Balanced serotonin levels are key to your ongoing physical and mental wellbeing. If your serotonin levels are unbalanced – either too high or too low – various health concerns can follow.

What is serotonin?

Serotonin, or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), is a monoamine neurotransmitter that additionally operates as a hormone. It is created from tryptophan, an essential amino acid. As an essential acid, tryptophan cannot be produced by your body – you need to take in exogenous sources through diet and supplementation.

Neurotransmitters are, as their name suggests, chemicals that transmit messages between your brain’s nerve cells (your central nervous system, or CNS), and then throughout your body (your peripheral nervous system (your peripheral nervous system, or PNS). The information contained in these messages essentially enables your body to function properly.

Serotonin is concerned with several facets across your body’s many roles. It can influence your mood, particularly your happiness and sense of wellbeing, and your learning capabilities, in addition to aiding body temperature regulation, sleep quality and patterns, sexual health and libido, and appetite. Low serotonin levels are often thought to lie behind conditions like depression, anxiety, and mania, among other things.

Your gut contains most of your body’s serotonin – around 90% of it is held within the cells lining your gastrointestinal tract. This is then released into your bloodstream, from where it is then absorbed by platelets. Your brain contains most of the remaining 10%.

Serotonin and dopamine come hand in hand. They are often spoken about in similar terms, for very good reason.

They are both key chemical messengers, neurotransmitters intimately involved in various similar processes. Each is associated with mental wellbeing and satisfaction levels, making it easy to think of them almost synonymously.

They aren’t synonymous, however. There are some crucial differences between the two:

For instance, where serotonin is stored largely in the gut, dopamine is found mostly in the brain. They influence your mood differently, too.

Serotonin is responsible for your mood and anxiety levels, whilst dopamine is concerned largely with motivation, reward, and pleasure. Serotonin is targeted by common depression treatment plans, whilst dopamine isn’t.

Finally, they both play a role in energy levels, but both through different mechanisms. Serotonin helps in sleep and wakefulness regulation whilst dopamine helps you to feel more alert and switched on.

Serotonin’s role in your body

As mentioned above, serotonin is a neurotransmitter. Thus, it works by enabling signals to travel between the cells of your CNS and PNS. It plays a central role in a great many bodily functions, including bowel movements, sleep patterns, mood regulation, and so on.

Mood regulation

This is perhaps one of the more serious roles we see serotonin playing within your body. Optimal levels are crucial for healthy mood regulation. They can help you to feel happier, calmer, more focussed, with fewer mood swings and a greater sense of stability.

Low levels can lead to anxiety, depression, and a lack of focus, as a result. Many treatment plans for depression and associated conditions work in large part by boosting serotonin levels in the brain.

Sleep

Sleep works in conjunction with dopamine to help regulate sleep quality – duration and quality of sleep. Your brain needs serotonin to create melatonin, the main hormone in control of your sleep-wake cycle.

Recovery and healing

One of serotonin’s lesser-known roles is in wound healing. It is released by blood platelets to help wounds to heal – it slows blood flow by narrowing the arteriole blood vessels, which in turn enables clotting.

Digestive health

As above, the vast majority of your body’s serotonin is stored in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Here, it helps to enable healthy bowel function whilst also helping to ringfence your gut health. Your gut can bolster serotonin levels in order to detox, more speedily digesting to get toxic products out of your system. It is also key to satiation, diminishing your appetite as you eat.

Bone health

Bone health also relies on optimal serotonin levels. Excessively high serotonin levels in the gut have been associated with weakened bones, and thus a greater susceptibility to fractures and osteoporosis.

Sexual function

Serotonin pairs up with dopamine once more to regulate your sexual desire, your libido. Drugs that commonly alter serotonin levels, like common antidepressants, can greatly impair your libido.

Serotonin and mental wellbeing

Low serotonin levels have been associated with a slew of common mental health concerns. These include the likes of depression, anxiety, and mood and psychological disorders like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, as well as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorder, and phobias.

As a result, as we have seen, plenty of common mental health treatment plans use medications like SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) to change serotonin levels or the ways in which your brain makes use of serotonin. Things have become a little more complex of late, but early mental health theory posited that low serotonin causes depression. There is a link, but the causal relationship is very much up for debate.

However, even given this need for debate, anti-depressant medications are still a valuable tool in treating mood disorders, especially when combined with other therapies. For instance, SSRIs combined with CBT therapy and lifestyle factors and coping mechanisms like creative output, exercise, and a strong community represents a fantastic treatment plan for depression.

Serotonin regulating drugs are also commonly prescribed for disorders like bipolar disorder and OCD, PTSD, and anxiety and panic disorders, as above, as well as bulimia, migraine, and several others.

These treatments seek to stabilize a patient’s serotonin levels between 101 and 283 nano-grams per milliliter, though we can only measure serotonin blood levels, not serotonin brain levels, which are obviously far more relevant for mental health management.

Serotonin differences between men & women

There may be several differences between the way in which men and women each use serotonin. This is largely due to estrogen’s impact on serotonin. Estrogen is typically higher in biological women. It can impact serotonin’s production, use, and degradation. In fact, tentative data taken from animal studies have suggested that raising estrogen levels may lead to an increase in serotonin levels, for better or worse.

This may depend on the length of estrogen treatment. Some research data have shown serotonin levels fall over time as estrogen use continued.

Serotonin deficiency

There are some very notable symptoms associated with low serotonin levels.

