01
Processing speed
How quickly you take in information and respond to it.
Age-related change can mean needing slightly more time to process something complicated, switch between tasks or retrieve information.
Cognition + Healthy Aging
Stay sharp, longer.
Your brain changes with age — even when you remain completely healthy. Processing speed can slow. Recall can take longer. Focus may become easier to disrupt. Mental fatigue can arrive sooner. NOVOS approaches cognitive health from multiple directions: supporting calm focus, cellular energy, brain nutrients, healthy aging pathways, the gut-brain axis and the nutritional foundation your brain depends on every day.
FOCUS
MEMORY
ENERGY
RESILIENCE
CLARITY
MOOD
Clinically studied
Recommended by 2,000+ verified clinicians
15M+ NOVOS servings enjoyed worldwide
Third-party tested
The starting point
Healthy brains change with age.
Getting older does not mean losing your intelligence. Knowledge, expertise, vocabulary and accumulated experience can remain remarkably resilient — and in some areas may even improve. But other aspects of cognition tend to become more vulnerable with age.
02
Working memory
Your brain's mental scratchpad.
Working memory lets you temporarily hold information in mind while doing something with it.
03
Attention + focus
Choosing what matters and filtering what doesn't.
Distraction can become more costly with age, especially when the brain is tired or under stress.
04
Mental stamina
How long you can perform before cognitive fatigue sets in.
Sleep, stress, cellular energy, nutrition and physical health all influence how sharp you feel across a demanding day.
Healthy cognitive aging isn’t about becoming smarter every year. It’s about preserving more of your mental speed, clarity, flexibility and independence for longer.
Why it matters
Cognitive longevity is measured in ordinary moments: holding a thought through an interruption, finding the right word, staying sharp at hour six of a demanding day.
The systems map
What does your brain need?
Cognition is not one pathway — it depends on several interconnected biological support systems. Select a system to see which NOVOS products connect to it.
Core's L-theanine and Rhodiola are studied for calm focus and performance under stress. Bar's Lion's Mane adds early human attention research.
Boost supplies NMN, a direct precursor to NAD+ — central to cellular energy. Core's magnesium and Bar's B vitamins support normal energy metabolism.
Core's fisetin and pterostilbene are studied preclinically in brain aging; Vital's trehalose and Boost's NAD+ biology connect to cellular maintenance.
Vital's nattokinase supports healthy circulation — indirect cognitive support, since the brain depends on blood flow.
Bar provides 21 essential vitamins and minerals plus complete protein and fiber — the daily foundation the nervous system depends on.
Vital's inulin feeds beneficial gut bacteria; Bar's fiber supports the same ecosystem. Gut-brain cognition research is still emerging.
The NOVOS system
Different products. Different cognitive pathways.
NOVOS does not approach cognition as a single pathway. Core, Vital, Boost and Bar have distinct roles.
Core · The foundation
NOVOS Core
Calm focus + healthy brain aging pathways.
Vital · Brain + organ support
NOVOS Vital
Carotenoids, gut-brain support and complementary systems.
Boost · Cellular energy
NOVOS Boost
Supports NAD+, which cells depend on for energy and maintenance.
Bar · Daily nutrition
NOVOS Bar
Brain-relevant nutrients, functional mushrooms and balanced nutrition.
The foundation
NOVOS Core
Clinically studiedCalm focus today. Healthy brain aging for tomorrow.
NOVOS Core is the foundational NOVOS longevity formulation, designed around the interconnected biological processes that change as we age. Several Core ingredients are particularly relevant to cognition — some through human research on attention, fatigue and stress, and others through emerging research into neuronal resilience and brain aging biology.
Cognition is not only memory.
Some of the cognitive benefits people care about most are immediate and practical: Can I concentrate? Can I stay mentally steady under stress? Can I keep performing when the day gets demanding? Several ingredients in NOVOS Core have been studied in these areas.
L-theanine is an amino acid naturally found in tea, studied in human randomized trials for attention, reaction time, stress and cognitive performance. It is not a stimulant — its role is better described as calm focus rather than forced alertness.
- What was studied?
- Attention, reaction time, stress and cognitive performance tasks.
- In whom?
- Healthy adults in randomized controlled trials.
- What did it find?
- Support for specific aspects of attention and reaction speed, alongside a calmer subjective state.
- What does it not prove?
- That L-theanine alone determines the cognitive effect of the complete NOVOS Core formula.
Rhodiola rosea is an adaptogenic plant studied in humans for fatigue, stress resilience and mental performance under demanding conditions. The evidence is promising but not uniformly consistent across every study.
- What was studied?
- Mental fatigue, attention, work performance and perceived stress.
- In whom?
- Healthy adults under demanding mental or physical conditions.
- What did it find?
