The Young Brain

The brain of the developing fetus in the womb is constantly growing and moving neurons into place. Billions of synaptic connections are being created. By the time a baby reaches the age of a toddler, the baby will have over 1000 trillion (1 quadrillion) synapses and will be making 2 million new synaptic connections every second! By the time a baby is 3 years old, they can lose up to 50% of these synapses. The connections that are used most often will get "hard-wired" while the connections that are seldom or never used will be weeded out. Some of the latest research concerning attention deficit disorders and autism suggests that some children don't perform the weeding out process. The end result is the child is left with an over-abundance of synaptic connections which inhibits focus and clarity. It would be like sitting in a noisy room with hundreds of conversations going on around you and not being able to focus on just one. Most people are able to tune out and move secondary conversations to lower-level background noise so they can focus on the task at hand. But autistic children are bombarded by sensory overload.

The Old Brain

Older folks generally keep their long-term synaptic associations (memory) but may lose their short-term memory because they cannot build and keep the new synapses. Supplementation with the raw ingredients necessary to build these connections could prove beneficial. A diet rich in PSA has been shown to increase levels of PSA in the brains of postnatal piglets. In addition, it increased the expression level of 2 learning-related genes and enhanced overall learning and memory. (Wang B, Adv Nutr. 2012 May 1;3(3):4655-725). PSA is known to go through the blood/brain barrier.

Breast Milk

Human breast milk has exceptionally high levels of Sialic acid while infant formula has very low levels of Sialic acid. This is seen as one of the reasons breast fed babies do so much better than formula fed infants. The design of life is clearly evident. Science continues to uncover these truths which have lain hidden from our view. But the underlying principles such as "you are what you eat" never seem to change - they continue to endure.