The easiest way to think more clearly is the one it seems is least tried: a good night's sleep. The second easiest: periodic disengagement from phones, computers, and people.
Stimulants such as the ones discussed in the article interfere with that.
Stimulants such as the ones discussed in the article interfere with that.
Legally, unless a state has specific laws against it (TX maybe?), the 2018 farm bill made hemp and its derivatives legal. But then the FDA jumped in right away and said, CBD supplements aren’t legal without approval.
IANAL, but I think the FDA memo applies to producers; I.e., I don’t believe one could get in trouble for buying CBD oil, but someone could theoretically get in trouble for selling it, if they market it as a supplement.
There are plenty of good arguments against enhancement-style use of stimulants, but to suggest they don't do anything more than decent rest is just silly.
I think the parent’s point about it being the biggest relative increase in cognitive function is correct.
I can't focus or perform adequately at all without my medicine. I didn't get diagnosed until 28, so I have a lifetime of evidence to back this claim up. And once I started taking meds, I went from a depressing career I hated to spending significant time and effort self-teaching programming and computer science in the evenings while working full time, and eventually changed careers. Something I absolutely never could have achieved without medically prescribed stimulants.
But it's really hard for me to take my experience as someone with a neurological disability/impairment, and try to apply it to other people without that impairment. For instance, even with my condition, there is a very delicate balance that has to be achieved with dosing. If I take even a little bit too high of a dose, I am hyperfocusing in a way I can't control, and on non-productive tasks. Spending three hours furiously rearranging books alphabetically is not productive. And since "normal" people don't have the same deficits that I do, I genuinely feel like have those people take any significant amount of stimulants would do something similar. I was around plenty of people who "used adderall to study" in college but clearly didn't actually have the condition. Let's just say "studying" tended to involve many things that weren't actually studying.
> And then some junk food, because life is for the living and you have to find some time for enjoyment as well.
Interesting how enjoyment is connected to junk food.
My "junk food" in this case is beer, whisky, pizza, chips, and bad comedy movies. I enjoy them all greatly. Food can be a visceral pleasure and I can derive as much or more from a crappy pizza as I can from a gourmet meal. So... my "junk food" really is a lot of junk food. Yours or others may not be. Also YMMV.
Going quasi-paleo, I learned how food is supposed to taste, and everything tasted better. Junk food also tasted better. Way better. Crazy better. Years later, I still remember 1/6 of a pretty basic Safeway chocolate donut tasted, and what I was doing at the time (physics club). It was the first junk I had had in months.
On the other hand, my life would have been perfectly enjoyable without it as well. A link between junk food and enjoyment... I'm not going to judge it, but I'll say life's better when that link doesn't exist. When my life was nothing but junk food, nothing really tasted good. It was all just bland; like I was feeding a habit more than having a treat. Junk food was an escape from life for me, because life sucked. In part, it was not under my control. But in maybe the greater part, it was, and junk food was one thing I used to avoid having to do anything about it and still feel 'ok'.
As far as time, if you're eating well, planning ahead is key. You don't need junk food to help you get things ready faster, because you've already cut up some fruits and veggies for snacks, or you've got a bit of last night's steak for part of your breakfast.
EDIT
People really do hate exercise around here. The point of HIIT and weights is that when someone is younger they should be trying to build a base that can serve them as they age. When I think of life span and health span, having those reserves will make it easier to keep doing things as a person ages. If I could only pick a single thing to do to prepare myself for old age it would be lift weights. Specifically squats and dead lifts.
For my dad: I'll add in kayaking or canoeing (through a club, training with competitors), for my mom: rowing (same, again). For myself: mid-to-long distance running mixed with shorter sprints. It's also good for the knees if you look after your health, do it regularly, and wear proper shoes for the terrain and your body.