Supplements
Here is a list of nootropics and supplements I’ve tried at various times and my opinion on them. Some of these I’ve taken only a few times or over the course of a single month and other things I have attempted to take over much longer periods of time.
Not all of these are things that I am currently taking, and even those things that I am currently taking, some of them are very sporadic and mixed. I don’t have any long-term data on most of these because I am not super strict about my regimen. If you want that kind of data look elsewhere.
A lot of this is pretty standard, my opinion on Vitamin C is probably not going to radically reinvent the wheel. The main things of interest for most people reading this are several odd substances here that have very little information online, or very few people have taken.
I have gone out of my way to try weird substances that are pretty far off the beaten path, some of them for long periods of time, and some which caused adverse reactions (particularly TCM medications I’ve tried). I’ve tried to keep the more interesting things towards the top so as to not waste peoples time.
Here is a first draft.
Oxytocin
I have taken Oxytocin in both a pill form and as a nasal spray. From my own research and my own experiences I can say without a doubt that the pill form does not appear to do anything.
After reading about this a bit more it doesn’t seem able to cross the blood-brain barrier in pill form. It is a complete waste of time to buy like that. Despite this being the case, I took 90 of the pills anyway (since I already paid for them) to see if there would be any impact, but there was none.
The nasal spray however definitely does appear to have a strong effect. It wasn’t strong enough to tell that it wasn’t just placebo but I definitely felt more social. I would say that forming bonds or empathizing with other people seemed much easier.
The spray seemed to last for around 1 hour as far as I could tell, and was quite a strong effect. I would definitely recommend trying it out for fun, as it did appear to have a slight effect on my overall disposition while I was on it.
I’ve used the nasal spray several times pretty consistently and I would say that it is definitely a real nootropic which does something, and causes my body to feel different when on it. Most of the time I try to differentiate between placebo and non-placebo but with this it is right on the line between the two. I can’t definitely say either way sadly, this gets my recommendation though.
Estradiol
There was a months long period when I experimented with taking 2mg of estrogen daily, with great results overall. I would definitely consider taking more of it in the future or possibly taking one of the non-feminizing variants. It definitely makes you more emotional in a noticable way, which is a net negative side effect, but not to a degree that impacted my life in any non-trivial way.
All other side effects were positive, it made me calmer, gave me what I would call a kind of ‘peace of mind’. I think transgender individuals relate this kind of emotional zen-ness to gender euphoria but I think this would probably impact anyone taking the drug for any reason in the same way that lithium promotes a kind of zen mode of being.
I was able to work more effectively and though it created emotional swings in either direction, the happy emotional cycles were very strong and long lasting. In that sense it is kind an inverse of something like Lithium, where this is causing emotional swings where there previously weren’t any, but combined with a lithium-esque tranquility. It also significantly reduces libido, which depending on the person might be a good or bad side effect.
The data on taking estrogen or anti-testosterone medication as a life extension mechanism is really inconclusive so I’m not sure if I would take it again in the future for that purpose. Overall it seemed like a net positive.
Pinus Massoniana 馬尾松 (Chinese Pine Needles)
There was quite a strong effect with this one and ended up being quite a story. Each time I took the pinecone dust I immediately felt sick to my stomach and around the fifth day of taking the pinecone dust, I got so sick that I started violently puking. The vomit appeared a bright red hue and seemed to have blood in it. A friend proceeded to call an ambulance on me that I did not go into.
After puking and no longer taking the supplement I had no futher issues whatsoever. It definitely had a strong effect. To be fair, I’m not sure if it was the actual pinecone or some contaminant in the supplement (which is not unheard of in TCM manufacturing). Either way I would not recommend trying this supplement to anyone.
Frankly I don’t even recall what the effect of this one is supposed to even be, I don’t think it is supposed to do anything from what I remember. The fact that it is supposed to be a fake supplement which causes no real effects makes me think that the TCM was contaminated in some way.
Chromium
Chromium is a trace mineral that seems to be related to a lot of metabolic functions. From what I can tell it seems to be key in various blood sugar management functions, and is commonly given as a diabetic medication.
There are lots of prescription diabetic medications that seem to have life extension qualities when used in a non-diabetic context. I believe that this very well could be one such medication but it doesn’t seem to be talked about as much as many others for whatever reason.
The fact that it is used to manage insulin resistance issues makes me think that it would have some kind of life extension capabilities but I haven’t really looked into it too deeply. It seems to also be used as a weight loss supplement and appears to work in that kind of context.
From what I could tell it didn’t seem to do much of anything, and I took it in combination with other things so it was hard to tell any significant improvements when added to my stack in various combinations. I don’t think I will use it again though because it seems to have semi-serious liver or kidney issues when taken in large quantities.
Spirolactone
I did not try this as long as I tried the estrogen, comparatively I barely tried it at all. It seemed to work great for what it purports to do but that are lots of health complications that can arise from taking it.
The issue with this entire category of testosterone blockers is that they seem to have an extensive literature of different health issues that arise from their usage. I definitely liked some aspects of this but it noticeably lowers my overall energy in a way that is maybe not tenable for long term use.
To be fair I think the issue with energy loss is common to any type of testosterone blocker, and could only be mitigated by taking less of it. I was not taking this at the same time as estrogen, these were two separate experiments.
I do think that I would like to experiment with anti-androgens in the future again and try out various other chemical forms of these. The issue with these to reiterate, is that they all seem to cause intensive liver related issues that outweigh the benefits of having a lowered form of testosterone (like hair loss mitigation for example).
There are maybe natural ways to chemically alter testosterone levels but they all everything I have seen thus far always comes with heavy negative side effects so I’m not sure what I would even try.
I think that in terms of life extension, testosterone seems to be a huge factor in decreased male lifespans. So as much as people may make fun of me for trying this out, I think it is a pathway well worth exploring and experimenting with.
Dong Chong Xia Cao 冬虫夏草 (Chinese Cordyceps Powder)
My assessment of this is that it is a total hidden gem. I assume that anyone that takes this takes it for the meme which is the reason why I took it. If you aren’t familiar with these already stop reading this article and look up cordyceps mushrooms on youtube.
The odd parasitic nature of the mushroom makes it such a fun conversational piece that I knew I had to get some and try it after I learned they are used in TCM. The traditional view of these is that it tonifies the lung and kidney Qi, which makes no sense to me but whatever.
It is supposedly used moreso when your Yang is out of balance, an unproven claim is that it is for anti-aging and anti-senility. It is commonly prescribed as part of mixtures for preventing the onset of senility by maintaining the Yang.
All of this is complete nonsense but it is fun to parrot it. I was however pleasantly surprised by the real effect it had. There are numerous studies which show that the effects I have while taking this are not placebo.
It is known to be an anti-oxidant in an actual meaningful sense, by this I mean, it boosts oxygen use during exercise and is known to be a sports performance enhancer. It is used by athletes to improve stamina as a kind of secret supplement used to get around sports regulations.
There is some evidence that it acts as an anti-inflammatory, with some studies showing possible uses in diabetic medication.
Personally, I think it is great, I feel great after taking it, I take it regularly now, and it seems to have not so much a stimulating effect as purely a stamina related effect. If I am walking I feel that I can go further and longer without fatigue. It is one of my new favorite supplements to recommend people.
Ge Jie 蛤蚧 (Chinese Gecko Powder)
Gecko powder is a bit interesting, in Chinese TCM it is said to tonify the lung and kidneys similarly to cordyceps. This is how I stumbled onto it originally is that when you read obtuse Chinese medical records for information on cordyceps this often comes up as a known ‘pairing’ so to speak.
Since I liked cordyceps so much I thought I would give this exotic TCM medication a shot as well. I also wanted to try out some of the ‘pairings’ that are recommended in TCM to see what would happen.
I can say without a doubt that this does not appear to do much of anything, it didn’t even make me sick to my stomach the way other TCM does. Say what you will about TCM but if it makes me extremely ill it is doing something. That is more than I can say for most nootropics that people recommend.
Nothing else to say about this one there is one study I’ll link here which seems to show anti-tumor effects. There are no other notable results that I could find related to gecko powder.
Ashwaganda
This has basically no effect, and a couple of the times I have taken it, correlated with me having a headache. So if there is any impact I would characterize it fully as a negative impact. It did not seem to do anything, and while research has stated that there are possible effects, the research I saw seemed like garbage.
Nicotine (Gum)
I have taken nicotine gum for around 2 years on and off at various points. The main thing that inspired me to try it was the excellent post by Gwern and I have since gone on to encourage many friends to give it a try. I have never been a smoker or a vape person prior to using nicotine gum. It is definitely the best low effect stimulant, and targets different neural pathways than caffeine. I would describe it as most similar to an extremely microdose of Adderall.
Daily at my peaks in my habit I take around 24-36mg of nicotine. I would say this is an extremely high dose much higher than the Gwern post for example recommends. At strong doses like this it causes a very strong heart impact and makes my heart feel slightly strained (I am not in the best health).
It is never enough to impact my performance except during strenuous workouts. If I stop taking it for a day or more this goes away entirely and does not seem long-lasting.
In terms of my teeth, I don’t see any impact on my tooth health from taking nicotine gum for years. My gums and teeth seem roughly the same as before I started taking it. There has been no significant difference in my gum health, there have been several studies which seem to show an impact on gum health, but I have not experienced this at all with long-term use.
The gum also seems significantly less addictive than other forms of nicotine. I have not smoked really so I can’t speak to how addictive smoing is, but I feel like the addiction is mostly psychological.
There have been several times when I stop for a 1-3 months mostly just to see if I can, and I have not found any significant addictive behavior crop up. I have also randomly stopped for shorter periods like a week with no significant cravings after the first day or two.
I do not take nicotine while I’m travelling, so anytime I travel I go without it for weeks at a time with no real notice other than obviously less wakefulness. All in all, I have found caffeine much more addictive ironically. Often, I feel completely incapable of going without caffeine for even a day or two without a significant cravings.
Chlorophyll
This is a total meme, no quantity of it seems to do anything whatsoever. I suspected as much going in but I took it as a joke around my friends saying I was going ‘plant mode’ over and over again. The most value you can get out of this is taking it as a joke.
Black Elderberry
Similar to a few other things, this is largely a meme. Even in a non-meme sense the casual wisdom about this is that it is something that you take when you are sick with a cold or some immune system issue.
It really only boosts the immune system and doesn’t really seem to provide any value beyond that. Along with Turmeric I only ever take this in combination with 5 other things, so I have not seen any evidence that it does much of anything for sickness or immune function.
If you want immune function don’t even bother with these kinds of supplements, just take Zinc. There really is no purpose to be fiddling around with these when Zinc works so well.
Turmeric Powder
Being a fan of Turmeric in my cooking, I’ve always kind of secretly hoped that it would have some genuine health benefit. Sadly that does not seem to really be the case. There are quite a few studies that show a potential benefit in the categories of
These potential health benefits seem incredibly slight to the point of basically non-existence. I haven’t seen a single study that convinced me of the value. This is in a combination supplement that I take with a few other things, so I happen to take this nearly everyday by chance.
Regardless of the frequency that I inject Turmeric powder or supplement pills, I have not seen any notable changes in my body or mind.
Bacopa Monnieri
Bacopa is supposedly used as a form of anti dementia drug. I bought a raw powder form of this and took it over the course of around 2 months and saw no improvements whatsoever.
It did not seem to do anything and I did not even get a placebo effect out of taking it, at least not one that I could tell. I do not believe it does anything whatsoever and have not taken any of it since.
There is some consensus online that this needs to be taken over a longer course in order for subtle effects to happen. The amount of time I took it for consistently should have been more than enough to have some sort of returns given the anecdotes I read online from others. This was simply not the case.
Spirulina
This is one of the standouts that I would like to try taking more reguarly again. Had great impacts, makes me feel much better bodily overall. Possibly a placebo effect but very strong if that is the case.
I’m surprised this isn’t a part of multivitamins, as it really seems to do something. It is difficult to pin down what exactly it is doing. Not really a mental effect so much as a bodily effect.
While I write this I’m realizing just how poorly I am at describing things which are not experienced mentally. I need to figure out better terminology for what I’m trying to say and come back to this entry.
Phenylpiracetam
The only racetam that actually gets me a non-trivial performance boost. The others clearly do something, but I can’t readily identify the thing that they are doing as a perfomance increase in any perceptible way. They often just make my body feel weird honestly.
Racetams are some of my favorite supplements to try out because they all are not placebo effects. All of them do something, and they do it to a level that is actively perceptible. I don’t think many people would dispute this and there is ample data that this is the case.
The claims about what it is that they are doing on the other hand are much easier to dispute. The only supplement in this family I would vouch as being ‘real’ in a meaningful nootropic sense is this.
It is very clearly not a placebo, and it obviously increases my concentration or ability to work to some significant degree. This family of nootropics is worth trying out for yourself, but this is the only one that I would actively recommend people seek out.
Zinc
Everytime I take Zinc supplements it causes me to become extremely nausous and feel like I am going to puke, they make me very very sick in most cases. I have read that this is a common issue for many people and that it can cause stomach ulcers to form.
The dosage I take that causes this is around 50mg which equates to around 500% of a persons daily value. When I take it at lower quantitites I have felt significant bodily effects, but at higher dosages I simply cannot tolerate it.
I’ve recently tried taking Zinc again more often, and I have been extremely careful to always take it with food of some kind rather than taking it on an empty stomach. I have still had issues where it causes me to feel super ill when I take it, but less so.
I really would like to take this supplement, and it does seem to have lots of impact that is very noticable but it is just impossible to take every day. If anyone knows a way around this issue or has advice please let me know.
Collagen
Possibly placebo, hair/nail growth. Collagen comes in many forms and while I’ve had it in topical forms before (which seemed to do basically nothing), after trying it in a pill form I got some interesting results.
The regimen I take it is roughly 3 times a week in a bovine collagen pill form. This has caused some significant hair and particularly nail growth. The data to back this up is extremely sparse and all the studies on this topic that show it working are paid for by the cosmetic industry.
Studies showing that this doesn’t work (there is like one) done by people outside the cosmetics industry are very sparse. It would be hard to tell without meticulous measurement of hair/nail growth if this was merely a placebo or not.
Personally I don’t care enough to tell if this is going to be a placebo or if it is causing my hair/nail growth. I’m more concerned with skin health and this is impossible for me to adequately measure. All in all I think this is worth trying, possibly a placebo, seems to be doing something from my observations (but not much).
Biotin
Compared to collagen this does not appear to do much of anything. Thought it is hard to tell because it is often packaged up with other things that are doing something. It is rare for me to take Biotin by itself but the few times that I have yielded nearly no noticable results for either hair or skin health.
I don’t really see it as doing much at all. Maybe it does something when combined with collagen or offsets the collagen in some way, but at least within my experience it is clear that collagen is doing something, and biotin does not appear to do anything.
CoQ10
This one is kind of weird I took tablets of CoQ10 for around 3 or 4 months and saw what I believe to simply be a placebo effect. I took this during a time that I was going to a personal trainer and I did feel like it was doing something but it was difficult to put my finger on what exactly.
I think that it is generally recommended to be taken with something else in order to properly ‘activate’ it similar to choline/creatine/etc. I did not take it how you are supposed to I just took it everyday before going to work out and do stretches. It did not generate enough of an effect to warrant me taking it further.
L-Theanine
Not placebo, net-positive calming effect. I use this not daily but probably several times a week. From what I can tell it does not work as well when mixed into various energy drinks. The amount per each energy drink seems too low to really do much of anything.
When I take it as a raw supplement powder I take it in much higher proportions than what is commonly recommended. The effect is much stronger and much more noticable.
Kratom
This is probably a useless drug, I tried it out a grand total of one time in a drink and it was awful. It is marketed as a kind of stimulant everywhere but I learned after researching it a bit more that it is a type of opiate plant.
When I tried it one time I did not get any stimulant effect out of it whatsoever. The lower dosages like the one I took are supposed to be the dosages that have a mild stimulant effect. I felt nothing, and at high dosages this has apparently a complete opposite ‘downer’ effect.
From what I read online because it is in the same class of drugs as opiates, it is addicting. Ontop of all that it tastes absolutely awful. Without a doubt it is one of the worst tasting chemicals I’ve ever had in my mouth. This could just be the form I tried it in but it was shockingly bad.
Caffeine
I take caffeine pills multiple times a day every single day. These are roughly around 200mg and I have taken several different variants. The kind that comes from Walmart ironically is the best brand for caffeine tablets in my opinion, you can break them in half very easily. This is by far the best over the counter stimulant besides nicotine that I’m aware of.
Everyone is already well aware of the upsides of caffeine but I will note that if you are taking it in an energy drink or in the form of coffee you are getting ripped off. The price per 200mg is roughly less than 0.05USD and taking it any other way besides in pill or powder form is just a total waste of your money.
Melatonin
Cannot wake up from this regardless of the dosage. It ruins my day the next day and makes me incredibly sleepy even after I wake up from it. I have tried it many times because everyone in the community swears by it and its ability to give someone a good nights rest. What I’ve found is that it does in fact cause you to get sleepy after taking it, I’ve tried it at dosages of 1mg, 2mg, 3mg, 5mg, 10mg, and 20mg.
Each of these dosages causes me to get sleepy and fall asleep. Though high dosages like 20mg cause me to sometimes have some weird effect where I am deliriously tired, feel as though I am dreaming or in and out of consciousness, but cannot fall asleep. These high dosages often make me feel like I didn’t sleep at all the whole night.
When I take it at a lower dosage, I fall asleep very very fast and sleep through the whole night without issue. I naturally wake up after around 8 hours of sleep when taking lower dosages.
The issue as I mentioned above is that even on lower dosages I wake up and after around an hour I feel very sleepy still like the drug is not fully out of my system.
I will feel horribly tired even after taking caffeine and often fall back asleep after an hour or two and sleep another 3-4 hours. Upon waking up from this I have then overslept and feel sleepy from that.
So given this, I’m not really sure what to make of the drug or if I am just using it wrong because it seems to work too well on me if anything and does not wear off after 8 or 9 hours.
Adderall (prescribed)
Adderall and other variants of it is simply the best drug ever created, there is nothing to be said that hasn’t already been said by everyone else. Endless ink has been spilled writing about how great it is, it is the best nootropic, if you get the chance take it.
Personally, I stopped taking it when I learned of the potential neurotoxic effects from taking it. Despite that, it is good enough that it is worth taking sparingly regardless, and I took it daily for years at a time.
The amount of mental clarity and ability to power through work productively is completely unmatched by any other drug. The different brand names and variants of this are all about the same. Ritalin in particular is notable as being worth avoiding entirely.
It is used in the same way brands like Adderall are used, but it is a completely different chemical as far as I’m aware and the effect is much different (and worse) when comparing the two.
Taurine
Taurine is a weird one that gets tossed around all the time but I believe it might be more powerful than most people probably think. It seems to have a bunch of great uses across all sorts of different health metrics and many people seem to think that it is a huge factor in aging, see the following.
There are all the normal sports-like health benefits that people cite and which seem to have a bunch of good evidence, i.e. reducing blood glucose and blood lipids, reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, etc.
These seem to have good data backing them up but it isn’t entirely clear to me that the level of Taurine in say a redbull energy or some other supplement is enough to meaningfully do much of anything.
I have only taken these in combination with other things that do similar ‘energy’ related claims, I have never noticed any difference with Taurine vs without Taurine on any stack. I can’t rule out that it is doing something that isn’t readily apparent or wouldn’t be highly helpful if I had say diabetes or something along those lines.
Vitamin C
I take a lot of Vitamin C supplements because I have mostly removed all fruit from my diet. I have attempted to remove all sugars and most breads from my diet (as much as is reasonable anyway). I rarely ever eat any sugary foods, fruit, candy, pastries, etc. I also do not drink any sugary drinks for the most part. I never drink soda under almost any circumstances.
Since this is the case, I feel the need to make it up by taking vitamin C. I don’t really feel much of an impact from taking the Vitamin C, outside of when I’m sick. I take it regardless anyway at a rate of around 250-1500mg per day. There seem to be significant effects only at the upper ranges of doses.
This strikes me as odd because I’ve always been taught that the majority of Vitamin C is not actually bioavailable at any given time when you take these supplements they are mostly going to waste. The data linked above seems to show that the only way to get any significant health benefit from them is to take them in a way that is very wasteful.