Ask HN: What vitamins and legal nootropics take every day | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What vitamins and legal nootropics take every day

24 pointshector_ka31 comments

Fasting, twice a week, used to be very strict but then dropped back to just having some tea.. fasting is very powerful, gave me my mojo back in mid 30s after burnout from top tier consulting firm and grad school, got testosterone boost, clarity of mind, physical fitness and confidence, amazing tool.. but body has to be of the right disposition.

How many hours are you fasting? Whole day twice a week?

Used to be just water for the whole day. Maybe some electrolytes, potassium, sodium salts.. lately I’m caffeinating to get through the workload

What is the 'right disposition'?

The light airy folks tend not to do well with fasting. The heartier meatier guys that tend to hold weight and can weather a few days of fasting are better suited.

Do you have some numbers for this? As I understand it anyone with healthy % of body fat has far more than enough reserves for just days of fasting.

There are two great YouTube channels I recommend following:

Dr Brad Stanfield:

https://www.youtube.com/c/DrBradStanfield/videos?view=0&sort...

Dr Rhonda Patrick:

https://www.youtube.com/c/FoundMyFitness/videos?view=0&sort=...

Note that they're more about anti-aging and general health, but some nootropics will also be covered.

Dr Stanfield will usually list his current supplement regimin in each video. Currently it's:

Nicotinamide Mononucleotide (NMN) 1g, Sulforaphane 8mg, Niacin 50-500mg, Trimethylglycine (TMG) 500mg, Vitamin K2 MK-7 90μg, Vitamin D3 3,000 IU, Omega-3 (DHA/EPA) two capsules, Hyaluronic Acid 200mg, Pterostilbene 100mg, Collagen 10g, Niacin 50-500mg, Zinc 8.4mg, Metformin 1g, Melatonin 300mcg, Magnesium Taurate 125mg

> Metformin

Wow, is this available in the US without prescription? It's a diabetes drug and has a lot of side effect. And 1g is also a lot.

Rx only. I've taken it for weight gain from mirtazapine along with statins for familial hypercholesterolemia. IF is better but it leads to reduced energy levels, increased aggression, reduced concentration, and is inconvenient.

Is there a tldr for each ?

You might want to do some research into Magnesium L Threonate. It seems it is better absorbed by the body

None. Why waste your money? I eat a variety of fruit, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, along with regular exercise outside.

Stop eating so much. Learn how to fast properly and over time you will have tons of energy. No supplements needed. It's shocking how we have been persuaded over time to rely on drugs and supplements to feel normal...tsk tsk.

Yup. Food has vitamins, BCAAs, MCT oil, or whatever people are buying these days. The body makes creatine, melatonin, etc.

Because nowadays food is not able to provide you vitamins and minerals in the amount your body needs.

How so? Nowadays humans have more access to food than ever before.

Instead of taking a multivitamin you can just eat food. Food has vitamins and minerals.

> Instead of taking a multivitamin you can just eat food. Food has vitamins and minerals.

No, it's not enough [1]. Long story short: to provide the needed amount vitamins and minerals you'd have to eat lot more calories than your body needs. So to achieve correct balance between calories and vitamins and minerals, you need to enrich food with supplements.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25032337

How do you explain people like myself, who don't take any supplements, don't have any vitamin deficiencies, and are in good health?

The study you linked finds varying decline in vitamin and mineral content of common crops over time, not a study showing that people who don't take multivitamins have vitamin deficiencies. And it has methodological problems highlighted by a followup study [1]: "Comparisons of food composition data published decades apart are not reliable. Over time changes in data sources, crop varieties, geographic origin, ripeness, sample size, sampling methods, laboratory analysis and statistical treatment affect reported nutrient levels."

[1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S088915751...

I can't explain people like yourself. I can't even explain myself why I lack vitamins and minerals. All I can do is congratulate your excellent health and keep taking supplements to maintain my desired levels.

Nicotine. I've never smoked but I started experimenting with nicotine lozenges and they are great. It helps my concentrations and focus a lot. So far I've found minimal addictiveness and no negative effects but obviously that varies by person and you should be careful. I've never smoked and smoking seems to be kind to many of the negative effects of nicotine.

Just adding that I really don't find nicotine all that addictive either. I find other common drugs extremely addicting and hard to stop in comparison (namely: caffiene). my naive opinion is that smoking ends up more addictive due to the habitual nature versus the nicotine content of cigarettes.

I quit smoking by reading a book[1] about how to quit smoking, which basically said the same thing. Nicotine is not addictive, a true addiction will cause withdrawal symptoms like alcoholics can die if they quit drinking too fast.

While reading that book, I just stopped smoking cold turkey. I still get cravings every once in awhile especially when I see other people smoking but easy to control now.

1: Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Smoking

My personal trainer strongly recommended daily dose of creatine (~5m), but it has also had noticeable effects in daily energy (especially during the pandemic when mostly chair-bound).

Otherwise I suppliment fish oil (or algae), vitamin D (5000 IU/125mg), standard multivitamin, choline (650 mg) since i cant stomach eggs every day.

I've also had good experience with B12 and Vinpocene but not regularly taken.

Have you gained a noticeable amount of water weight since you started taking creatine? I used it to take it many years but go so bloated it felt unpleasant. Maybe I was taking too much or a bad product.

Not too much, but I've also changed my diet, and been affected by some of the "normal" pandemic body weight changes. I'm winding up to do a water weight shed soon so I'll know better then.

Overall though, no obvious bloating. I'd suggest lower dose. I always swirl it in water and take as a solution. link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002DYIZEO/

There's a double blind study from Japan that suggests lions mane mushroom extract is an effective nootropic. Not sure how much follow up has been done on it.

Not sure if this is asking people what they take versus asking or recommendations.

Anyway, I've taken adrafanil which is legal in the US at least because I have a erratic and often brutal sleep schedule. It does for me what I always thought caffeine was supposed to do, but never did for me: provide a subtle, but noticeable wakefulness effect even under multiple days of not having slept.

So basically Modafinil. Do you take that every day, or sporadically?

Daily:

vitamin D3 20'000 UI + vitamin K2 MK7 200 μg

vitamin C 1g

Zinc 15 mg

My main goal is to keep in my blood vitamin D3 (25 OH) level more or less at 100 mg/ml.

20k UI of vit D is far, far too much.

There are some nasty side-effects you can develop from keeping that up too long.

https://www.devaboone.com/post/vitamin-d-part-2-shannon-s-st...

https://www.devaboone.com/post/vitamin-d-part-1-back-to-basi...

Yes, maybe you're right. I guess the ideal solution would be to check 25 OH D level every 6 weeks and adjust supplementing to maintain the desired level.

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