No Silver Bullet for Mental Fitness
Stanford’s Center on Longevity released a statement providing guidance on the effectiveness of products that claim to improve mental fitness. The statement has been under development for a year and is endorsed by “30 of the world’s finest cognitive and brain scientists”.
A press release, Cognitive and Brain Experts Urge Consumer Caution on Memory Fitness Products, summarizes the statement. A full copy can be found here.
If you don’t want to read the report, here is the the bottom line:
1. No clinical evidence that shows dietary supplements enhance cognition.
2. Little evidence that improvements created by software-based cognitive training or brain games translate into everyday tasks.
3. Physical exercise has been proven to improve brain fitness.
No surprises for readers of this blog but such a statement is timely because, as the press release points out:
“Fear of memory loss, mental impairment and Alzheimer’s disease lead many consumers to search for products – from supplements to software – that claim to ward off such ailments,” Carstensen said. “Such products are becoming more prolific, but this burgeoning industry is completely unregulated and the claims can range from reasonable though untested, to blatantly false. It is important for consumers to proceed with caution before buying into many of these product claims. There is no magic bullet solution for cognitive decline.”
