Author Description

The human mind and body together make a sophisticated survival tool, and this book is about a dietary substance that helps both stay sharp all through life. GPC (short for GlyceroPhosphoCholine) is a nutrient, a vital lipid that pulls mind and body together. Dr. Parris Kidd, a Berkeley-trained PhD expert on brain nutrients, has written a crystal-clear yet comprehensive presentation of this nutrient that contributes to our mental sharpness in many important ways. GPC is a small phospholipid molecule (pronounced fos-fo-lip-id) that has great importance to the whole body, not just to the brain. GPC is a powerful protective and healing nutrient, proven to boost healing following stroke or other brain injury. But GPC also boosts attention, memory, learning, and mood, even in the young healthy brain. All our cells, but especially the brain and kidney cells, use GPC to protect against toxic waste accumulation. GPC is a molecular starter for acetylcholine, a nerve transmitter central to the brain and all the other organs. GPC is a potent source of choline, a vitamin-like nutrient that provides methyl groups for epigenetic gene regulation. Being an orthomolecule, that is, a molecule orthodox to our cells, GPC can be safely managed by our cells and tissues. GPC reaches higher concentrations in our kidney cells than does any other nutrient. Taken daily as a dietary supplement, GPC benefits children, the middle aged, the brain injured, and the elderly. The author, part of a team that introduced GPC into North America, details the studies that successfully employed GPC on almost 3 thousand brain damaged patients; on GPC s head-to-head superiority over other nutrients for treating severe memory loss; even on GPC s potential to help autistic children. GPC is so vital to health, it is abundant in mother s milk. This book documents GPC s safety of use and its capacities to boost attention in young, healthy people; to support mental performance at midlife; to help stave off mental de