With the basic “herbal stack” that Bushidobadboy put up (Vinpocetine, Huperzine A, DMAE), would there be any adverse affect if one were to stack this along side Ephedrine and Caffiene?
Will taking nootropics affect your regular cognitive abilities? That is, if you were to stop taking nootropics would you get “dumber” than before.
Thanks in Advance!
Ephedrine and caffeine do not a good nootropic make. Why? Because they increase cortisol and cortisol has negative effects on memory formation in the acute phase and will cause atrophy of the hippocampus in the chronic phase.
No, of course not. These types of substances augment your natural function. They do not force things, like adderal or ritalin, leaving you withdrawn and unable to focus, etc.
BBB
Thanks for the response BBB!
Just in reference to the first Q&A, I was asking because if I were to run the classic fat burning E/C stack, along side the nootropic stack you laid out, would that be alright?
Lol, not to sound like an arse, but did you read the bit where I said that E/C makes for a bad study aid. I would go so far as to state that in my opinion, E/C could actually be seen a s acounternootropic, due to the elevated cortisol. Sure, it may get you into the library or reading those notes, but it will harm memory formation and recall.
However I can understand the urge to run E/C as a fat burner (even though it is probably a bad idea, due to reduced insulin sensitivity, caused by… elevated cortisol! lol), but if you want to counter the counternootropic effect, they you need both bacoppa and high dose aniracetam. Vinpocetine won’t help the cortisol specifically, but it should facilitate cerebral delivery of the other two compounds.
Physician Formulas actually had the best prices I think. BBB recommended them to the OP of the original BFB thread I believe. They ship inside Canada as well! I made another post about another website which I think is questionable but the pricing of their aniracetam and centrophenoxine bulk powders are so tempting I just might risk it.
I haven’t noticed any improvement with choline supps, Alpha-GPC included, but that might just be me. I did however notice a decent increase in workout performance with oxiracetam. I’ll have another play around with it on Wednesday - next workout and get back to you guys… I did take an awful lot of oxi over the course of the workout [i grabbed a 75cl bottle of water, forgetting I put about 2g of oxi in there to sip over the course of several hours in the library one time]. But I was focused, energized and totally pumped to lift. Smashed a couple of PR’s, and I totally avoided the post workout crash i usually get, though it did come three or four hours later. Could totally be coincidence, maybe I was just “on”… We’ll see on wednesday :)[/quote]
For those of you who have pira at home, does yours ‘cake up’ on you if you don’t use it for a while? I find myself having to ‘break up’ lots of it with a fork. I just want to make sure this isn’t a bad sign at all…
I originally bought lots of DMAE and pira and have been using 1g of each every day and can’t seem to make a dent in either one! lol
[quote]B rocK wrote:
For those of you who have pira at home, does yours ‘cake up’ on you if you don’t use it for a while? I find myself having to ‘break up’ lots of it with a fork. I just want to make sure this isn’t a bad sign at all…
I originally bought lots of DMAE and pira and have been using 1g of each every day and can’t seem to make a dent in either one! lol[/quote]
If you have access to an NMR or GC you can test it out to see if it’s good or not.
Yeah, I assume you ordered the bulk, uncapsuled version of them. Haha I did that with the aniracetam since it was so much cheaper, and I figured I would just mix it in with food (it also goes into water pretty well…ironically due to its lipophilicity). Oh no, this stuff will break through any flavoring you put with it and it tastes SOOOOO HORRIBLE.
[quote]roweski wrote:
I did take about a gram during that workout, but i only started ingesting it half-way through… I was also using my own ghetto version of “workout fuel”, but the last couple of exercises I was pretty strong…
I’ll try it out again tomorrow, with 600mg about 10 minutes before I get to the gym, and then 600mg every half hour after i start - new workout partner, so workouts usually last about one hour twenty. 1.8g in total. Fingers crossed :)[/quote]
Yeah, I’m going to try timing them with something similar to CT’s peri workout protocol. I will just take one of my stack doses (DMAE, ani, vin) around the time I have the Alpha-GPC/Finibar and post to say how my workout went.
[quote]roweski wrote:
holguint123 wrote:
Yeah, I assume you ordered the bulk, uncapsuled version of them. Haha I did that with the aniracetam since it was so much cheaper, and I figured I would just mix it in with food (it also goes into water pretty well…ironically due to its lipophilicity). Oh no, this stuff will break through any flavoring you put with it and it tastes SOOOOO HORRIBLE.
I take it you haven’t tried bulk vinpo. That shit’s taste stays with you for half hour, and tastes like ass. A thousand times worse than ani.[/quote]
I can’t recall off the top of my head but one of my either DMAE or Pira tastes like salt and the other is sweeter. I know this because I ran out of water one day lol…
So can we have a cliff notes version of what has been posted. Sort of a all in one post of how to take and what to take and why with what does. So many directions I need some brain drugs just to figure it out.
Thanks in advance!
I reread both forum posts and it looks like the basic core cocktail is:
Vinpocetine 3 x 10mg ED with food
DMAE 600mg once or twice per day, to replenish cholin levels
If you have access to an NMR or GC you can test it out to see if it’s good or not.
care to explain this more? [/quote]
NMR is a technique chemists use to see how the atoms are “connected” in a molecule. Essentially it works the same way as MRI fundamentally and can give you a picture of what is in your sample. GC is a way of separating organic molecules based on relative polarities of the molecules and how well they interact with the tube they are sent through. Both can be used to see if you have what compound you need. GC/Mass spec is also commonly used, and has better detection limits than NMR for seeing impurities.
Probably a long shot, but if you know somebody who does chemistry research, you mayyyy be able to sneak a sample in to see if you got ripped off or not.
[quote]caladin wrote:
So can we have a cliff notes version of what has been posted. Sort of a all in one post of how to take and what to take and why with what does. So many directions I need some brain drugs just to figure it out.
Thanks in advance!
I reread both forum posts and it looks like the basic core cocktail is:
Vinpocetine 3 x 10mg ED with food
DMAE 600mg once or twice per day, to replenish cholin levels
aniracetam@ 600mg 3 x ED
Bcomplex
Vitaman D3
3-6 Grams of Omega3[/quote]
Don’t for get the obvious like sleep, water, and enough glucose. They make all the difference!
Kind of going off of that, is someone pretty much screwed if they go on a carb cycling diet (~125 g of carbs before a workout, simple/complex + P/F meals the rest of the day) when it comes to boosting brain power with these nootropics? Due to the restriction of carbs.
Also, I’ve been very curious if it is possible to have someone reach ketosis on a CKD diet much faster by allowing them to try and use their brain a lot “harder” than normal, since the brain uses the body’s glucose stores for energy. Or I guess a better question would be, how much does brain activity affect how fast someone gets back into ketosis, and if brain activity can be boosted through nootropics to achieve this. Totally a thought out in left field…haha random I know.
[quote]Wise Guy wrote:
What brand of Vinpo are you guys using?
LEF is great, but fuck me they are pricey.
Jarrow is a goof supp company - I have found 100 caps, 5mg, for 7.50.
Its a herb, so one must be careful - Gotta go with a reputable company.
I wish Biotest would sell it, or some type of nootropic aid.
[/quote]
Is source naturals a good version? got 120 caps 10mg for about £7 ($10).
The caps are hard though, i don’t know if this is normal, the previous ones I used where soft gel caps which seemed to have a more pronounced effect, although it was the first time I used vinpocetine so may of noticed it a bit more for the first 3 weeks then got used to it, might switch back to the gels I used previously when I run out of these and compare.
