Brain Advantage – Brain Energy, Focus & Recall Support | 60 Vegetarian Capsules

Brain Advantage is a two-capsule daily nootropic with 250 mg of Cognizin® citicoline, 320 mg of Synapsa™ bacopa extract standardized to 55% bacosides, and 500 mg of lion's mane extract, plus ginkgo, L-theanine, methylfolate, niacinamide, vitamin C, magnesium and zinc. Each bottle holds 60 vegetarian capsules, a 30-day supply. It supports brain energy, mental focus and recall.†

Brain Advantage is for people who would like their memory to keep up with their calendar. Maybe you're 42 and juggling a team and a household. Maybe you're 60 and have big plans for your 80s. Either way, the time to look after your brain is before you're worried about it, which for most people means starting in your 30s and 40s. Aging isn't optional. Getting old is.

There's no caffeine in it and nothing designed to give you a buzz. Citicoline and bacopa, the two headline ingredients, both have placebo-controlled research in healthy adults, and both are here as named, branded ingredients with every amount printed. No proprietary blend, no guessing.

Why people take Brain Advantage

• Brain energy. Citicoline supplies choline and cytidine, raw materials brain cells use to build their membranes, and it is studied for its role in brain energy metabolism.†
• Focus and attention. Brain Advantage supports mental focus, and bacopa supports attention and processing speed with consistent daily use.†
• Memory and recall. Bacopa supports learning and the retention of newly learned information with steady daily use.†
• Everyday nutrient support. Folate as L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate supports normal methylation, and niacinamide (vitamin B3) supports normal energy metabolism.†

What's in each serving

Serving size: 2 Vegetarian Capsules. Servings per container: 30. Other ingredients: Vegetable Cellulose (from capsule shell), Organic Rice Extract, Silica, and Organic Rice Concentrate. The front label carries gluten-free, dairy-free and soy-free icons.

How Brain Advantage works

Cognizin® citicoline (250 mg)

Citicoline, also called CDP-choline, is a compound your body already makes from two parts, choline and cytidine. Brain cells use them to build phosphatidylcholine, a main ingredient in cell membranes, and choline is also the raw material for acetylcholine, a messenger that attention and memory circuits rely on.† Cognizin, from Kyowa Hakko Bio, is the citicoline used in both studies below.

In a small 6-week study with no placebo group, 16 healthy adults (average age 47) took 500 mg or 2,000 mg of Cognizin a day, and brain scans showed higher energy reserves in the frontal lobe, including a 14% rise in a measure that mostly reflects ATP, the molecule cells spend as energy (Silveri et al., 2008). In a 12-week placebo-controlled trial of 100 healthy adults aged 50 to 85 with mild, age-related memory changes, the 49 who took 500 mg a day improved more than the placebo group on episodic memory (remembering pairs of items) and an overall memory score (Nakazaki et al., 2021). Fair warning: those were secondary outcomes, scientists from Cognizin's maker were among the authors, and 500 mg is twice the amount in a serving here.

Synapsa™ bacopa (320 mg)

Bacopa monnieri is a creeping wetland herb with a long history in Ayurvedic tradition. Its active compounds, the bacosides, vary a lot from one extract to another, which is why this label states the standardization: 55% bacosides. Synapsa is the U.S. name for the extract sold in Australia as KeenMind.

Bacopa is a slow worker. In a 12-week placebo-controlled trial in healthy adults, 300 mg a day of KeenMind improved speed of visual information processing, learning rate and memory consolidation (how well newly learned information sticks), with the largest effects at week 12 rather than week 5 (Stough et al., 2001). A meta-analysis of nine placebo-controlled trials with 518 participants, testing standardized bacopa extracts for 12 weeks or more, found faster times on two attention and reaction-time tests (Kongkeaw et al., 2014). The differences were measured in milliseconds: statistically clear, but small.

Lion's mane mushroom extract (500 mg)

Lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus) is an edible mushroom that looks like a shaggy white pom-pom, and its human research is early. In a pilot trial of 41 healthy adults aged 18 to 45, a single 1.8 g dose made people faster on one attention test an hour later, 28 days of use brought a trend toward lower self-reported stress that just missed statistical significance, and several other measures didn't change (Docherty et al., 2023). That's more than three times the 500 mg here, so lion's mane is a supporting ingredient, not the reason to buy.

Ginkgo biloba (60 mg) and L-theanine (30 mg)

The ginkgo leaf extract is standardized to 24% ginkgoflavonglycosides and 6% terpene lactones, as the label states. L-theanine is an amino acid found in tea leaves. Both are here in supporting amounts, and we don't ask them to carry the formula.

