Restoring Memory

SUPPLEMENTS

Misplaced your keys again? Lost your train of thought mid-sentence?
A brain-boosting supplement called Huperzine A may keep you from blanking
out.

Huperzine A (HupA), an alkaloid compound found in the club moss
Huperzia serrata, has been used in China for centuries to reduce fever
and inflammation. Now researchers have discovered that HupA also treats
age-related memory loss and Alzheimer's disease.

HupA enhances mental ability by keeping the enzyme
acetylcholinesterase from destroying the neurotransmitter acetylcholine,
which aids memory formation and triggers communication between brain
cells. In Alzheimer's patients, the chemical's messages don't always get
through. "if we can prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine, we're
allowing the acetylcholine that is there to work more effectively," says
Alan Kozikowski, Ph.D., who studies HupA.

While trials are in the early stages in the United States, Chinese
research supports this theory. In a study done at Zhejiang Medical
University in Shanghai, 103 patients with Alzheimer's were given either
200 micrograms of HupA a day or a placebo. After eight weeks, 58% of
those given HupA showed marked improvement in mental function, compared
to 36% who took the placebo.

Kozikowski, a professor of chemistry at Georgetown University, is
quick to add that while HupA won't reverse Alzheimer's, it will "delay
the progression." He notes, "If I was presymptomatic for Alzheimer's, I
would start taking it."