What Are The 5 Best Brain Boosting Nootropics? EndurElite Chief Endurance Officer Matt Mosman discusses what supplements and dosages may boost your brain power.
- Choline Bitartrate: 1-2 grams daily
- Alpha GPC: 600-1000mg daily
- Huperzine-A: 50-200mcg daily
- Creatine: 2.5-5 grams daily
- Caffeine: Small doses of 100-150mg
Full Video Transcription:
Good morning, Family of FAST. Matt Mosman, the Chief Endurance Officer over at EndurElite. Do you ever feel brain drained, and do you know why? Well, because it's life and life is draining. But the good news for you is there are certain supplements out there that can supercharge your brain power kind of like that Bradley Cooper movie "Limitless," where he takes that little smart pill and does all crazy stuff with the stock market and can act at the speed of light, like a super intelligent Superman, but kind of like that, but not really. But kinda. So, there's a whole new class of supplements out there called nootropics. Kind of old news, but we are gonna talk about it anyways because I got a question about it the other day. So, nootropics are a type of supplement that can improve cognition, mental acuity, mental alertness, mental clarification, basically it has to do with anything in your noggin, these certain nootropics supplements might be able to help you. Now, so what we're gonna really discuss today are some of the more popular nootropics supplements, how much you should be taking, and the ones you definitely wanna avoid. So, let's cover about five of them today, and I'll put a more comprehensive list on the blog of the other list of nootropics out there.
Best Nootropic #1: Choline Bitartrate
So, the first nootropics that I usually recommend is choline bitartrate. Now, choline acts by increasing choline in the body which is basically converted to acetylcholine in the body. Acetylcholine is uptaked into the brain and basically acetylcholine acts as a neurotransmitter, so it basically causes your brain to fire a lot quicker and experience that mental clarity. So, with the choline bitartrate, you wanna do about one to two grams daily. I usually like taking it about 30 minutes before a workout just to get that focus factor going on.
Best Nootropic #2: Alpha-GPC
Along the same lines as choline bitartrate is Alpha-GPC. Now, Alpha-GPC basically does the same thing, it increases choline levels in the body, transferred or converted to acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter. And again, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. But also the Alpha-GPC has a really interesting mind muscle connection. So, if you've never tried Alpha-GPC, it's actually pretty amazing. Everything just kind of feels in sync with your brain and your body. Now, with the Alpha-GPC, dosages you wanna go for are about 600 to 1,000 milligrams daily. And again, you can take this about 30 minutes before exercise if you want.
Best Nootropic #3: Huperzine A
Next on the list is Huperzine A. Now, Huperzine A actually works really well in combination with the first two mentioned nootropics. And here's why. The Huperzine A actually inhibits the breakdown of choline in the body. So, the available choline pool is basically greater and stays that way longer and is not broken down as quickly. Now, with the Huperzine A, you wanna go with about 50 to 200 micrograms daily and this amount really varies on the amount of the choline sources you're getting. So, if you're doing a really high amount or dosage of let's say something like Alpha-GPC, you would probably wanna stick with that 200 micrograms of the Huperzine A.
Best Nootropic #4: Caffeine Anhydrous
Now, there's other nootropics out there like Bacopa monnieri, lion's mane, we're not gonna talk about that, but we're gonna talk about two other ones that you may not think of as like a brain boosting supplement, but I've talked a lot about before. One is caffeine anhydrous. A low dose of caffeine anhydrous can actually promote a greater mental clarity, our focus, our alertness. Yeah, we all know that. Whatever. Caffeine's frickin' awesome. No explanation needed.
Best Nootropic #5: Creatine Monohydrate
The second one and this may actually be surprising to you is creatine monohydrate. Now, we usually think of creatine monohydrate as the gym bros getting swole and good effects for endurance athletes, but there's a new emerging body of literature coming out that shows creatine can actually help with memory formation and cognitive function, especially as we age. And this really makes sense because besides creatine being stored in the muscle, some is actually stored in the brain too. So, creatine for the brain power. So, with the caffeine, low dose, I would go about 100 to 150 milligrams. You don't need to go over the top for the whole, like mental acuity, mental focus cognition. And then for the creatine monohydrate, you can just stick with a standard dose of anywhere from three to five grams daily, no need to load or anything like that.
What About Illegal Nootropics?
So, those are the five best, in my opinion, legal nootropics out there. Now, there's another class of nootropics that works a lot better, but they're kind of gray area and they're kind of legal, but not exactly legal. And I'm not gonna get into these too much. I'm just gonna say these nootropics belong to the racetam family. If you want more information, you know, look it up, but I'm not gonna promote something that is, you know, maybe borderline illegal.
So, that is all I have for brain boosting supplements for today, my endurance friends. If you have a buddy that's experiencing the brain drain because he has about eight kids, a busy job etc., etc., etc., please share this video with them. If you want other videos like this on endurance training, nutrition, supplementation, random musings, busting the BS, subscribe to the EndurElite YouTube channel or head on over to the EndurElite blog at www.endurelite.com. Get social with us on Instaslam and our super duper awesome Family of FAST Facebook page. And until next time, my endurance friends, stay fueled, stay focused, stay fast, and stay informed.
