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Are you looking for something to help you think faster, recall better, and solve life’s daily challenges more easily? A nootropic may be the solution to your problem, even if you have never considered taking a health supplement before.
Health supplements are crafted to provide your body with the nutrients that it may not be getting through your regular diet. The body requires a wide variety of vitamins, minerals, and proteins in order to operate effectively. Missing any can result in you having a harder time dealing with challenges that crop up daily. In short, a shortage of something you need can keep you from living your best life.
A simple supplement is easy to add to your daily routine, making it one of the best investments you can make in yourself. All you have to do is pick up a bottle and remember to take a pill after brushing your teeth.
A nootropic is a supplement designed to help your brain work more efficiently by providing it with the key nutrients it needs to operate effectively. It is different than a regular health supplement due to the inclusion of compounds designed to effectively cross the blood-brain barrier and go straight to work helping the brain improve itself.
Vitamins, proteins, and minerals that the brain needs are provided in a simple capsule. All you will need to do is take one in the morning and watch as your brain slowly starts to work better.
Proper nootropics can take several days, if not weeks, to be noticed. This is because it can take the brain a while to put the supplied nutrients to work. However, if you have the patience to focus on long-term benefits, then the results will speak for themselves. The brain and body work together, so while it is important to supply the brain with what it needs you cannot forget about the rest of the body. Use a general health supplement to ensure that your body gets all the nutrients that it needs. By tackling both challenges together, you are practically guaranteeing that your health and well-being will improve.
Is Caffeine a Nootropic?
Caffeine is a well-known mental stimulant used by billions of people every day. It helps improve concentration, recall, and the ability to tackle complex challenges. On the surface, it would appear that this miracle substance is a nootropic. However, it isn’t. It just impacts the short-term functioning of the brain, forcing it to run as fast as it can.
It does nothing to actually improve the functioning of the brain. If the brain can’t operate at peak efficiency, forcing it to work faster will still result in the same sort of challenges it would face without caffeine.
Nootropics work by addressing the nutrient deficiencies that may exist in the brain. By providing the brain with what it lacks, it is possible to “tune up” your mind, allowing it to run more effectively even after the nootropic has left your system. A feat the caffeine cannot claim.
However, it should be noted that caffeine can be a powerful tool when used in conjunction with a nootropic. Just make certain to not overdo it. Caffeine is habit-forming, and the body develops a tolerance to it relatively quickly.
True Help Vs. The Placebo Effect
Measuring the effectiveness of nootropics can be a difficult thing. After all, one has to measure the actual performance of their own brain while dealing with a wide variety of tasks. This challenge is compounded by a little something called the placebo effect.
The placebo effect is the idea that the belief that something is changing results in it changing. For instance, if you believe an antidepressant is working then it is more likely to work than if you were skeptical of it.
The same thing can be said of nootropics. If you approach the field with the idea that it can, and will, help you improve your mental performance then it is more likely to do so.
As such, our team of reviewers had to be very careful to stay neutral on the topic. We conducted several tests that are designed to put a number on our mental performance. Tasks such as puzzles, games, and rote memorization were all done before and after the reviews. As such, we are confident that we have done everything possible to bring you accurate results.
Remember the last time you stretched your mind, your thought process, and your imagination. It was a difficult thing to do, right? Everyone has their limits, especially when it comes to conceptual thinking, remembering, and reasoning. Nootropics promise to help with these limits by providing your brain with the nutrients it may be lacking, helping it run at full efficiency.
Think of it this way: say your brain is a car that requires premium gasoline. It can run fine on unleaded, but the engine will not run as effectively or efficiently. A nootropic is akin to no longer using unleaded and switching to premium. The sudden burst of good fuel will directly lead to better results and a longer-lasting car.
Mental Exercises Can Help Too
The brain is an organ that is constantly optimizing itself to address the challenges of daily life. It uses a large chunk of the calories ingested and requires a special mixture of nutrients in order to run optimally. As such, it should come as no surprise that you need to “flex” this “muscle” in order to get it to work right.
This is true even if you are using a nootropic. Take time to challenge yourself every day. Play a game that requires concentration. Tackle a challenging puzzle. Break out that Sudoku book you got during your last vacation. Do whatever it takes in order to just push your mind a little bit. After a couple of days, you will find that the puzzles are a bit easier to handle. Add more “weight” at this point, constantly challenging yourself. When done properly you will discover that spending just a half-hour per day on your mind returns dividends that will improve nearly every facet of your life.