Largely, it can lead to low mood, memory problems, and low libido. These may be the first signs you notice within yourself if you are experiencing serotonin deficiency. They are depression symptoms, of course, though there is as yet no confirmed link between depression and low serotonin levels. We can only imply one from these symptoms.

Overcoming serotonin deficiency

There is usually more than one cause of serotonin deficiency. Serotonin levels can be called low because of a couple of things – either you are underproducing it, or your body isn’t using it effectively, for instance if you don’t have an adequate number of serotonin receptors, or if these receptors aren’t working properly.

You can overcome both of these using medication. There are also some lifestyle changes you can make in order to boost your natural serotonin output. These can include eating more foods that contain tryptophan, from which serotonin is made, as well as being more active and less stressed, and getting outdoors more, particularly in sunny weather.

Eating for higher serotonin output

Luckily, there are plenty of foods that give you plenty of tryptophan. Packing your diet with them represents a great way to give your body everything it needs to optimize serotonin output.

Foods containing large amount of tryptophan include:

• Salmon
• Turkey
• Cheese
• Eggs
• Tofu
• Pineapple
• Nuts, oats and seeds

Do note that simply eating more of these foods may not necessarily help with serotonin output in isolation.

Serotonin output is incredibly complex and only partially understood. Researchers are still studying the effects of high-tryptophan content food on serotonin levels. You also need plenty of good quality carbohydrates to help your body in absorbing amino acids, including tryptophan. Tryptophan may also find itself in competition with other amino acids for uptake in the bloodstream, meaning less getting into your brain.

Several supplements may also help you to increase serotonin levels. These include straight tryptophan as a dietary supplement, probiotics and SAMe, or the herbal supplements ginseng, St. John’s wort, nutmeg, and Syrian rue.

Getting outdoors to boost serotonin output

We should all spend as much time outdoors as possible. It can alleviate stress, anxiety, and depression by itself – nature’s healing power is well-studied and well-documented.

Sunlight is also a good fix for low serotonin output. A lack of it can result in seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, a mood disorder hallmarked by depression and lethargy. Just ten to fifteen minutes of sunlight daily can make a difference, boosting both serotonin and vitamin D levels.

Light therapy can work as a good substitution during darker, colder months, or in less sunny climates.

Physical activity

Regular physical activity is a good thing across the board for pretty much every facet of your health and wellbeing. As part of this, it can help to optimize serotonin output. Half an hour or so of daily or near-daily aerobic exercise performed in conjunction with two resistance training sessions per week can alleviate the symptoms of mood disorders, in large part by bolstering serotonin output.

Meditation and mindfulness

Meditation and mindfulness practice can greatly alleviate and diminish stress and anxiety levels. They each promote positive mindsets and have been shown to improve long term stress resistance, even possibly altering gut bacteria to promote health and wellbeing. They may also raise serotonin levels, particularly due to their stress relieving properties, though more research and data are needed.

Excess serotonin – serotonin syndrome

Serotonin syndrome occurs where there are excessive amounts of serotonin in your system, or when it is increased too drastically. It most commonly occurs when you are on a medication known or intended to increase serotonin levels.

Symptoms can include feverish effects such as shivering, excess sweating, muscle stiffness, restlessness, flushed skin, dilated pupils, disorientation, and confusion, as well as high blood pressure, muscle spasms, and diarrhea.

More serious symptoms can include seizures, fainting, arrhythmia, or an abnormal heartbeat, rapid heart rate and high blood pressure. You may experience headaches and migraines, hyperreflexia, or heightened reflexes, 

If you’re on a medication that can improve serotonin, either as its main purpose or as a side effect, or are taking supplements known to spike serotonin output, you may be at risk of developing serotonin syndrome.

This is especially the case if you have just begun taking a new medication, increased dosage of a medication you’re already taking, or taking more than the prescribed amount of a medication. Additional medications, supplements, or illicit drugs can also spike serotonin levels.

These medications, supplements, and substances include:

• SSRIs
• monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)
• dextromethorphan
• many medications prescribed for mental health conditions
• St. John’s wort
• SAMe
• tryptophan
• amphetamines
• cocaine
• MDMA (ecstasy)

There are no specific, singular tests that can fully investigate or diagnose serotonin syndrome, just as there is no specific test for serotonin deficiency. Largely, symptoms and medical history can lead to a fairly solid diagnosis. If you are taking any of the above medicines, supplements, or substances, and are experiencing any of the above symptoms, you may be asked to cut them out or down. If your symptoms go away, your serotonin levels were likely too high and are now back to a healthy range.

However, there are some physical examinations and various additional tests that can help to diagnose serotonin syndrome. These can include brain imaging, blood and urine tests, and spinal taps (lumbar punctures).

Mild cases will be treated as above – cut out anything you’re taking that may be spiking your serotonin levels. However, if the case is more serious, or you’re experiencing serotonin syndrome without taking any of the above medications, supplements, or substances (which is very rare), the doctor may prescribe additional medications. These should treat the symptoms.

Very severe cases may need hospital treatment. However, this is also very rare. Symptoms should usually be able to manage on an outpatient basis and should generally resolve within 2 – 3 days.

If you’re suffering any of the above symptoms, make sure that you consult your doctor immediately. If you’re suffering any of the above symptoms and taking any of the above medications, supplements, or substances, serotonin syndrome is likely. 