The vitamins and minerals

Folate (400 mcg DFE) comes as L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate, the form your body already uses, so there's no conversion step from folic acid. It supports normal methylation, a basic chemical process your cells run every day.† Niacinamide (122 mg) is a form of vitamin B3 that your cells use to make NAD+, a coenzyme involved in turning food into energy,† and it doesn't cause the skin flushing that nicotinic acid can (NIH niacin fact sheet). Vitamin C (100 mg), magnesium (22 mg) and zinc (11 mg) arrive together as magnesium and zinc ascorbate, so the minerals come bound to the vitamin C. Vitamin C supports the body's normal antioxidant defenses, and many of your enzymes depend on zinc.†

How to take Brain Advantage

Directions on the label: "Take two capsules daily, as a dietary supplement."

Two capsules is one serving, so a bottle lasts 30 days. Give it time: the 12-week bacopa and citicoline trials above measured results after three months of daily use.

Ask your healthcare practitioner before use if you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition. That goes double if you take a blood thinner or thyroid medication, since Brain Advantage contains ginkgo and bacopa.

Don't take our word for it

We've been making supplements in Oregon since 1974. Fifty-two years in, we know a nice adjective isn't proof. Here's what is.

• Verified by independent labs. ISO 17025-accredited labs check our test results.
• Every ingredient lot tested before use. Federal rules only require an identity test on incoming dietary ingredients. We test every incoming lot, the citicoline and bacopa included, for identity, potency, heavy metals and microbes.
• If it misses spec, it doesn't go in a bottle. More than 99% of our tests pass, and the lots that don't are turned away.
• A certificate of analysis for every lot. Every lot of Brain Advantage gets its own.

Made in the USA, in Mt. Angel, Oregon, with globally sourced ingredients. Brain Advantage is formulated, made and tested in our UL-certified cGMP facility in Mt. Angel, a farm town of about 3,500 people in the Willamette Valley. Our formulators, makers and testers work under one roof, and the owners work in the building too. Owner-run since 2017, and we're not getting old either.

Frequently asked questions

How long does Brain Advantage take to work?

Plan on about 12 weeks of daily use before you judge it. In a placebo-controlled trial, bacopa's effects were largest at 12 weeks, and the citicoline memory trial also ran 12 weeks. Brain Advantage isn't a stimulant, so don't expect a jolt on day one.

Does Brain Advantage have caffeine?

No. There's no caffeine or other stimulant on the Supplement Facts panel, so you can keep your usual coffee or tea.

Can I take Brain Advantage with a multivitamin or CortiResponse?

Usually, yes, but add up the overlaps. Brain Advantage already gives you 122 mg of niacinamide, 400 mcg DFE of folate and 11 mg of zinc, so if you also take a multivitamin like our Men's Multi or Women's Multi, or a B-complex, check the totals on both labels. CortiResponse also contains L-theanine. If you take medication or aren't sure about a combination, ask your practitioner.

What makes Cognizin and Synapsa different from generic citicoline and bacopa?

They're named, standardized ingredients you can trace to specific research: Cognizin is the citicoline in both citicoline studies above, and Synapsa is the U.S. name for the bacopa extract in the 12-week trial. A label that just says "bacopa extract" doesn't tell you which extract you're getting.

Is Brain Advantage safe to take with medication?

Ask your healthcare practitioner first, and bring the bottle. Ginkgo and bacopa are the two ingredients worth naming, especially with a blood thinner or thyroid medication.

Keep learning

• What the bacopa research does and doesn't show, trial by trial
• NMN + NR Cellular Wellness, our formula for cellular energy and healthy NAD+ levels†
• CortiResponse, our ashwagandha and L-theanine formula for everyday stress†

References

1. Silveri MM et al. Citicoline enhances frontal lobe bioenergetics as measured by phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy. NMR in Biomedicine. 2008. PubMed
2. Nakazaki E et al. Citicoline and Memory Function in Healthy Older Adults: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial. The Journal of Nutrition. 2021. PubMed
3. Stough C et al. The chronic effects of an extract of Bacopa monniera (Brahmi) on cognitive function in healthy human subjects. Psychopharmacology. 2001. PubMed
4. Kongkeaw C et al. Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on cognitive effects of Bacopa monnieri extract. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2014. PubMed
5. Docherty S et al. The Acute and Chronic Effects of Lion's Mane Mushroom Supplementation on Cognitive Function, Stress and Mood in Young Adults: A Double-Blind, Parallel Groups, Pilot Study. Nutrients. 2023. PubMed

†These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.