Your brain, and thus your mind, is one of the most complex and important organs in your body. Anything that impacts it directly impacts your life, making it essential that you take keeping it healthy seriously.
Nootropics provide your mind with the nutrients it needs in order to operate at peak efficiency. However, there are many cases in which this isn’t sufficient. If you are feeling ill, then your performance on concentration and memorization tasks will suffer.
Additionally, underlying health conditions such as ADD/ADHD will impact how you can tackle the many challenges that come with daily life.
It is important that you mention any concentration and memory issues you are facing with your doctor. He or she may run a couple of tests to rule out medical issues that need to be treated. It is best to spend an afternoon figuring out what is going on rather than suffering from an untreated condition that can be easily tackled with just a pill per day.
Sudden Onset of Concentration Issues
Many health conditions present as concentration issues. To be specific, they show up as sudden deficits in the ability to think and reason clearly. If you are having issues with thinking, stop what you are doing and visit a doctor. The cause may be as simple as a nasty cold, but it could be vastly worse.
Few people consider how they think to be an important marker of overall health. However, the brain is one of the most nutrient and energy-intensive organs in the body. If there is a problem then its performance can, and more than likely will be impacted. As such, it is important that you monitor how well you can handle certain tasks and be ready to make an appointment with a doctor the second something changes.
Consider your thinking and reasoning skills as the proverbial canary in the coal mine.
ADD/ADHD Symptoms
There is a world of difference between simply not performing at your best and having a chronic medical condition. If you believe that your concentration issues are the result of something more profound than a nutrient deficiency, speak with a doctor. Attention Deficit Disorder is not just a condition that plagues school-aged children. It is often a life-long ailment that requires therapy and medications to successfully treat.
That doesn’t mean that nootropics can’t play a role in helping you improve your concentration. Keeping the brain healthy by supplying it with the nutrients it needs is a smart move. Just make a point to monitor your progress. If you are not seeing the results you are looking for, make an appointment with your doctor. You may be surprised to learn how easy your concentration problems are to treat.
There are health supplements that promise the world but deliver molehills. Then there are those that have been designed from the ground up to provide specific benefits to your health. Nootropics are meant to help boost your brain health, helping sharpen your memory and concentration.
Our team of reviewers carefully tried out several dozen nootropics from many manufacturers. We measured our response to several tests, taking great care to note any improvements that could possibly be attributed to the nootropics. We found that several did help us perform better, to the point where the costs were well worth it.
Here are seven of the best nootropics we encountered. Each one helped us sharpen our focus, remember things faster, and suss out even the smallest details in the puzzles we challenged ourselves with.
Image Courtesy of Elm & Rye
Are you looking for a health supplement that can help you focus, get stuff done, and remember every item on your to-do list? Elm & Rye is here to help with their amazing Nootropic dietary supplement.
Filled to the brim with the nutrients and aids believed to help your mind obtain the clarity and focus needed to operate at peak efficiency, Elm & Rye’s Nootropics is here to help you live your best life.
Each capsule has been carefully designed to provide you with all the nutrients your brain needs in order to function properly. Internal studies have shown that this supplement improves memory and focus, attention to detail, and boosts productivity and stamina.
Our team of reviewers took home a bottle and tried it out for a week. We found that some issues we regularly faced, such as concentration on tasks tackled later on in the evening, became easier after a couple of doses. We were pleased with the results and recommend this brand to anyone looking to dip their toes into the Nootropic scene.
2 — Bright Brain Absolute Focus
Image Courtesy of Bright Brain
Finding the right Nootropic shouldn’t be a monumental challenge. Companies around the world are churning out bottle after bottle of the stuff, promising the world to would-be consumers. However, promises rarely hold up to reality. That is where our team of experienced product reviewers comes into play. We take the time to figure out which products actually live up to their promises and then present the findings to you in an easy-to-understand manner.
With that in mind, our team of reviewers took home several bottles of Bright Brain’s Absolute Focus and tried it out for a week.
To start off, we took several mental challenges and carefully monitored how long it took us to complete each task. Sudoku puzzles, word searches, answering pop culture questions… you get the idea. The goal was to have a baseline in order to compare how we performed before and after taking the supplements.
At the end of the week, we retook the tests and found that there was a nice boost to our performance. It was a bit easier to tackle each of the challenges laid out in front of us, creating an impression that the supplement actually did help.