Medications and serotonin

We’ve seen that certain medications can interact with serotonin levels, boosting them at least in the blood stream. Serotonin and serotonin receptors are actually quite common targets in the modern pharmaceutical industry and in modern treatment processes. Plenty of health conditions can be managed and improved by managing serotonin levels, as we have seen.

Perhaps most notably, there are a few different forms of antidepressant drugs that inhibit serotonin reabsorption and recycling.

These are mostly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, and are one of the most common forms of depression and anxiety treatments going (think Prozac, or fluoxetine, and the like).

You may also see serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, or SNRIs, and tricyclic antidepressants. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors, another, less common type of antidepressant drug, inhibits enzyme reactions that break down serotonin. 

However, there are also plenty of medications that interact with serotonin without serotonin necessarily being their main target. These include the triptan family of headache drugs, alongside opioid pain relievers and certain common cough suppressants and nausea fighting drugs which include dextromethorphan.

Talk to your doctor

If you suspect that your serotonin levels are suboptimal for any reason, you should consult with your medical provider as soon as possible. As we have seen, serotonin levels can have a profound impact on your mental and physical health and wellbeing. It will be very hard to remain happy and motivated with them too low, and you run several risks if they are too high.

Do note that the link between depression and serotonin is not absolute. The link between serotonin and all of the health concerns mentioned above is not absolute. It is possible to be depressed, or to suffer from many of the above concerns, with your serotonin levels running optimally. The human body is, after all, dizzyingly complex, and we are a long way from coming fully to grips with it.

Don’t simply reach for a serotonin supplement if you want to cheer yourself up a bit.

Your doctor will be able to properly advise you, run the appropriate tests, and monitor your progress safely through any potential treatment plan. If you suffer with depression or anxiety, memory loss, issues with mobility or movement, changes in sleep quality and patterns, in appetite, libido, or digestive health, or any of the above symptoms, talk to your doctor, especially if you’re taking any prescription medications or recreational drugs.

There is a good chance that your serotonin levels are off and an intervention may be needed. Your doctor will be able to properly, more fully advise you.

Serotonin: frequently asked questions

My final thoughts On Serotonin

Serotonin is an incredibly important neurotransmitter. Maintaining optimal levels – neither too low, as is often the case, nor too high, which is more rarely seen – is key to maintaining long term mental and physical health and wellbeing.

It is central to regulating your mood, stress and anxiety levels, sleep quality, appetite and digestive health, libido, bone health, and even your ability to heal.

If you struggle with any of the symptoms we’ve been through today, speak to your healthcare provider. They will be able to match you up with a good treatment program, likely including a mixture of medication, various therapies, and lifestyle choices geared towards optimising serotonin output.

Your life and wellbeing may well drastically benefit from getting your serotonin levels just right.

Lion’s mane mushrooms are white mushrooms that look a lot like a lion’s head as they grow, their shaggy shape resembling a wild mane. They can be used in cooking, but are perhaps best known for their use in various traditional forms of medicine throughout South and Southeast Asia.

Their benefits largely come from the many bioactive substances they contain and deliver which bring about great benefits to the body, particularly to the heart, gut, and most notably, the brain. You will often find them in modern nootropics, included for their ability to improve brain health whilst fighting the damaging effects of stress and anxiety.

What can lion’s mane mushrooms do for you?

Lion’s mane mushroom is completely safe to use and can bring about a host of benefits. The following list is far from exhaustive – there is far more to gain from regularly supplementing with lion’s mane mushrooms – but it is demonstrative at least of some of the key benefits on offer.

Nootropic properties

Lion’s mane mushrooms are particularly well-known for their nootropic properties – their ability to influence and improve brain health and cognitive function.

This largely stems from their ability to stimulate brain cell growth. Lion’s mane mushrooms contain hericenones and erinacines, both of which bolster the brain’s ability to grow new cells. This is important, especially as we age. Our ability to grow new brain cell connections diminishes as we grow older, explaining to an extent age-related cognitive decline.

With this in mind, studies have highlighted lion’s mane mushrooms’ potential use in protecting older adults against neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. It has been shown to mitigate memory loss symptoms in animal trials whilst also protecting against amyloid-beta plaque damage (plaque which accumulates on the brain in conjunction with Alzheimer’s disease).

A study published in 2020 showed that as little as a single gram of lion’s mane mushroom taken daily can improve cognitive test scores in those suffering with milder cases of Alzheimer’s disease in just under a year compared to a control group taking a placebo.

Most research to date has been conducted on animals or in test tubes, however. More data, especially collected from human studies, are needed. However, for the moment, things look promising – lion’s mane mushroom certainly seems to have the potential to stimulate new nerve growth whilst ringfencing the brain’s long-term health, warding off neuro-degeneration.

It also serves another common nootropic role. Lion’s mane mushroom can help to combat the effects of stress, anxiety, and depression, which combined affect around a third of us.

Of course, anxiety and depression are incredibly complex. Their causes are complex. However, it is thought that chronic inflammation may play a major part. Research – again, predominantly on animals – has found that lion’s mane mushroom extract can reduce anxiety and depression symptoms due to its anti-inflammatory benefits. 

Lion’s mane mushroom’s ability to promote brain cell regeneration can also improve hippocampus function. The hippocampus enables memory and emotional response processing. Improving its function has been theorized to lead to a reduction in symptoms of anxiety and depression, though this too is largely based on animal research.

