Podcast: Dr Andrew Scholey on consulting and contributing to cognitive health
Dr Scholey, a Professor of Human Psychopharmacology at Monash & Swinburne Universities in Melbourne Australia also discusses his latest venture as Principal Director of Metavate Consulting.
The firm bills itself as the first thought-leader led consulting service to deliver business results for natural health companies committed to improving the brain and mental health evidence base of their products.
The launch of the Sydney-based consultancy is timely as cognitive health remains a prime consideration as countries continue to grapple with an ageing population and hence, a heightened risk of neurodegeneration.
'A risk-reduction approach'
“There’s an increasing recognition of a risk-reduction approach for future cognitive decline by having strategies in place in mid-life that includes a role for nutraceuticals," he says.
“There is increasing evidence that flavonoids, the Mediterranean diet, vitamins, curcumin and fish oils all seem to be able to help or at least slow the decline into mental fragility.”
On the rise of esports and where cognitive health and optimisation fits in Dr Scholey says, “It’s a huge market but the problem is its unregulated and products are untested.
“There are products that can improve reaction times, focus and attention and can get you in to the flow state or zone, which is what people want, not just in the gaming environment but in their day-to-day work as well.
“What we really need is good clinical studies looking at gaming performances as an outcome and using good cognitive science to try to work out what is effective and safe.”
