[3-Point Summary from Yak-Al💊]

If you take phosphatidylserine, will your memory become 14 years younger? That 14-year figure is a number converted to age from scores on specific tests like name memorization,, and if you interpret it to mean your brain has turned back 14 years, expectations become way too high..
It's not a nutritional supplement you can take like a dementia prevention drug.. What the Korea Food and Drug Administration has recognized is limited to: it may help improve cognitive function that has declined due to aging..
If you still want to buy it for your parents, check the product box for the health functional food label and the amount of phosphatidylserine in the daily intake. The numbers in advertisements are someone else's test results, but that dosage is the actual amount your parents will be taking..

Have you ever seen a caption saying "memory 14 years younger" on a health broadcast on a cable news channel around 8 p.m. and stopped changing the channel?? Phosphatidylserine supplement it was probably that broadcast. It was even more so for those who saw their mother's face overlappingâthe one who kept asking the same things twice, like maybe during Chuseok last year..

Are brain cells really coming back to life, should I give it regularly like a dementia prevention drug? With that heart, I found and read papers and materials one by one. Today, I'll unpack that number into everyday language for you..

Phosphatidylserine Benefits: Is the "14-Year Memory Improvement" Claim Really True?

A thin membrane surrounds cells, and the fatty materials that make up that membrane are called phospholipids.. Phosphatidylserine is one of those phospholipids., Because it's especially abundant in brain cell membranes, it's frequently mentioned in memory supplement discussions..

However, the fact that a component is abundant in brain cell membranes alone doesn't lead to the conclusion that consuming phosphatidylserine can revive damaged brain cells or prevent dementia.. Just because bricks are building material doesn't mean that bringing in a load of bricks will turn an old house into a new one.?

14 Years: Is It Brain Age or Test Score?

So what is this 14-year figure? Think about the body age that appears when you stand on a body composition machine. It's a number that shows how similar your measured value is to the average of a certain age group, converted into age. This 14-year figure works the same way..

Looking at the research, there's a test where you see a person's face for the first time and match it with their name. Age-based average scores were created, and they compared how close the scores of people who took the supplement were to a certain age group's average. When they converted that difference to age, they got 13.9 years..

Following this number led me to raw material introduction materials from an overseas raw material company. It's a case where 50 people with an average age of 60.5 took soy-derived phosphatidylserine at 300mg per day for 12 weeks, but the numbers varied by task..

Remembering newly introduced person's name: 13.9 years
Learning and remembering text: 11.6 years
Recognizing someone seen before: 7.4 years
Remembering a 10-digit phone number: 3.9 years

The 14 years mentioned in typical broadcasts and articles is the largest number among these.. The same people showed only 3.9 years for phone number memorization. Since the original book cited as the source for this data isn't publicly available, it was difficult to look into exactly how it was calculated..

So what the 14-year figure tells us is about this much:. On the name memorization test, performance became closer to the average score of a younger age group.. It's not a number that tells you whether you'll really lose your house keys less often, or whether you can maintain independence in daily activities like shopping alone and doing banking.. When you call the single best-performing item among multiple tests "memory improvement as a whole," the effect appears much greater than it actually is..

What About the 1991 Study Often Featured in Broadcasts?

There's also a 1991 American study frequently introduced in broadcasts. 149 people with declining memory due to aging took either phosphatidylserine or placebo for 12 weeks. A placebo is a fake drug that looks the same but has no active ingredients. It's used to filter out improvements from the expectation of taking something..

Looking at the results, those who took phosphatidylserine showed better scores than placebo on several learning and memory tasks, with larger differences in people who had lower initial scores.. So it wasn't a study showing no effect at all..

There are two things to point out here.. First, the raw material in this study was phosphatidylserine derived from cow brain., Second, the participants were not dementia patients.. They were people who felt their forgetfulness had increased with age and met certain standards on testsâpeople with, age-related memory impairment,a condition.. If you heard explanations about restoring memory in dementia patients, remember first that the participants in this study, frequently cited in broadcasts, were not dementia patients..

Also, phosphatidylserine isn't the only component that brings up memory and aging together. Glycinax also became a topic with similar numbers, saying cognitive function and walking speed improved in older adults. If you want to dig deeper, [Glycinax's Claims of Improved Cognitive Function: How Many People Participated in the Clinical Trial??]It's worth reading..

Phosphatidylserine and Dementia Prevention: Should I Add It as a Supplement for My Parents??

Let me give you the answer first:. It's not a supplement you should take with the expectation of preventing dementia..

