What Are NootropicsThey are a set of low toxicity compounds referred to as, ‘smart drugs’, ‘smart nutrients’, ‘cognitive enhancers, and ‘brain boosters.’ They act safely on the brain activity and improve focus, wakefulness, cognition, creativity, memory, alertness, and helps revitalize them without affecting the nervous system. Unlike caffeine and amphetamine, these compounds only act within the brain, so they lack the discomfort and danger of stimulants. Some pharmaceuticals are called 'smart drugs' because of their ability to enhance the brain's function. Some smart drugs aren't a drug at all, they’re nutrients. A more accurate description of chemicals that can boost brain performance is Nootropics from the Greek word “noos” for “mind” and “tropos” for “growing.” This term was coined by Dr. Giurgea in 1964, who described the first substance found to have beneficial effects in the treatment of memory loss, age related memory decline and lack of concentration. Piracetam is the name of this substance, which was not only beneficial in the treatment of these ailments, but had very few side effects. This is the reigning king of the smart drugs. It was first developed as a drug to prevent motion sickness. Other benefits soon eclipsed its original purpose. Typically, these ‘smart drugs’ are alleged to work by altering the availability of the brain’s supply of neurochemicals (neurotransmitters, enzymes, and hormones) by improving the brains oxygen supply, or by stimulating nerve growth
Benefits Nootropics have a beneficial effect upon the brain's Corpus Callosum. This area of the brain joins the two hemispheres, and it links the logical side of the brain with the creative side of the brain, allowing the user to draw on greater brain potential. They perform three basic actions on the brain, to minimize damage to the brain and natural deterioration to brain functions, repair existing damage, and enhance brain functions above usual levels. The human nervous system deteriorates with age through the natural aging process and sometimes, drinking or smoking can speed up this process. Unfortunately, with age, comes the deterioration of the human nervous system, largely due to an oxidation process, which destroys brain cells and forms free radicals that cause further havoc in the brain. Even though brain cells cannot regenerate, it is possible to deactivate free radicals and repair some of the other damage, such as low levels of electric current transmitting chemicals in the brain. These ‘smart drugs’ do exactly that, they deactivate free radicals and repair some of the earlier damage, such as by stimulating dormant ‘communication’ chemicals within the brain. Also, you can enhance the brain's natural properties with nootropics by helping the brain to build additional neural connections. Neurons (brain cells) are connected to thousands of other neurons, which together form a huge neural net. The more connections you have the easier it is for one neuron to send information to another neuron, hence the better your brain works. It is possible to help the brain grow more of these connections by taking smart drugs. As these connections are formed when new memories form, one can actually memorize and learn new things easier Availability Nootropic drugs are generally only available by prescription or through personal importation. The other nootropic substances listed below are either nutritional supplements or plant components (herbs, roots, beans, bark, etc.), and are generally available over the counter at health food and grocery stores, and are used as nutritional supplements. See Piracetam The drugs are used to treat people with cognitive learning difficulties, neural degradation (Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease), and for cases of oxygen deficit to prevent hypoxia. These drugs have a variety of human enhancement applications as well and are marketed heavily on the World Wide Web. Nevertheless, intense marketing may not correlate with efficacy; while scientific studies support some of the claimed benefits, it is worth noting that many of the claims attributed to most nootropics have not been formally tested. Quick Menu
Availability These drugs are generally only available by prescription or through personal importation; however, nutritional supplements or plant components (herbs, roots, beans, bark, etc.) are generally available over the counter at health food and grocery stores, and are used as nutritional supplements. The drugs are used to treat people with cognitive learning difficulties, neural degradation (Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease), and for cases of oxygen deficit to prevent hypoxia. These drugs have a variety of human enhancement applications as well and are marketed heavily on the World Wide Web. Safety The Piracetam-nootropics have been exhaustively researched; since the first scientific studies on Piracetam in the late 1960's over 1000 scientific papers on Piracetam, Oxiracetam, Pramiracetam, and Aniracetam have been published with about two thirds of them on Piracetam. The action of the Piracetam-nootropics has been studied in a broad range of animals; goldfish, mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, marmosets, monkeys and humans. The toxicity of Piracetam and its "cousins" is amazingly low- almost non-existent. In acute toxicity studies, intravenous doses of Piracetam given to rats (8g/ Kg bodyweight) and oral doses given to mice, rats, and dogs (10g/ Kg or more) produced no toxicity. This would be equivalent to 560-700 grams (1.23 to 1.54 pounds) for a 154 pound human. Rats given 100-1000mg/ Kg orally for 6 months and dogs given 10,000mg/ Kg orally for one year showed no toxic effect, a teratogenic (birth defect causing) effects were found, either (Tacconi and Wurtman 1986). The Piracetam-nootropics are among the toxicologically safest drugs ever developed.
Drug Uses According to research Nootropics have been used successfully to treat alcoholism and alcohol withdrawal syndrome in animals and man. It has brought improvement, or slowed deterioration, in ‘senile involution’ dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. These compounds have improved recovery from aphasia (speech impairment) after stroke, and restored various functions (use of limbs, speech, EEG, state of consciousness) in people suffering from acute and chronic cerebral ischaemia (decreased brain blood flow). They have improved alertness, co-operation, socialization and IQ in elderly psychiatric patients suffering from ‘mild diffuse cerebral impairment.’ Also, they have increased reading comprehension and accuracy in dyslexic children. They have also increased memory and verbal learning in dyslexic children, as well as speed and accuracy of reading, writing and spelling. These substances potentiated the anticonvulsant action of various anti-epileptic drugs in both animals and man, while also eliminating cognitive deficits induced by anti-epileptic drugs in humans. It has improved mental performance in ‘aging, non-deteriorated individuals’ suffering only from ‘middle-aged forgetfulness’. Elderly out-patients suffering from ‘age-associated memory impairment’ given Piracetam showed significant improvement in memory consolidation and recall. Piracetam reversed typical EEG slowing associated with ‘normal’ and pathological human aging, increasing alpha and beta (fast) EEG activity and reducing delta and theta (slow) EEG activity, while simultaneously increasing vigilance, attention and memory! Be Smart We all want our brain to function at its Potential. We all want a solid and fast memory, and in general, we all want to enjoy a state of “heightened intelligence”. Well, thanks to neuroscience we know the basic systems responsible for each function of the brain and we are aware of many substances that appear to help these systems. We are fortunately living in a world that has vitamins/minerals supplements for everything. It would be inconceivable if we didn’t take advantage of this and nourish our most precious organ, the brain! The internet is full of sites with glowing reference to “smart drugs”. Many people report that their brains were sleeping before, but now they are brighter and happy and there memory has been enhanced tremendously.
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