Choosing Nootropics
How to optimize choice of smart drugs, individually?
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Generally, we want to improve our mental abilities, as this is useful for all kind of goals. However, it remains a difficult problem. For example, some smart drugs may decrease longevity (we should have a category for that, too), which reduces the likelyhood of reaching both the technological singularity, and the longevity escape velocity. On the other hand, using smart drugs may increase the mental acuity, that may enable the very breakthroughs needed to overcome problems in general.
The choice of neuro-modulation strategies is broad, each individual is unique, and, by the amount we are taking, food has to count as one of the key elements of that too, as we are playing the "tetris of life", to optimize our organism's metabolic and signaling "shapeflows".
So, the problem is -- how to intelligently choose what and when to eat. When playing tetris -- it is not good to have the same bricks falling all the time, in most cases. An organism benefits from variation of ingested substances over time, to clear the metabolytes, and so, we should vary diet and supplementation, question is -- how?
Regarding some specifics. I had tried multiple substances, from Vinpocetine, to Piracetam, Pramiracetam, Modafinil (which I do not recommend), Phenibut, Ginkgo Biloba, and others. However, I tend to stick with just vitamins and aspirin (+fish oil, grapefruits, garlic, and coffee, from the nutrients side). Among minerals and vitamins, I use Magnesium citrate, Triovit (antioxidants), Multi-B Strong (B-vitamins), and either Vitiron or Neurozan -- for broad spectrum supplements, combined with a few anti-aging substances, like Resveratrol and NMN (did not have courage start with Metformin yet).
I'm not sure if I'm doing it right or wrong, but, I'd be curious to know also about other people's choices.
When I drunk alcohol if was very important I took a Thiamine Bcomplex vitamin to remove the hangover or stop it from occurring.
Nowadays I take Neuromind and a separate omega 3 vegan capsule. This causes me to be very alert and open to doing challenging things.
// When I drunk alcohol if was very important I took a Thiamine Bcomplex vitamin to remove the hangover or stop it from occurring.
I'm not sure how it would work for hangovers, but I had injected myself with Thiamine Chloride as a 14 year old kid. I remember it used to make lips tingle. :) It was more of an exploratory thing rather than anything else.
I guess, I was exploring lucid dreaming at that time, and was trying various supplements to improve lucid dreaming. B6 seem to have an effect.
Nootroflix.com is a fine starting point. Also, track your psychophisical metrics and talk to your physician.
// Nootroflix.com
Interesting model. I guess, it doesn't make sense to optimize nootropics for mental performance alone: much more sense is to target those nootropics, that simultaneously are anti-aging drugs. Perhaps, "anti-aging nootropics" would be the right category.