Nervous system recovery

The improved growth and repair of nerve cells that lion’s mane mushrooms can elicit can have quite drastic consequences on recovery after brain or spinal cord injuries. These kinds of injuries often take a long time to recover from. That recovery may never be full, with paralysis and/or loss of mental functioning often resulting.

In stimulating new nerve cell growth, lion’s mane mushrooms may play a large part in forging a more positive outcome. Research has shown that it can help you to more ably overcome and recover from these kinds of injuries. It may also lead to a fuller recovery after instances of stroke.

This is all conjecture, however. Much of it is based on animal research. More information is needed before we state lion’s mane mushroom’s therapeutic effects in these kinds of situation with any kind of certainty.

Heart disease risk reduction

There are several known risk factors surrounding heart disease, any of which may greatly increase your chances of suffering from it. They include obesity, high oxidized cholesterol levels, and high triglyceride levels, amongst others.

Research suggests that lion’s mane mushroom extract may help to mitigate the risks involved in each of these. Again, animal data suggest that lion’s mane mushroom extract may improve fat metabolism and diminish triglyceride levels. Rats fed high fat diets whilst being dosed with lion’s mane extract daily, gained 42% less weight and exhibited 27% lower triglyceride levels compared to a control group.

Additionally, test tube studies have found that lion’s mane extract may also help to limit cholesterol oxidation in the blood. As oxidized cholesterol molecules stick to artery walls, hardening them, they raise the risk of both heart attack and stroke. Minimizing their presence should help to reduce these risks.

Lion’s mane mushrooms also contain hericenone B, a compound that can minimize blood clotting whilst diminishing heart attack and stroke risk.

As ever, more robust human trial data are needed.

Inflammation and oxidative stress reduction

It’s startling how many modern diseases see chronic inflammation and oxidative stress as their main causes. Common, chronic, often life threatening conditions like cancer, heart disease, and various autoimmune diseases are all thought to be caused by them.

Anything that can reduce inflammation and oxidative stress may just save your life, reducing your risk of suffering from these chronic health concerns.

Lion’s mane mushroom contains abundant, potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds which should help to keep you safe in the long run. It has been found to have amongst the highest levels of antioxidant activity amongst known mushroom species. 

Various animal studies have linked lion’s mane mushroom use with greatly diminished markers of inflammation and oxidative stress. This may be particularly useful in the prevention and/or management of liver damage, inflammatory bowel disease, and stroke.

Lion’s mane mushrooms have also been shown to help in decreasing inflammation caused by fat tissue release. This may help to allay some of the health risks we tend to associate with excess weight and obesity.

Immune function boost

Lion’s mane mushrooms may also help to bolster your immune health.

Your immune system collectively helps to defend your body against bacteria, viruses, and various other disease-causing pathogens. A weak immune system can leave you open to these. A strong one can keep you safe from them. Lion’s mane mushrooms can help you to keep yours strong.

Lion’s mane mushrooms can increase the intestinal immune system’s activity. This system protects you from pathogens that enter the gut via your nose or mouth.

Changes to gut bacteria associated with lion’s mane mushroom may be behind this, as these changes better stimulate your immune system. This is all based on animal studies, as is a lot of lion’s mane mushroom research, though it is nevertheless promising.

Risks of lion’s mane mushroom use

There are likely no risks to lion’s mane mushroom use, though its side effects in humans is under-studied. Nevertheless, it appears to be safe to consume in the long run.

Do bear in mind, however, that it is a mushroom species. This means that if you struggle to digest mushrooms, are allergic to them, or are sensitive to them, you will likely not get on well with lion’s mane mushrooms. It will stimulate the same adverse reactions as any other mushroom would. These reactions can include breathing difficulties and skin rashes.

Do note that there are at present no guidelines surrounding the safe and effective consumption of lion’s mane mushrooms. Always remember to consult your healthcare provider before beginning supplementation if you have any concerns about your health and wellbeing. 

Supplementing with lion’s mane mushroom

Lion’s mane mushroom can be taken in a few forms. You can eat them raw, cooked, or dried. Cooked, they go particularly well in dishes like pasta, soup, and risotto. Alternatively, you can drink a tea made by steeping them in hot water. Whichever way you consume them, they taste a little like seafood – think crab or shrimp.

Alternatively, you can go for lion’s mane mushroom in supplement format.

You can also get it as a powder, which can be blended into anything or added to hot water, tea, or coffee, or used in soups, stews, stocks, and gravies. You can also get it in tablet, capsule, or tincture form, for a straight, pure dose without having to worry overmuch about preparation. These all come over the counter.

We don’t have too much data on dosing lion’s mane mushroom, meaning that there is no standard dosage recommended. There are plenty of variables that can affect your dosing needs, including your biometrics, age, overall health, and needs. 

For example, anything from 2 to 5 grams per day might be useful for making the most of lion’s mane mushrooms’ nootropic properties in healthy adults. Older adults suffering with Alzheimer’s disease have seen benefits on around 1 gram per day, split across three daily 350-mg lion’s mane capsules. Three 400 mg capsules taken daily for two months has been shown to mitigate depression and anxiety symptoms in those who were overweight or obese.

As ever, talk to your healthcare provider before beginning a new supplement regime. They may be able to guide you as you seek a dose that works for you.

