Nootropics

[saor]

Until then I see no reason to expect the very worse or worry about old wives' tales, when in actual fact there are many positive experience reports about Hydrafinil on the internet.

My confirmation bias works something like this: When I encounter novel drugs that don't have any (human) clinical trials, I generally assume they aren't good & lean toward paying more attention to the negative rather than the positive. If we didn't have cigarettes and they just came out on the market - we'd also have plenty glowing reddit reviews, but that's hardly a good enough reason to jump on the bandwagon & start smoking.

There's a minimum amount of data required in order to make my mind up about a drug, and hydrafinil doesn't have anything close to the kind of data required to make a reasonably informed decision. It being stocked by a popular vendor and it being popular on reddit aren't sufficient data points.

But yeah, I also appreciate the availability of these drugs locally .

 

[Nuke]

I for one am grateful that compounds like Hydrafinil have been made available here in SA and value the freedom of choice to decide whether I'd like to try them or not.

I'm with you on freedom of choice to use what you want, but I'm afraid reddit reports and Ceretropic are not valid sources to say if its safe. I have seen bro-science on reddit that will make your hear rise. A good place to start research is Pubmed. There is nothing on Hydrafinil there. Personally I'll stick to Modafinil for when I need a wakefulness drug.

This does not mean I'm against novel substances. But I do months of research before taking anything strange and even then I take small amounts. To give you an idea, about a year on C60, 10 months on Epitalon, 6 months on Pinealon and Cortagen and 4 months on nasal insulin. I'm still reading anything new on C60, GDF11, bNGF, P21, DSIP and a few other things.

To many people lately call research chemicals nootropics.

 

[Randy_Andy]

The clarity has been game-changing. Been getting waaaay more done.

Now I don't know which one is working because (I was desperate and so) I've been taking them all together

Phenylpiracetam is a favourite of mine, you should try adding 100mg to a scoop of pre-workout (I quite like Evox's 3DT2 as there are some overlapping brain health nutrients) before exercising - gives your workout that focused determination and energy feel that gets me firing on all cylinders.

 

[Randy_Andy]

My confirmation bias works something like this: When I encounter novel drugs that don't have any (human) clinical trials, I generally assume they aren't good & lean toward paying more attention to the negative rather than the positive. If we didn't have cigarettes and they just came out on the market - we'd also have plenty glowing reddit reviews, but that's hardly a good enough reason to jump on the bandwagon & start smoking.

There's a minimum amount of data required in order to make my mind up about a drug, and hydrafinil doesn't have anything close to the kind of data required to make a reasonably informed decision. It being stocked by a popular vendor and it being popular on reddit aren't sufficient data points.

Tying in to my original post, I find it interesting that you decide to lean toward the negative rather than the positive with something that doesn't have sufficient data points for you. Personally I tend to lean toward the positive, especially in a case like this where the negative is an absurd article and the positive is numerous reviews on popular forums and a popular vendor having stocked it for years without issue.

Yes there are no human clinical trials proving Hydrafinil's safety, but there's also nothing proving that it is unsafe in any way. Btw do you have any idea what human clinical trials cost? On average, 30-40 million dollars with an average waiting period of 10 to 15 years. Don't get me wrong, I'm not supporting the use of Hydrafinil or saying anyone should take it, but just about slamming it because of an obscure article is a bit silly.

I don't think cigarettes are a very good example of what you're trying to illustrate, considering that it makes most people feel physically ill the first time they smoke a cigarette. And Nicotine by itself is a rather excellent nootropic; 1mg of nicorette gum (available at most Dischems) with a cup of coffee gives me excellent focused attention for a few hours.

 

[Randy_Andy]

I'm with you on freedom of choice to use what you want, but I'm afraid reddit reports and Ceretropic are not valid sources to say if its safe. I have seen bro-science on reddit that will make your hear rise. A good place to start research is Pubmed. There is nothing on Hydrafinil there. Personally I'll stick to Modafinil for when I need a wakefulness drug.

To many people lately call research chemicals nootropics.

There's that negativity again. Nobody said it was safe, and nobody was implying you should take it if you don't want to (this looks like classic FOMO IMHO). Why is it bothering you what other people are calling things, isn't it more beneficial to focus on your own life and call things exactly what you'd like to?

