Cautions:
Do not use if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have had a heart attack/myocardial infarction or have primary systemic L-carnitine deficiency or secondary L-carnitine deficiency (inborn errors of metabolism) for which supplementation is recommended/monitored by a health care practitioner. Consult a health care practitioner prior to use if you have celiac disease, fat malabsorption, vitamin A, D, or E deficiency, diabetes, if you have cardiovascular disease and are attempting to increase physical activity, have renal/kidney disease, are following a low protein diet or are taking blood thinners, digoxin, antidepressant medications, or medications for cardiovascular diseases or erectile dysfunction. Consult a health care practitioner if your cardiovascular condition worsens. Some people may experience gastrointestinal discomfort (such as diarrhea). Some people may experience insomnia, anxiety, or headaches, in which case, discontinue use. May cause nausea, dry mouth, fatigue, and hypersensitivity (allergy). Use with caution if you have allergies to members of the Scrophulariaceae (figwort) family. If you experience sweating, paleness, chills, headaches, dizziness and/or confusion, discontinue use and consult a health care practitioner as these may be symptoms of serious low blood sugar.

Ortho-Mind contains nutrients that support cerebral metabolism, microcirculation, neurotransmitter function, neural membrane structure, focus, mental energy, vigilance, and memory in dosages documented in controlled clinical studies in humans.To support optimal brain structure and function, a cognitive enhancement formula must:

• Facilitate the delivery of fuels to brain cells, in the form of oxygen and glucose.


• Support the clean, efficient burning of these fuels in the mitochondria (cellular "power plants").


• Protect the cells of the brain from the toxic insults, whether from without, or from within (in the form of the free radicals which are the byproducts of cellular energy production).


• Maintain or restore neural cell membrane phospholipids, crucial for cellular communication.


• Support optimal levels of key nerve cell messenger-molecules (neurotransmitters). OrthoMind is that formula.
  
  R-Lipoic Acid
  R-Lipoic Acid is a key mitochondrial metabolite, needed by these cellular "power plants" to drive nerve cell metabolism. R-Lipoic Acid is the natural, mitochondrial form of this critical orthomolecule - not to be confused with the artificial "racemic compound" sold as "lipoic acid" or "alpha-lipoic acid." R-Lipoic Acid improves the efficiency of mitochondrial function, while preventing the age-related increase in free radical production which is exacerbated when ALCAR is taken alone. R-Lipoic Acid has also been shown to reverse the buildup with age of iron in the brain of laboratory animals - a buildup associated with human neurological disorders. One open study supports the use of lipoic acid in Alzheimer's disease. The dose found in OrthoMind is there to "top up" the amount found in a core R-Lipoic Acid supplement used for general health and anti-aging goals.
  
  Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALCAR)
  Carnitine is an amino acid that helps shuttle fatty acids into the mitochondria to produce energy. ALCAR is an acetylated form of carnitine, which allows it to cross the blood-brain barrier more effectively. ALCAR has been found to slow the cognitive deterioration and improve mental function. In an early double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 130 patients clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease receiving ALCAR, a slower rate of deterioration was observed in 13 of 14 outcome measures at the end of the one-year study. These measures included intelligence, long-term verbal memory and selective attention. There is also research suggesting that N-acetyl levocarnitine enhances Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), a protein that stimulates the growth of nerve cells.
  
  Numerous controlled clinical trials attest to its use in a variety of cognitive disorders and in brain function in young, healthy adults. A study on 1.5g of ALCAR supplementation in young adult subjects aged 22-27 for 1 month found that test subjects had better reflexes than controls to an auditory stimulus, and test subjects also demonstrated 3-4 times greater efficiency in navigating a video-game maze than controls.
  
  ALCAR has also shown to be useful in improving energy and mental function in the healthy elderly, in chronic fatigue, and in stroke rehabilitation. ALCAR is best when combined with Lipoic Acid.
  
