What Hank said at the end about proper diet, exercise and sleep is so true. The best smart "pill" is the pillow.

Alpha-GPC completely cleared up my really terrible and constant brain fog, and Ashgawandha made it easier to concentrate. Whatever side effects might happen someday, they are totally worth it. Not being able to think or concentrate is no way to live life.

Do a video on aderrall, concerta, ritalin etc

As someone who is pretty well versed and interested in nootropics and the science behind them, you guys did a great job covering them!

no o tropics? this whole time ive been saying noot ropics

I live the quality videos of all of the Sci Show channels and would really like your take on the e-cig craze, and anything ( good or bad ) that you can do a video on.

Take advantage of the placebo affect and believe you can do anything

My favorite Nootropic is Phenibut. It makes me really happy and very talkative. I kinda have to watch myself while on it though because I have no filter while under the effects.

Hank has been helping me decide what drugs to take for years now

Some Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon going on here. I've been looking for nootropics because I'm worried about college lol. I'll just start with not going to bed at 5am and staying in bed all day first. Thanks, Scishow.

could you guys possibly do a follow up on the use of microdosing psychdelics like nootropics? i have experimented with lsd and psilocybin and have found them to be extremely beneficial in the subpar doses needed for the microdose effect. and its cool cause you can stem out from the glutamate material with things like memantine being an nmda receptor antagonist.

My husband was a lot older than me and when he was in his 80s I researched piracetam. We could get it without prescription here in the U.S. My husband was a very successful businessman, had no dementia, etc., but his thinking had slowed down. Piracetam seemed to quicken his thinking and increase his energy. (I originally read about the drug in an article about Piracetam making old rats young in the laboratory.) I had originally researched the drug because I have chronic migraine. Since Piracetam seems to expand blood vessels in the brain, I had fears but I was desperate for some relief from headaches. As might have been expected, one small dose of Piracetam led to a three WEEK, day and night migraine. My husband took Piracetam for a number of years, with positive results, until another medical condition made it less safe. That last medical condition led to death in his 90s.

Getting smarter with Sci show!

My dad was given piracetam in Mexico last summery by a doctor because he probably had a mini-stroke (didn't show up on any tests). He got horrible anxiety from it, so he had to stop. I've talked to many people that say it works for them though.

Totally loving the butch look with the plaid and denim.

I like the look Hank!

How did you do this, Hank? I was literally just prescribed modafinil for my work-shift disorder.

Do we know yet how the gut microbiome and how taking certain probiotics (either through food or pill) effects cognitive function (attention, memory, etc.)? I've heard of probiotics being taken as nootropics, but clearly the mechanism is a bit different compared to the ones discussed here, I think. Then again, I know study of the gut microbiome interacting with the brain is still relatively young, so I'm wondering if there's been enough study to support it.

I’m definitely going to try pinching my toes to stimulate my brain!!!

Can you do a video on sleep disorders. I have delayed sleep phase disorder and I can't get anyone to understand that I can't "just get over it and work normally"

How did you not mention the most commonly taken nootropic: caffeine?

As a brainlover thank you for giving me my weekly fix SciShow Psych

i tried most of the nootropics while i was studying biomedical science and can say that, at least for me, there _probably_ was an effect (say, with the nootropic that had the most prominent effect. cba to go into all the details of each. many had no noticeable effect) but that effect was not as big as doing regular exercise and eating healthily, which had a _significant_ impact on my focus, mood, etc. i think as with many of these things, it helps some people get into a rut and then a whole slew of benefits start to cluster, maybe you start to hit the gym, eat better, get out of a stagnant relationship, whatever, and then you attribute many things to something otherwise lost in the noise of all the other factors.

Uridine monophosphate and cdp coline combined help increase focus alot...it helped me deal with my depression actually

DEAR SCISHOW I have a Q: do detox teas work, if they do how and what do they do to our bodys. PS: you guys are so amazing, you make learning fun, interesting and engaging.

You should do a video on study drugs. I am strongly opposed to them but many college and university students use them.

I'd like to see a video on anti psychotics and what they do to the brain

Wait a second. A score of studies existing on the effectiveness of Piracetam in lessening the effects of anxiety on mammal brains. The issue of cognitive enhancement should have been treated better than this since most of the video focus on the negatives.

I watched this video while on Armodafinil (prescribed), and I have no idea what was said. I was too focused on other things, but felt the need for background visual and auditory stimulation.

Damn, the sold me at the end... I subscribed.

I like the jacket :)

most of the world needs to take one of those pills like people who think the earth is flat

I heard it's important to keep Glutamate and GABA in balance? Glutamate makes food taste savory/umami and is naturally found in lots of foods. GABA is also naturally found in lots of foods.

"Silver bullets" lol that's a funny name for a wonder pills

The best studied and most consistently effective nootropic? Caffeine. L-Theanine can also help, but still needs a few more studies to be conclusive. L-Theanine is found in teas and is thought to reduce stress (one of the potential reasons that green tea can help reduce stress). When combined with caffeine, it seems to reduce jitters from the caffeine and improve focus and, as a result, memory. It's very safe and as long as you get it from tea or from a reputable supplement producer, that can work well. But caffeine is a great nootropic on it's own as well.

