Is Noopept an Effective Cure for Brain Fog?
Most people have heard of the Russian-invented nootropic called Noopept, and most people have suffered from brain fog at one time or another. Given that some users complain of Noopept brain fog, is it possible that for other users Noopept could treat or cure brain fog?
I’m skeptical that Noopept could address the root causes of brain fog because I’ve experienced bouts of fog resulting from Noopept in the past, but I think that it’s plausible Noopept could ease the symptoms a bit.
In this article, I’ll investigate whether Noopept has a realistic shot at reducing your level of brain fog by first looking at Noopept and then looking at brain fog to see if there’s any matchup between capability and need.
As an occasional fellow sufferer of brain fog, I know that it can make life tough. I also know that other people who have brain fog will be extremely enthusiastic at any potential cures, so I’d encourage you to stick around if you’ve ever had a case of the fog.
What’s Noopept?
Noopept is a memory and focus enhancing nootropic that you can buy over the counter in most Western countries. Noopept is a cousin of the racetams, though it’s active at a much lower milligram range.
Most people will agree with me when I say that Noopept is an excellent nootropic that seldom comes with side effects and offers a tangible boost in your ability to recall information and learn information faster.
Some users report that Noopept is mentally stimulating, which jives with some of the research. Most users admit that this stimulatory effect is mild at best, which makes sense because Noopept isn’t a stimulant class drug and doesn’t have any major action on the brain’s dopaminergic neurons, nor does it have much impact on norepinephrine.
The stimulation caused by Noopept is directly at odds with its well documented anxiolytic effects, which some users report are more noticeable than the stimulation—or less. Stimulation and anxiolytic activity are important factors for us to consider in the context of brain fog because brain fog is a deficit of arousal.
What’s Brain Fog?
There are some popular theories about what causes brain fog and how to cure it, but any sufferer of brain fog will tell you that it isn’t that simple. In a nutshell, brain fog is equivalent to low-grade dementia.
Brain fog is a complex condition but is characterized by poor short term memory, confusion, slower reaction speed, lower motivation, and a subjective feeling of cloudiness or lack of mental sharpness.
Early research into brain fog called it transient hyper-early onset dementia because it mimics dementia’s symptoms almost identically. Since then, subsyndromal delirium has been a term thrown around about brain fog.
The scientific jury is still out on the exact causes of brain fog, but there are a few ideas that are well supported. The most well supported high-level cause of brain fog is undiagnosed ADHD, predominantly inattentive subtype. This idea claims that brain fog is a fundamentally genetic aberration of the body’s dopaminergic neuronal pathways, but it isn’t well supported.
Beyond that, some research suggests that brain fog results from proinflammatory cytokines in the brain causing general inflammation, but this research is weak at best. Inflammation of the brain is extremely serious and can kill people extremely quickly—completely unlike brain fog.
Additionally, if inflammation were the cause of brain fog, it might be possible to cure brain fog by using anti-inflammatory drugs like the NSAIDs. Has anyone ever treated or cured their brain fog by taking an Advil? I don’t think so.
Unfortunately, the underlying pathology of brain fog is still opaque, in part due to a lack of clinical urgency spurring research. Few people are likely to be taken seriously when they complain of a brain fog to their physicians, and as an invisible and transient symptomology, it isn’t treated as a high health priority.
I’ve lost many days to brain fog, and like many people, turn to nootropics for a cure. Let’s take a look at what Noopept can do in comparison to what we know about brain fog.
What Does the Data Say?
Clinical data on brain fog interventions are quite scarce, as is data on Noopept’s usage in patients experiencing brain fog specifically. Noopept sees use in populations with brain damage that may somewhat mimic brain fog—such as Alzheimer’s—to good results, however.
The comparisons between the contexts that Noopept has been proven effective and the context of brain fog are tenuous at best, but you never know exactly what neural mechanisms are working behind the scenes in your favor.
The Alzheimer’s and dementia studies with Noopept are the best that we have to go on, aside from the long-term memory effects that are well documented.
Noopept probably won’t affect brain fog via its memory retentive features, as brain fog is more complex than merely a lack of long-term memory recall. I also doubt that Noopept will massively increase the level of arousal in a foggy brain, as it’s not extremely stimulating.
The anxiolytic effects of Noopept are likely to make brain fog worse rather than better, which jives with some user reports documenting brain fog as a side effect of Noopept use.
Some users have reported fantastic results when they use Noopept to treat their brain fog. It’s really difficult to understand exactly what mechanisms are at play in both brain fog and Noopept, so it’s possible that it works for some neurobiologies but not others. The only way to know if it’ll work for you is to try it out.
Moving Out of The Fog?
I’d rate it as a “try,” if only because brain fog is so debilitating and Noopept’s side effects are transient. There’s no clinically validated data on Noopept’s effectiveness on brain fog, but it’s possible that the tiny boost that it gives to focus, learning, and short-term memory will be effective enough to lessen the fog.
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