My final take

Lion’s mane mushroom is always good to see in a high-end nootropic supplement. It’s one of my favorite brain boosters going. Its potential ability to enhance cognition whilst fighting the symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression make it a formidable ally in your search for your best self.

Long term potential effects are also promising. As we have seen, it has a range of potential uses, from keeping you safe from chronic health conditions to maintaining brain health as you age. More data are needed. Human trials are needed. At present, it’s all promising. I look forward to the day, not long from now, when we can speak with more certainty about this little mushroom’s health giving properties.

BDNF, or Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor to give it its full name, is absolutely vital in keeping our brains healthy and performing at their best. It is a neurotrophic protein that plays a critical role in how our central nervous system functions.

This quickly leads us on to our second question – what is a neurotrophic protein? Well, the name is a clue here: neuro relates to our nervous system, while trophic relates to nutrition and stimulation. So the neurotrophic family are proteins that help to protect and develop the neurons within our nervous system.

As you can probably tell from the name, BDNF is most closely linked to our brain cells. It helps to promote the growth of new brain cells, as well as protecting and nurturing our existing ones. By doing this, they help our brain cells communicate with each other more effectively. What this means to us, on a practical level, is that we can think quicker and more clearly. 

BDNF also helps us with our long-term memory – the more our brain cells are protected, the more we can remember. On top of that, BDNF has been shown to increase the plasticity of our brains – this is our brain’s ability to react to stimuli from outside our bodies. Basically, what this means is that BDNF helps us to react better to whatever is happening in our lives.

Finally, BDNF is known to be an antidepressant and anti-inflammatory, which helps us stay feeling positive, as well as protecting our brains against damage.

BDNF is absolutely critical in maintaining healthy brains that perform to their full potential, so it is so important that we maintain the levels of BDNF in our system. One way to do this is with the use of BDNF supplements – so today I will be taking a look at the best natural BDNF supplement options.

TLDR: Best BDNF Supplement – NooCube

If you’re only here to discover the best BDNF supplement, then let me save you some time – it’s NooCube. This has an incredible ingredient profile and as well as helping you produce more BDNF, will also offer you a host of other cognitive benefits.

At the price, you will struggle to find a better BDNF supplement, this is one of my favorite nootropics.

Check Latest Deals NooCube Here

Causes Of Low BDNF

With BDNF being so important for the function and protection of our brain cells, we need to be wary of things in our lives that can cause our levels of BDNF to drop. Low levels of BDNF has been linked to many neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s.

Not getting enough sleep can cause us to have low levels of BDNF – if we aren’t sleeping well, the production of BDNF drops dramatically.

This is closely linked to stress as well, which can also hamper BDNF production, and if we are tired, we are more likely to get stressed, which can affect our sleep – it’s a vicious circle and the result is that our BDNF levels are hit.

Unfortunately, getting older is also a cause of low BDNF levels – as we age, our BDNF production will gradually drop, which is part of the reason that it is so closely linked with age-related cognitive disorders like dementia.

Studies have even suggested that if a mother experiences a lot of stress while she is pregnant, it can lead to the baby having low BDNF levels for their entire lives.

How To Increase Your BDNF Levels Naturally

If this all seems pretty bleak, don’t worry, because there are some things that you can do to help increase the levels of BDNF in your bodies, and many of them are relatively simple and little changes that you can incorporate into your day to day life. Many will even off you other health benefits on top of the impact they have on BDNF production.

Here are some of the best ways to increase the amount of BDNF in your brain:

Get more sleep

Okay, this is an obvious one, given what we covered in the previous section, but sleep is so important to our levels of BDNF that one of the most important things that you can do for BDNF levels, and your general health, is to make sure you get enough sleep.

Sleep helps our all round cognitive performance – our focus, memory, ability to learn and our general mood. Most experts recommend that adults get at least seven hours of sleep every night, so if you consistently get less than this, sleep is a great place to start improving your BDNF levels.

Regular exercise

One way to instantly increase the amount of BDNF in your body is to exercise – specifically aerobic exercise like running. Our bodies will immediately produce more as we exercise, but the results are even better when we get into the habit of exercising regularly.

We all know that exercise is good for our bodies, but aerobic exercise is particularly good for our brains as well, helping us to improve our memory, mood and general cognitive function.

Get outdoors

Getting into direct sunlight and breathing some fresh air can do wonders for our bodies, especially the amount of BDNF that we produce. Going for a run outside, in clean fresh air, will do wonders for you.

Studies have shown that we tend to produce less BDNF when we see less of the sun, so get outside and start taking in some rays!

See your friends

You may think that this is a strange one, but studies have shown that social interaction has a significant impact on the amount of BDNF that we produce. If we isolate ourselves away from social interactions, it has major knock-on effects for our mood and general well-being, and this hampers the BDNF levels in our bodies.

So message your friends, and arrange to meet up – ideally outside somewhere!

Eat more protein

We need amino acids to help us produce BDNF in our bodies, and they happen to be the building blocks of protein. So when our bodies break down the protein, we have more of these helpful little amino acids that can help us to produce more BDNF. So try to ensure you are getting enough poultry, fish or dairy in your diets.

Drink a cup of coffee

Coffee beans are rich in antioxidants and polyphenols, which make them very useful when it comes to BDNF production (the fruit of coffee may be even better at stimulating production).

By just having a cup each day, you can help to increase your levels, but if you can get your hands on coffee fruit extract, that would be even more powerful.