I have narcolepsy, and I hated taking modafinil. It made me less tired, but super hazy, like when you drink your fourth cup of coffee in the same day.

the herb bacopa monnieri has been amazing for me

Hey Scishow, have you done any videos on congenital heart disease? The impacts and treatments can vary greatly, and the science behind reconstructive heart surgery has made mind blowing progress in just the last decade or two. Many infants and adults are here because of that progress, and i think it'd be cool to learn about here on Scishow.

Kinda took a broad brush to narcolepsy there. Speaking as someone with narcolepsy who takes modafinil every day, not everyone that has narcolepsy will fall asleep unexpectedly. Maybe there's a video there to look at the differences between narcolepsy w/ cataplexy (a.k.a. Type I) and narcolepsy w/o cataplexy (a.k.a. Type II) and what's going on in the brain for each?

I use 5-htp for anxiety and brain fog. It helps but really plays on my motion sickness and i have to be careful of what i do or i puke lol

i wish all YT audio was like this

Can you make a video on phenibut? Research is slim

lol, did he seriously say ADHD drugs are safer than nootropics? your claims of addiction and toxicity don't apply to hardly any of the well known nootropics.

i used to take them a lot back when i was really depressed and i had this thing where i would just stare at a page and see letters without any meaning or connection to one another. i'm not sure if they helped at all though because i took them along with antidepressants and antiepileptics and it's really hard to tell at this point what worked and how

I want the Bourne chems ;)

Man you have to love that we have a class of chemicals where is basically legal to sell untested crap because I mean its only health supplements whats the woooorst that could happen.

Excellent overview. And few nootropic insiders address the glutamate receptor opportunities and issues (most are focused on acetylcholine, dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin). www.WebNutrients.com and a handful of other seasoned firms have addressed that balance. Exceptional video overview.

Natural herbal extracts def help with better focus, mental clarity, and memory, just like caffeine helps us with energy. Be smart with consumption amounts and you can see some great results.

Audio booking the “Limitless” book.

nootropics help alot. anyways nor epinephrine is more about memory pleasure and learning attention span. the STRESS responce is more about epinephrine.

I love modafinil! In moderation of course!

Do they have one on psychadellics? Specifically Microdosing?

I bought some smart pills at the local farmers' market. The guy gave me a free sample. "These taste like rabbit turds!" I told him. "See? You're getting smarter already!" "OK. I'll take twenty bottles."

My eyes crossed and went out of focus with thoughts of pizza half-way through the video.

and modafinil works good for me.

ironic that i took a modafinil earlier to help me study but all i've done is fall down an intense scishow rabbit hole

I have severe ADHD and have personally experimented with nootropics and I have seen great benefit from some and no effect what so ever from others, I have had very few negative experiences but I would not recommend these drugs to the majority of people. This is because I am desperate for treatment that is effective and conventional ADHD drugs are far from enough with me. I lean on the hypothesis that the benefits of nootropics are very hit or miss depending on your personal brain chemistry. I've even done some conventional research on myself like blind on off periods lasting 1-2 months. Racitam group drugs for me personally are amazing and ground breaking the very very noticeable effect for me is one of the most effective tools for pay attention to detail visually speficlly. Be safe kids don't try this at home.

i take piracetam before my mdma roll and its good

How about talking about monatomic gold

So far, the only nootropic that we have dozens and dozens of studies for is *caffeine.* Almost everything else only has small studies and anecdotal evidences. Edited: I actually meant to quote a PhD chemical neurobiology student: "I use caffeine because it has been shown to enhance alertness. Other than that, I don't find any nootropics to be well enough studied to warrant consumption, especially long term. I am definitely hopeful for the future of nootropics, though." - From a Reddit AMA www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/comments/58zwlo/i_am_a_phd_student_studying_chemical_neurobiology/?ref=share&ref_source=link

Hank, I have a burning question. Why is it that I watch your videos religiously, and a few months later watch the videos again, it's like I'm receiving new information? Now, I'm not saying it _is_ new information, I'm just implying that, within that time frame, I've forgotten what was in the video and my brain seems to believe it is new information due to that loss in memory.

What about Cerebrolysin and Cerebrolysat?

To be fair, Nikola Tesla used celibacy as well.

Nevermind intelligence we need a social pill.

Modafinil makes me feel really hot (temperature-wise). Like, uncomfortably so. Couldn't stay on it long. :( Only Cymbalta for me.

All the smart pills in the world can't save me. I'm hopeless☹️

Lions mane is really good

I believe I was experiencing the plicibi effect.

Hello, romanian here! 😁

I take a nootropic and love it. However - I have SEVERE mental health issues. I am very educated and pride myself on my reasoning but my mental health disorders do impact that. Secondly, the nootropic I take has seven different active ingredients. I have tried to zero in on which one or two makes the difference but for now I am resigned to the idea that it might actually by five of them. My nootropic certainly helps. But I have neurotransmitter problems that are obvious but undefinable (the science of neurotransmitters is so far behind it is sad) and my nootropic isn't based on the definitive research of one chemical so much as the nebulous research of many.