  Arginine Pyroglutamate
  L-Pyroglutamic Acid from L-Arginine-L-Pyroglutamic Acid, is the so-called "forgotten amino acid," and is the natural molecule behind the nootropic drugs, such as piracetam, oxiracetam, and pramiracetam: these drugs are chemically "tweaked" versions of L-Pyroglutamic Acid. No one quite understands how L-Pyroglutamic Acid or the nootropics work: they don't seem to significantly affect neurotransmitter levels, they don't bind to any known receptors, and their metabolism is extremely simple, nontoxic, and "clean."
  
  But however they work, the nootropics' ability to improve learning, memory consolidation, and retrieval in normal, healthy people has been well-established in clinical trials. Piracetam, which is the most widely-researched of these "smart drugs," has also been found effective in dyslexia, although results in Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease have been inconclusive. One of the most interesting effects reported with piracetam, and believed to be universal to the nootropics, is its ability to facilitate communication between the left (verbal/logical) and right (spatial/ mathematical/creative) hemispheres of the brain. Subjectively, many users report that L-Pyroglutamic Acid and the nootropics "wake up your brain," although the effect is quite distinct from that of stimulants such as caffeine.
  
  In one randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 40 men and women with age-associated memory impairment were first run through a series of memory tests, and then took either a supplement providing 1276 milligrams of L-Pyroglutamic Acid or a look-alike pill for sixty days. At the end of the study, people taking L-Pyroglutamic Acid experienced a 37.8% improvement in their ability to remember words after a twenty-minute pause; a 17% jump in immediate recall of categorized words; a corresponding 30% boost in recall of those same words after a delay; and a 50% lower rate of "false positives" (wrongly "recognizing" faces that they had never seen before). People getting the placebo experienced no improvements.
  
  Despite the sound of the name, L-Pyroglutamic Acid is not a potential "excitotoxin" like glutamate. Studies in laboratory animals have not only shown that feeding large doses of this nutrient to newborn mice are harmless, but that direct injection of L-Pyroglutamic Acid into the adult brain causes no negative effects. In fact, an animal experiment demonstrated that L-Pyroglutamic Acid actually protects the brain from glutamate excitotoxicity!
  
  Citicoline
  Citicoline (cytidine diphosphate choline) is not just a source of choline, the main building block of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Instead, Citicoline is a brain phospholipid booster. Phospholipids such as phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylserine (PS) are essential components of neural membranes, and their presence is needed for the normal responsiveness of the brain to neurotransmitter signals. Taking individual phospholipids, such as PS, forces more of the specific phospholipid that you're taking into the membranes of nerve and other cells. But it cannot restore the youthful balance of all brain phospholipids. By contrast, Citicoline enhances the brain's ability to synthesize its own phospholipids. As a result, studies in experimental animals show that Citicoline increases levels of all phospholipids in neural membranes - yet the normal, youthful proportions of the various phospholipids are not altered. Citicoline also increases the manufacture or release of key neurotransmitters, including acetylcholine, norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin.
  
  Controlled human studies prove that Citicoline provides effective nutritional support in a wide range of cognitive disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, stroke, dementia associated with Parkinson's disease, and head trauma. Double-blind, placebo-controlled trials have also shown that Citicoline significantly improves memory function in persons with "normal" age-related cognitive decline. These trials have used daily Citicoline doses of 300 milligrams and up.
  
  Bacopa monnieri
  Bacopa monnieri, an herb long revered in Ayurvedic tradition, has been used to "open the gateway of intelligence" in infants, and many of the studies documenting its cognitive-enhancing powers have been conducted in school children. Studies have also shown it to be helpful in relieving anxiety. The latest and best study on the brain-boosting powers of Bacopa has given the herb its strongest scientific endorsement yet. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 46 healthy men and women took a battery of neuropsychological tests before the trial began. Then, Australian scientists provided half of them a daily supplement containing 300 milligrams of standardized Bacopa extract, while the remaining 23 people took placebos.
  
  At the end of the twelve-week study, men and women supplementing with Bacopa showed significant improvements in cognitive function compared to the group taking the placebo pill, processing visual information 15% faster (as measured by the inspection time (IT) test), showing a 14% greater rate of learning - and a 33% lower rate of forgetting - verbal information, and a remarkable 108% better ability to consolidate new information without interference from previously-learned data (the problem of "proactive interference"). Few side effects were seen in the study, the most notable being increases in thirst and urination. Interestingly, in fact, the people taking Bacopa actually suffered fewer headaches than did those getting the dummy pills!
  