- Reported benefits for mental fatigue, attention, work performance, perceived stress and thinking speed under demanding conditions.
- What does it not prove?
- Consistent cognitive benefit across all populations and every measured outcome.
Magnesium is not a trendy nootropic. It is an essential mineral required for normal neurological function and hundreds of biochemical reactions. For cognition, it is best thought of as foundational biology rather than a cognitive stimulant.
- What was studied?
- Normal nerve signaling, cellular energy metabolism, synaptic function.
- In whom?
- Broad human physiology research; supplementation trials for cognition are mixed.
- What did it find?
- Magnesium is essential to normal neurological function and hundreds of biochemical reactions.
- What does it not prove?
- That magnesium supplementation improves cognition in already-healthy, well-nourished people.
NOVOS uses a micro-dosed nutritional amount of lithium. Research into lower lithium exposures has generated scientific interest because lithium influences pathways related to cellular stress responses, neurotrophic signaling and neuronal resilience — but a cognitive effect from the microdose used in NOVOS Core has not yet been established.
- What was studied?
- Cellular stress responses, neurotrophic signaling, autophagy, inflammation and neuronal resilience.
- In whom?
- Mechanistic research plus heterogeneous human studies at low exposures.
- What did it find?
- Lithium influences several pathways researchers continue to study in brain aging.
- What does it not prove?
- A proven cognitive effect from the micro-dose used in NOVOS Core.
A sharper brain depends on healthier cells.
Focus and memory do not exist independently of biology. Over time, brain cells face oxidative stress, altered cellular signaling, mitochondrial changes, accumulation of damaged proteins, chronic inflammatory signaling, senescent cells and impaired cellular maintenance. Some Core ingredients have been studied for their effects on these aging-related mechanisms — but much of this research is preclinical, meaning it was conducted in cells or animals rather than proving a cognitive benefit in humans.
Fisetin is a flavonoid found naturally in strawberries. Preclinical studies have reported effects on learning, memory and neuronal protection — human evidence that fisetin improves cognition in healthy adults is not yet established.
- What was studied?
- Oxidative stress, inflammatory signaling, cellular senescence, neuronal resilience, learning and memory pathways.
- In whom?
- Primarily cellular and animal cognition/brain-aging models.
- What did it find?
- Effects involving neuronal resilience, oxidative stress and learning/memory outcomes.
- What does it not prove?
- That fisetin supplementation improves cognition in healthy humans.
Pterostilbene is a polyphenol related to resveratrol, found in foods such as blueberries. Animal studies have produced intriguing results in brain-aging biology; human clinical evidence of cognitive enhancement remains limited.
- What was studied?
- Oxidative stress, inflammatory pathways, neuronal signaling, learning, memory and age-related brain function.
- In whom?
- Primarily cell and animal models.
- What did it find?
- Animal studies have produced intriguing results in brain-aging biology.
- What does it not prove?
- Cognitive enhancement in humans — clinical evidence remains limited.
Glycine
Supports sleep and recovery. High-quality sleep helps support learning, memory and next-day cognitive performance — an indirect cognitive pathway, not a nootropic.
Indirect cognitive support
Ginger
Contains bioactive compounds studied for antioxidant and inflammatory pathways. Brain-related research exists, without a headline cognitive claim.
Foundational support
Vitamin C
An essential antioxidant nutrient required for normal physiology, including nervous-system biology.
Essential nutrient
What NOVOS customers report.
In a self-reported NOVOS customer survey, 81% reported feeling a difference within two weeks across six areas of wellbeing, which included cognition, mood, energy, sleep, skin and overall wellbeing.
Self-reported customer survey. This was not a randomized cognition trial. Individual results may vary.
NOVOS Core finished-formula research. NOVOS Core has been evaluated as a complete formulation in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human trial in adults over 40. The primary demonstrated benefits were in cardiovascular aging markers, rather than cognitive endpoints.
Why mention that on a cognition page? Because healthy cognition depends on whole-body aging biology — but the clinical result should not be represented as a cognitive trial.
See NOVOS clinical research →NOVOS Core
Foundational longevity support with ingredients relevant to calm focus, stress resilience and healthy brain aging.
Brain + organ support
NOVOS Vital
Your brain doesn’t age in isolation.
The brain depends on other systems: healthy circulation, constant communication with the gut, and normal metabolic function. Some nutrients accumulate directly in both the eye and brain. NOVOS Vital brings together seven ingredients designed to support organs and systems that become increasingly important with age.
Lutein and zeaxanthin accumulate not only in the retina but also in brain tissue. Randomized human studies in older adults have investigated these carotenoids for attention, cognitive flexibility, verbal learning and brain-function measures.
- What was studied?
- Attention, cognitive flexibility, verbal learning and brain-function measures.
- In whom?
- Older adults in randomized controlled trials.
- What did it find?
