The Nootropics Thread

[diachi]

Nope. That was the first thing I noticed with piracetam. Just wanna talk, be around people, get more socially active. Make new friends. Discuss.

It gives you an amazing confidence boost.

Glad it isn't just me! I practically went from introvert to extrovert! And the effects last too!

If you are finding that supplements are helping you then great. I worry about long term effects that have yet to be discovered.

PLEASE PLEASE be extremely careful.

Better safe then sorry long term down the road. :tinfoil:

Definitely agreed. The nice thing with Piracetam at least is that it has been around since the 70s, so there has been a fair amount of research done on that one - many of the others not so much!

Gotta stick to the recommended doses though - or at least close to them. Never understood these people that are taking mega doses of various substances.

 

[Vision]

:beer:

 

[Bionic-Badger]

I've never had any noticeable effect when using 5-HTP. Supposedly, it is no good without other precursors, but I haven't bought those to try them out.

More recently, and anecdotally, I've been taking about 1.5g of piracetam right before going to bed and I've been having some pretty good, vivid dreams where I can remember bits of them pretty well.

In the past I've had that too, when I was using noopept, and interestingly enough, in those dreams I could recognize symbols/words, even though I still couldn't "read" in the dream (as I've heard you can't). So maybe there's something there.

Other nootropics I need to try out on a more systematic basis are coluracetam and fasoracetam. I bought them a while ago, but didn't follow through with a multi-week test.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Still not very interested in doing this myself, but seems like an interesting topic. I'm satisfied with my memory and intellectual ability enough right now. If there was something that could really boost my energy and motivation though.:thinking:

Maybe look at nicotine? This doesn't mean taking up smoking or vaping all the time, but you can use it judiciously for positive reinforcement in a feedback loop when doing certain tasks. Eventually, you may not even need that "magic feather" at all.

 

[Rivem]

Maybe look at nicotine? This doesn't mean taking up smoking or vaping all the time, but you can use it judiciously for positive reinforcement in a feedback loop when doing certain tasks. Eventually, you may not even need that "magic feather" at all.

I pretty much use caffeine like this. Not that my motivation issues are very bad, but it'd be nice to get through things without the feeling of such exertion. Like I said earlier though, my family's turning out to have some serious vitamin deficiencies that can really cut back energy levels (and cause other serious problems).

 

[Benm]

Yea I mix up GABA and Serotonin, also the bean of the African plant Griffonia simplicifolia that it is made from had an impurity problem years ago and it really messed some people up, some had neurological problems that simply could not be fixed.

Some herbal stuff is powerful yet not regulated for safety or purity, so be carful, study first.

I would say that most 'herbal stuff' is not regulated much at all. Generally it's only banned when it contains banned substances, or poses a great health risk even at suggested amounts (which would be 200mg/day maximum for 5-htp).

One case that comes to mind is ephedra, a herbal source of ephedrine. This was commonly marketed as a weight loss supplement 10 years ago or so, and combined with caffeine and some aspirin proved pretty effective. The combination of stimulants in those pills could also be moderately dangerous when taken in large amount and was suspect cause of a couple of heart attacks.

It was banned in many countries, though i'm not sure for the actual reason, as ephedrin makes a good precursor in meth synthesis.

Often prescription drugs are much more understood and tested compared to herbal solutions, a good example is modafinil. In most countries it's prescription only, but easily obtained and use or posession of small amounts is not illegal.

From a safety aspect it is pretty well understood, and normal doses are safe to use unless you have some pre-existing condition that can cause problems. This would also be true for drinking large amounts of coffee, and to me the effects are quite comparable though coffee tastes a whole lot better

 

[Vision]

One case that comes to mind is ephedra, a herbal source of ephedrine. This was commonly marketed as a weight loss supplement 10 years ago or so, and combined with caffeine and some aspirin proved pretty effective.

It was banned in many countries, though i'm not sure for the actual reason, as ephedrin makes a good precursor in meth synthesis.

Often prescription drugs are much more understood and tested compared to herbal solutions, a good example is modafinil. In most countries it's prescription only, but easily obtained and use or posession of small amounts is not illegal.

The reason was that the pills were so small, newcomers wanting to lose fat didn't think they'd do anything but they eventually got what they deserved, heart attack and death. I take ephedrine when I want to get to that low 6-5% body fat contest shape, works amazing. My usually workout routine makes me drop 2-2.5lbs per week with ephedrine that's 4-5. Obviously not good for my heart, which is why I limit it to the last 3 weeks only. Not saying it's safe, but badly portrayed and no legitimate reason given. Similar to, 1,3 Dimethyl.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Hey Ultron, that signature is kind of annoying. It creates a horizontal scrollbar on my screen at my normal screen res. Can you reduce its size or something, please?

 

[Vision]

Hey Ultron, that signature is kind of annoying. It creates a horizontal scrollbar on my screen at my normal screen res. Can you reduce its size or something, please?

Oh that sucks. I'll see what I can do reduce the core size.

