Thirty nutrients. Five jobs.

The brain is about two percent of body weight and uses roughly a fifth of the body's energy at rest. It holds almost no reserve. Mitochondia convert four raw materials - fats, protein, carbs, and oxygen - into the ATP neurons use to fire signals.

Acetyl-L-carnitine helps carry fatty acids into mitochondria. CoQ10 and copper participate in the machinery that moves electrons. Magnesium is required for cells to use ATP once it is made. B1, B2, niacin, B6, biotin and pantothenic acid help run the reactions that turn food into cellular energy.*

Cognitive Energy supplies a 875mg mitochondrial complex with N-acetyl-L-cysteine, acetyl-L-carnitine, alpha-lipoic acid, bioflavonoids, L-glutamic acid, and coenzyme Q10. Reviews of the literature on mitochondrial nutrition generally favor combinations over single ingredients, which is why the complex exists as a complex.*

Fuel, oxygen and nutrients reach the brain one way, through the circulatory system. So does every nutrient on this page. Circulation is not a side topic in a conversation about the brain. It is the delivery system.

Four fat-soluble vitamins play complementary roles. Vitamin A supports normal cell differentiation and tissue maintenance.* Vitamin E provides antioxidant support, including for the cells that line blood vessels.* Vitamin D3 supports calcium absorption, while vitamin K2 activates proteins involved in normal calcium metabolism, helping support the health of blood vessels and the cardiovascular system.*

We supply 1,500 mcg RAE of vitamin A as beta-carotene, 15mg vitamin E, 20 mcg of D3, and 120 mcg of K2 as MK-7, a long-lasting form of K2.*

Your immune system draws on a specific set of nutrients continuously, whether or not anything is wrong. Most people think about these once a year, in a drugstore, in a hurry.

Seven of them are in this formula: zinc bisglycinate chelate, copper bisglycinate chelate, vitamin C, vitamin D3, vitamin E as d-alpha tocopheryl succinate, selenium as L-selenomethionine, and N-acetyl-L-cysteine. Each supports normal immune function.*

Zinc and copper share the same route into the body and compete for it, so taking zinc for long stretches without copper alongside it can lower copper over time. We use 10mg of zinc with 0.9mg of copper, both as chelates, a ratio of about eleven to one. It is a restrained dose on purpose, because this is built to be taken every morning for years.

Before the body can use folate, an enzyme called MTHFR has to convert it. A common variation in the MTHFR gene is associated with reduced activity of that enzyme, which occurs in roughly 30 to 40 percent of people.

We use forms that do not require that particular conversion step. Folate as L-5-methyltetrahydrofolate, B12 as methylcobalamin, B6 as pyridoxal-5-phosphate, B2 as riboflavin-5-phosphate.

The same thinking runs through the minerals. In a controlled study measuring uptake in healthy adults, less zinc was absorbed from zinc oxide, the cheapest and most widely used form, than from the alternatives tested. We use zinc, copper, magnesium and manganese as bisglycinate chelates. In all, eight active forms, which very few formulas use all together at any price.

Thinking is not one cell working. It is billions of them passing messages across tiny gaps. Those messages are electrical and chemical; these signals require raw materials that have to be on hand.

Thiamin, vitamin B6 and magnesium are each involved in normal nerve function. Inositol and L-glutamic acid participate in the same signaling machinery. Iodine supports thyroid hormone production, which helps regulate metabolic activity throughout the body. The body converts vitamin A into retinoic acid, a signaling molecule active in tissues throughout the body, including the brain.*

Most formulas leave some of these out, because nobody walks into a store asking for inositol. We include them because energy lets a cell work, but signaling lets billions of cells work together.