Take supplements

One of the easiest ways to help you improve your BDNF levels is to take a supplement. There are so many out there that can help you, all packed with different ingredients that can stimulate BDNF production. 

There are certain ingredients that are more useful than others. We have already mentioned how good coffee fruit extract is, but there are other natural ingredients like magnolia bark, ashwagandha, ginseng, resveratrol and bacopa which can help too.

Top 5 BDNF Supplements

The great thing about nootropic supplementation is that it can offer many other cognitive benefits on top of encouraging the production of BDNF.

There are so many out there, though, that it can be a bit bewildering, so I have compiled a list of my 5 favorite BDNF boosting supplements, which you can check out below:

Nooceptin

Nooceptin is a great place to start this list of the best BDNF supplements because it articulates perfectly how a nootropic can have a variety of benefits, not just focus on one area of cognitive function.

It is made by a company from the UK called SAP Nutra, but in one of their facilities in the US, all of which have met FDA approval. We will be featuring another SAP Nutra product later on this list, which probably gives you some idea as to my faith in this brand! I am a fan of their work – they are a company that you can trust, and who have a proven background in the industry.

One thing I really like about them is the fact that they are honest about what you can expect from taking Nooceptin.

They don’t claim that this is some kind of magic pill that will instantly transform your brain, rather they focus on the science – that you can expect better blood flow in your brain, an improvement in brain cell growth and quicker connections between your neurons – but that these benefits will take time to show fully.

The result of these ‘background’ effects of taking Nooceptin are that you’ll have a better memory and less vulnerability to stress and anxiety. That’s ultimately what I found when I took Nooceptin, and I was able to get much more high level thinking work done, to a higher standard.

You can find our complete review of Nooceptin here, but suffice to say that it is one of our favorite nootropics. It represents good value, and we love the research that they provide you with to justify each ingredient’s inclusion.

Speaking of ingredients, here is the full list of Nooceptin ingredients:

Citicoline · Panax Ginseng · Ginkgo Biloba · Lion’s Mane Mushroom · Bacopa Monnieri · Rhodiola Rosea · L-Theanine

I don’t have the space to go into each one in this article, but I will take a few from each nootropic that we look at to give you a flavor of what you can expect if you take any of these products.

Citicoline

Citicoline is a compound that is naturally produced in our body and one that helps to increase the amount of other chemicals in our brain, like acetylcholine, which are thought to help you think more quickly. It has been used as a treatment for people that have suffered from a stroke, as well as being used to help fight against age-related cognitive decline.

Panax ginseng

Panax ginseng is one of the ingredients that we highlighted above this section that all have a major impact on the amount of BDNF produced within the body. A study in Korea, back in 2019, found that the cognitive performance of some subjects was greatly improved when they had been taking Panax ginseng for half a year.

Ginkgo Biloba

Ginkgo biloba is a plant that is usually grown in Asia and has been used to treat a variety of ailments in Chinese medicine for centuries. It is thought to play a role in increasing blood flow into our brains, which in turn helps our brains to function at a greater level.

Top tip: Try taking the slightly larger dose of three capsules – while this makes it slightly more expensive per month, the results were considerably better when I upped the dose.

Hunter Focus

Another British nootropic now, as we look at Hunter Focus out of Leeds, England, from a company called Roar Ambition.

As you’ve probably already guessed from the name, the main aim of Hunter Focus is to improve your ability to concentrate and think clearly. There is more to it than that though, as it works on fighting against mental fatigue and improving your mood.

As a result of this wide range of benefits, Hunter Focus has a broad appeal. Do you know anyone that wouldn’t want to be able to focus more, while at the same time feeling more at peace and being able to work for longer? Me neither.

The ingredient list for Hunter Focus are one of the best that I’ve come across – it really is a great stack:

Acetyl-L-Carnitine · Caffeine Anhydrous · L-Tyrosine · L-Theanine · Citicoline · Organic Lion’s Mane Mushroom · Ashwagandha Root · Bacopa Monnieri  · Phosphatidylserine  · Maritime Pine Bark · Rhodiola Rosea · Panax Ginseng · Spanish Sage

You are probably already able to spot a few familiar ingredients that promote BDNF production, but let’s take a look at a couple of others:

Acetyl-L-Carnitine

This amino acid has been strongly linked to the prevention of cognitive decline, as well as helping to improve our memory and it has even been used to help treat depression.

L-Tyrosine

One of the most popular ingredients to be used in nootropics, L-Tyrosine is another amino acid which we produce naturally in our bodies. It is best known for its ability to help us think clearly under stressful situations, but it can also help us get better sleep – which as we’ve seen has a critical role in BDNF production.

Top tip: This is a potent nootropic, so start off with a smaller dose and build up from there if you feel you need to

Mind Lab Pro

Mind Lab Pro is produced by Opti-Nutra Limited, another UK-based company and one that has built itself a great reputation over the years.

The great thing about Mind Lab Pro is that it doesn’t just focus on the here and now. Sure, it does benefit your cognitive performance over a short period of time, but it also looks to protect your long-term brain health. It’s quite a bold move for a nootropic product, as they are normally marketed at a young crowd that doesn’t really want to worry about the long term future – they just want results now.

Anyway, Mind Lab Pro is a wonderful nootropic, and one that has always been reviewed well from both professionals and customers. It is another great supplement that focuses on a wide variety of cognitive issues.

