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Piracetam is working great, but is 12mg a day safe?


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#1 Major Legend

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Posted 31 May 2011 - 03:17 AM


I just started Piracetam and its working fine, I only just started and already the effects are good. I feel very alert, its just made me a better person in general. Intelligence is lovely.

The only problem is I take about 4gs of it 3 times a day. This started because there is a guy called isochroma who claimed to take a tablespoon full of it 3 times a day, and since his report is overwhelmingly glowing I concluded that many people's lack of response may be taking it at a too low a dose.

Isochroma : My link

Not wanting to miss out I decided to do the spoon thing, only finding that a table spoon is a whacking 10g, so this guy is like taking 30g a day so I scaled down to a teaspoon and it seems to be working fine.

However this seems to be a high dose compared to most other regiments, yet I can't help to think that i'm getting a rather good effect because of my high dose.

Are there any safety concerns with taking it at such a high dose?

#2 IanA87

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Posted 31 May 2011 - 04:12 AM

Safety wise, no, there shouldn't be. Piracetam is extremely well tolerated by most people. You may get headaches if you aren't supplementing with a lot of choline.

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#3 fql

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Posted 31 May 2011 - 05:13 AM

Too high. I would suggest buying another noot with a more potent effect such as Aniracetam or combining a lower dosage (4g max) with caffeine.
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#4 manic_racetam

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Posted 31 May 2011 - 05:41 AM

The only thing I worry about with high dose piracetam is that it's processed mainly through the kidneys. 12g a day is a lot of extra stuff to force through your kidneys. Lots of people do such doses and you'll get mixed responses. I take creatine and protein powder daily as well, which means I'm already taxing my kidneys so I like to keep my piracetam intake relatively low. You may want to experiment with lower dosages to see if you respond at 3-4 grams per day. Counter-intuitively piracetam works better in lower doses for some people.

Also, isochroma stated that he had some sort of deficiency or cognitive issue (paraphrasing from memory, can't remember exact details) and that piracetam made him more "normal". And the glowing posts may have been a form of racetam induced mania... which I experience on some of the stronger analogs (particularly ani and oxi)... Anyway, that's getting off topic.

Safety issue? Probably not. A waste of product from not testing lower dosages first?... Personally I'd start lower and work up to a baseline just for knowledge's sake. Unlike prescription drugs, you make your own dosages with nootropics, and you may as well play it safe (AKA: take it slow) until you become familiar with a substance.

#5 FDA Approved

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Posted 31 May 2011 - 02:24 PM

See this post to see how the large doses of piracetam affected Isochroma.

http://www.longecity...post__p__417927

#6 Major Legend

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Posted 31 May 2011 - 04:55 PM

I believe I have taken 1g before with nowhere near the effect 4gs is giving me at the moment, but then the supplier was different and of less quality then in my opinion.

More info from people would be nice? whats the general maximum daily dose? I am taking piracetam also for suspected brain/nervous system damage, okay I am definitely not crazy like isochroma yet...

#7 Introspecta

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Posted 31 May 2011 - 05:37 PM

When i use piracetam these days i need huge doses to notice affects. 15-30 grams a day. But... I've been supplementing off and on for about 3-4 years with the stuff. In the beginning i got good effects with 2-4 grams a day doses. Like the other poster said start as low as possible. Or take your large dose then go down in doses the next few days and you may realize that your still getting the effects.

There is something that just doesn't seem right about taking 20 plus caps of piractem to achieve a good effect which is why i don't use it as often these days. I also notice that when i'm using mega doses then run out i feel like my memory sucks and i'm a bit tired for a few days which i would attribute to adrenal fatigue from the piracetam. Its the same with caffiene where if i use a lot for a few days i'm tired for a few days later until my body normalizes.

After taking months long breaks i figured my tolerance to piracetam would go down but that doesn't seem to be the case. I may have to take a year off in order to achieve the effects i once got. Theres always the possibility that the quality isn't as good these days but i have no way to test so i'm not sure about that.

