Smartz^TM

INTRODUCTION
Every thought, every memory, every emotion, even the will to move a muscle is caused by the release of neurotransmitters in your brain.

Neurotransmitters are not drugs. They are natural substances made from nutrients by neurons in your brain. Neurotransmitters transmit information from one neuron to another, which is why they are called neurotransmitters.

Over the years, we have developed a family of dietary supplement products for our own personal use based upon a simple idea: to provide our brains with nutrient raw materials they can use to increase their supplies of the neurotransmitters noradrenaline (also called norepinephrine, our brain's version of adrenaline), dopamine, and acetylcholine.

Smartz, our latest and most technologically advanced formulation in this series (which has had sales of very roughly $100,000,000 to date) is a dietary supplement for your brain in the form of a delicious carbonated beverage.

Using metabolic pathway charts that showed us (like a highway map) different routes that nutrients can take when used by our brains and bodies, we designed an integrated system of nutrients to deliver Designer Food^® dietary supplements to our brains. These are literally brain foods, and they are the essential core of our personal Mental Fitness^TM program.

The most thoroughly researched neurotransmitters - noradrenaline, dopamine, and acetylcholine - are each involved in many different processes.

Noradrenaline plays an important role in brain processes for fast memory, quick reaction time, mental energy, alertness and attention, goal seeking, and sexual behavior.

Dopamine is part of the reward and pleasure circuitry, sex, coordinated motor activity, and is also important in what is called "effortful" memory (where you have to "search" around for what you are trying to remember).

Acetylcholine is central to focus, concentration, memory, and verbal behavior.

Work, work, work! We call these formulations "work ethic" formulas because they help us to be more productive over a longer period of time and to enjoy doing the work more. On the other hand . . .

Fun, fun, fun! We use these formulations for fun occasions too. We find we can have more fun and do it longer by priming our brains with extra supplies of certain essential nutrients and a small amount of caffeine. Of course, if your purpose is to have fun by forgetting or by being half unconscious, you might not like Smartz. But if clear-headed, bright and alert fun is your cup of tea, you might add our Smartz formulation to your fun kit.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN
We started to develop this formula as a result of our experiences when, in 1982, we first began promoting our million+ copy, #1 best-selling book Life Extension, a Practical Scientific Approach. We found out - even though we were flown by jet in first class seats from one city to the next, then driven around by a limo from one TV or radio program or interview to the next - it was exhausting having to very quickly craft carefully-worded answers to highly technical questions (so audiences would understand them). And, we needed to do that all day, from 6 or 7 AM to 7 or 8 PM, sometimes even longer. We were developing "brain fade" (a term used by race car drivers for when they are losing the perfect attention and alertness they need to race cars at 200+ miles per hour). We decided to do something about it. We did literature searches to discover and retrieve many scientific papers to study mechanisms of the brain's alertness, attention, focus, concentration, fast memory, effortful memory, sense of energy, drive, and sustained performance, and found out that three key factors were the brain's suppliers of noradrenaline, dopamine, and acetylcholine.

NUTRITION YOU CAN FEEL^TM
HOW SMARTZ^TM WORKS
Phenylalanine, folic acid, copper, and Vitamin B6: The essential nutrient amino acid L-phenylalanine contained in Smartz can be converted by your brain into noradrenaline and dopamine with the help of the (included) essential nutrient enzyme cofactors folic acid, Vitamin C, copper, and Vitamin B6.

Do you really need to supplement these nutrients? A U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of over 37,000 Americans chosen to represent a cross section of all Americans, found that over 80% were receiving less than the FDA's Recommended Daily Allowances of one or more of the essential nutrients absolutely required to make these neurotransmitters. Every fast decision you make, every memory you retrieve, every word you speak, hear, read, or write requires the release of neurotransmitters - neurotransmitters which can be synthesized in your brain from phenylalanine and which absolutely require adequate amounts of folic acid, Vitamin C, copper, and Vitamin B6. You receive meager amounts - if any - of these vital nutrients in snack foods, and none at all in the ultimate empty-calorie products, ordinary soft drinks and coffee.

Beta-phenylethylamine: These nutrients can also be used by your brain to make a natural neuromodulator (which modulates the effects of neurotransmitters) called beta-phenylethylamine. Phenylalanine is converted into beta-phenylethylamine by the enzyme aromatic amino acid decarboxylase. This enzyme is dependent on both Vitamin B6 (about 80% of the population receives less than the RDA) and copper (about 40% of the population receives less than the RDA). (This enzyme and its B6 and copper cofactors is also required to convert phenylalanine into noradrenaline and dopamine.) Beta-phenylethylamine modulates the effects of noradrenaline and dopamine. Subjectively, we find that beta-phenylethylamine seems to intensify emotional experiences and may even provide a subtle euphoria. It is interesting to note that chocolate is the best food source of pre-formed beta-phenylethylamine.

Taurine: Smartz includes another neuromodulator, the natural nutrient sulfur-containing amino acid taurine, which is important in the regulation of electrically-active tissues (such as the heart and brain), to modulate the activating effects of noradrenaline. Taurine helps prevent excessive sensitivity to noradrenaline, which may be subjectively experienced as jitteriness and overstimulation. Taurine helps to promote a mellow mood without sedation or tranquilization. The best food source of taurine is red meat.

