The fundamentals:

1. You don’t know how you’re performing mentally.

Let me say that again. YOU. DON’T. KNOW. HOW. YOU’RE. PERFORMING.

MENTALLY.

A study out of the university of pennsylvania showed that while there were

really no significant benefits for moderate to high performers - across the

board people BELIEVED they were performing better after taking adderall

even when they clearly were NOT performing better.

The lesson? You have to objectively test your mental performance if you

want to be sure that a nootropic (cognitive enhancer) works for you.

objective series of tests, such as those provided

on Human Benchmark - Track your results in google

sheets. You want to test one option against another

back and forth for multiple days after breaks between

each to ensure that the performance boost is

repeatable before you decide how effective an option

is for you.

3. Your body acclimates to virtually ALL substances.

Every compound on this list, you will build a tolerance

to, to some extent. Then they slowly stop working

as well. You have to cycle your nootropics.

a. You develop a tolerance to coffee after only 4 days. Once you’ve

been consuming coffee for a few weeks, the benefits are minimal -

the boost you feel is from coffee relieving your withdrawal

symptoms, NOT from an actual boost.

4. There is almost always a cost

excessive amount, you will start to kill neurons - with more modest

increases in glutamatergic signaling, you may impair behavioral

flexibility. Some things that improve numerical reasoning may impair

spatial reasoning. These substances are just tools to get you into the

right cognitive mode for the type of task that you need to complete.

They are not panaceas. Except maybe panax ginseng, lol. On the

flip side, it’s really hard to kill neurons (excluding maybe with MDMA

when you’re overheating) as one example, Dr. Alexander Shulgin

took literally hundreds of unknown, random substances he

synthesized and was still smart as hell.

The list:

Exercise, diet, and sleep - lol

No seriously, these will be more effective than anything on this list. Put your

devices away after sundown ( or use blue+green light blocking glasses if you

must use them) get on a consistent sleep schedule, eat real food, avoid sugar,

drink enough water, get cardio and resistance training in, and get enough protein

and healthy fats. If you do that, you’re 80% of the way there.
Phenylpiracetam + citicholine

- Stay below a dose of 250mg. I recommend 100mg of phenylpiracetam to start and the

sublingual 125mg of EZ Melts Citicoline . Ideally you get the phenylpiracetam from

nootropicsdepot.com. I know the owner and he really gives a shit about product quality.

They’re out of phenyl right now so this may or may not be a good source.

You can use https://www.reddit.com/r/nootropics vendor reports and list of approved

vendors for most of these.

Panax Ginseng

- Personally my favorite nootropic. Smooth, no jitters, feeling of well-being, takes a while

to develop tolerance, has tons of other benefits, is anti-cancer, etc… I prefer this one

from nootropicsdepot. It tastes very mild so i just let 200mg absorb sublingually (under

the tongue)

- If you’re buying powder of any of these, you’ll need a good mg balance. Look for a used

one on ebay or amazon. If not, this one is fine down to +/- 5mg. Don’t use it for

measuring micrograms. EVER.

Hydrafinil/modafinil/adrafinil

- If you’re not well-rested, these are probably going to be the most powerful

nootropics you could take. Hydrafinil has a short half-life (doesn’t stay in

the body as long) so it won’t impair your sleep as much. Adrafinil stays in

the body a while so it absolutely will mess up your sleep if you take it after

the morning - and it might even still.

Rhodiola Rosea

- If you’ve got fatigue from any health issues, this one is killer. There are a lot of bad

sources of rhodiola though, don’t cheap out on it. If you want the general health benefits,

find an extract focused on the rosavins, and if you want the energy, pick an extract that

focused on the salidroside content.

- E.G salidroside

- E.G rosavins

Coffee+Theanine

- This is probably the most well known. Theanine rounds out the coffee for

improved focus, less anxiety, less jitters, etc.

Cyclazodone

- Not well studied, but personally I’ve had amazing results with small doses

of cyclazodone. Take at your own risk - there’s been research on similar

compounds that showed negative heart effects, but theoretically

cyclazodone should be fine.

- I prefer this over ritalin because it lasts longer and the stimulation is

smoother

- Might be the most powerful cognitive enhancer in existence (if it’s suited to

your neurochemistry). It won’t feel as good as adderall but the research is

pretty clear that it’s safer than adderall and has a better cognitive

enhancement profile. Less is more.

- There is a U-shaped curve - it can impair your performance, and it can

improve your performance. It will work differently for everyone.

- This does require a prescription, but most psychiatrists will write for it if you

just say you can’t focus and lose your things all the time.
Centella asiatica - Improves alertness, decreases reaction

time, improves focus, raises BDNF via MAPK proteins,

improves microcirculation, and can improve autoimmunity

as well

Polygala Tenuifolia - Used for a long time in eastern

medicine, it protects the brain, increases brain growth

factors like nerve growth factor and brain derived

neurotrophic factor

Theanine

- By itself good at improving focus, especially in anxious people.