#8 bdoris

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Posted 31 May 2011 - 08:45 PM

I believe I have taken 1g before with nowhere near the effect 4gs is giving me at the moment, but then the supplier was different and of less quality then in my opinion.

More info from people would be nice? whats the general maximum daily dose? I am taking piracetam also for suspected brain/nervous system damage, okay I am definitely not crazy like isochroma yet...


The good thing about Piracetam is its extremely low toxicity - some people take as much as 20 grams per day, to reduce myoclonic seizures.

So no, safety wise- it's certainly not an issue. I do think that you could take a quarter of that, with a choline source or DHEA (or Centrophenoxin), and the effects would be the same, perhaps even more pronounced; Piracetam effects are greatly reduced if there is insufficient choline in your body; beef, veal and particularly lamb liver, boiled eggs, fish, chicken, cauliflowers, spinach, et caetera are good source of choline, so you may not need to take those supplements unless you are doing an hypocaloric diet or not eating enough of the mentioned food.

#9 keintabak

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 06:07 AM

I suffered an ischemic stroke in my left hemisphere march 31, 2006. It caused long term damage to my communication skills; reading, speech, finding and saying the right word, verbal comprehension (my ability to understand speech), and even my ability to 'hear' a song in my head were all scrambled. It took me 3 says in the ICU and 5 days in a hospital bed before I was able to write my own name, and then I was allowed to be discharged under supervision. However, it was months before I was well enough to try communicating with anyone outside my immediate family. It was a full-blown cerebrovascular accident, and I was 32 years old.

As the years followed, I got 'better' and continued to work on my stroke-recovery on my own, because I had no insurance. However, 4 years after the incident I was still acutely aware of how screwed up I was (am) and how far away I was (am) from being normal again. So, I began researching possible treatments for the chief symptoms that continued to trouble me, alexia and aphasia, and this in turn lead me to piracetam. Around the same time I read about adderall.

It was actually easier for me to try Adderall first because there were so many friends who had prescriptions for it, while Piracetam eluded me because I wasn't sure it was legal or available in the US. So, I tried a low dose (10mg a day) of Adderall IR for a week and the results were amazing. It worked so well that for the first time in 4 years I was quick enough to take part in a social conversation! Previously, I'd become a hermit because never understanding speech quickly enough or getting the right words out in time was frustrating to the point of tears. Trying to understand speech in a noisy environment actually made my head spin and hurt. On Adderall i didn't matter if I was in a restaurant with music playing and a hundred people talking in the background, because I could tune into one voice and latch onto it, as long as I wanted to. There were a few problems with adderall, I soon discovered: 1.) I was intense on adderall. I was more like an interrogator once I joined in because I was so focused, and only onto one person at a time. It was like a mental spot-beam, and I often didn't even hear other people talking to me, just the one I'd 'tuned in to'. 2.) Its efficacy faded after a short time, and then seemed to stop working at all if I ate anything 3.) doing extreme physical exercises shortly after taking it made me worry that my heart would be damaged. I only had a week's supply, so I immediately began contacting doctors to see if they would help me get on Adderall, but no one wanted to touch me with a 10-foot pole because I'd suffered a stroke.

Then a family member discovered Piracetam at a local nutrition store and bought me a 240-count / 800mg bottle of CTD-brand Piracetam. The first day I took (3) doses of (3) 800mg pills , each dose with 2 heaping tablespoons of soy lecithin, and I felt no change. The second day at the same regimen, I began suffering headaches that started in my temples, then spread to behind my eyes, then all the way back to the back of my neck, but I did begin to feel quite mentally... off. The third day I took the same regimen and I the headaches were so all-encompassing that I was bed-ridden with fevered dreams, and I would wake up in a cold sweat. I tried this for one more day at the same doses because I wanted very badly for it to work, but I was so out of it with the pain that I thought I may be in trouble. So I stopped, and after another day of bed res and a lot of food and water, I got back to normal. When I was able to, I researched and discovered that I should have been taking a LOT more choline and that my body was not getting the choline out of the lecithin and into my brain fast enough, thus the headaches. My family member, who was on adderall (I was NOT on adderall at all) and was also trying Piracetam at the same time, suffered no headaches at all but also felt no effects.

