Multitasking Much? Find Your Focus With This Nutrient, Says Study
February 28, 2011
Salt Lake City, UT– Distractions are an inevitable result of a wired, work-anywhere world, and research has shown that tuning out competing stimuli to focus on a task helps with tackling our increasingly long to-do lists. Fortunately, focus and attention are two areas that can be improved through nutrition, according to new research being presented by members of the University of Utah Brain Institute this week.
The research is being showcased at the New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit (NCDEU) annual meeting, which focuses on innovative approaches for mental health interventions, and will reveal how a key nutrient called citicoline can help improve sustained attention by enhancing the brain’s capacity to focus on a single task.
Sixty healthy women ages 40-60 participated in this double-blind, placebo-controlled three-arm study. After an initial performance test to measure attentional function, they were divided into three groups of 20 and began supplementation with either 250 mg or 500 mg of citicoline (the researchers used Cognizin® Citicoline) or placebo. Results after supplementation showed that individuals receiving either the low or high dose of citicoline produced fewer errors during performance testing. Findings suggest citicoline supplementation, at 250 mg, provided improved attention when required, due to the inhibition of incorrect responses.
"Our findings suggest that citicoline may mitigate the cognitive decline associated with normal aging and improve attentional deficits associated with overstimulation of the brain," noted Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, Ph.D., Director of the Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory at The Brain Institute at The University of Utah. "Citicoline's ability to improve attention and focus is exciting because it can help anyone who wants to improve their focus - from scientists to soccer moms."
Researcher Dr. Erin McGlade from the University of Utah Brain Institute, who played a key role in this study, was honored with a New Investigator Award at this conference, which recognizes outstanding new research. The NCDEU conference has generally honored research surrounding pharmaceutical-grade ingredients/products, making this award particularly noteworthy as it recognized studies on a naturally occurring compound.
When citicoline is consumed as either a supplement or through a functional beverage it is absorbed and able to cross the blood-brain barrier to deliver the citicoline as needed by the body.
About NCDEU
NCDEU is a scientific meeting that focuses on the latest developments in psychopharmacologic clinical research and related methodology. The meeting brings together over 1200 academic and industry investigators, research pharmacists, and clinicians, including competitively selected New Investigator awardees. In addition to the topics noted below, the NCDEU program includes presentations and information from the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP) and its federal partners, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, (NIAAA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
About Kyowa Hakko USA
Kyowa Hakko is an international health ingredients manufacturer and world leader in the development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and food products. Kyowa is the maker of branded ingredients including Cognizin(R) Citicoline, Hydrafend™ Hyaluronic Acid, Lumistor® L-Hydroxyproline, Setria® Glutathione, Kyowa CoQ10™ as well as Sustamine™ L-Alanyl-L-Glutamine.
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Courtney Jacobs Morton
Integrated Marketing Group
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