Bacopa Monnieri

- improves various types of memory in both healthy persons and

during cognitive decline. Studies are usually 12 weeks long.

Slows cognitive decline and protects the brain from other sources of

damage.

Agmatine

- More of a cognitive enhancer for those who have anything impairing cognition such as

stress, depression, poor diet, inflammation, etc. Is naturally produced in the body, and

it’s involved with learning and memory endogenously.

Krill oil

- Better than fish oil. Doesn’t oxidize and turn rancid like fish oil, which is bad for health.

Improves brain health all around. Crosses the blood-brain barrier better than fish oil.

Take it. I like this one Amazon.com: Sports Research Antarctic Krill Oil Supplement, 500

mg EPA & DHA Omega 3 with Astaxanthin, Non-GMO, Gluten Free & IKOS Certified,

Double Strength Softgels, 120 Capsules : Health & Household

Bupropion

- If you’re depressed this is your golden ticket to better cognition (E.G. you don’t laugh at

comedy, you feel sluggish, you feel hopeless, loss of interest in sex, hobbies, sports,

insomnia or sleeping too much, anxiety, reduced appetite, recurring thoughts of death,

feelings of worthlessness or guilt - fixating on past failures) ETC then bupropion is

basically the best cognitive enhancer among all the antidepressants - it works better in

combination with escitalopram the SSRI but it’s also fine by itself.
Best resource for evaluating the research supplements in general:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t5U48wV97qX7zSkA63XDMW1fuZ8-qh6o/view?usp=sharing

Bear in mind, Examine is for clinicians mostly, and as such they review the data very

conservatively. They might rate something as having minimal evidence when in fact there are 5

or 6 studies showing benefits - it’s just the nature of research that it takes a lot of people

replicating one study before we can be confident in those results. That doesn’t mean it’s not

worth trying something if there are only a couple studies supporting its use.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have PsychonautWiki which is very liberal in their

evaluations. They rely on experience reports, and tend to test compounds that have little to no

research backing them

Studies:

To get past paywalls:

Unpaywall: An open database of 20 million free scholarly articles

CORE discovery

Open Access Button

Scholar.google.com

Pubmed

Open access journal directories

Cognitive enhancement effects of stimulants: a randomized controlled trial testing

methylphenidate, modafinil, and caffeine - PubMed (nih.gov)

Modafinil and methylphenidate for neuroenhancement in healthy individuals: A systematic

review - PubMed (nih.gov)

Neuroenhancement: State of the Art and Future Perspectives - PubMed (nih.gov)

Piracetam and piracetam-like drugs: from basic science to novel clinical applications to CNS

disorders - PubMed (nih.gov)

Neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory activity of DAT inhibitor R-phenylpiracetam in

experimental models of inflammation in male mice - PubMed (nih.gov)

Performance enhancement at the cost of potential brain plasticity: neural ramifications of

nootropic drugs in the healthy developing brain (nih.gov)

Protocols for cognitive enhancement. A user manual for Brain Health Services-part 5 of 6 -

PubMed (nih.gov)

Cognitive effects of methylphenidate in healthy volunteers: a review of single dose studies |

International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

Shuttleworth, Pierandrea Muglia, Anna C Nobre, Catherine J Harmer, Susannah E Murphy,

2018 (sagepub.com)

Panax ginseng in randomised controlled trials: a systematic review - PubMed (nih.gov)

Frontiers | A Randomized, Double-Blind Study Assessing Changes in Cognitive Function in

Indian School Children Receiving a Combination of Bacopa monnieri and Micronutrient

Supplementation vs. Placebo | Pharmacology (frontiersin.org)

The cognitive-enhancing effects of Bacopa monnieri: a systematic review of randomized,

controlled human clinical trials - PubMed (nih.gov)

Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on cognitive effects of Bacopa monnieri extract -

PubMed (nih.gov)

Cognition enhancing effect of panax ginseng in Korean volunteers with mild cognitive

impairment: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial - PubMed (nih.gov)

Active ginseng components in cognitive impairment: Therapeutic potential and prospects for

delivery and clinical study (nih.gov)

Comparative Effectiveness of Agmatine and Choline Treatment in Rats with Cognitive

Impairment Induced by AlCl 3 and Forced Swim Stress - PubMed (nih.gov)

behaviours and cognitive impairment by modulating nitrergic signalling pathway - PubMed

(nih.gov)

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Piracetam and Piracetam-Like

Compounds in Experimental Stroke - FullText - Cerebrovascular Diseases 2008, Vol. 25, No.

1-2 - Karger Publishers

Use of cognitive enhancers for mild cognitive impairment: protocol for a systematic review and

network meta-analysis - PubMed (nih.gov)

Nootropics for Healthy Individuals (trincoll.edu)

The Use and Impact of Cognitive Enhancers among University Students: A Systematic Review -

PubMed (nih.gov)

Full article: Plant-derived nootropics and human cognition: A systematic review

(tandfonline.com)