Don't take huperzine. You are too young.
What do you think is a good age to take huperzine-a? What makes you think he's too young?
From LEF:
LE Magazine November 2000 Q & A
Huperzine A
Making the right move on when and how much you should take
Q I am seeing a lot of ads for Huperzine A, a cognitive enhancer. Several mail order companies carry products with huperzine. Have you evaluated it?
A We have extensively evaluated Huperzine A and do not recommend that healthy people take it every day. Huperzine A functions as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. That means that it inhibits an enzyme in your brain that is responsible for degrading the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Alzheimer’s disease patients have elevated levels of acetylcholinesterase and can therefore benefit by taking drugs like Aricept or nutrients like Huperzine A, which inhibit acetylcholinesterase.
Healthy people, on the other hand, need acetylcholinesterase to regulate acetylcholine levels in their brains. If you wanted to impress someone with your short-term memory on any given day you could safely take the recommended dose of Huperzine A, but we would not advise that you do so daily. We have a member who is a world class chess player, and has proven he can improve his scores by taking Huperzine A the day of a chess tournament.
While it is safe to boost acetylcholine levels by inhibiting acetylcholinesterase periodically, chronic use of Huperzine A could cause over-suppression of acetylcholinesterase and subsequent acetylcholine overload with unknown consequences. Remember, you can take huge amounts of acetylcholine precursors such as choline without fear of acetylcholine overload because you have acetylcholinesterase to degrade excess acetylcholine. If you block the body’s natural regulator of acetylcholine (that regulator being acetylcholinesterease), you may have a problem. We do not recommend that people take Huperzine A more than twice a week, much less promote it for daily use like other companies do.
He said he is 19. He isn't suffering from Alzheimer's. A supplement with these kind of effects on the brain shouldn't be taken by someone whose brain hasn't yet stopped developing nor without some kind of supervision. There is too much potential for harm.
