What can I look for first?
The full product name. The problem being studied. Whether the study involved people.
Ask the person citing it to point to the part that answers your question.
What did the study compare?
Ask who received the treatment and who did not. For example, did one group receive the proposed medicine while another received different care? A comparison group is the group used to check what happens without the treatment being tested. Ask whether both groups were checked in the same way.
Take these questions to the visit. Ask the person explaining the study to show you how it was carried out.
What counted as a benefit?
Did it test memory or focus directly? What task changed? Was the change useful in daily life?
Ask how long the change lasted and what the paper says it cannot show.
What can I ask about harm?
How were unwanted problems recorded? Who was left out of the study? Does that limit what it can tell us about me?
Reporting an unwanted event cannot establish that a drug caused it, explains FDA, the U.S. drug agency.
What if all I get is an advert?
U.S. consumer guidance says government agencies do not review adverts for approval before they run.
Request the study link or title. If it cannot be supplied, leave the claimed result as an unanswered question.
What can I take away?
Bring the paper and the claim together. Ask where they match and where they do not.