6 replies to this topic

[Ghostrider]

Age: 23 years old
Weight: 135-140
Height: 5'7"
Gender: Male
No medications, took Roche Accutane in the past.
I am somewhat lazy and often just feel like sleeping as an alternative to doing work, but when I need to concentrate, I have no touble concentrating.

Here's my current stack:

Morning immediately after waking up:

250 mg ALA

15 minutes later:
500 mg Acetyl-L-Carnitine
800 mg Piracetam
1 capsule of Ortho-Mind

Afternoon
800 mg Piracetam

Evening Before Bed:
1 gram inositol
200 mg L-Theanine
500 mg Taurine

I have taken up to 1600 mg Piracetam in the morning, but I honestly don't notice a difference over 800 mg Piracetam. When I take the additional 800 mg of Piracetam, I also take 300 mg Alpha-GPC. However, I cannot feel any benefit to taking the Alpha-GPC alone.

I have also tried 250 mg DMAE, but found no benefit at all.

I have been taking the Piracetam for a week now and I have noticed an increase in my verbal processing speed -- associated with reading comprehension and I can seem to be able to formulate longer and more complex sentences ad-hoc, on the fly. Most notably, I often have songs stuck in my head and I can seem to replay the songs with higher clarity -- kind of like the difference between listening to cassette playback vs. CD playback. Besides this, I have noticed any more lucid dreams -- I usually don't remember my dreams in the morning. I have always appreciated music and consider myself to be almost an audiophile, but I don't think Piracetam has enhanced my listening experience at all.

I have tried Aniracetam, it seems to wake my mind up slightly, but I cannot properly quantify the experience beyond placebo effect. I think it is doing something, I just don't know how to describe it properly. Perhaps slightly stimulating. Should it be used consistently with Piracetam? The effects of Aniracetam die off faster compared to Piracetam, correct?

I also tried L-Tyrosine and thought that the stuff was awesome for the first three days, but after that, I received no effect so I stopped taking it. I might try it again soon, but the tolerance kinda bites.

In order of effectiveness, I would have to say piracetam followed by ALCAR. L-Theanine and inositol mostly just help me sleep better. So where should I look next for improved cognative performance -- specifically targeting more alertness and energy during the day and again building of the benefits of Piracetam in regards to faster mental processing speed. Piracetam seems to have helped in some respects, but it does not seem to improve my mood and wake up my mind all that much. Is Hydergine recommended / healthy to use?

[doug123]

Your questions would take me an hour to type an appropriate reply. If you want to talk, I can confident I answer your questions better. Peace.

[doug123]

Here is the literature on adrafinil (600mg adrafinil is rougly equivalent in effects to 200mg modafinil) I suggested you evaluate:

Adrafinil: A Novel Vigilance Promoting Agent
CNS Drug Reviews
Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 193–212
© 1999 Neva Press, Branford, Connecticut

http://www.nevapress...ull/5/3/193.pdf

Nick Boström on cognitive enhancement, webcast presentation at the Oxford conf (thank Opales for this link):
Click below for an excellent video (REAL PLAYER required):

http://streaming.oii...6/16032006-1.rm

The second speaker in the above video focuses on modafinil (the primary metabolite of adrafinil) primarily.

Peace.

[Ghostrider]

Here is the literature on adrafinil (600mg adrafinil is rougly equivalent in effects to 200mg modafinil) I suggested you evaluate:

Adrafinil: A Novel Vigilance Promoting Agent
CNS Drug Reviews
Vol. 5, No. 3, pp. 193–212
© 1999 Neva Press, Branford, Connecticut

http://www.nevapress...ull/5/3/193.pdf

Nick Boström on cognitive enhancement, webcast presentation at the Oxford conf (thank Opales for this link):
Click below for an excellent video (REAL PLAYER required):

http://streaming.oii...6/16032006-1.rm

The second speaker in the above video focuses on modafinil (the primary metabolite of adrafinil) primarily.

Peace.