When I tried Mind Lab Pro, I was blown away by how quickly I found the benefits kicking in – my brain was working at a different level within a week of me starting. I often suffer from ‘brain fog’, but that just didn’t happen when I was taking Mind Lab Pro.

So on to the ingredients, it’s another great stack, which is why we’ve included it on this list of the best BDNF supplements!

Vitamin B Complex · Citicoline · Bacopa Monnieri · Lion’s Mane Mushroom · Phosphatidylserine · L-Tyrosine · L-Theanine · Rhodiola Rosea

You’re probably experts in most of these ingredients by now! Let’s take a look at a couple that we haven’t yet covered:

Vitamin B Complex

Mind Lab Pro uses this ‘bundle’ of vitamin B’s, all of which have their own benefits. For the purposes of this piece, though, I am going to isolate vitamin B12, which has been proven to aid the production of BDNF, as well as benefiting general cognitive health and performance.

Lion’s Mane Mushroom

Lion’s mane mushroom has a wide variety of benefits, including helping to improve our mood, fighting against age-related cognitive decline and supporting our general health. It is also thought to play a role in boosting our BDNF, but more research is needed to clarify that. Regardless, it’s a great ingredient to include in a nootropic supplement.

Top tip: You may find that the recommended dose of four capsules is too much – start with two.

VyvaMind

Another nootropic made by SAP Nutra now (like Nooceptin), as we look at VyvaMind. This supplement is a little bit different to the other ones that we have selected in the list so far, as it narrows on focus and high performance as the benefits, rather than having a more general spectrum.

That’s not to suggest that it isn’t a brilliant product though. It does exactly what you want it to do – giving you razor-like focus and incredible concentration. It probably didn’t have as big an impact as, say, Hunter Focus, but it was a nice little boost to my work productivity..

Perhaps the narrower aims of VyvaMind explains the much smaller list of ingredients – they have really honed in on ingredients that will benefit your focus and concentration, and left everything else out. Here is the entire list of ingredients:

Vitamin B6, L-Tyrosine, Vitamin B12, L-Theanine, Citicoline, Caffeine Anhydrous

Caffeine

We’ve already covered coffee fruit, but what about caffeine specifically? There is some research that suggests that caffeine does help to improve the levels of BDNF in our bodies, and that it can help to reduce the impact of age-related memory decline.

Regardless of this, we know that caffeine can help us focus, which is the main reason it is included in VyvaMind.

Top tip: Opt for a three month supply – it works out much cheaper than buying month-by-month

Noocube

We’ll conclude this list of the best BDNF supplements with Noocube, possibly my favorite nootropic of all (although all of the products we’ve featured here could lay a claim to that title).

Made by Wolfson Brands, a huge name in the world of dietary supplements, Noocube is a wonderful nootropic that does a bit of everything: giving you better focus, increased brain energy, better memory, longer attention span, improved mood and even helping to improve the connection between our eyes and brain.

It’s a bit of a slow-burning nootropic. You won’t feel an overwhelming blast of energy or anything like that, but over the first month of me taking Noocube, I found that I was gradually experiencing all of the above benefits, and I was sleeping so much better (great for BDNF production).

Lutemax®, Bacopa Monnieri, Huperzia Serrata, Pterostilbene, Resveratrol, L-Theanine, L-Tyrosine, Alpha GPC, Oat Straw Extract, Cat’s Claw, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B7, Vitamin B12.

Lutemax®

Lutemax® is a unique blend of carotenoids, found in marigold flowers, which helps our eyes deal with ‘blue light’ – the lights from the screens that most of us are staring at all day long! However, there has also been the suggestion that they can also help promote the production of BDNF.

Huperzia Serrata

Found in Chinese moss, huperzia serrata has been used to help treat Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia due its effect it has on mental decline. As we have seen, these diseases can be caused by a lack of BDNF, so there has been the suggestion that huperzia serrata may have a positive role to play in terms of BDNF production, but more research is required.

Top Tip: Be patient. If you don’t feel much after a week of taking Noocube, don’t worry – it will slowly build up and you may start to get the benefits before you even notice.

Verdict

Maintaining regular levels of BDNF in our system is critical for the health and performance of our brains. The good news is that there are plenty of ways that we can ensure levels are kept up, and most of them are related to things that will have multiple benefits to our general health, like getting more sleep and getting regular exercise.

To make sure you always have enough, though, BDNF supplements are perfect. Not only will you get a boost to your BDNF production, but there are plenty of other cognitive benefits that you will experience.

These amino acids are combined together to create different protein strands. These in turn form the building blocks of life.

Theanine is akin to glutamate, another, naturally occurring amino acid that aids nerve impulse transmission within the brain. Theanine can act in a similar way, helping with this transmission, and, as a result, improving cognitive function. However, it can at times limit glutamate’s effects. It may also have an effect on several other brain chemicals, most notably dopamine, serotonin, and GABA.

L-theanine plays into this. It’s often used in nootropic supplements, or supplements designed to aid and optimize cognition, mental wellbeing, and brain health. It’s also often taken for stress relief and to overcome anxiety, though the clinical data are mixed on this – there is no conclusive support for its use to date.

What can l-theanine do for you?

There are actually quite a few promising uses for l-theanine, though more clinical data are generally needed before we can say so for sure. We can make a few tentative claims, however.

