Have you ever needed a little extra boost in brain power? If you are like the majority of people I know including myself, that answer is yes. Natural nootropics may be able to provide that much needed boost. Whether you are hoping to buy a ready made product or create your own stack, it is important to know your ingredients.
The following list is the best nootropic brain supplement ingredients currently available for adults. It is not necessary to take ALL these ingredients. A lot of the ingredient effects overlap so it is not wise to take clinically tested dosages of both. Some ingredients are synergistic and work well paired with others. The products below all use ingredients that work well synergistically.
I am pretty sure that you will feel a noticeable improvement. If you don’t get the level of improvement you desire, or want even more of an effect, then you can try the synthetic nootropic compounds.
People have been using things to improve their brain for thousands of years. From the Far East to North and South America, cultures and indigenous people have found ways to upgrade their brains. Some were looking for an increase in intelligence or to fix cognitive issues. Others used them as a way to try to achieve higher levels of consciousness and enlightenment. Whatever their reason, this long time use has spoken to the safety and effectiveness of these nootropics.
Natural Nootropics
Bacopa Monnieri
- Improves memory recall
- Reduces stress and anxiety
- Protects against oxidative damage and mineral buildup
Possibly improves symptoms associated with dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and epilepsy
Bacopa is one of the most thoroughly studied and tested natural nootropic. It is also one of the safest and most effective natural memory enhancers. It has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries.
Would you benefit from a boost to your memory? Maybe help you remember what you needed at the store? Or the name of t
hat new guy in accounting? Bacopa significantly enhances memory recall.
I don’t know of many people who wouldn’t benefit from a little
anxiety or stress reduction. Bacopa is great in that department. Combine that with the memory recall benefits, and you’ve got a great aid for your next presentation or meeting.
Bacopa is neuroprotective. It helps to protect the brain in a few different ways. It protects against oxidative damage and also from excessive mineral buildup- most notably from iron.
Bacopa is very good at increasing the blood flow to the brain. This in turn increases the amount of oxygen, fuel and nutrients available and helps to remove toxins. This could drastically reduce the amount of brain fog that many people suffer from. Increased blood flow in the brain could also lessen the chances of suffering a stroke.
The other main way that Bacopa has these effects is by increasing the available amount of some critical neurotransmitters. These include acetylcholine, dopamine, and serotonin, which are extremely important to brain health.
Additional benefits include:
- Reduced sensitivity to pain
- Protection against stomach ulcers
- Powerful antioxidant properties
Bacopa can be purchased in capsules or as powder. Capsules are the easiest way to take bacopa because you don’t have to worry about measuring your dose. If you do decide to buy it in powder form, you can make your own capsules or just add it to a smoothie or coffee. The standard dose depends on the concentration of your supplement.
Standard dose depends on the concentration:
Side effects are very rare but could include nausea and fatigue.
Vinpocetine
- Increases blood flow in the brain
- Neuro-protective
- Improves overall cognition
- Combats cognitive decline
- Improves learning and memory
- Improves age-related skill impairments
I use this specific nootropic when I need an extra boost for studying or other tasks that require peak mental performance. It also comes in handy on days that I don’t feel like I am as sharp and focused as I need to be.
So yes, on the rare occasion that I stay out too late or have too much to drink I take some vinpocetine to help relieve some of the fogginess in my head.
Vinpocetine is derived from vincamine, which is an alkaloid found in the periwinkle plant. It was first isolated and synthesized from the plant in 1975 and was being produced by 1978.
It is used in Eastern Europe for the treatment of cerebrovascular disorders and age-related memory impairment. The use of this for combating cognitive decline and age-related skill impairment has shown to be quite effective. Vinpocetine has also been shown to be a powerful anti-inflammatory, especially to the brain. This is one of the reasons it may play a potential role in the treatment of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Unless you’re Jim Kwik or one of the other masters of memory, you probably could benefit from better memory and learning abilities. Vinpocetine could give you an edge in this area as well. It has been shown to greatly improve learning and memory.
One last use for vinpocetine is as a pre-workout supplement used by body builders and athletes. It acts as a vasodilator, which relaxes your blood vessels allowing them to open wider. This increases your blood blow resulting in the delivery of fuel like oxygen and glucose to the muscles. This results in that satisfying muscle swelling, vein popping pump that many body builders are looking for. It also increases the amount of metabolic waste products removed from the muscles.
Just like the other nootropics, vinpocetine can be purchased in either powder or capsules.
The standard dose is 300mg up to 3 times daily.
No side effects were reported in normal doses. In much larger doses headaches, dizziness, nervousness and sleep disturbance are possible.
Huperzine
- Promotes Growth of Neural Cells
- Increase Memory Capacity
- Boost Mental Clarity
- Helps with Cognitive Symptoms from Depression
Huperzine A, sometimes called selagine, is an alkaloid compound that is purified from the Chinese club moss Huperzia serrata. It was first identified in the 1980s, but extracts of the plant have been used in China for centuries as an herbal medicine. Huperzine A is commonly used to treat Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases for its ability to improve memory and cognitive abilities while acting as a neuroprotectant.
Huperzine A can be used as a memory enhancer. It is particularly effective when taken while studying for a test or when trying to learn any new material. It can also be taken regularly to help protect against age-related declines in memory.
Most clinical studies of huperzine A have focused on its use as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. A systematic review of 20 randomized controlled trials concluded that huperzine A appears to have beneficial effects on improvement of cognitive function, daily living activity, and global clinical assessment in participants with Alzheimer’s disease.
Huperzine A has also been formally studied as a memory enhancer for students. The students were given a memory test, and then they were given either huperzine A or a placebo. Four weeks later, they were retested. They also took exams in language and mathematics covering the lessons received at school during the four-week time period. Huperzine A was found to significantly enhance memory. It did not, however, improve understanding of mathematics.
It just improved the students’ ability to retain and recall facts. The students taking huperzine A had significantly improved scores on their language tests compared to the students taking a placebo.
For improving memory in young people, huperzine A can be taken at 100 mcg twice a day.
It has been used at 50 to 200 mcg twice a day to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Huperzine A does not need to be taken with food.
It is quickly absorbed into the body and will begin to enhance memory immediately. It has a very long half-life in the body, and a single dose will provide benefits for over 24 hours. The drug has been shown to be quite capable of passing the blood-brain barrier after oral ingestion and quickly accumulates in the cerebrospinal fluid.
Additional benefits include:
- Prevents and Treats Alzheimer’s Disease
- Helps With Recovering from Traumatic Brain Injury and Spinal Cord Injury
- Helps with Epileptic Seizures
All Natural Nootropic Stacks
Many people that use nootropics like to create different combinations to address certain needs and situations. These are referred to as “stacks”. Most nootropic stacks contain a combination of natural ingredients and synthetic compounds. There are however a couple that only contain all natural ingredients. Both of them contain one or more of the things we mentioned in this article. Check them out.
Nature has given us so many ways to upgrade our brain. We have only scratched the surface of the ability of plants to treat and prevent things that modern science so far has been unable to do. I am very excited that more and more research is being done to expand our understanding of the healing properties of these things.
This list only scratches the surface of plants that can help upgrade your brain. There are many more. If you liked this post and would like to see more posts about nootropics, share it with your friends and family!
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