Acetylcholine is made in your brain from choline with the help of Vitamin B5. Smartz includes substantial amounts of both choline and B5. The increased levels of B5 can be used to increase levels of acetylcoenzyme A, from which the enzyme choline acetyltransferase transfers an acetyl group to choline to form acetylcholine. It is interesting to note that fish has been traditionally referred to as brain food - and fish is an unusually good food source of choline. The catastrophic loss of memory seen in Alzheimer's disease is caused primarily by severe damage to the brain's cholinergic nervous system. (We would not expect Smartz to be helpful to Alzheimer patients because damage by the disease results in very low levels of the enzyme choline acetyltransferase.)

Fruit sugar: This delicious carbonated beverage is naturally sweetened with pure fruit sugar and includes natural fruit flavors.

The fruit sugar does more than provide a sweet flavor, though; it also helps inhibit hepatic gluconeogenesis. If you haven't eaten for hours, your blood sugar may fall low enough for gluconeogenesis to be switched on in your liver. When this happens, your liver will convert amino acids (such as phenylalanine) circulating in your blood into glucose, the major cellular fuel, in order to get blood glucose levels back up. If this happens, less of the essential amino acid phenylalanine may get into your brain. Fruit sugar helps to prevent this loss of phenylalanine (through gluconeogenesis) without releasing significant amounts of insulin, unlike glucose (grape sugar) or sucrose (cane or beet sugar). The release of insulin could do two things: it could promote the uptake of phenylalanine by other tissues in your body leaving less for your brain, and it could eventually lower your blood sugar even further (by causing glucose to leave your bloodstream), putting you on an unwelcome blood sugar roller coaster ride.

Fruit sugar has another advantage over glucose, sucrose, or the common "high" fructose corn syrup (which contains only about 55% fructose); it is 70% sweeter than ordinary sugar under the cold acid conditions found in a chilled Smartz. This delivers more sweetness from fewer calories than ordinary soft drinks. Indeed, Smartz has only 66 calories per serving, about half that of a typical soft drink.

THE CAFFEINE CONNECTION
Smartz, like most cola drinks, contains 40 mg of caffeine per can. An average cup of instant coffee contains about 80 mg of caffeine. A typical cup of fresh brewed coffee contains about 130 mg caffeine, with espresso having 250-500 mg.

Caffeine is the world's most popular work ethic drug. Scientific studies have shown that the right dose of caffeine can improve speed and accuracy in a wide variety of practical tasks, such as typing.

Everyone who uses caffeine knows that the first cup of coffee in the morning is the best; it really makes you bright eyed and bushy tailed and helps get you going. But the second cup doesn't do as much for you as the first, and the third cup gives you even less of what you want than the second.

By the end of a long hard day, coffee doesn't seem to help your performance anymore; it just seems to make you spaced out and irritable. To understand why this happens and what you can do about it, you need to understand how caffeine works.

One of the ways that caffeine works is to cause neurons to release noradrenaline more readily and to be more sensitive to the effects of noradrenaline. However, caffeine doesn't help you make more noradrenaline, so it is like burning your candle at both ends. Caffeine can give you extra energy and even better performance on certain types of tasks, but it can also give you a letdown when it makes you use your noradrenaline faster than you can make more. The caffeine along with the nutrients that can be used to make noradrenaline - found in Smartz - can help give you long-lasting mental energy.

Smartz is energizing, but a mellow sort of energizing. It's perfect when you want to be alert and energized, but also with a laid-back feeling of well-being.

THE BUBBLES GO STRAIGHT TO YOUR BRAIN
When you drink champagne, you feel the effects of the alcohol come on faster and stronger than when consuming an equal amount of still wine containing the same amount of alcohol. This is not just your imagination. The carbon dioxide released in your mouth immediately travels to tissues in your nasal passages, dissolves in the blood there, and is transported directly to your blood-brain barrier, the picky membrane that surrounds your brain. This has two effects: The carbon dioxide causes vasodilation, increasing blood flow to and within your brain. And, the CO2 also increases the permeability of your blood-brain barrier, letting in more alcohol - or Smartz nutrients - faster. Smartz' carbonation actually acts as a transport and penetration aid which makes the onset of Smartz' psychoactive effects more rapid and intense.

CONCLUSION
Smartz is for folks like us who have a taste for excitement in life, whether that excitement comes from 80-hour weeks of highly stressful, productive, mentally-demanding work, or from enjoyable fun.

HOW TO USE SMARTZ
For best results, take Smartz between meals, or an hour or more before a meal. The clock face on the Smartz label makes this easy to remember. (When digested, proteins are broken down into amino acids, some of which can - by competition for transport - reduce the rate of phenylalanine uptake from your gut or transport across your blood-brain barrier into your brain.)

Durk always takes one serving in the morning as soon as he gets up, takes a second about an hour before lunch (it really helps to satisfy appetite with only about 66 calories), and generally takes a third serving in late afternoon to keep his energy up to near-morning levels. Sandy takes two servings during the morning and sometimes another serving in the afternoon.

HAS YOUR GET UP AND GO - GOT UP AND WENT?
The most common complaint that people bring to their doctors is that they don't have enough energy or they feel tired most of the time. It could be a nutritional deficiency. A nutritional survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of 37,000 Americans (chosen to represent a cross section of all Americans), found that over 80% of Americans are getting less than the FDA's RDAs for one or more nutrients essential for the production of noradrenaline (nature's "get up and go" juice) and dopamine. However, if you feel chronically tired, don't just assume that you merely need better nutrition; you could have an organic illness that needs a physician's care, such as adult onset diabetes or hypothyroidism. If, after seeing your doctor, he or she says that you are basically healthy, but just need to stop working so hard, avoid stress, and take a long vacation, Smartz may help provide a more practical solution.

Live long & prosper,

Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw