Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Caffeine

The oldest, most common, and most likely safest stimulant to use.

In modern western society, even below the age of 10 children have caffeine tolerances built up from sodas and sweet tea.  At some point in your life, you have ingested caffeine in some way.

The most interesting facet of caffeine's action on the body is that it is both lipid and water soluble, so that it permeates the blood brain barrier very efficiently.

Its less important to understand the biology behind caffeine as it is to understand which dosages do what.  200-300 mg dosage is handy for a few hours of good focus. above 500mg, GABA transmission is inhibited in a significant way, and above 1000mg, usually severe irritability and intensified anxiety occurs.  Dosages from 2-3.6 grams will cause toxicity in a 200 pound adult.

Benefits of caffeine supplementation:
Increased anaerobic capacity
Increased power output
Anti fatigue effects
Slight increase in testosterone (12% on average with 250mg taken before workout)
Increased metabolic rate (EC stack and its variants will be detailed later)

While there are many more benefits and a few insignificant drawbacks in training, it has a few mental benefits.  The anti fatigue effects help attention span and GABA inhibition helps prevent sleepiness.

Caffeine is a fairly tame stimulant overall, so I have no extreme stories to report. Personally I use it as a base for most of my dosing protocols, along with piracetam.  For sleep avoidance, I line up dosages of stimulants so that there is an immediate and continued effect.  Phenylethylamine, a fast acting neurotransmitter; Caffeine, to take over after the PEA wears off, and then Adrafninil, which begins to kick in as the caffeine edge dulls.

Final Verdict

Caffeine is always a buy and a must have for anyone* with any goal. It is dirt cheap and incredibly versatile.

*Do not use if you have a history of heart problems, as stimulants can exacerbate arrhythmia and other conditions.  Central Nervous System (CNS) stimulants can also cause heart palpitations, a scary occurrence. Always keep dosage within reason, and know yourself very well.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Piracetam


Piracetam

The oldest, best known, and most widely used of the -racetam family.

Before I review my experience using it over the past year, I'll list the facts.
Piracetam is prescribed as treatment for a variety of things, including Myoclonus.  Besides this use, it has been shown to be therapeutically effective in people with dyslexia, victims of strokes, alcoholics suffering withdrawal syndrome, and even for healthy people.  Piracetam's specific method of action is unknown, but what you need to know is that it increases communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain by increasing activity in the corpus callosum, the connective bridge between the hemispheres. Also increases bloodflow and calorie expenditure of the brain while having anti-aging effects.
If you are just looking for final judgement, skip to the last section.

Anecdotal Data

I remember the first day I tried piracetam quite clearly, along with nearly every other day that I used it.  I picked up the package around 1:30 and ran back to my dorm, eager to try it after all the research I had put into my purchase.

I took 1 pill and felt the mood and language effects shortly after.  I was happier, colors were brighter, and even conversations felt rewarding. Before my dreaded mandatory liberal arts class, I decided to try the attack dose method I had read about, so my total dosage went to 2400mg.

Usually in that class I recorded the professors voice and made sense of what he said later, but after piracetam, I had no need to record him or decipher what he said at all. The class was supposed to be Film 110, a very basic arts class about movies and themes, but he turned it into a media arts class, discussing power structures in society, panopticism in social media culture, and requiring tweeting as part of our grade.  Students muddled and muttered through most of his lectures and assignments, and we all hoped desperately for a curve.  But that day after the attack dosage, his abstractions made more sense and I could actually see the points he was trying to make, no matter how irrelevant to class they were.  So naturally it became part of my daily routine.
Where piracetam saved me was my logic class.  Philosophy 110 had the highest fail rate of any class offered at the entire university, averaging around 83% failure or withdrawal. The professor I took, while being a very cool guy, had a 93% fail rate. The class was also structured into 8 weeks, 2 classes per week, 3 hours per class. No partial credit given on anything, ever, no exceptions.
It began with 47 students and ended with just 8 of us, one being a brilliant Vietnamese guy who had a 105 average but was so dyslexic I had to help him find and open his mailbox on 3 separate occasions. Only He, myself, and 3 others managed to pass the class. In 3 weeks I went from struggling with tautologies to speeding through coursework in 10 hour chunks every week.


Final Verdict

Social Effects:  Words seem to flow, confidence is higher. Produces a good combination of leadership and friendliness. Definitely more creative.
Learning effect:  Better creation of memory, items learned are retained almost perfectly even while not using.
Cost Factor:  Whole Kilograms( over a year's supply) can be on your doorstep in days for about 60$. reliable cost scale is 500 grams for around $40, whole kilo for $60. at this price point theres very little reason to not use it, and its best to order bulk rather than the 125gram samples offered by some sites for about $12 on average.
Effective Time: piracetam kicks in fairly quickly, though you may not always feel it.  The half-life is about 4 to 5 hours, from experience and everything I have read, and my subjective threshold is about half a gram, though amounts less than this will have effect. A dose of 2 grams could be felt as long as or longer than 10 hours.
Best Features: Heightened focus, and sharper memory.
X- Factor: In my experience, Piracetam intensifies everything: happiness, marijuana, alcohol, and all other nootropics.

Your powder should have the consistency and texture of fine sugar, a slight clumping nature, and a bitter taste. Best taken mixed in water with creatine to taste, or in capsules.

Friday, October 25, 2013


Welcome to the website dedicated to the supplement industry and all the disinformation in it.  I'll give my opinions and research on any topic requested of me,  but when I'm left alone, I'll be churning out articles on Nootropics and other fringe supplements.

I founded this site because every day there was a conversation on my favorite forum about nootropics, and every day we'd get more and more people wanting to learn, but with no place to reliably find the knowledge.

I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I will.

If you have any questions, requests, goodies, or source tips for me, reach me at fitreview@yahoo.com.