What Are the Benefits of Nootropics?
Nootropics are medicines and dietary supplements that are beneficial for your brain and mental skill levels. Also known as smart drugs, they can be taken to help improve cognitive abilities and other mental skills, and even to help boost your mood.
Benefits of Nootropics
Imagine you can take a pill to get smarter, increase your memory retention, or even make you more mentally alert. In this article, we’ll look at supplements, pills, and compounds that can produce these benefits, why you should take them, and where to get them.
There are many supplements and medicines you can take to increase your brain power and cognition. Let’s take a look at several types and their benefits.
Multiple Benefits
Kratom
Kratom is a popular natural alternative to opioid medications which can help alleviate pain. Many people take kratom while getting off of opiates because, when ingested, it can act on some opioid receptors in the brain while producing fewer side effects and less withdrawal. It also can be either a stimulant or a sedative.
This plant, similar to the coffee plant, is grown mostly in Southeast Asia. It is unscheduled in the United States and readily available in bulk powder form or pills, which can be ingested or made into tea. Taking it, depending on the strain, can have multiple benefits.
Common kratom plant strains and their benefits are:
- Maeng Da: stimulating effects
- Borneo: relax muscles and reduce anxiety
- Indo: increase relaxation
- Bali or Red vein: may help reduce pain
- Green Malay: stimulating at low doses
- White vein: calming properties
Memory Improving
Racetams
Racetams are a type of chemical that have an organic compound called pyrrolidone as its nucleus. They were designed to modulate several neurotransmitters such as glutamate, acetylcholine, or the AMPA receptor. This chemical may help you to retain information, help you learn, and may even help increase your reaction time.
Common racetams and their benefits are:
- Piracetam: cognitive enhancer
- Oxiracetam: mild stimulant
- Pramiracetam: mild stimulant
- Phenylpiracetam: stress reducer
- Aniracetam: AMPA receptor modulator
- Levetiracetam: prescription-only anticonvulsant
Ginkgo Biloba
The leaves of the ginkgo plant have been used in Chinese medicine for hundreds of years to treat ailments such as respiratory issues or brain and circulation problems. Today, many people take it for brain and cognitive health, including for memory support and dementia.
Creatine
Creatine is a protein-building amino acid. It gives your brain a quick boost of energy, which can improve short-term memory and reasoning skills. If you’ve been working out or lifting weights, creatine can give you the added benefit of helping to build muscle.
Brain Function Boosting
Who doesn’t need a little boost now and then? Some of these substances can help improve your brain power, clear brain fog, and help you think more clearly.
Panax Ginseng
Taking only 200-400 mg of the Panax ginseng root can help get rid of brain fatigue and may even help your ability to solve math equations. It may achieve this by reducing inflammation, a problem that can impair your brain abilities.
Noopept
Noopept works by increasing acetylcholine in the brain. This supplement can clear brain fog and improve cognitive function, learning, and concentration abilities. It also helps to reduce anxiety and depression and helps protect your body from too much of the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate.
Anxiety Reducing
An anxiolytic is a type of substance that helps to reduce anxious feelings, which in turn can improve your mood and help you think straight.
GABA
GABA, the abbreviation for gamma-aminobutyric acid, is a natural neurotransmitter in the brain that helps to calm neurons. Increasing a different neurotransmitter, glutamate, can help lead to increasing your studying and memory power. Sometimes, however, you want the opposite to happen, which is what GABA does by inhibiting neurons in the central nervous system.
While GABA is difficult to cross the blood-brain barrier, some users report a calming effect when taken orally. GABA can also improve mood and relaxation.
Indo Kratom
The Indo strain of the kratom plant can be a good anxiolytic, helping to reduce anxiety. Take it in powder form, a pill, or as a tea for its calming effects.
Mood Enhancing
When you’re in a bad mood or feeling lethargic, it’s difficult to get the motivation to do much. Thankfully, there are some supplements to take that might help increase your feeling of happiness and satisfaction.
Phenibut
Phenibut is a substance made originally in Russia that is similar in chemical structure to GABA. It is a central nervous system depressant and anxiolytic and thus can help improve mood and relaxation for some people.
N-Acetyl Cysteine
This antioxidant, known as NAC, can improve your mood and sleep among several other benefits such as improving long-term memory and protecting against acetaminophen toxicity. Antioxidants also protect your cells from damage and help repair them.
Stimulating
If you’re trying to stay alert and want an energy jolt to help study or just to get a little pep in your step, there are a few supplements you can try.
Kratom
The kratom plant comes in several different varieties, some of which reduce pain, some of which help reduce anxiety and some of which stimulate. The Maeng Da strain has higher levels of mitragynine, the most active alkaloid in the kratom plant, resulting in much higher stimulating properties.
Caffeine
Don’t forget caffeine for its stimulating properties, often consumed in popular beverages such as coffee, tea, or soft drinks. It can also be taken in pill form or included in a supplement.
Many people looking to get an energy boost from caffeine take it with a supplement called L-theanine. Theanine is an amino acid found in tea that helps to block the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, resulting in a calming effect. That can help counteract some of the jittery feelings some people get when they take caffeine.
Sleep Inducing
Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for normal cognition and well-being. Some substances and chemicals can help improve the quality of restful sleep, while others may help induce drowsiness, which can help to fall asleep faster.
Phenibut
Being similar to GABA, phenibut can also help to calm the nervous system, resulting in good sleep. It can be taken either daily to improve sleep, or to treat insomnia as needed.
As you can see, some supplements fall under several different benefit categories.
L-Theanine
Found in the tea plant and some mushrooms, this amino acid is very good at calming the nerves and can be taken at night before sleep to help you relax. It works by decreasing excitatory brain chemicals.
Taken at low doses, theanine has been found to increase alpha brain waves, which may help you be more creative as well.
Kratom
Taken at high doses, Green Malay kratom can act as a sedative, and the red vein strain can help improve the quality of sleep.
Where Can You Get These Supplements?
The supplements listed above are only a small assortment of what is available, and only several of the many benefits possible. Hopefully, you can use the information above to help guide your purchasing so you can start benefiting from nootropics.
Check out Dino Supplies where you can get the latest nootropic discounts and also purchase from a menu of a vast assortment of supplements to give your brain a much-needed boost.