 

[Randy_Andy]

Moving along and getting back to the topic of nootropics and brain health. I would love to hear what some of your guys' favourite cognitive enhancers and lifestyle choices are that has benefited you personally, here's my top 5s that I've found to be quite helpful and don't mind sharing

Supps:
The basics - low dose good quality multi, good quality omega 3 with high DHA
Herbals - I quite like curcumin, ginkgo, green tea extract & ashwagandha
Mitochondrial enhancers - I take a mix of ALCAR, CoQ10, ALA, NAC and daily C60 OO to keep those mitos in tip top shape (Nuke mentioned PQQ which is also a good one, just the cost and hassle of having to import proves to be prohibitive
Coluracetam - Occasional use @ 15mg orally does the trick for me, I have found this to be my favourite racetam next to phenyl and less intrusive than the others in that I find it enhances my natural self without altering my personality in any significant way
Acetyl-Semax - If I had to choose only one only it would be this, starts working from the first day and would compare it to an IQ booster shot of approximately 15 points (not very scientific I know, but is the best way of describing the effects for me)

Lifestyle:
Quality sleep - 9 hours for me
Healthy diet - intermittent fasting accompanied by low carb, lot's of good fats, meats and greens
Exercise - cardio and weight training (mentioned the phenyl & pre-workout that helps allot with motivation)
Yoga & Meditation - nothing major, a quick 10 min yoga session accompanied by 20 mins of mediation is so relaxing and grounding
Brain Training - doesn't have to be apps necessarily, but just pushing your cognitive capacity every now and then. I find dual-n-back, cambridge brain sciences & IQ tests to be great practice

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

So I did eventually get an effect out of aniracetam on Friday, but I'm not sure if the effect was good. Dosed about 1g in the morning, and had a hectic crash at around 4pm, followed by anxiety and general depression - pretty much the opposite of what it was supposed to do! I had to leave work to go home and sleep...

 

[Nuke]

Hi Andy

My post is more aimed towards a random new person reading this thread. People read that ginkgo and lionsmane are nootropics and the read about something like sunifiram is a "nootropic" too. You can buy both online for a few $. How many people actually do the detailed research to find out what they are using, how safe it is and how it works? Especially is people talk about it like its aspirin?

FOMO? Nope, not interested in using it at all. I have enough other chemicals to play with.

I see you have NA-Semax. Have you tried normal Semax or NA-Semax-amidate too? How about Selank? How long have you been using it?

Not really a consumable nootropic, but have anyone played with neurofeedback yet? I'm interested in a Q-wiz. That way I can do EEG, ECG(for HRV) and HEG.

 

[Randy_Andy]

So I did eventually get an effect out of aniracetam on Friday, but I'm not sure if the effect was good. Dosed about 1g in the morning, and had a hectic crash at around 4pm, followed by anxiety and general depression - pretty much the opposite of what it was supposed to do! I had to leave work to go home and sleep...

Hehe sounds like a very strange reaction to Aniracetam Mike, were you taking anything with it on that day? Another thing worth considering is that Ani has a very short half-life of 1 - 2.5 hours, meaning that if you dosed in the morning it would of been totally out of your system by 4pm and you might of been experiencing effects of returning to baseline (which would make sense in a way). From my experience though, I've found around 500mg in my morning bulletproof coffee (ani fat soluble so mixes well with the grass fed butter & MCT) works quite well.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Hehe sounds like a very strange reaction to Aniracetam Mike, were you taking anything with it on that day? Another thing worth considering is that Ani has a very short half-life of 1 - 2.5 hours, meaning that if you dosed in the morning it would of been totally out of your system by 4pm and you might of been experiencing effects of returning to baseline (which would make sense in a way). From my experience though, I've found around 500mg in my morning bulletproof coffee (ani fat soluble so mixes well with the grass fed butter & MCT) works quite well.

Well I took it some time between 10-11am because I had a few meetings that I thought it would help with. Not sure how long it would have taken, but the crash was pretty hectic. Before that i hadn't noticed anything as before, it already felt like I was at the baseline. So it felt weird to just crash for no reason. Noopept seems to work a bit better now so I haven't taken it since.

