Ask HN: Anyone use brain drugs such as piracetam here?
If you have ever used these kind of drugs, what's your experience?
There are three types of things that people consume. Food. Medicine. Supplements. The government has a list of every object encompassing those categories. If it is not one of those things, you are not allowed to discuss consumption of it because it is not on the list.
Supplements, like piracetam, are blessed to be on the approved list. It's not a drug, it's not a food, but you buy it at the grocery store and eat it so it must be a supplement. Wikipedia does classify it as a drug but it is not treated as a drug in the USA.
Herbal medicine is something of a different category but just about everything recognized from Eastern medicine is on the Supplements list anyways.
You could fund research into what cognitive enhancement drugs did in healthy populations. Undergraduates would line up to be paid to take these drugs.
There's also the underlying ethical question of dosing people with combinations of neurotransmitters. We haven't studied it yet so we don't know what the side effects are. Is animal research appropriate? Do any of these drugs work on other primates? Has anyone ever tried to teach monkeys mathematics? http://www.scribd.com/doc/13134612/Naturrecom456702a argues for more study into the area, though they use as examples drugs of much more proven ability for cognitive enhancement than piracetam.
Piracetem:http://www.erowid.org/smarts/piracetam
Nootropic Vault:http://www.erowid.org/smarts/smarts.shtml
I'm interested in trying it and would appreciate any extra information.
I know you didn't ask but I like sharing :) I also love eggs, especially pasteurized egg whites, and place them in the same category. To me pasteurized egg whites are equally as powerful. I would liken it to caffeine with no negatives but I don't like the sensation all the time.
Veggies like broccoli and spinach to a much less immediate effect. I would place berries higher than veggies. I take fish oil. Mayo Clinic recommends it.
And of course exercise. I weight lift like you see in the olympics, albeit with much less weight. It's a very efficient weight lifting related exercise. There's also sprinting, akin to spinning but fuller body, and swimming.
So that's my core physical body and mind well being philosophy :)
Do read this, though: http://yarchive.net/med/nootropics.html