There weren't zero studies on dementia patients. In 1992, there was a study where 51 patients with suspected Alzheimer's disease took phosphatidylserine derived from cows for 12 weeks, and several cognitive tests showed better results than placebo.. But seeing test scores improve slightly over a few weeks or months is entirely different from having less dementia a few years later.. There haven't been studies showing that it prevents dementia..

What Has the Korea Food and Drug Administration Approved?

The health functional claim written on phosphatidylserine-containing health functional foods in Korea is as follows:. ‘May help improve cognitive function that has declined due to aging.’

Reading it slowly, the target is cognitive function that has declined due to aging,, and the conclusion is "may help.". "This is different in scope from statements like "prevents dementia," "treats Alzheimer's disease," or "revives brain cells.".

Health functional foods are legally distinguished from drugs that prevent or treat disease,. so if you buy based on this wording on the box thinking it has dementia prevention effects, you're expecting something the product never promised..

Claims That the US FDA Approved It

If you've seen advertisements claiming the US FDA approved it, it's worth looking into more carefully.. FDA materials do include wording that phosphatidylserine derived from soy may reduce the risk of dementia in old age.But this wording can only be used with a warning label immediately attached stating the evidence is very limited and preliminary..

A label shown only when allowing weak evidence to be stated together:, Qualified health claim that's what it's called. The FDA also explains this is different from approval.. You shouldn't accept a claim that requires a warning labelâmeaning weak evidenceâas if it were approved to prevent dementia..

If Your Parents' Forgetfulness Concerns You

Before choosing a supplement, examine the pattern of "forgetfulness." What are they forgetting, and how much is it interfering with their daily life?. If they're repeating the same question or their hands keep freezing on tasks they once did easily, seeing a doctor to identify the cause comes before choosing a supplement..

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency lists the following as lifestyle management to lower cognitive decline risk: Exercise, blood pressure management, and hearing care.. Phosphatidylserine is an option to add alongside this management, not a replacement for it..

Phosphatidylserine Effects: Are Soy Products Sold Today the Same?

The cow-derived raw material used in the 1991 study is barely used anymore. As concerns about mad cow disease grew, phosphatidylserine made from soy lecithin replaced it. Even though the names are the same, the two raw materials differ in the fatty acid composition they contain..

So you shouldn't expect the same results from the old studies done with cow-derived materials in the soy product you're holding now.. You need to look at tests done directly with soy sources, but the results varied across studies. There are studies showing effects and studies showing no effects together..

Study	Participants	Dose and Duration	One-Line Result
2001 Study	120 elderly with declining memory	Soy PS 300mg or 600mg, 12 weeks	No difference from placebo
2010 Japanese Study	78 people aged 50-69 with declining memory	Soy PS 100mg or 300mg, 6 months	No overall difference; only some tasks showed difference in people with initially low scores
2000 Study	15 people aged 65-78	Plant-based PS 300mg, 12 weeks	Some tasks showed score improvement; no comparison group

Translated into Korean, these results mean:. In soy tests compared side-by-side with placebo, no clear differences appeared among all participants, and signals appeared only in some tasks for people with initially low scores.. It's hard to see this as a component that noticeably improves outcomes for everyone,.

Where Did Those Numbers in Articles Come From?

Other numbers introduced in newspaper articles last summer also connect to the studies in the table. The part about how 78 people improved in short-term memory, verbal fluency, and awareness of time and place appears to come from the 2010 Japanese study. But these three are originally basic item names included in the cognitive test used in the research.. Just because a health checkup form has boxes for blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol doesn't mean those numbers all improved. Looking at the actual paper, what actually changed within this test was just one item: a word memorization task where you recall words after a long delay.. There were no meaningful changes besides that item..

So did the article deliberately exaggerate? It's hard to say definitively. Since the article doesn't include the paper's name, there's no way to confirm whether the journalist read the paper directly or just copied from promotional materials put out by the company..

But we can guess how this happened. The Japanese paper describes the test as measuring time and place awareness, memory, attention, and word recall. When you quickly skim this part or pass information through summarized promotional materials, 'measuring these abilities' can subtly shift to 'these abilities improved.'.

It's also inaccurate that the article called these 78 people mild cognitive impairment patients. Mild cognitive impairment, is a stage where memory is noticeably worse than peers but there's still no major disruption in living independently.But the actual research excluded people suspected of dementia from the start and recruited 50-69-year-olds who felt their memory had declined..

Also, the part about 65-78-year-olds better remembering names and faces in just 12 weeks matches the 2000 study. This trial had no comparison group taking placebo.. Scores can go up from practice effect when you take the same test multiple timesâthe researchers even directly noted they couldn't rule out this practice effect.. Scores improving after taking something and scores improving directly because of phosphatidylserine are slightly different stories..

Numbers sometimes grow slightly as they move from papers to promotional materials to articles.. Without anyone deliberately making things up. So when you encounter numbers in broadcasts or articles, take a moment to think about where that number originally came from..

If You're Looking at a Multi-Ingredient Product

In a 2025 Chinese study, 190 people with mild cognitive impairment took capsules containing phosphatidylserine for 12 months and showed better results than placebo on several tests..

But the capsule also contained alpha-linolenic acid, ginkgo leaf extract, and B vitamins.. You shouldn't expect the same results in a product with only phosphatidylserine as you would from a multi-ingredient formula.. If you choose a multi-ingredient product, also check the back of the box to see what else is included and whether it overlaps with any supplements you're already taking..

The alpha-linolenic acid included in the capsule is a plant-based omega-3 found abundantly in flax seeds and walnuts. Many people think of omega-3 together when considering brain health, but when choosing supplements, you need to look separately at the amount of the component that actually works in your body. If you're curious, [Omega-3 for Brain and Eye Health: What Numbers Should I Look at on the Label??]You can learn more details there..

Phosphatidylserine Supplements: If You Still Want to Try It

After reading this far, you might think, "Then I shouldn't take it?" That's not what I'm saying.. Someone who feels their forgetfulness has increased with age can certainly choose to try it within the scope recognized by the Korea Food and Drug Administration.. You just need to keep your expectations at the right level..

Before you go shopping, check these four things on the back of the supplement product box:.

Health Functional Food Label: Check whether the health functional food mark or design appears along with the functional claim about helping improve cognitive function that has declined due to aging.
Phosphatidylserine Amount in Daily Intake:Based on the amount you take per day, how much phosphatidylserine is included.. The number per capsule can be confusing, so check the unit first.. The dose most commonly used in studies was 300mg per day.
Other Ingredients: If it's a multi-ingredient product, what else is included and whether it overlaps with supplements you're already taking.
Expected Duration of Use: Studies observed results over 12 weeks to 6 months.. This isn't a component that changes in days, so take it consistently for a few months and then judge.!

It's also hard to blindly trust that plant-derived components are unconditionally safe even long-term. The Japanese study found no adverse effects related to the ingredient over 6 months, but in the 2000 study, 2 out of 18 participants stopped taking it due to bloating and gas. If you experience persistent bloating or gas feelings after taking it,. bring the product to your pharmacy and ask your pharmacist whether it's okay to continue..

What You Can Realistically Expect from Phosphatidylserine Supplements, is limited to: it may help improve cognitive function that has declined due to aging.. Promises about your brain becoming 14 years younger or preventing dementia are outside that line. If you understand this boundary and choose carefully, you'll be able to pick the right product for your parents calmly without being swayed by numbers in advertisements..

When you look into supplements to care for brain health, you often encounter ingredients that your body produces less of with age. Coenzyme Q10, which never escapes from heart and blood vessel discussions, is one of them. If you're concerned about blood vessel health as much as memory, [Coenzyme Q10 Decreases with Age: Do I Need to Take It Separately??]is also worth reading together..

The more specific the numbers, the more reason to ask a follow-up question. I hope that question comes to mind first the next time you pause at the cable health broadcast every evening. This has been Yak-Al.! 💊

References

Crook TH et al. Effects of phosphatidylserine in age-associated memory impairment. Neurology. 1991;41:644â649.
Crook T et al. Effects of phosphatidylserine in Alzheimer's disease. Psychopharmacology Bulletin. 1992;28(1):61â66.
Schreiber S et al. An open trial of plant-source derived phosphatidylserine for treatment of age-related cognitive decline. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences. 2000;37(4):302â307.
Jorissen BL et al. The influence of soy-derived phosphatidylserine on cognition in age-associated memory impairment. Nutritional Neuroscience. 2001;4:121â134.
Kato-Kataoka A et al. Soybean-Derived Phosphatidylserine Improves Memory Function of the Elderly Japanese Subjects with Memory Complaints. Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition. 2010;47:246â255.
Duan H et al. Effects of a food supplement containing phosphatidylserine on cognitive function in Chinese older adults with mild cognitive impairment: A randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2025.
Food Safety Country. Phosphatidylserine-Containing Health Functional Food Registration Information (Functional Claims). Republic of Korea.
National Law Information Center. Health Functional Food Act Article 15. Republic of Korea; 2025.
National Law Information Center. Act on Labeling and Advertising of Foods Article 8. Republic of Korea; 2025.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Food Labeling Guide: Qualified Health Claims. USA.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Qualified Health Claims. USA.
Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency National Health Information Portal. Methods of Preventing Cognitive Decline. Republic of Korea; 2026.