I did give the ani to my gf, and it seemed to make her share stuff that she didn't really want to, which was fun...

 

[Randy_Andy]

Hi Andy

My post is more aimed towards a random new person reading this thread. People read that ginkgo and lionsmane are nootropics and the read about something like sunifiram is a "nootropic" too. You can buy both online for a few $. How many people actually do the detailed research to find out what they are using, how safe it is and how it works? Especially is people talk about it like its aspirin?

FOMO? Nope, not interested in using it at all. I have enough other chemicals to play with.

I see you have NA-Semax. Have you tried normal Semax or NA-Semax-amidate too? How about Selank? How long have you been using it?

Not really a consumable nootropic, but have anyone played with neurofeedback yet? I'm interested in a Q-wiz. That way I can do EEG, ECG(for HRV) and HEG.

Hey, I get what you're saying and totally agree, one should always do some quality research of your own before ingesting any substance, emphasis on quality Nope I've only had the privilege of trying the Acetyl-Semax on 3 separate occasions over the last year for a month at a time, would love to try the others still!

I actually went ahead and purchased a fully equipped Q-wiz from Pocketneurobics.com a while back. Set me back about 15k, but then there was a problem with their customer support where I didn't get any replies to e-mails up until 2 weeks after the purchase (and it not having shipped yet). When they eventually got back to me it was a case of they cannot guarantee that I'll receive the product with customs red-tape etc etc. And I ended up deciding that I wasn't comfortable with it and requested a refund. Still a top priority of mine though, especially interested in the TAG sync protocol. Well if there are any takers, I would be up for a group buy - sharing the cost and rotating the device on a monthly basis kind of thing.

 

[saor]

(Nuke mentioned PQQ which is also a good one, just the cost and hassle of having to import proves to be prohibitive

Damn. Just checked on Swanson - $55 for door-door DHL. Crazy.

 

[saor]

N-Acetyl Semax locally: https://upgradedself.co.za/collections/all-products/products/n-acetyl-semax-spray
Anyone tried it yet?

 

[Kwerty]

N-Acetyl Semax locally: https://upgradedself.co.za/collections/all-products/products/n-acetyl-semax-spray
Anyone tried it yet?

Not that I know anything about Nootropics, but having the website link to Reddit and Wikipedia for more information as sources would not inspire confidence in me.

 

[saor]

Not that I know anything about Nootropics, but having the website link to Reddit and Wikipedia for more information as sources would not inspire confidence in me.

I'm totally fine with that. They post studies, they get accused of cherry-picking. They don't have to post info, it's nice that they do. I've always had great service from them.

 

[Nuke]

Huh. I made a port about a month ago, and it seems it just disappeared.

On another note. I pulled the trigger on a Q-wiz + accessories. I have no idea where the Rand is going, so it did seem like a good time.

 

[saor]

On another note. I pulled the trigger on a Q-wiz + accessories. I have no idea where the Rand is going, so it did seem like a good time.

Nice.
Do consider renting it out for a month .

 

[saor]

On another note. I pulled the trigger on a Q-wiz + accessories.

Arrived yet?
Which protocol you going to start with?
Curious to hear your thoughts on it.

 

[Nuke]

It has arrived, just started playing with it over the weekend.

Starting out with nirHEG and SMR. Both seems pretty safe. Well the HEG if you don't overdo it and the SMR as long as you can find Cz (or C3 and C4). I'll do a TLC7 assessment to see what they recommend one of these days. Other than that I'm doing research on TAGsync, Infra low frequencies and Entropy that may be a good idea for anyone. Its quite a learning curve, so far most of my studies was on the chemistry side because that is how supplements work. EEG is something totally new.

The 12-15Hz SMR seems pretty relaxing. Trying narrow band SMR(13.5-14.5Hz) did not go that well, I got extremely irritated. But it may also be that I was at it for an extended time.

My biggest issue is my hair. On the one end getting the electrode to stick where I want it and the other the mess it makes. I have long hair, so its a PITA having to wash it every time I'm done playing.

 

[mister]

Huh. I made a port about a month ago, and it seems it just disappeared.

On another note. I pulled the trigger on a Q-wiz + accessories. I have no idea where the Rand is going, so it did seem like a good time.

I'm so jealous!