Family, 7 minutes

Choosing a Memory Supplement for a Parent

Buying one for somebody else raises questions buying one for yourself does not — beginning with whether it is the right purchase at all.

First: Is This the Right Purchase?

If you are considering this because you have noticed changes in a parent, the honest first step is not a supplement.

Handing a bottle to somebody whose memory really is slipping can push back the appointment that would have helped. A striking number of these complaints turn out to have a cause somebody can treat: a sluggish thyroid, a vitamin running low, a side effect of something already in the cabinet, apnoea, depression, or hearing that has quietly gone. Finding any of those takes a conversation, a blood sample and ten minutes spent reading a prescription list.

What is sold on this shelf is everyday support for a healthy adult's memory and attention. Where the kind of forgetting has changed rather than simply the amount of it, the doctor goes before the purchase.

1. Start With What They Already Take

Past sixty this has to come first, for the plain reason that most people that age are already swallowing something every morning — and it is the one question almost no supplement website opens with.

In this category the recurring flashpoint is ginkgo and bleeding time: warfarin, clopidogrel, apixaban, daily aspirin. Also relevant if surgery or dental work is booked within a fortnight. The practical move is to photograph the supplement facts panel and take it to a pharmacist with the medication list.

2. Is There Anything on the Panel to Read?

Where the actives have been tipped together under a blend name, no dose can be checked by you, by the pharmacist, or by anyone. Separate lines with separate numbers is not a nice-to-have; nothing else on this list can be done without it.

3. Does It Say Which Form?

There is a real difference between “standardised to 24 percent flavone glycosides” and “Ginkgo 120 mg”. The first commits to a concentration. The second commits to a weight of leaf and nothing more. Silence on this point is safely read as the cheapest option.

4. Count the Capsules and Look at Their Size

Mundane, and it settles more of these than the formula does. Swallowing gets harder for a lot of people in their seventies, and anything demanding three fat capsules a day tends to stop happening around the fifth week without anyone announcing it. A single daily capsule is a genuine advantage, because finishing the bottle is most of what decides whether anything happens at all.

5. Will the Diet Question Get an Answer?

Look at the line labelled “other ingredients”. That is where you find out whether the thing suits a vegetarian, a vegan, or anyone needing halal or kosher certification. Capsule shells made from gelatin are everywhere in this business, and you will almost never see it printed on the front. Check it first — especially when the bottle is a present, where being wrong is embarrassing as well as expensive.

6. Will They Actually Take It?

The honest final question, and the one most likely to be skipped. A bottle that sits in a cupboard because nobody discussed it first is money spent on a gesture.

• Talk about it rather than posting it.
• Tie it to something already habitual — breakfast, the morning tablets.
• A pill organiser helps more than reminders do.
• Agree in advance how long you are both giving it, and what would count as it not working.

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