Two Red Flags of BAD Nootropic Stacks
| Ⓒ By Jonathan Roseland |
I'm not a doctor, medical professional, or trained therapist. I'm a researcher and pragmatic biohacking practitioner exercising free speech to share evidence as I find it. I make no claims. Please practice skepticism and rational critical thinking. You should consult a professional about any serious decisions that you might make about your health. Affiliate links in this article support Limitless Mindset - spend over $150 and you'll be eligible to join the Limitless Mindset Secret Society.
Two very popular Nootropic ingredients make me raise a skeptical eyebrow whenever I see them in a product. DMAE and Huperzine.
Huperzine, which we'll discuss first, is an effective energizing Nootropic but less is really more.
You really wouldn't want to dose more than 100 micrograms daily of Huperzine-A and ideally less, like 50 micrograms daily.
What many users of popular Nootropic stacks don't know is that large doses of it may be toxic. You want to be taking minuscule amounts of the stuff. At doses over 50 micrograms, you run into side effects like insomnia, anxiety, high blood pressure, slowed heart rate, restlessness, sweating, loss of appetite, contraction of muscle fibers, constipation, and twitching.
Huperzine stays in your system for at least 24 hours. When you consume 400 mcg of huperzine (which is a common dosage in many stacks) the next day after you think that the Nootropic's effects have worn off there’s actually still 200 mcg in your system. The Huperzine in your system really accumulates when you then take another 400 mcg, or maybe more if you mega-dose a Nootropic stack containing it. The extremely popular podcaster Joe Rogan often talks about taking 6–8 capsules of Alpha BRAIN which is WAY too much Huperzine. Huperzine doesn’t belong in your daily stack.
The final really important thing to understand about Huperzine is that it is cheap — really cheap at .0006 cents per dose or 2 cents for a month's supply! If you want to make a killing, get into the Huperzine business!
The second "Nootropic" that you should be very wary of is DMAE.
DMAE is an awful pseudo-Nootropic with some concerning (and often undiscussed) side effects.
The consensus of the Biohacker community seems to be that DMAE isn’t worth it. Scientific literature suggests that...
- DMAE causes birth defects.
- DMAE is not metabolized into choline in the brain.
- DMAE inhibits choline kinase.
- DMAE inhibits choline transport.
A not insignificant amount of self-experimenters report unpleasant effects from it...
- Hyperactivity is a frequent complaint
- Loss of focus
- Loss of motivation
- Depression
- Steep tolerance curve of diminishing positive effects
Finally, it tastes downright demonic! In powder form, it's one of the nastiest supplements you can ingest.
If you're going to take Nootropics you don't want to waste your time (or your money) and you certainly don't want to take something that may actually do you harm.
Before ordering or ingesting any new Nootropics read 13 Risky "Nootropics" that a Biohacker should think twice about before taking... Oh and here are a couple of stacks that don't suck...
Finally...
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