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Comment by taw-an | Hacker News Reader

Prescribed stimulants.

A lot of the good stuff is off the shelf. L-Theanine for focus. Creatine monohydrate for more RAM (thinking faster, less brain fog).

Huh, I've been taking 3-5g of creatine mono every day for ~5 years and have never heard of it having mental benefits until now.

It's a lot like RAM. You notice it when you're not on it. I think the most obvious effect is humor... while on it, I'm quicker to see an opportunity for a joke. I assume it applies for finding breakthroughs faster.

About stuff off the shelf: I bought Focus Pep (https://www.amazon.com/Addrena-Stimulants-Boosting-Dietary-S...) a year ago or so off Amazon (I believe they are only sold through Amazon). Well, they helped me tremendously. I would take them minutes after I would wake up and I would then consequently have a want and go for a three mile run every day of the week. Then I would go to several of my classes and be focused to the dot. You could even say, I felt I was in a confident "flow" state when I took them. I ended having an all time best sleep schedule, since I took them in the morning so by nighttime I was so exhausted I would fall asleep early and wake up early. But the period when I took them, I would get sweaty easily, my entire being would be jittery, and I would not feel hungry throughout the day. I eventually got off them because I didn't feel natural and at ease, I always had an anxious need to do something. Though now that I'm not on them, I'm more prone to: being sad, overthinking about things, having trouble falling asleep and getting out of bed, not having a want to exercise, etc.

Interesting formulation.

Try getting your hands on the tyrosine and the bacopa individually. Those two can be very useful. I take both.

The Vitamin B12 is potentially interesting; I have that in a spray form (on my table right here actually) which I'm trying to remember to take in the morning.

The caffeine is likely added as "energy sugar", ie to give the product a noticeable boost. Caffeine does work, but the toll it takes (and its predominantly psychological effect) is well known.

The Guarana seed extract, Bitter Orange Fruit Powder, DMAE, White Willow Bark, and Huperzine-A I can't comment at all about, but have been filed away.

The Carnitine and Choline I can't remember about right now... I think those are interesting, but I haven't properly tested my reaction to those just yet.

I'm guessing the pepper was added to increase absorption (it's supposed to rev the gut up and help digestion, and not in a bad way, but everyone works differently and sometimes this plan backfires).

When it comes to natural health, getting all the compounds individually and then figuring out the doses you need generally has the best effect.

This also means you shard your requirements between a bunch of different suppliers, so when one decides to go switch to a cheaper upstream and a week later you go "hangonaminute" and start suspecting your supplements as the reason your brain felt like it went out to lunch... well you can just switch the single compound. Comparatively, if you shop around different suppliers for a product you don't seem to react great to, you might find you eventually go "wait, what... how..." once you finally find the one supplier that prepares the product such that it _actually works_. (Don't forget these two. They happen to me more often than I would like. :<)

This is generally more expensive (agh, so expensive...) but the results are worth it. I have quite a few issues (anxiety, cognition/problem-solving, mood, memory, stamina, nervous system, ...) and, well, the only reason I'm not 100% on top of my game is because I can't afford to take more than I'm taking right now (which ironically is the reason I don't have the mental consistency to get a job at this point xD). The products do work.

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