functions in the brain. This is the first clinical study showing improved working memory performance through dietary supplementation with a pine bark extract (Pipingas A et al., 2008).

The clinical significance of these results can be better understood by comparing the improvements seen with Enzogenol to the normal age related decline in cognitive performance. Shown to the right is the decline of performance with age on the immediate recognition memory task. This is the same task as shown in white in the figure above. Given the average decline in performance on the IRM task for a normal healthy population as shown to the right, an improvement of 60 ms as seen with the Enzogenol is actually equivalent to 12 years of recovered loss in brain function. With other words, the participants in this study were performing on average like people 12 years their junior.

Improved Brain activityIn this study it was also investigated how Enzogenol + Vitamin C supplementation may affect brain electrical activities and interactions between brain regions. The analyses showed that Enzogenol supplementation caused unique changes in brain electrical activities in particular phases of the memory tasks that were not seen in the vitamin C control group. These changes in brain activity correlated with accuracy of performance on the tasks suggesting that the changes indicate enhanced cognitive processing in the Enzogenol group. (Pipingas A et al. publication in preparation).





These findings demonstrated how Enzogenol may improve response times on cognitive tests and change people’s brain electrical activities associated with improved concentration and cognition. These benefits for brain function make Enzogenol a health product with great relevance to everyone concerned about their cognitive performance from young students under study stress to older people at risk of cognitive decline.
Copyright ENZO Nutraceuticals Limited