  Recently, studies have begun to give us some exciting clues about the potential long-term, neuroprotective effects of this Ayurvedic secret. A recent animal study revealed that Bacopa boosts the brain's production of the key protective antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT).
  
  Despite what you might hear, you can't boost levels of SOD or CAT by taking them as preformed supplements: even when taken sublingually, these enzymes are destroyed by other enzymes. One of the few things that can rev up the brain's production of these enzymes is the Parkinson's drug deprenyl (Eldepryl); this jump in SOD and CAT has been associated - in a series of remarkable experiments in mice, rats, hamsters, and dogs - with remarkable jumps in lifespan. In the most dramatic of these experiments, deprenyl actually extended the built-in maximum lifespan of lab rats by as much as 24% - a feat unprecedented by any other drug or nutrient.
  
  But the results of other studies show that the effect is inconsistent. The success or failure of deprenyl in extending life seems to be closely associated with whether the drug boosts CAT and SOD in these organisms under the conditions of a given study. So it's especially encouraging that the effects of Bacopa on these enzymes were shown to be even more broad-ranging than those of deprenyl, affecting a wider range of areas in the brain, and simultaneously boosting levels of the detoxifying glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) enzyme - an effect not seen with deprenyl.
  
  Panax ginseng
  Lastly, Panax ginseng is very well known for its cognitive boosting powers. For example, in one study including 97 Alzheimer's patients it was found that taking 4.5g of ginseng powder for 12 weeks significantly improved cognitive function in the patients. The improvement deteriorated after supplementation was stopped. Furthermore, the combination of Panax ginseng with ginkgo has been shown to be especially effective. In one study healthy middle-aged individuals were given 60mg of ginkgo along with 100mg of Panax ginseng for 14 weeks. The ginkgo/ginseng combination was found to significantly improve an Index of Memory Quality, supporting the results of previous studies. This effect represented an average improvement of 7.5% and reflected improvements to a number of different aspects of memory, including working and long-term memory.
  
  The Brain & Memory
  
  Although the brain and nervous system is somewhat protected from factors which can invade other body cells, its segregation also makes it prone to the build-up of toxins and other harmful agents. Because it contains a significant amount of fat, fat-soluble toxins like heavy metals, and environmental chemicals, like DDT, can concentrate in the brain leading to poor memory. Poor diet hampers memory because the brain is an extremely vital area that has high metabolic requirements.
  
  The brain uses only the sugar, glucose, for energy. Fluctuating blood sugar is not conducive to optimal brain functioning and memory. Fats, amino acids and vitamins must also be in abundant supply for nervous system functioning. The brain and nerve sheaths are made of fats that are deficient in the standard North American diet. This results in compromised nerve conduction and brain cell communication, which can compromise memory. Stressand emotional upset impact on memory by depleting neurotransmitters and leading to a build up of damaging agents called free radicals. Free radicals have been associated with the degeneration of the brain.
  
  The brain develops by leaps and bounds during fetal life and childhood as neural patterns are laid and areas of the brain mature. As we age, declines in brain function are widely accepted as "normal" but there are many preventative and natural therapies one can use to maximize brainpower and memory. As they say, "if you don't use it you will lose it." Keeping mentally busy and learning new things has been found to sustain brain functioning. Regular exercise and deep breathing increases circulation to the brain. Make time in your schedule for enjoyable activity and sufficient rest. Have regular sleep pattern because fatigue greatly contributes to memory lapses.
  
  Undergo regular detoxification, under the guidance of a health professional,to rid the body of toxins. Drink 2L of filtered water daily to help to flush toxins from the system. Essential fatty acids stabilize the nerve sheath. Flax, pumpkin and sunflower seed oils should be a daily addition to the diet. Fish also contain essential fatty acids but are usually contaminated with heavy metals.
  
  Public FAQs
  
  Q: Does Ortho Mind need to be refrigerated?
  A:No, the product is stable at room temperature. R+lipoic acid has a low melting temperature (46-49C) and was initially thought to need refrigeration. Stability studies have since shown that the product can be kept at room temperature.