Edit: Should be good now.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

Thanks Ultron! I think your signature looks even cooler now now too.

 

[Benm]

The reason was that the pills were so small, newcomers wanting to lose fat didn't think they'd do anything but they eventually got what they deserved, heart attack and death. I take ephedrine when I want to get to that low 6-5% body fat contest shape, works amazing. My usually workout routine makes me drop 2-2.5lbs per week with ephedrine that's 4-5. Obviously not good for my heart, which is why I limit it to the last 3 weeks only. Not saying it's safe, but badly portrayed and no legitimate reason given. Similar to, 1,3 Dimethyl.

The ones here actualy came as rather large capsules, but that was probably because they were of herbal origin (i.e. ephedra plant material for ephedrine etc).

As to what caused the heart attacks it's hard to tell. There haven't that many cases, and it's perfectly possible that the victims took a lot of them. Survivors probably won't admit to taking way over the recommended dose, and i doubt much work has been done to determine how much the fatalities took.

Also the causal evidence is not that clear. If you attribute every heart attack in a person that had coffee in the previous 24 hours, i'm sure you could make it look like caffeine is responsible for half of all heart attacks.

Considering that millions used ephedra/stackers for weight loss and only a few dozen potentially died of them, they're probably not -that- dangerous. It would also be reasonable to deduce the reduced casualities from obesity it prevented, making it hard to prove that, on average, taking modest amounts of ephedra for weight loss is likely to reduce your lifespan at all.

People die of mecidation, both otc and prescription, side-effects all the time. Then again, more people would die from not taking that medication in the first place. I guess it's a risk analysis thing that works out on large groups, but still causes a stirr is someone famous dies.

 

[Rokakku]

How much does your rotation end up costing a month, seems like you have a good few supplements on the go? I'm interested in Aniracetam + L-theanine and my mate usually just gives me a modafinil when I have deadlines and coursework to do.

 

[Vision]

How much does your rotation end up costing a month, seems like you have a good few supplements on the go? I'm interested in Aniracetam + L-theanine and my mate usually just gives me a modafinil when I have deadlines and coursework to do.

No idea. I have a few sources directly from pharmaceutical and research companies, that reduces my cost by a lot but honestly, I don't ever keep count. $250-500-1000+? Maybe Idk.
Price changes all the time depending on where I'm buying and whether its a company based in a the U.S where a simple antibiotic costs $200.... I buy in bulk and store.
You don't need anything that complex, that's just for pure zoned in mode.

L-theanine + choline + caffeine + aniracetam should be great.

 

[diachi]

No idea. I have a few sources directly from pharmaceutical and research companies, that reduces my cost by a lot but honestly, I don't ever keep count. $250-500-1000+? Maybe Idk.
Price changes all the time depending on where I'm buying and whether its a company based in a the U.S where a simple antibiotic costs $200.... I buy in bulk and store.
You don't need anything that complex, that's just for pure zoned in mode.

L-theanine + choline + caffeine + aniracetam should be great.

Don't necessarily need the choline if you're getting enough from your diet. I eat at least a dozen and a half eggs a week for example, so I don't seem to need the choline supplement.

Try different racetams if aniracetam doesn't work for you - some work better than others for different people. I seem to have had good success with piracetam and phenylpiracetam.

I'm not sure if this fits in this thread - but some consider this a nootropic at low doses: LSD. SWIM started experimenting with microdoses of LSD (<20ug) to see if it offers any nootropics effects without the hallucinations. SWIM is leaving it for the weekends though, just in case SWIM ends up accidentally having a little too much... :shhh::shhh::shhh:

 

[Vision]

I'm not sure if this fits in this thread - but some consider this a nootropic at low doses: LSD. SWIM started experimenting with microdoses of LSD (<20ug) to see if it offers any nootropics effects without the hallucinations. SWIM is leaving it for the weekends though, just in case SWIM ends up accidentally having a little too much... :shhh::shhh::shhh:

There are a lot of drugs that have very short benefits despite their downsides but there's not gonna be any study to try and find out what they are. This is why the Nazi's cruel experiments opened a lot of doors for science. During that time period, everything regarding medical technology skyrocketed.
Progress requires experimentation.

 

[Benm]

Well, this is not the only reason really.

One big issue, especially in the US, is that is is very difficult to legally conduct any experiments that involve illegal drugs. If you wanted to do some controlled experiment on LSD, there would be the matter of obtaining that LSD being illegal, distributing it would be illegal, and perhaps even using it would be illegal (not sure on the last).

Things like LSD don't have any registered medical use, making them downright illegal under any circumstances. It would be easier to conduct a study using heroin which has a medical use (prescribed as 'diamorphine' which is the exact same substance as heroin).

Regulations are sometimes totally odd and do block legitimate research in things that are relatively innocent, but for some reason considered recreational drugs with no therapeutic value. How one is -ever- to discover therapeutic value without allowing research was probably not on the legislators minds.