- These carotenoids accumulate in both the retina and brain tissue, and randomized human studies have investigated their relationship to cognitive measures.
- What does it not prove?
- That eye health causes cognition.
Inulin is a prebiotic fiber that feeds beneficial gut bacteria, whose metabolites participate in immune, metabolic and neural signaling — the gut-brain axis. Position honestly: healthy gut ecosystem to emerging brain relevance.
- What was studied?
- Prebiotic effects on the intestinal microbiome and its metabolites.
- In whom?
- Human gut-microbiome research; direct cognition research still emerging.
- What did it find?
- Inulin feeds beneficial gut bacteria whose metabolites participate in immune, metabolic and neural signaling.
- What does it not prove?
- That inulin directly improves cognition.
Trehalose is studied for its relationship with proteostasis and autophagy — cellular systems involved in maintaining, folding and recycling proteins, increasingly relevant to aging neurons. Human evidence of cognitive benefit is not established.
- What was studied?
- Proteostasis and autophagy — systems cells use to build, fold, maintain and dispose of proteins.
- In whom?
- Animal and cellular studies.
- What did it find?
- Investigated for neuronal health, cellular stress and protein maintenance.
- What does it not prove?
- That oral trehalose improves cognition in humans.
Nattokinase
Supports healthy circulation and cardiovascular function — indirect cognitive support, since the brain depends on blood flow.
Indirect cognitive support
Apple Cider Vinegar
Positioned around metabolic support. Healthy metabolic function contributes to whole-body and brain health.
Metabolic support
Rutin
Studied for antioxidant, vascular and healthy-aging pathways, without a direct human cognitive-enhancement claim.
Vascular + antioxidant pathways
NOVOS Vital
Seven targeted ingredients supporting brain, eyes, gut, circulation and other essential systems.
The energy question
The brain is roughly two percent of body weight and uses about twenty percent of the body’s energy. Cellular energy is not an abstraction here; it is the currency every thought is paid in.
Cellular energy
NOVOS Boost
Your brain is expensive to run.
The brain represents only a fraction of body mass, yet it requires an extraordinary and continuous supply of cellular energy. Thinking, signaling, maintaining ion gradients, repairing DNA and sustaining neurons all require energy. One molecule sits near the center of many of these processes: NAD+.
Food / nutrients
Cell
Mitochondria
NAD+
ATP / cellular energy
NOVOS Boost supplies >99% pure NMN. Human studies have examined NMN across areas including NAD+ levels, cellular energy and metabolic health — but direct human evidence that NMN improves cognition specifically remains limited.
- What was studied?
- NAD+ levels, cellular energy metabolism, metabolic health, physical performance.
- In whom?
- Human clinical studies of NMN supplementation.
- What did it find?
- Increases in NAD-related metabolites and effects on metabolic and physical outcomes.
- What does it not prove?
- That raising NAD+ directly translates into improved cognition.
NOVOS Boost
>99% pure NMN to support the body’s natural NAD+ production.
Daily nutrition
NOVOS Bar
Brain-relevant nutrients, functional mushrooms and balanced nutrition in food form — for the days a perfect meal isn’t realistic.
Lion's Mane (Hericium erinaceus) contains compounds studied for neuronal growth and signaling. Small human randomized trials have investigated Lion's Mane in relation to attention, processing speed and other cognitive measures — promising but still early.
- What was studied?
- Attention, processing speed and other cognitive performance measures; neuronal growth and signaling mechanistically.
- In whom?
- Small randomized human trials plus cellular/animal mechanistic work.
- What did it find?
- Early human randomized cognition research, alongside mechanistic evidence for neuronal growth.
- What does it not prove?
- That Lion's Mane in NOVOS Bar has itself been clinically tested for cognition.
Astaxanthin is a carotenoid best known for its antioxidant properties. Human studies have investigated astaxanthin for memory, attention and cognitive performance, with mixed results.
- What was studied?
- Memory, attention and cognitive performance.
- In whom?
- Human supplementation studies, results mixed.
- What did it find?
- Some studies report modest benefits for memory and attention; findings are not uniformly consistent.
- What does it not prove?
- That astaxanthin is clinically proven to improve memory.
Reishi has a long history of traditional use and has been studied in humans, largely for immune and stress-related outcomes. Evidence for Reishi as a direct cognitive enhancer in healthy adults is much weaker, so it belongs around general wellbeing rather than a headline focus claim.
- What was studied?
- Immune function, stress and general wellbeing; cognition research is limited.
- In whom?
- Human studies, mostly outside cognition specifically.
- What did it find?
- Traditional use plus emerging human research in adjacent wellbeing areas.
- What does it not prove?
- A direct cognitive-enhancement effect in healthy adults.
