What are Nootropics? It is a brain-boosting supplement that helps enhance our brain capabilities and health as well as improve the cognitive performance of our brain. It improves our brain’s memory, focus, motivation, mood, stress resistance, attention, alertness, relaxation and many more. Our brain is the most complex organ in our body, and the drugs that we take to help improve it should also be complex.

The meaning of Nootropics

According to Dr. Corneliu Giurgea, the leading expert and pioneer of Nootropic studies and development, it comes from the Greek word “Nous” meaning mind and “trepein” meaning to turn or bend. It means mind-bending or turning. These are drugs that enhance the cognitive function of our brain. To get a better picture of this drug, we will discuss the history and the origin of this definition. Dr. Corneliu E. Giurgea, the pioneer of Nootropic studies, is the first person to describe and gives a criterion on how a drug is considered Nootropic. The rules include:

Memory and learning enhancement

Should improve the cognitive function of the brain under stressful environment

Can protect the brain cells or Neuroprotective

Can facilitate the communication between the cells in our body. With this definition, only a handful of pharmaceutical drugs can be called Nootropics. But due to the advancement of neurological studies, the description made by Dr. Giurgea in 1960 changed dramatically.

The modern definition

In today’s world, any drug that helps our brain to improve its cognitive function can be considered a nootropic drug. According to Nootropics Revealed site, there are over 80 drugs today, including supplements that can be viewed as a Nootropic. As the number of supplements continued to rise, the appreciation for the brain supplement’s ability to enhance our brain’s function has been gaining steam all over the world.

What are the benefits it gives?

Because of the rapid growth of supplement users, the benefits associated with these drugs are also growing, as well as the prices for acquiring the supplements. Enhanced benefits include:

Memory – The traditional memory supplements have evolved into a more effective enhancer of storage, memory, recall, knowledge retention and learning function of our brain.

Attention – Nootropics can enhance the aspect of focus, attention, and concentration of the user to give them added advantage in productivity.

Learning – Students will have a huge advantage when using the supplement because it will enhance the cognitive learning process such as storage, recall and memory formation.

Mood – Brain supplements like Nootropics can help the user to relax, can give confidence, sociability, happiness, anxiety and can maximize the cognitive function of our brain.

Creativity – The supplement can give the user a free-flowing thought and artistic flow, as well as quiet contemplation.

Physical – Given that the supplement is in the brain, the drug is also available as sports nutrition due to its ability for motivation improvement, promotes focus and can give the user the energy to intensify training.

Stress Resistance – Nootropic supplements have some recorded testimonials from users stating that it has anti-stress capabilities.

(To learn more about the benefits of this drug, visit: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5021479/)

How do the drug works?

Typically, brain supplements such as Nootropics are designed to target all of the brain pathways:

Brain Chemicals – The neurotransmitters promote the communication between neurons, regulating the memory and cognitive functions of our body. It can contribute to a fully optimized neurotransmitter status by sharpening receptor sensitivity, brain, and chemical breakdown inhibition and increase in neurotransmitter production.

Energy in the brain – Our brain uses 20% of our total body energy, making it the most energy demanding organ in our body. It can support our body’s energy metabolism by increasing mitochondrial efficiency and delivering the raw fuel materials used by our body.

Brain Wave – There are five known brain waves in our body according to The Royal Society. Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma, and Theta. All five corresponds to our mental state. Some supplements increase the frequency to help stimulate the cognitive effect of our brain.

Brain Cell Regeneration – We all know that brain cells don’t regenerate, but recent studies suggest that they have the potential to succeed in supplying nutrients that are essential in neurogenesis.

Protection – The supplement can help our brain cell produce more antioxidant and help our body defend itself from free radicals.

Blood flow to the brain – The increase in nitric oxide level, as well as the optimization of blood vessel integrity bought about by Nootropics, can help our body cope up with injury, cerebral circulation impairment, and age by providing steady blood flow to our brain.

Different kinds of Nootropics

Most of the supplements we find in the market today are either natural or extracted from the source. It comes in various forms:

The Essentials

These are nutrients that are essential to our brain function and health, metabolism, and immunity.

Herbs

Most drugs are extracted from plants and are either brewed, chewed, steeped or made into capsules or tablets. They are obtained from the roots, leaves, bark or fruit of the plant. But not all Nootropics are made from herbal plants. There are other sources like Lion’s Mane Mushroom that helps boost our brain function and can be viewed as herbal Nootropics.

Adaptogens

Adaptogens are a sub-category of herbal Nootropics that helps us protect our body and brain from stress, either physical, chemical or emotional.

There are other kinds of supplement like Phospholipids, Choline Sources, Antioxidants and Amino Acids. All are essential to our brain’s improvement and provide our body an advantage.

Side-Effects

Like most supplements, it has no proven long-term side effects that can harm our body. There are cases of mood swings, irritability, and anxiety associated with this drug.