Stay away from Drugs kids. Get into Natural Nootropics.

What about choline? I believe it's a precursor to acetylcholine.

Smart pills? That's what my dad calls rabbit poop. Used to try to get his friends to eat it by telling them they were special pills to make them smarter.

I took 1 nootropic pill, am I gonna die? Cuz when I took it my heartrate INCREASED!!!! Its been 2 days now and i have a Left hand side chest pain when i breathe in deeply probs my heart area.

Can anyone help me out with a nootropic stack, I am a college student who is trying to achieve motivation focus and mental clarity ohh and if there’s something for parcrastintion

I just watched this man eat a creme egg that he found on the floor

I accidently got depression from this and i highly regret taking these

I’m sure GABA converts to Glutamate and vice versa? And that GABA inhibits dopamine in the VTA? Estrogen inhibits GABA? Prolactin increases seem to correlate with decreases in dopamine? Too much or too little Dopamine seems related to depression (which is associated with reduced hippocampus size) and is related to chronic stress…. Nucleus accumbens? I don't like getting into neuroscience because it is really complex, but there do seem to be masculine and feminine traits linked to neurotransmitters and receptors. I'm most clued up on oxytocin and vasopressin and can relate this to transgender identities via the BNST (bed nucleus of the stria terminalis). Though I am sketchy on causality. Other transmitters like serotonin, dopamine seem to show a sex divide relating to stress - though nature versus nurture comes into play there (so to with oxytocin and vasopressin). GABA and Glutamate seem involved in Severe Depression - and the reason it effects females more seems to be due to estrogen's inhibitory effect on GABA combined with an increase in receoptors in some women for Glutamate (meaning more Glutaamte is required to trigger the receptoars to 'fire' a neuron?). Glutamte is an exitatory transmitter and seems less important in males than females. In general it seems - from my understanding anyway - women are more geared for exitatory neural activity in lower stress environments than males - i.e. under less physical stress - with seretonin, dopamine and norepinephrine function being higher in women than men when stress levels are low... but the opposite happens when stress levels are high in-which these neurotransmitters become higher in men than in women. Measuremnets of brain activity appear to back this up. Though again the cause of whether this is due to nature or nurture comes into play. It is not totally black and white though as women exhibit better memory under stress than males - though the flip side is males can absorb information better under stress due to increased neurogenisis (from Dopamine action)... and yep, you guessed it, this also relates to transgender identities via the BNST because the BNST triggers in response to threats.

It will always be noo-tropic to me idc if I’m wrong.

Forget they pills, stimulate your sleep spindles! ;) I mean, unless a real pill is developed, then yeah.

All I know is neurovia helps me with my anxiety

Nuo atropics i was ssying noot ropics all that time

Hey new-atropics

I will give up everything just to be smart or to at least get good grades in school, ill sell everything I have ever own, even my bed, idc if I die in the process 😥😩😷😭

Imagine taking the pill and nothing happens because the person thought that random facts would suddenly appear on their brain. Seriously, for those who are having trouble learning should take into consideration that maybe you just don't like it (unless there is a medical condition that makes it harder to learn) so when you are having trouble learning try reading (learning) a "bit" while doing something that you like; exercise, dancing, gaming, chatting with friends, or even having a meal. When I say a bit, it is meant to be a bit, that way you will "learn" this bit and store it in your brain, after a while do another bit and so on. It will come to a point where this bit will be too little and you will then expand to bigger amounts.

Metamucil seems to help with my ability to concentrate. T... W Jus'Sayin' :-)

But what dopamine booster ones for depression? I want some practical hope and not just "no, that's not as good as you think"

Wallnuts really works. Try it.

shouldn't these smart pills have different effects on people with different metabolic rates and in different stages of brain development? and other factors such as pregnancy or menstruation for example

At least, Piracetam has blood thinning effect for sure.

I LO0V RESEARCH CHEMSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So as it stands we have a smart pill for Rattata but no smart pill to fix Ash Ketchum, well dang it I thought we could finally fix the Pokemon anime

NZT-48

Wait, is modafinil not safe??

Nootropics are legit depending on the ingredients, dosages and quality. Numerous studies confirm the positive effects of various nootropics on the brain and body.

yo what up nootheads post your stacks, i take modafinil, phenylpiracteam, phenibut, reishi, ashwaghanda, gotu kola, ginseng, lion's mane, caffeine, l-theanine, vitamin b-420, green tea extract formulated to 69% EGCG, and i take a 15 minute meditation break every 1.45 hours

Celibacy worked for George on Seinfield.

What about walking around in a park with tall green grasses bare-foot it does help your cognitive abilities

how do you do fellow kids

Is it possible to make opioid placebos? Maybe it would make withdrawal less painful, and also because Purdue Pharma's execs must be rollin in cash rn.