Taurine is abundant throughout the body and participates in mitochondrial and nervous-system biology. Recent reviews have not found convincing evidence that taurine supplementation, by itself, consistently improves cognitive performance.
- What was studied?
- Mitochondrial function, nervous-system and cellular biology.
- In whom?
- Broad human physiology research; cognition-specific trials limited and mixed.
- What did it find?
- Important roles in nervous-system and cellular biology.
- What does it not prove?
- That taurine supplementation by itself consistently improves cognitive performance.
NOVOS Bar
Complete plant protein, fiber and five built-in longevity supplements, including two studied for cognition.
How the evidence builds
From cells to your daily experience.
-
Ingredient research
950+ studies inform which compounds and doses are selected.
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Preclinical / mechanistic studies
Cell and animal models test biological pathways relevant to brain aging.
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Human studies (ingredient-level)
Randomized or observational trials of individual ingredients in people.
-
Your daily experience
What you actually notice — reported transparently, not oversold.
Reading the evidence
What each evidence badge means.
- Human randomized evidence
- Randomized controlled trials directly measuring the claimed outcome in humans.
- Human evidence
- Human studies exist, though may be smaller, observational, or less consistent.
- Emerging evidence
- Early or heterogeneous human and mechanistic research — interesting but not yet settled.
- Preclinical evidence
- Cell or animal research only — not yet proven to translate to human cognition.
- Essential nutrient
- Required for normal physiology; direct cognitive-enhancement evidence in well-nourished adults is often mixed.
Why evidence level matters. An ingredient behaving a certain way in a cell or animal model doesn’t mean it has been clinically proven to produce the same result in a healthy human. NOVOS shows the evidence level for every cognition claim on this page so you can judge the strength of the evidence yourself.
Said plainly
What’s well-established, and what remains uncertain.
Better established
- L-theanine's human randomized attention research
- Lutein and zeaxanthin's randomized studies in older adults
- Lion's Mane has early human randomized cognition research
- Magnesium and Vitamin C as essential, well-characterized nutrients
Still uncertain
- Whether fisetin or pterostilbene's preclinical effects translate to humans
- Whether the NOVOS Core microdose of lithium has a measurable cognitive effect
- Whether taurine supplementation independently improves cognition
- Whether inulin's gut-brain signaling directly changes cognitive outcomes
The bigger picture
A sharper mind for longer is rarely one decision. It’s sleep, movement, nutrition, stress management and — for some people — a longevity formulation built around the biology behind all of it.
Start here
Build a routine your brain can rely on.
NOVOS Core is the foundation. Add Vital, Boost or Bar as your routine calls for it.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does cognition normally change with age?
Yes. Healthy aging can involve gradual changes in areas such as processing speed, working memory, recall and the ability to filter distractions. Other abilities, including accumulated knowledge and expertise, can remain strong for many years.
Is this page about dementia prevention?
No. This page focuses on supporting normal cognitive function and healthy brain aging in generally healthy adults. NOVOS products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent cognitive disease.
Which NOVOS product is best for cognition?
NOVOS Core is the best starting point for most people. Vital provides complementary brain, eye, gut and organ support. Boost focuses on NAD+ and cellular energy. Bar provides daily nutrition plus brain-relevant functional ingredients.
Has NOVOS Core itself been clinically shown to improve cognition?
NOVOS Core's finished formulation has been evaluated in randomized, placebo-controlled human research, but cognition was not the primary clinical endpoint. Cognitive support on this page is based largely on research involving individual Core ingredients and self-reported customer experience.
Which NOVOS ingredients have human cognition research?
Human cognitive research exists for ingredients including L-theanine, lutein, zeaxanthin and Lion's Mane, with different levels of evidence. Other ingredients have primarily mechanistic, animal or emerging human evidence.
Does NOVOS Boost make you smarter?
No. Boost supplies NMN to support the body's natural production of NAD+. NAD+ biology is highly relevant to brain aging, but direct human evidence that NMN improves cognition remains limited.
Does NOVOS Bar prevent blood sugar crashes?
NOVOS Bar has not been clinically tested to prove prevention of glucose crashes. It is designed around balanced nutrition rather than the high-sugar composition common to many convenience snacks.
Are Lion's Mane mushrooms clinically studied for cognition?
Yes, small randomized human trials have investigated Lion's Mane for cognitive outcomes. The evidence is promising but still early, and should not be treated as clinical proof of NOVOS Bar itself.
Why are lutein and zeaxanthin on a cognition page?
Lutein and zeaxanthin accumulate not only in the retina but also in brain tissue. Randomized human studies in older adults have investigated these carotenoids for attention, cognitive flexibility, verbal learning and brain-function measures.
Is taurine a nootropic?
Taurine plays important roles in nervous-system and cellular biology, but recent human evidence does not consistently demonstrate direct cognitive enhancement from taurine supplementation alone.