3 — Neurohacker Collective Qualia Mind
Image Courtesy of Neuro Hacker
There are supplements that can be good value propositions and then there are those that make you scratch your head and wonder who actually pays for them. Qualia Mind is one of the former, with its awe-inspiring price tag of $139 for a 30-day supply. Normally we would skip over this brand due to the price alone, but it has over a thousand reviews with an average rating of 4.31. There had to be something special about it in order to justify the high price tag.
We took the bottle home for a week and did our usual tests to see whether or not it actually helped. Puzzles, games, and general recall tasks were done regularly during the trial period and the results were carefully recorded and analyzed.
Our team did find an improvement in overall performance, though in comparison to other supplements on this list the differences were minor. We simply did not find a marked enough improvement to justify the overall cost. After all, in the end, this is just a health supplement. The value proposition is simply too far out of sorts for us to recommend this brand unless you have found others to not be effective.
4 — Neotropics Depot Noopept Capsules
Image Courtesy of Nootropics Depot
Are you looking for a nootropic that can help you improve your mental performance without breaking the bank? Noopept Capsules are available for an affordable $13.99 for a 30-day supply. It is one of the best value propositions we have reviewed, though, in the end, it is the results that matter much more than the price.
Our team of reviewers took home a bottle of this supplement and tried it out for a week. Our goal was to see if there were any changes in our mental gymnastics during and after the trial period. To do so we recorded ourselves doing several tasks, from solving a Sudoku puzzle to playing Super Mario Brothers. The goal was to get a baseline figure that we can easily compare to a post-review follow-up test to see if there had been any changes.
The results were promising, with our speed dealing with the game and puzzle increasing by a decent margin immediately after taking the final dose of the supplement. However, it should be noted that it took a week for the effects to be felt. We chalk that up to the need for the brain to take these nutrients and put them to good work. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day and the brain is an exceptionally complex organ.
5 — Beyond Raw Chemistry Labs Nootropic
Image Courtesy of GNC
Available from GNC, this Nootropic is backed by GNC’s dedication to providing quality health supplements at affordable prices to discerning consumers nationwide. GNC is a brand that has earned national recognition through its high-quality products and ease of access. You don’t have to visit a confusing shelf at Walmart to find them, nor go online and see what thousands of other people have had to say.
No, all you need to do is go to your local mall and walk right on in. A trained and experienced salesperson will quickly help you find the right bottle to address your health supplement needs.
That is how we got started on our week-long trial. The salespeople were quick to help us, setting us up with what was needed in order to provide you with a simple review of the effectiveness of this supplement.
And it is effective, especially when considering the affordable price of $29.99. It helped us improve our daily lives by making it easier to recall basic things that used to stump us. Additionally, it made it easier for us to tackle simple tasks like solving puzzles or making complex dishes for dinner.
6 — Alpha BRAIN Instant
Image Courtesy of Onnit
Are you looking for a mind stimulant but can’t stand the taste of most capsules? ONNIT is here to help with is Alpha BRAIN Instant Nootropic. The capsules come in your choice of seven flavors, making it easy to add this health supplement to your daily life.
Our team quickly ordered a couple of bottles and tried them for a week. During that time we did everything we could to see if there was a difference in mental performance. Everything from tackling writing projects that required a great deal of focus to playing intense games… and we found that it worked. Our performance improved by a noticeable amount, making this one of the better supplements we reviewed during this project.
The price is a little bit on the expensive side, in comparison to some of the other products on this list. A 30-day supply can be had for $55.95, though it is frequently on sale for up 20% off.
7 — Neuro-Peak Memory, Focus and Clarity Supplement
Image Courtesy of Walmart
There is something to be said about instant gratification. This brand is available nationwide at any of the thousands of Walmarts. All you have to do is go down the supplement aisle and toss a bottle into your cart. No trips to the mall. No waiting a week for an online delivery. Just a smooth experience that you don’t have to think about.
And at the low price of $14.96, you really do not have to think about it. Finding out if nootropics are right for you has never been more affordable or easy.
We took home a couple of bottles and did our regular testing. At the end of the week, we found that this supplement did help us with our concentration, making it easier to tackle both simple and complex tasks.
Our team discovered that this nootropic was the perfect addition to our healthcare routine due to its exceptional value proposition. Just toss one of these capsules in with the rest of your morning pills and rest assured that you are doing everything possible to keep your mind sharp.
