NMDA
When I first started researching NMDA, I was considering marketing it as a nutritional supplement. After delving in deeper however, a couple of things made me change my mind. First of all, I contacted the patent inventor to see if I could get some more information on NMDA. He regretfully told me that his later research failed to confirm his earlier findings, and that he had deemed the project not worthy of further pursuit. I also discovered that NMDA is potentially quite toxic and may destroy neurons in sensitive areas of the brain like the hippocampus and the basal ganglia. NMDA might also have the capacity to induce convulsions in susceptible individuals.
So what, if any, lesson was learned from this dead end research endeavor? Well, I did receive a clear reminder never to jump to conclusions based upon limited evidence – particularly never to make assumptions based solely upon patent information (which is not subject to peer review and is notoriously inaccurate). If only the marketers of the “flavor of the month” supplement 5-methyl-7-methoxy-isoflavone would have heeded such advice; perhaps consumers would have been saved from what is, in my opinion, yet another supplement disappointment.
-PA