Optimism bias (overestimating the likelihood of positive outcomes) makes “progress” a lovable concept. But entropy is its mechanism. And noticing the tension between them, we somehow think we should choose one. Romanticism vs pragmatism. Individualism vs collectivism. Masculine vs feminine. The tensions play out dramatically. But, as in life generally, they begin at a biochemical level. The secret ingredient of progress isn’t choosing one side or another. It’s maintaining a healthy relationship between dichotomies.
Weakness vs Strength and Other False Dichotomies
The interweb’s “social” (ad) platforms reward shock and negativity because our brains do. We can’t help it. It’s as if we’re hard-wired to react to and engage in conflict. Imagine that. Platforms merely exploit this, to sell our attention for toxic levels of profit.
Long ago I read that the unifying anthropological pattern of all cultures across all time is of humans forming groups to oppose other human groups. Once understood, it’s a thesis of human nature that shows up everywhere we look. Politics, sports, business. Everywhere. It’s how we made our closest competitors, Neanderthals, vanish, after all.
Unlike progress, I don’t love this idea. As with “social darwinism”, it’s an idea ripe for abuse. Especially because anti-social “social” algorithms reward a controversy. Or a pithy partial truth at the very least. Far more than a useful, assumption-challenging truth. Aka glacially “boring” progress.
The life-nurturing yolk inside the egg of their anthropological thesis, of extended family teams opposing extended family teams, however, is cooperation. Within the team, of course. And across teams, forming alliances. Cooperation is the yolk in the egg of life that life can’t live without.
"The supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting"
It’s a lot more fun to watch a story unfold before our eyes that no one, including the players, expected. Improvisational theater is performed on a “yes and…” basis. An improvisational play’s flow flows from cooperative, positive addition. Not negative reaction. In contrast, a tragedy is a storyline we can usually anticipate. “As fate would have it.” Entropy is a fundamental physical mechanism, after all.
Our brains love a simple, singular equation. E=MC2 remains cherished, and persistent. Even after the “standard model” of physics it spawned grew into a patchwork of disparate models. Sometimes contradictory ones, in order to match evidence.
One “binary” idea at a time rarely, if ever, produces resilience and progress. Historically, progress, especially cultural, political and economic progress, has come from networking. Mixing. Trade. Patching together. Integration. “Yes, and…” grew the Roman empire to rule the western world.
But for this, our mind has to be able to hold at two ideas at once. In the same space, at the same time. If they’re opposing ideas, then you’re the definition of a genius. Because, unfortunately, it’s too rare.
Soy Protein Is Smart Protein
In an algorithmic clique of toxic masculinity, “soy” became a put down. The premise being, soybeans increase estrogen-like compounds in us. Estrogen competes with testosterone in the “versus-verse” of energy constrained, “conservative” thinking.
The clinical literature, however, doesn’t support it. Meta-analyses of dozens of trials found testosterone unmoved by soy, regardless of quantity. [21]
While the insult propagated algorithmically, focus powders, alpha-brain capsules and memory formulas continued to be consumed by males (I can’t call them men) who would not eat tofu in a choke hold. To say nothing of a growing number of vegan MMA athletes.
Ironically, high in the list of ingredients of most cognitive performance enhancement formulas is phosphatidylserine. Every milligram of which began as soybean oil.
Lore & Locales
By 1914 chemists began to recognize something serine-like in "cephalin," a natural phospholipid amalgamation extracted from animal brain tissue. Not until 1941 did a Catalan biochemist at the Rockefeller Institute, Jordi Folch, fractionate cephalin from an ox brain into its constituent isolates to find one of them had a very unexpected amino acid. Folch's “yes, and…” process created an extraction method that remains the standard in lipid labs today. [3]
For decades, supplement manufacturers extracted PS from animal brains. Typically, cows. Then the mad-cow disease outbreak had an unexpected “yes, and…” benefit. Chemists learned to enzymatically convert it from safer (chemically and ecologically) soy lecithin, then sunflower lecithin, and most recently herring roe. [8][13][14]
How Phosphatidylserine (PS) Works
PS is required for normal neurotransmitter release and for several synaptic receptors to work properly. [2] Enzymes called flippases continuously move PS to the membrane's inner layer. When a neuron dies, transport stops. PS appears on the cell surface, and microglia signal the removal of dead cells.[5] Brain PS also carries high levels of DHA, and DHA increases PS production in neurons. Which is relevant to stacking. [2]
How PS Works In The Human Brain
Benefits of Phosphatidylserine
Cognitive Performance Enhancement
Memory in mild cognitive impairment
In a 12-month randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 190 older adults with MCI, a PS-containing formulation improved short-term memory, arithmetic, and reasoning, with measured rises in serum acetylcholine, GABA, and serotonin. [6]Working memory in healthy adults
A 42-day trial of a PS–coffee cherry blend improved working-memory accuracy and reaction time in adults with self-described memory complaints. Blend product, industry-funded. [7]Psychomotor speed
300 mg/day of herring-roe PS for 12 weeks sped finger-tapping performance in middle-aged adults with subjective cognitive decline. [14]Memory and daily function in elderly and Alzheimer's patients
300 mg/day PS plus phosphatidic acid improved memory in non-depressed elderly with memory problems and stabilized daily functioning in Alzheimer's patients over two to three months.[15]
Adaptogenic Properties
Perhaps surprisingly, PS's other benefits were found in sports performance labs, not brain research labs.
Exercise cortisol response
600 mg/day for ten days blunted the cortisol spike of hard exercise by roughly a third and improved the testosterone-to-cortisol ratio in healthy men.[10] The versus-verse would enjoy that finding if it read methods sections.Endurance
750 mg/day of soy-PS found no cortisol effect but a trend toward longer time-to-exhaustion in soccer players.[11]
Manufacturing Matters
The PS on a supplement's or formula's ingredient label isn’t a single compound. The organic source and process determine what fatty-acids pass fractionation. Including whether DHA is included. Trial evidence is bound to specific forms of PS, not "phosphatidylserine" generally. [13]
Dose & Consumption Recommendation
The clinically studied dose is 300 mg per day. Often 100 mg three times per day. Trials of up to 600 mg per day report no adverse effects in healthy adults. [16][4]
Bioavailability / Bioaccessibility Recommendations
With fat-containing meals PS is a phospholipid (fat). Take it with fatty foods i.e. avocados, salmon, fried eggs etc for solubility. Direct trial evidence on food pairing is thin; the honest recommendation stops there.
Split the dose The trial-tested pattern is 100 mg three times daily rather than one large dose. [6][15]
Absorption is fast Serum PS peaks about 90 minutes after ingestion and returns to baseline by three hours. [15]
Stacking Recommendations
Omega-3 / DHA The one pairing with real mechanistic footing. DHA and PS are structurally intertwined in neuronal membranes, and DHA increases PS production. [2] PS-DHA conjugates alleviated ADHD symptoms in trials [17]; in mice, PS co-administration steered dietary DHA to the hippocampus and cortex. [18][19]
PS Protocols
Exam study protocol
Ten days before finals week, 600 mg a day, split across meals for trial-proven improvement. [10] Track one thing: end-of-day review of what you studied and how stamina held. Cycle off when exams end.Athletic Training-block protocol
During a high intensity training phase, 600–750 mg a day for the length of the block, two weeks at most, as long as the trials ran. [10][11] Track time-to-exhaustion on a session, or morning resting heart rate as your recovery check.Professional Launch protocol
Ten days ahead of a work spike you expect to be the most demanding (product launch, court date, board week), 600 mg a day with meals. [10]
Next week: Finally! Last and top among direct cognitive enhancers: Alpha-GPC!
Sunday inspo: We cherish what we lose more than what we have. Take ten (10), long, slow, 100% empty lung to 100% full lung breaths, before anything, every morning. Holding the tenth breath in, close your eyes and hold it one full minute, as able. Air is life. Cherish it with practice, every single day.
Which Topics Interest You Most?
Until next time, eat fresh foods and stay active Beautiful Self-aware Brain!