I read the PDF, but could not get the video link to work with Real Player. I looked into Adrafinil, but reports of it seem to indicate benefit only under sleep deprivation and otherwise little benefit and some cases of negative side effects such as elevated heart rate (http://www.erowid.or...xp.php?ID=25610) and some reports of irrability and "inner tension" (http://www.erowid.or...xp.php?ID=10393). Granted, the personal reports are completely subjective -- anyone can post a comment about their experience under no editorial supervision. However, I care more about how the substance actually affects one psychologically as opposed to how it helped a mouse navigate through a maze. True, an experiment which shows that a substance can help a mouse more effeciently navigate through a maze would indicate a good candidate for further research, but I ultimately want to know how a substance enabled enhanced mental / academic performance. I also spoke with two members of this forum exigentsky (today) and Dopamine (may 21) about their experience with Modalert and Modafinil, respectively. I would encourage them to post their responses or with their permission, I would like to post their response as they seem to indicate that the only real benefit arrived under condition of sleep deprivation. So I question primarily the benefit in healthy well-rested people and secondarily the effects on long-term health.

Studies cited here: http://nootropics.ip...owtopic=55&st=7 show that Oxyracetam is effective in healthy participants (although many of the studies are performed on unhealthy people as well). So I have to ask the following questions:

1. Compared to any *racetam, which substance will provide the best benefit in cognitive enhancement: *racetam or adrafinil? I ask this first as a subjective question calling on personal experience, but if you have some studies which directly compare the two substances, please share.

2. Which substance is most beneficial to one's overall health -- in regards to anti-aging and preserving/improving cognitive function with age?

The second question will be difficult to answer due to lack of available data. Although known side effects should give some indication.

Anyway, I think this topic deserves some more discussion. Are *racetams really worthless or next to insignificant? Is there such a thing as a smart drug which also enhances one's long-term health?

[doug123]

That study you cited does not say oxiracetam is effective in healthy participants. It merely is measuring bioavailability. I need to downsize those fonts!

There is no data from healthy volunteers on effectiveness of racetams.

Read the entire adrafinil article. You missed all of the important stuff. I think you probably have an attention/memory related disorder. I told you like 10 times on the phone yesterday that adrafinil has been used clinically since the early 1980's -- in HUMANS 45 and older.

2. Which substance is most beneficial to one's overall health -- in regards to anti-aging and preserving/improving cognitive function with age?

Current data might suggest R-alpha Lipoic acid (through RLAMCT25/KRALA and ALCAR). See this:

http://www.imminst.o...f=6&t=3707&st=0

Download real alternative to watch that video:

http://fileforum.bet...il/1054136293/1

Here is page 13 (start here!):

Attached Files

•  adraf.JPG   144.23KB   0 downloads

[xanadu]

snyp, there is only so much you can do with improving mental performance. There are stimulants for special occasions but they do not improve your abilities, merely give you a temporary edge. Piracetam, as you have noticed, is probably the major mental improvement drug for those without some medical disease that needs a specific treatment. It's interesting that you got as much out of pir as you seem to have since you are only 23. It is said that the benefits come mostly to older folk. I notice that you aren't taking a choline supplement. Not everyone needs extra choline and your diet may give you enough. DMAE is a good source, are you sure it didn't help you any? Not all beneficial supplements give a noticeable effect. Some give an effect over weeks or months and others just work in the background and are hard to detect.

Other things I would recommend are vinpocetine, bacopa manieri, fish oil and a low sugar diet. None of those will give a dramatic immediate effect in most people though some claim to have noticed big things from vinpocetine. The others help with general health and make a difference over months and years. Vitamins are also a very good thing to take. A multi plus extra C are an excellent investment if you aren't already taking them.

[doug123]

You are supporting pseudoscience if you choose to purchase stuff that has never been proven to work in practice.

If you follow my suggestion and see a psychiatrist, you can get advice from a qualified medical professional rather than anecdotes from random victims of the placebo/anecdote effect.

From our long discussion it seems you have a memory and/or an attention related disorder. I repeated myself at least three times on the same issue...and you still asked the same thing from me again...