Smart Drugs
 

I searched, and found relatively little here. Anyone have experience/knowledge/opinions about nootropics, so called "smart drugs"? Supposedly they "improve memory, concentration, planning, and reduce impulsive behavior". All good things, in my book.

Nootropics come in many varieties. The racetams are the more common ones. They are promoted, sometimes illegally, by body building supplement companies as good for putting extra effort into training.

These were discussed here a few years ago. I don't remember anybody reporting benefits from them.

I just ordered some Aniracetam last night. I'll let you know what happens.

Nick

Looking forward to your report!

Aniracetam, and most of the Racetams have had a great deal of research done utilizing them to either help treat some form of Cognitive disorder, or help enhance memory in healthy patients.

I've been taking Piracetam, Pramiracetam, L-Theanine, and Alpha-GPC for the past year to help with my memory conditions.

I've dabbled with a few other Nootropics, like Aniracetam, Sulbutiamine, and Centrophenoxine. If you have any questions feel free to ask me, and I'll try to help to the best of my knowledge/abilities.

Since you've been using them for a year, might we infer that you think they are working?

They definitely seem to be working, I've noticed over the past year my focus, along with memory recall has become a lot sharper and clearer. I've even been considering adding Centrophenoxine back into my stack and replacing Alpha-GPC with CDP Choline to aim for a more mood elevating/stabilizing stack that still is beneficial to memory and thought processes.

Please keep in mind that there is a difference between enhancing a healthy brain and trying to effect healing in an injured brain. I am not saying the nootropics don't help, just that the data needs to be understood as not necessarily directed toward Post Concussion Brains.

I tried one of the Racetams about 8 months ago. It basically just dramatically sped up my metabolism and I zoomed for about 4 hours while eating everything in sight, then when it wore off I crashed and was exhausted the rest of the day. (I don't even have a BI, just a couple of very old, very mild concussions, only sequelae being tinnitus.) I decided NOT to give it to my sTBI son, it would have made his impulsitivity quite impossible to deal with. But for someone who needs to get a lot of stuff done quick and willing to take it a couple times a day then suffer the fatigue later, it could work. Cognitively I guess it helped a little. Everybody is different in that regard I suppose.

I have found a product called Focus Formula by NuLife to be very beneficial for me. It has improved my memory and concentration.

*edit*

I checked out Focus Formula by NuLife. It looks to be formulated more as a brain stimulant than a brain nutritional aid. There is a large market of brain stimulants and so called Smart Drugs. None of them can make you smarter. Any increase in brain processing speed will be followed by a need to rest the brain.

No free lunch here.

You wouldn't happen to be a NuLife distributor, would you?

I thought the same thing. His only post is to promote a product. Thankfully, Chemar was prompt to edit the post.

What did it say before?

Hi folks
Generally, we prefer not to have discussion of mod/admin edits on the forum, and it's also a good idea to let new members be checked out by us before jumping to conclusions about them ;)
We would hope this was just an informative post rather than a sales pitch.
Time will tell.........


I had edited the details about this product as they were copy/pasted directly from a website that has copyright.

Understood.

I am not a distributor for NuLife. I was rear-ended in a car accident three years ago. I had a closed head concussion, and developed Post Concussion Syndrome. I didn't get much help from the physicians I consulted. Most didn't believe that I was sick because I look fine, and was still able to work, although at a suboptimal level. I pretty much had to fend for myself, and try different treatments to address my symptoms, and improve my level of functioning.

I had problems with word finding, concentration, attention span and memory. I had great difficulty completing paper work for my job. This was very distressing to me, as I once excelled in this area. I tried a variety of different supplements. Focus Formula was the one that improved my cognitive symptoms, and enabled me to get my work done. I just wanted to share this information in the hopes that it could be of benefit to someone else. I understand what it is like to suffer, and not get the help that you need.

There's actually been quite a few studies showing various Racetam's to be beneficial in healthy individuals/subjects. I personally suffered a mild concussion in the 3rd grade however I hardly believe that it has played a largely important role in regards to my usage of Nootropics.

That is exactly my point. The needs of an injured brain are quite different than those of a healthy brain. Pushing an injured brain could be a problem.

The studies of racetams and other nootropics are anecdotal, not scientific. If they had stronger validation, the pharmaceutical companies would be trying to make a patented copy/analog of them.

Not saying they don't have value. Just the value is unknown in regards to specific brain injuries.

There is several scientific researches regarding Piracetam and several other Nootropics. You can always go to NIH and just use the Nootropics as keywords and see what all sorts of researches you can find done with them. I'd link them here but not sure what the rules are regarding 3rd party website URL's.

Also I wouldn't say I have an injured brain, I highly doubt one mild concussion in 3rd grade constitutes as a long term brain injury but then again I may be wrong.