Geniux - the genius pill?

Factual Questions
1

Ok, I clicked on one of those banner ads from a straight dope page about the ‘genius pill’ called Geniux where a number of prominent people like Stephen Hawking and Anderson Cooper reportedly said they tried Geniux with amazing results and about how difficult it was to get, illegal in all states except… you guessed it, the state in which I happened to be using my computer at the time. Im getting in my car shortly to visit another half dozen states just to be sure.

So anyway, I would probably rather stay dumb because it makes my life easier… you know ‘ignorance is bliss’ and all. But, does Stephen Hawking really need to be any smarter and Anderson Cooper need possibly anything more to talk about? Perhaps I could take it for a little while, so I could come up with an idea for a website that thousands of people would visit and I could make money from the banner ad conglomerators. Perhaps it would make me smart enough not to click on them in the first place, which begs perhaps the more legitimate question of what exactly are those advertiser sites doing with my data when I visit I them?

Macfawlty
Everything I touch is broken

2

Is there a question here?

Reported.

3

Geniux belongs to a class of chemicals called nootropics – “smart drugs” if you will. It’s one of those things that could theoretically be helpful, but considerable research needs to be done before we’ll know whether those promises pan out.

More information–

4

Sorry for the unintentional obfuscation. My question is…

Is it likely that Stephen Hawking, Anderson Cooper and others actually posted these reviews of Geniux? Also, what are the actual ingredients in the supplement?

5

A few years ago I read an article about rich kids at some Ivy League schools (whose relatives were Docs with prescription privileges) taking certain ADHD(?) drugs only on test days and they DID perform better. I think this was in Wired magazine.

Don’t know about Geniux…but don’t kill this thread; brain performance enhancers are becoming a real thing.

6

Of course not. Why the Hell would you imagine they did?

Nobody knows. It’s likely nobody will ever know. The FDA is just stupidly lax when it comes to policing “supplements” as long as they don’t make too big of a mess, which has horrible consequences:

So there’s a chance the company doesn’t even know what’s actually in its pills.

7

Studies conflict but suggest that drugs like Adderall inconsistently improve performance. In other words, they might work, might not for any given attempt.

8

Actually Senators Hatch (Utah) and Harkin (Iowa) pushed through legislation that prevents the FDA from regulating supplements. Both Senators benefit from large campaign contributions from the supplement industry. $$$$=votes.

9

But if it makes you smart for more that four hours at a time, and no amount of thinking makes you dumb again within that time, you need to see a doctor right away!

10

http://forbes.com-neuroscience.tech/research/study1.php?=&target=health+and+fitness&boostid=50032&contentid=446022&widgetid=5740&sxid=6b99pi69d6uj

Seriously, I never took this as legit. Just wanted to reference it was one of the advertisers that appear at the bottom of the straight dope pages. I’ve seen plenty of similar webpages for anti-aging creams and other products along with fake ‘reviews’ sites to know how it’s done.

From Reddit, a list of ingredients. Reddit - Dive into anything?

Tyrosine, GABA, Bacopa, Alpha GPC, Vinpocetine, Huperizine A.

Now with Adderall, I know it well as I’ve taken it for some years under Rx. I’m not sure I felt ‘smarter’ using it, but it does have a significant impact. I could see how it might enhance certain things for each person in an indirect sort off way through its effect on specific neurotransmitters. Most people know a little about neurotransmitters. Different classes of Rx meds for anxiety/depression, ADD, etc. affect specific neurotransmitters. SSRIs, SNRIs affect serotonin and norepinephrine. NDRIs affect norepinephrine and dopamine. Tetracyclics, SARIs, MAOIs… on and on.

These Rx meds are literally life-saving for many people, that’s for sure. One of the challenges with them are side effects or other downsides to messing around with neurotransmitters. Precision medicine is cool, but it’s not perfect. And, these meds work different for each person. There is no reliable accepted method for measuring neurotransmitters in the brain and plenty of controversy as to whether measuring by saliva or plasma has any value at all. Most psychiatrists (medication managers) primary method is to assess your symptoms and ‘try this and see if it works’. That’s a generalization, but truly may be the only realistic way to know.

So, I tried SSRIs a few times and each of them made me depressed. I didn’t understand why at the time, but was discouraged that an Rx solution wasn’t gonna help me. Then, on a whim, I tried one of my son’s AdderallXR. Within 20 minutes… positive, patience, peace. It was quite literally magic. I didn’t feel high or wired. I felt normal for the first time since I could remember. Maybe a little better than normal. I guess it hit the right neurotransmitters. With Adderall specifically, I’ve never had any downside. No bounce, no speedy feeling, no downsides for me ever. I also lost 25 lbs. in about 6 weeks eating pretty much the same as I always ate, which was fairly light. I was only about 170 lbs at 5’ 7" before, so 25 lbs was a good %. No amount of exercise I did before resulted in weight loss. It was unexpected, increased my metabolism or something. For some, like my daughter, Adderall makes her feel a bit flat, less vibrant. Back to the NTs…

As many well know, Rx medications can be life-saving. You have got to be able to function in a very stressful world where the baggage builds up over the years. What’s striking is how many more young people need the meds. It’s not JUST because they’re more available. The NEED is greater. My BIG problem with a medication-management approach taken by most psychiatrists is there is apparently no attempt to determine or address root cause. Why? The biggest factor is ignorance, plain and simple. The information on determining/addressing root cause is out there, but it’s complex… multifactorial. No traditional psychiatrist or primary care or even most specialists will take a ‘functional medicine’ approach.

