Do brain supplements actually work?

In Great Britain a health claim may only be used if it appears on the official nutrition and health claims register. That register is the most useful shortcut a shopper has, because it separates nutrients that have been assessed from ingredients that have merely been marketed.

So when we say something 'works', we mean it either has an authorised claim behind it, or it corrects a shortfall you actually have. Those are the two honest versions of the word. Everything else is a hypothesis being sold at a premium.

DHA is a structural omega-3 fat concentrated in the brain, and most UK adults eat well under the recommended two portions of oily fish a week, so it is a genuine gap for a lot of people. Read the DHA figure in milligrams on any label rather than the total omega-3 headline, which is usually the bigger, less relevant number.

B12 becomes more relevant with age, because absorption depends on stomach acid, which tends to fall, and some long-term medicines reduce it further. Anyone eating a vegan diet has to get B12 from fortified foods or a supplement.

Lion's mane, phosphatidylserine, ginkgo biloba, bacopa, astaxanthin, choline and most 'nootropic' blends carry no authorised health claim in Great Britain. That does not make them worthless or unsafe; it means no assessed claim can be made for them, and any seller telling you one of them is proven to improve your memory is going beyond what is allowed.

Some of them are the subject of active research. Research is not the same as a result you can rely on, and honest companies say so.

This takes about five minutes on any product page and rules out most of the market. It is a better use of your time than reading another ranked list.

If you have not done these, a supplement is the wrong place to start, and we would rather say that than sell you a bottle you do not need. A capsule fills gaps around a decent routine; it does not substitute for one.

Memory changes that are getting worse, affecting daily tasks, or being noticed by family are a reason to book an appointment, not a reason to increase a supplement order. So is persistent exhaustion, which has plenty of treatable causes worth ruling out.

Supplements are for filling nutritional gaps in otherwise ordinary life. They are not diagnostic tools and they are not treatments.

Enervia is a once-daily capsule containing DHA from cod liver oil, phosphatidylserine, choline, lion's mane, vitamin B12 and astaxanthin, with every amount printed on the label. Two of those six carry authorised claims; four do not, and we say so on the label page as plainly as we have said it here.

Judge it with the five checks above rather than against our marketing, and use the 60-day guarantee to decide with your own money back on the table if it is not for you.