My next time around, I took the same 3 daily 3 pills of 800mg Piracetam but this time with 2 pills of 300mg choline bitartrate per each pill of Piracetam, meaning each dose I took 2400mg Piracetam and 1800mg choline bitartrate, and viola: no more headaches at all. Prior to that, I'd tried getting my choline source by eating tons of hard boiled eggs and massive amounts of lecithin, and it never got enough choline into me to prevent the Piracetam headaches. After 3 days at that dosage I reduced my intake to 2 Piracetam + 4 choline bitartrate (3) times per day, and the results were good. My speech and verbal comprehension were at least as good as I did on the Adderall, plus I felt more creative and had better workouts than I did prior. There were a few unexpected, angry outbursts that concerned me because there was no warning that I would do something impulsive, and also my reflexes were greatly improved and also very impulsive (diving to catch falling objects unexpectedly, that sort of thing). So when I finally had a doctor willing to give me adderall and put my on XR at a higher dosage, I stopped taking the Piracetam because a.) they seemed to cancel each other out when I tried taking both together, and b.) the FDA pulled all piracetam off the shelves at all of the store that carried it. Then I started suffering the same problem everyone else who ever takes adderall regularly: tolerance.

I need to sew this rambling message up here... I decided to get off the Adderall again because the increasing doses of adderall (20mg/daily now) started to make me nervous, and eating at all on it makes me suffer a terrible narcoleptic effect. So now I am back on Piracetam, on day 4 now, and discovered that choline citrate gave me headaches and once again, bitartrate does not. So for me at least, choline bitartrate seems to be more effective with Piracetam. Adderall seems to make me "feel" smarter and it definitely gives my give me energy and I feel motivated, but when it comes right down to it cognitively, Piracetam beats it hands-down. Thanks.

Edited by keintabak, 19 August 2011 - 06:10 AM.

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#10 Baten

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 07:24 AM

Since people respond to piracetam in a sort of bell curve- way, 12g seems quite a lot to be optimal

#11 k10

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 07:41 PM

Plus isochroma was nuts, he's infamous around here for his crazy piracetam rants. I dunno if I'd follow what he said. He seemed very out of it and very hypomanic, which tells me mega-dosing piracetam may not be so good for your mental status.

Edited by k10, 19 August 2011 - 07:42 PM.


#12 Thorsten3

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 08:19 PM

Indeed I never understood why people worshipped him the way they did. He was a talented writer but that was all. The guy was a hypomanic fruitloop.

#13 manic_racetam

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Posted 19 August 2011 - 09:15 PM

Anyone with tendencies towards manic-behavior, diagnosed or not, should be very careful with any unsupervised medicating. I can relate to the mind-states that the racetams took isochroma to, but I cannot relate to deliberately indulging in them. I started getting pretty twacked out (AKA manic, VERY impulsive and isolating-behavior) on a daily ani-oxiracetam combo and took myself off the meds. Don't get me wrong, I was enjoying it and I felt some nice cognitive benefits, but it was definitely not having a net-positive effect on my life.

This doesn't mean I'm not willing to try new nootropics. I just do my best to monitor my thoughts and activities with a daily journal and honest friends and watch out for the familiar signs of mania coming on. I've found a few nootropics through this trial and error method that have been very effective for me and fortunately lack the manic side effects that accompanied the ani-oxi combo.

Piracetam has nearly imperceptible effects on me except for the occasional vivid dream if I take a high-dose before bed.

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#14 Dirk_Diggler

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Posted 22 August 2011 - 03:00 AM

Only thing I would worry about (besides the kidney thing) would be heavy metal accumulation. I have taken high doses of Piracetam and there seems to be no real advantage over taking smaller, more moderate amounts. With the exception of vivid dreams...high doses of Piracetam (for me, atleast) do increase the likelihood of having a more vivid dream.

And I would also think about what juryben said about taking a more potent analog of piracetam such as Aniracetam, Oxiracetam, or Pramiracetam.

Edited by Dirk_Diggler, 22 August 2011 - 03:02 AM.





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