LYCOPENE COMMON NAME

Lycopene

TOP BENEFITS OF LYCOPENE

Support healthy brain function*

Supports antioxidant defenses*

Supports the gut microbiota*

Supports healthy aging*

Supports skin health *

WHAT IS LYCOPENE?

Lycopene is one member in a class of natural pigments called carotenoids—carotenoids are fat-soluble yellow, orange, or red pigments. Lycopene is on the red end of the carotenoid pigment color continuum. Lycopene can’t be synthesized in the body, so must be obtained from the diet. The main dietary sources are red tomatoes and tomato products—over 80% of the lycopene in American diets comes from tomato products—but lycopene can be found in lower amounts in some other pink-red colored foods such as watermelon and grapefruit. Lycopene is a plant defense compound, acting to protect tomatoes, as an example, against environmental stress such as sunlight. Since it is fat-soluble, lycopene is active in places with high lipid content, where it’s a powerful antioxidant. These places include cell membranes (which have a lipid bilayer), mitochondria, the skin, and the brain and nervous system. There is a growing body of research, mostly in animals, suggesting that lycopene supports protective, repair and regenerative processes in the brain [1]. In the skin, lycopene acts as an antioxidant, especially during circumstances when skin is exposed to environmental stressors. Lycopene levels decline with age in the skin, while supplementation with lycopene supports healthy skin levels of lycopene [2,3].* 

NEUROHACKER’S LYCOPENE SOURCING

Lycopene is extracted from tomato fruits.

Lycopene is non-GMO, Gluten-free, and Vegan.

LYCOPENE DOSING PRINCIPLES AND RATIONALE

Average dietary intake of lycopene in the United States is about 7-8 mg [4,5]. Some adults get much less than this amount (i.e., <1 mg), while about 5% of adults may eat enough lycopene-rich foods to get closer to 20 mg a day [6,7]. So, supplementation of 4 to 8 mg a day can make a large contribution to what’s obtained from foods. One of our dosing principles is to determine whether there is a dosing range in which many of the benefits occur and above which there appears to be diminishing returns (i.e., a threshold), and to provide a dose within this threshold range (see Neurohacker Dosing Principles). We consider lycopene to be one of these threshold compounds. While a wide range of doses of lycopene have been used in studies, functional benefits have been reported even at the lower to more moderate doses (i.e., 4-8 mg) [8–14]. And because lycopene is fat-soluble, and fat-soluble compounds tend to accumulate over time, we believe lower amounts are sufficient to augment dietary intake when it will be given over longer periods of time.* 

LYCOPENE KEY MECHANISMS

Brain function*
Supports maintenance of healthy serotonin signaling [15,16]
Supports adrenergic signaling [15]
Supports dopaminergic signaling [15,16]
Supports GABA-Glutamate signaling [16]
Supports brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) [17–19]
Supports synaptic transmission [20]
Supports neural stem cell function [21]
Supports neuroprotective functions [17–20,22–27]
Supports brain mitochondrial function [18,27,28]
Supports maintenance of healthy hearing [29,30]
Supports neural phase II detoxifying/antioxidant enzymes [17]

Skin health*
Supports skin in adapting to environmental stress [31–35]
Supports sebum production [8]
Supports epidermal structure [8]
Supports dermal extracellular matrix structure [32,34]
Supports a healthy skin microbiota composition [8]
Supports skin Nrf2 signaling [36]

Antioxidant defenses*
Supports antioxidant defenses [10,17,21,37–39]
Counters oxidative stress and ROS levels [10,17,21,38–40]
Supports Nrf2 signaling [17,23]

Gut microbiota*
Supports the composition of the gut microbiota [8]
Supports intestinal barrier integrity [20,41]

Immune system*
Supports healthy immune function [38,42–44]

Healthy aging and longevity*
Supports a healthy metabolism [8,20,41]
Supports mitochondrial function [41]
Supports maintenance of cardiovascular health [9,10]
Supports immune cell function [38]
Supports healthy stem cell function [21,40]

Complementary ingredients*
Soy isoflavones, vitamin C, and vitamin E in supporting skin health [45]
Rosemary in supporting skin health [46,47]

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