I received a couple of backend messages to share my experiences with nootropics. I did a lot of research in the beginning, so I have maybe 20 paragraphs in my head. I also realize people don’t read as much and don’t have the time to devote to all the details. We (book-hoarding) old-timers have to face facts. Our society is now driven by video … fast in and fast out. Netflix and Audible are booming while bookstores are closing. Knowledge consumption has changed.
With that in mind, I’m going to cram my 20 paragraphs into maybe nine or ten paragraphs. There are tons of resources online to help you get the full picture.
—-
Nootropics are smart drugs, a class of specific combinations of natural substances that boost brain cognition and memory. This is nothing new. Scientists have been running clinical studies on this since the early 80s. All the ingredients are FDA approved. However, the stacks or combinations of ingredients are not necessarily approved. This is the troubling part for most traditional doctors. When taken in combination, what will these ingredients do over the long haul?
(Hahaha
… If you’re over 65, and have brain fog and constant memory failure, you really don’t give a damn about the long haul. Give me some relief right now!)
These nootropics stacks do exactly that (to varying degrees), depending on the person and their long-term health issues. If you smoke or drink heavily or have entered the early stages of dementia, these stacks will have a minimal effect. In other words, you will get some juice, but nothing to write home about, like I’m writing right now.
The brain is probably the most important organ we have, involved in trillions of functions, and regulating every aspect of our existence. But the brain requires a lot of care and energy and “repetitive” use. Stop thinking for a while, and when you get back from your lazy vacation hiatus or extended sick leave at home, you find the old engine doesn’t want to crank. Think of the brain as a dark, gooey, isolated black box that can’t see or hear or taste the outside world, and is waiting for signals and impulses from the central nervous system outside to know what to do … send out healing hormones for a bloody cut, speed up the heart rate for a jog, activate tear ducts for a funeral, repress memories of a broken heart and bad relationship, and so on. All of this is done through neuron transmissions, that is to say, electricity flying around inside your head. That’s why the brain is so energy-intensive, with an Asenosine triphate (ATP) requirement of more than 20%-30% … strong-arming energy (Mafia style) from your total intake of air, food, nutrients, antioxidants, and so on.
This is the first problem. Usually, there is not enough energy to go around, causing fatigue and constant withdrawal from obligations and responsibilities. These nootropics supplements compensate for what’s missing.
Secondly, with age comes an imbalance in neuron transmissions. The receptors hardened and can’t communicate back and forth. In other words, the speed of cognitive processing drops. Your thoughts become foggy. These nootropics supplements force the brain to secrete hormones that soften your receptors and increase your synaptic plasticity. That’s a fancy phrase describing your brain’s ability to “learn and unlearn”, physically stretch and contract at the molecular level. If you didn’t already know it, some things are better unlearned … or forgotten on purpose. This is how the brain suppresses tragedy and allows us to forget.
Thirdly, for some women who have experienced continuous anxiety and depression, some of these nootropics stacks contain GABA, also known as gamma-aminobutyric acid, which has been proven to reduce or eliminate these emotional disorders without the use of heavy pharmaceutical drugs. You start to process better because you are freed of psychological deterrence that creates a negative feedback loop. This is similar to driving right past a familiar building, your declared destination, because your mind has been taken prisoner by a lab test pointing to cancer, or a recent rumor they are shutting down your department and laying everyone off. This is how anxiety imprisons your mind.
These nootropics stacks come in a variety of combinations and do so much more. I encourage you to do your own research.
Which should you buy? That’s another long article requiring more “reading”. Some people have already bailed out.
Here’s a shortcut … Let the ingredients decide for you. There are some scam products out there. To protect yourself, as a bare minimum, make sure your choice of nootropics contains these five ingredients:
Phosphatidylserine
Bacopa
Tyrosine
Huperzine
Choline
(Bonus – GABA, Alpha-lipoic acid, and Cat’s Claw)
Finally, there may be a downside, besides introductory insomnia and diarrhea. And this is heavy. You will begin to experience vivid dreams (whole new article) that deal with ethical or moral issues. This sanitizing or refocusing process clears away cobwebs and memory walls the subconscious mind put in place for YOUR protection. Let’s get down to the scary barebones of this proposition. This stuff is going to concoct scenarios that show you your true motivation, your true self.
There is a popular story of a group of Polish families who were hiding in a cave in World War II. The Nazi soldiers were approaching when a baby in the cave started to cry. No one could stop the child from crying. They had to make a choice … Let the baby cry, which would invariably expose their location. Everyone would be shot and killed, including the baby. Or they could kill the baby and have a “chance” to remain undetected. If they survived the war, each one would look in the mirror and see a baby killer, a murderer. This image would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
These new tropic supplements create ethical dilemmas relating to your past that expose your true moral instincts and who you really are. That’s my scary warning.
[If this article was helpful and you want to thank me, then please SHARE with others who might be asking the same questions. (Hahaah!!!
I have to laugh. I often wonder if Baby Boomers know what the SHARE button is. You have some people who are perpetual takers and never give. But most of my dear friends are new to this media space and don’t know the protocol. Here is the protocol … If you can help somebody else, expecting nothing in return, do it. It always comes back.]
-Leander Jackie Grogan –
