Comment by jrogers65
13 years ago
A few of these are not nootropics but cognitive enhancers. Difference being that nootropics are extremely non-toxic or neuroprotective. Another way to put it is that nootropics are a subset of cognitive enhancers (safe cognitive enhancers, basically).
The following are not nootropics:
* Modafinil and Armodafinil
* Adderall (Amphetamine)
* Caffeine
* Kratom
* Nicotine (this is a border case, in my opinion)
* Selegiline
Stay away from the above, unless taken very occasionally, if you value your health. Drugs like these rapidly build tolerance and become a liability in the long run. If you insist on using stimulants such as amphetamine, learn about how to reduce tolerance with things such as NMDA antagonists and take things to prevent neurotoxicity.
He should also get on with trying Noopept - it's one of the best nootropics of recent times.
From experience, anybody who is a programmer or does similarly demanding intellectual work will stand to benefit from learning about and using nootropics. They're not a silver bullet but quite a few of them are most certainly effective.
Care to expound on those points?
Amphetamine neurotoxicity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphetamine
>The increase of cytosolic dopamine appears to trigger neurotoxicity, as dopamine readily auto-oxidizes, so that amphetamine or methamphetamine's increase in cytosolic dopamine can lead to oxidative stress in the cytosol that in turn promotes autophagy-related degradation of dopamine axons and dendrites
NMDA antagonists such as magnesium (as mentioned by rms), zinc, DXM, MK-801, Memantine and Ketamine can reduce/prevent tolerance as well as nerotoxicity.
http://www.acnp.org/g4/gn401000166/ch162.htm
> Methamphetamine toxicity is inhibited by a variety of drug treatments, including: ... 3) NMDA receptor antagonists
http://www.socialanxietysupport.com/forum/f30/evidence-for-n...
Magnesium and blueberries seem to be the easily within reach stack to take with amphetamine.
Noopept is quite good. I stopped taking it because for me it seemed acutely enough anxiolytic to cause rebound anxiety.
Combine with L-Theanine (increases GABA activity), Lemon Balm (slows down GABA breakdown) and L-Tryptophan (good for social anxiety).
1 reply →
Are you intentionally classifying caffeine the same as amphetamines, or did you overlook it?
Intentional, I believe. It is habit forming and addictive, compared to say, taking Omega-3s before bed every day.
Just because something is physically addictive doesn't mean it has negative health consequences. Many studies have shown that long term, low to moderate caffeine consumption (especially coffee) has a positive impact on overall health.
Caffeine, amphetamines, and modafinil are not neurotoxic. I believe the others aren't either but I haven't read up on them. Methamphetamine is neurotoxic but non-methylated amphetamines are not.
1 reply →
The stranger point is including Modafinil, which is not addictive at all.
2 replies →
any particular reason to take them before bed? on my bottle of fish oil caps it says to take them with a meal?
In what way is modafinil not a nootropic?
I believe he's using modafanil in the sense of broadly neuroprotective.
However selegine in microdoses is a true neuroprotective in that sense..
Then he's using a strange and novel definition of 'nootropic'. 'Neuroprotective'? Heck, lithium is neuroprotective at some doses, but I don't see many people suggesting its use.
1 reply →