Stacking is using supplements and stimulants that work together. For instance some nootropics work by increasing your acetylcholine usage. If you don’t take in enough, then they’ll have no effect, so you want to “stack” a choline supplement with that. Likewise Caffeine is great for your brain but too much can make you anxious. Some people find that adding inositol damps down the anxiety without slowing the mental processes.
I’m in the midst of trying to completely re-vamp all my nutrition habits, because I’ve found that I was absorbing WAY too iron. (hemochromatosis*) Just getting that input down has had an enormous effect. I must have been suffering for years without realizing it. But it requires a complete re-think of all my food and supplement strategies. It also means that what I thought was/wasn’t working may have had more to do with where my iron levels were that week.
<Shakes fist>
I use about 200mg caffeine every morning. Very rarely I’ll have a second cup of coffee in the afternoon but I’ll usually pay for that with a sleepless night, so I only do it when there is something I need to accomplish.
The past few months I’ve spent spent a LOT of time indoors, so I take a vitamin D supplement, which also contains calcium and magnesium. I’ve started taking this at every meal because calcium helps retard iron absorption. If I’ve felt anxious throughout the day I’ll take a second magnesium supplement a little before bedtime.
On the days when I don’t have eggs for breakfast I’ll take a choline supplement. It happens that the one I have on hand includes inositol.
I try to eat salmon at least twice a week, and take a fish oil supplement when that’s not happening.
Pterostilbene is not so much a nootropic as a neuro protective, but I take it every day.
Piracetam stacked with choline was something I tried for a few months last year, but didn’t feel it was particularly helpful.
The strongest nootropic result I’ve achieved though has just been from limiting carbs during the day. I try to keep my primary caloric intake from proteins in the day and carbs at night.
*It’s actually an evolutionary advantage in times where food is scarce, but works against the modern well-fed American.
To be fair, it is generally well accepted by neurophysiologists that nutrtion can definitely affect cognitive abilities. It is not, however, very well developed how most nutrients specifically affect cognitive function across the population aside from specific nutritional deficiency pathologies, and the fact that most nootropic ‘supplements’ have not been evaluated in rigorous, replicated, peer-reviewed studies are are assured to meet any particular quality or content standard does not give a lot of credence to the wide variety of claims of consistently positive cognitive performance enhancement.
After googling “nootropic stack” it looks like I might be taking one. At my SO’s insistence I take ginkgo biloba and a Centrum knockoff multi-vitamin. I think the vitamins might be OK but the ginkgo is just the price of domestic tranquility.
This might perhaps be an interesting question for further discussion: For those of you who do take supplements, are there any of 'em you secretly (or not-so-secretly) doubt the efficacy of?
Here, I’ll go first: I have no doubt caffeine has an effect on me. I feel something like 80% confident that the l-theanine helps take the caffeine’s edge off, giving me a more stable, non-jittery sort of energy throughout the day. I have no doubt the psychedelics have an effect on me. Same for the magnesium, which I’m convinced has eliminated my bouts of proctalgia fugax.
I’m not so sure about the vitamin D, however - perhaps I already get enough of that stuff from the food that I eat? Hmmm not sure.
I’m pretty much agnostic, at this point, about creatine and l-citrulline. I just don’t know enough about them just yet. I’ll read up on them, though, on the off-chance that they might help with power output, muscle soreness, etc. as I’ve recently gotten more heavily into exercise and BJJ.
Oh and if any of the stuff mentioned above is considered woo / snake-oil, by all means please lemme know. Always happy to learn.
Lithium orotate every few days
Fish oil
Citicoline
Vitamin D
I was starting to slow down with age a bit. This seems to have gotten me back to coming up with new ideas more frequently and able to maintain interest in work.
Granted. It seems that there are those who will rush out to buy whatever fad supplement is currently being touted by those who make a living selling them, however. I like this website, which gives you an easy-to-read chart, and updates it according to the latest studies in efficacy for each item. It can be sorted and filtered, according to one’s interests, and they provide links to current information.
It has a store in it. It sells products and supplements. It can not, therefore be an unbiased source of information.*
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*See? My stack is working! ROFL
I wasn’t familiar with that site, but I took a quick look. It has a store in it, but the products it sells seem to be just information/guides, not supplements.
A double stack of mdma with a wee bit of a meth chaser. Re-upped every 4ish hrs or so. Also with a massive dose of 4 on the floor uncaunca music. Massive.
There is plenty of evidence that this works.
HOWEVER
Mdma does NOT mix well with cocaine. Just fyi.
Those days are done for me tho. But I’m not against coming out of retirement for a special event, should it present itself.
I have had social anxiety disorder (comorbid with depression, eating disorders, and other things) for close to 40 years. I had to switch high schools after homeschooling myself for awhile, spent time in a mental hospital, dropped out of college 8 or 9 times (before graduating in my mid-30s), and when I was laid off from my last job I simply did not get one for 13 years. I’m not saying taking supplements cured that (I’m not Tom Cruise) but they have helped me survive a brutal job I almost was fired from immediately and have helped my general well-being and energy levels the past several months. I have less anxiety, better financial health, am at close to peak physique, etc.
I started with the basic L-Theanine/caffeine stack and found that immediately relaxed me without losing energy (all effective medications I’ve ever taken cause relaxation with extreme lethargy, bloating/fat gain, non-ejaculation, etc) and I experimented with a few other things I read up on. I also like rhodolia rosea for energy. I know that these things do something. If you are someone who believes everything is woo, I suppose you believe that alcohol, weed, coke, heroin, lsd, you name it are all just things people use that don’t have any effects.
Anyone ever used Ginkgo Biloba, DHEA, or oxytocin nasal spray? This company sells nootropics and claims to have 100% pure, research-grade oxytocin spray. Does anyone have experience buying from this company?
Years ago, I had bought some Adrafinil from this company and it didn’t work, so I am not sure any of their stuff is legit.