🫶🏽
Footnotes:
[1] Hussain, M., et al. (2024). Phosphatidylserine: A comprehensive overview of synthesis, metabolism, and nutrition. Chemistry and Physics of Lipids. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39097133/
[2] Kim, H.-Y., Huang, B. X., & Spector, A. A. (2014). Phosphatidylserine in the brain: Metabolism and function. Progress in Lipid Research, 56, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plipres.2014.06.002
[3] Vance, J. E. (2018). Historical perspective: Phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine from the 1800s to the present. Journal of Lipid Research, 59(6), 923–944. https://doi.org/10.1194/jlr.R084004
[4] Ma, X., et al. (2022). Phosphatidylserine, inflammation, and central nervous system diseases. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.975176
[5] Park, J., et al. (2021). Microglial MERTK eliminates phosphatidylserine-displaying inhibitory post-synapses. The EMBO Journal, 40(15). https://doi.org/10.15252/embj.2020107121
[6] Duan, H., et al. (2024). 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. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39317299/
[7] Doma, K. M., et al. (2023). A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel study investigating the efficacy of a whole coffee cherry extract and phosphatidylserine formulation on cognitive performance of healthy adults with self-perceived memory problems. Neurology and Therapy, 12, 777–794. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40120-023-00454-z
[8] Friling, M., et al. (2025). The cognitive effects of supplementation with sunflower phosphatidylserine in healthy children aged 8 to 12 years: A randomized controlled trial. Nutrition Journal. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12937-025-01264-9
[9] Glade, M. J., & Smith, K. (2015). Phosphatidylserine and the human brain. Nutrition, 31(6), 781–786. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25933483/
[10] Starks, M. A., et al. (2008). The effects of phosphatidylserine on endocrine response to moderate intensity exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 5, 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-5-11
[11] Kingsley, M., et al. (2005). Effects of phosphatidylserine on oxidative stress following intermittent running. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 37(8), 1300–1306. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16118575/
[12] Blokland, A., et al. (1999). Cognition-enhancing properties of subchronic phosphatidylserine (PS) treatment in middle-aged rats: Comparison of bovine cortex PS with egg PS and soybean PS. Nutrition, 15(10), 778–783. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10501292/
[13] Chen, S., & Li, K. W. (2008). Comparison of molecular species of various transphosphatidylated phosphatidylserine (PS) with bovine cortex PS by mass spectrometry. Chemistry and Physics of Lipids, 152(1), 46–56. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18230349/
[14] Liu, Y., Lu, Y., & Tang, Y. (2025). Phosphatidylserine supplementation on psychomotor speed among healthy adults with subjective cognitive declines. Innovation in Aging, 9(Suppl. 2). https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaf122.3233
[15] Moré, M. I., Freitas, U., & Rutenberg, D. (2014). Positive effects of soy lecithin-derived phosphatidylserine plus phosphatidic acid on memory, cognition, daily functioning, and mood in elderly patients with Alzheimer's disease and dementia. Advances in Therapy, 31, 1247–1262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12325-014-0165-1
[16] Jorissen, B. L., Brouns, F., Van Boxtel, M. P., & Riedel, W. J. (2002). Safety of soy-derived phosphatidylserine in elderly people. Nutritional Neuroscience, 5(5), 337–343. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12385596/
[17] Kidd, P. M. (2007). Omega-3 DHA and EPA for cognition, behavior, and mood: Clinical findings and structural-functional synergies with cell membrane phospholipids. Alternative Medicine Review, 12(3), 207–227. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18072818/
[18] Hachem, M., et al. (2024). Investigation of lysophospholipids-DHA transport across an in vitro human model of blood brain barrier. Heliyon, 10(20). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e38871
[19] Chen, X., et al. (2026). Molecular carriers enable precision delivery and region-specific neuroprotection by dietary DHA in the mouse brain. Nutritional Neuroscience. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41521422/
[20] Shurtleff, W., & Aoyagi, A. (2016). History of lecithin and phospholipids. Soyinfo Center. https://www.soyinfocenter.com/HSS/lecithin1.php
[21] Reed, K. E., Camargo, J., Hamilton-Reeves, J., Kurzer, M., & Messina, M. (2021). Neither soy nor isoflavone intake affects male reproductive hormones: An expanded and updated meta-analysis of clinical studies. Reproductive Toxicology, 100, 60–67. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33383165/