What is set up in the current health care environment is one in which 20 minute appointments result in walking out with a sample medication or Rx in hand. 'Try this…, increase it… add a 2nd… increase that… Maybe a 3rd medication to counter some of the effects of the other two. TO WHAT END? A flawed methodology by any measure, bordering on malpractice, for which the psychiatry community should be ashamed.

I followed that methodology with my ADHD son because I did not know any better. I thought he, like others, was born this way and the only option was to medicate until hopefully he grew out of it. Then, I got a referral to a holistic M.D. and it changed my entire way of thinking. It has changed our lives.

I’ll have to continue this story in a subsequent post. But, I assure you there are biological/environmental root causes for most of the physical and psychological challenges we are facing as a society today which includes the generalized categories of behavioral/psychological and autoimmune diseases created seemingly for the sole purpose of developing expensive pharmaceutical meds that are paid for by the healthcare system that results in escalating costs and premiums that many cannot afford.

11

It turns out that Geniux uses fake ads and falsifies endorsements.
Here is a good article Geniux and other supplements.

12

One could in fact argue that it’s the least flawed methodology. If different drugs have different effectiveness for different people (as is becoming increasingly evident), then how do you know which drug will work well for any given patient? You have them try the drug and see what the results are. In fact, drug response is the primary piece of evidence that ADD is a real condition: People who genuinely have it respond very differently to stimulants like Ritalin or Adderall than do people without the condition. So it can even be used as a diagnostic tool: If a patient doesn’t respond positively to such drugs, then it’s probably not actually ADD.

The only problem with this methodology comes when the doctor doesn’t follow up with how well the medicine is working, or if it has side effects so severe that the possibility of a long-term treatment isn’t enough to pay off the risk of a month or so of incorrect treatment.

13

At the risk of apparent contradiction, trying different medications is not a flawed methodology. The follow up is critical. What is flawed is the fact that Rx meds are the only trick medication managers have in their bag. Psychologists will at least use psychotherapeutic methods to provide for the patient some context for what they’re experiencing. Of course, they’re swimming against a tide.

The methodology is incomplete and not a comprehensive approach if it ignores the gut and potential food sensitivities, genetics and supplementation, chronic infections (like Lyme), toxic metals, etc. These are basic tenets of functional medicine… ‘If you don’t test, you guess’. I never had a psychiatrist even suggest testing of any kind. If they had done food sensitivities, I would have discovered the gluten intolerance that was a major factor in my anxiety/depression. Once I eliminated it and repaired my gut, addressed methylation through precision supplementation, within about 4 months, the anxiety subsided by 95%. I’ve still got work to do…

You might ask why I never knew about the

14

We might indeed. :smiley:

15

Died suddenly from a kale overdose, I’m thinking.

16

Look, if he was dying, he wouldn’t bother to carve “Aaargh.”

17

Adderall abuse is MASSIVELY common on college campuses, but I don’t hear about it being used a test-taking drug. People use it as legal speed to keep going during their finals week while writing several long papers and studying for a ton of final exams.

18

Chronic Lyme disease is a complete scam.

http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2012/11/16/the-pseudoscience-of-chronic-lyme/

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra072023

This makes me doubt everything else you said, because of how often believers in one kind of nonsense believe in others.

19

Why would you purchase Geniux? It gives no indication of what its ingredients are, and there are well known drugs, such as amphetamines, ritalin, adderall, even caffeine that will all perk up your brain. With these mystery supplements, there’s only a slim chance that you’ll recieve the ingredients you think you are buying. Without knowing even that, your chances are zero.
You want to spend money on supplements? Get some DHEA. At least 1) it does something and 2) the market is fairly clean: no ground up Chinese houseplant pills.

20

Amphetamines (Ritalin and Adderall both being brands of such) are Schedule II and of course require a prescription to obtain legally.

If you want a “nootropic” that actually works and is 100% legal to buy as a “supplement” in the U.S., I’ve had good experiences with adrafinil*. It metabolizes in the body into modafinil, which is a “wakefulness-promoting agent”. Strangely, modafinil (also known by the brand name ProVigil) is schedule IV (also requires a prescription, although presumably easier to get than the schedule II amphetamines mentioned above), yet adrafinil is unscheduled/unregulated. For me it is like a notably stronger and longer-lasting version of caffeine; a pleasant effect with no crash.

*I have no affiliation with that site, but I have ordered from them and can vouch for it being safe/reliable.