Stress and anxiety relief

L-theanine has been shown to potentially lower stress and anxiety levels. It’s a common component of tea, which has often been found to have relaxing qualities, both in studies and in the popular imagination.

The data back up l-theanine’s role in this regard, at least in a small way. Several trials have been able to link l-theanine use with lower levels of stress and anxiety in those experiencing adverse situations. It has also been shown to diminish the effects of anxiety on those suffering with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, as well as enabling better symptom management.

More data are needed, of course. However, it’s a good bet at this stage that there is a fair amount underlining the case for l-theanine as an anti-anxiety, stress relieving supplement. It is, after all, one of the main reasons we often see it in nootropic supplements.

Sleep quality

As part of this stress and anxiety reduction, there is a lot of data showing that l-theanine can help you get a better night’s sleep.

Animal and human studies have found that doses of both 250 mg and 400 mg of l-theanine can lead to much improved sleep quality. Doses of 200 mg of l-theanine have also been found to lower resting heart rates, a key component of relaxation, and of relaxing for sleep.

L-theanine has also been shown to help those diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to sleep better. Specifically, a study looked at boys aged 8 to 12 with ADHD diagnoses who were given two 100 mg doses of l-theanine daily. They experienced more restful, longer periods of sleep compared to a placebo group after six weeks.

Similarly, l-theanine has shown potential for use in treating those suffering with schizophrenia-induced insomnia. It has been shown to improve quality of sleep for those with diagnoses.

More work is needed to prove that this effect can be replicated, and that l-theanine is safe for long-term use, especially in children. However, it does seem incredibly promising – all of the above points to l-theanine as a potential, incredible sleep aid.

Focus and attention

This is the next reason we often see l-theanine used in common nootropic formulas – l-theanine shows promise as a way to improve focus and attention, especially when paired with caffeine or some other form of stimulant.

One small study from 2010 saw participants take a combination of 97 mg of l-theanine and 40 mg of caffeine (about two thirds of the amount you get in a single shot of espresso). Participants were all young adults subjected to demanding tasks. They were found to be better able to focus on the task than control groups, whilst also experiencing greater alertness and diminished fatigue levels.

Immune function

L-theanine may also help to improve immune health and function, though the research is a little thin, here. A 2016 study found that it was able to decrease infection to the upper respiratory tract, whilst one from 2011 showed that catechins from green tea (high quality antioxidants) combined with l-theanine shows promise for warding off the flu.

It’s also theorized that l-theanine may be able to improve intestinal tract inflammation, though more data are needed to verify this and build on these initial findings.

Cancer treatment

There has been some associated between l-theanine and an amplification of certain chemotherapy treatments’ tumor fighting effects. In effect, l-theanine may be able to make chemotherapy more effective and efficient at fighting cancer and reducing tumor size.

There is a correlation without any proven causation between tea drinking and lower risks from cancer. Those who regularly drink tea experience lower cancer rates, without the exact mechanism being understood. In fact, women who regularly drink green tea have been found to be over 30% less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than those who don’t drink tea. Some experts have put it in part down to the l-theanine content in tea.

Blood pressure

This is quite a big one, and it relates in part to l-theanine’s ability to keep you feeling calm under pressure. It may help to keep blood pressure levels low in stressful situations. This has been born out in part by clinical data. One study showed that l-theanine use could reduce the increase in blood pressure inherent to those attempting stressful mental tasks.

The same study demonstrated that caffeine might have a similar effect, if less pronounced.

Risks of l-theanine use

L-theanine is largely safe to use. However, there are a few circumstances in which you may want to take extra care. There are a few side effects and interactions to note.

Side effects

There are no known side effects associated with l-theanine consumption. It is safe to take without fear of major adverse symptoms, both as a tea and in supplement form. However, do take note that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) isn’t responsible for regulating supplements. They do not look into them, do not sign off on them.

The onus is therefore on the manufacturer to ensure that supplements are high quality and safe, and on the consumer to ensure that they are buying from reputable companies.

There are also a few things to watch out for. Though l-theanine has been shown to have promising effects for those undergoing cancer treatment, teas than contain it may also contain additional ingredients that are less helpful. They can in fact be potentially harmful to those undergoing cancer treatment. For example, the polyphenol EGCG, commonly found in green tea, can stymie chemotherapy’s results, reducing bortezomib’s efficacy (a common chemotherapy drug).

Do always ensure that you talk to your healthcare provider when considering changing your supplement regime or using any kind of additional therapeutic methods, especially when undergoing treatment for any medical concern.

L-theanine supplementation itself should be healthy enough, all things being equal. However, if you rely on green tea for it, as many do, there are some side effects to be wary of. Too much green tea can mean too much caffeine, which can lead to mood swings, energy spikes and crashes, irritability, nausea, and insomnia, among other effects.

Additionally, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you should limit how much tea you drink. Opt for decaffeinated where you can. Once again, it’s always best to consult your doctor before changing your diet or supplement regime when you are pregnant.

Interactions

You may experience moderate interactions between l-theanine and common antihypertensive drugs – medications for high blood pressure. This is because, as we have seen, theanine can work to lower blood pressure. In conjunction with an antihypertensive drug, your blood pressure may drop too far.

There is also a minor interaction to be wary of if you’re taking CNS depressants, or sedative drugs. Sedatives bring your breathing rate down and can cause sleepiness. Theanine may also cause these – we have seen how relaxing it can be, and this may extend further. Though there is no research showing that sedatives and theanine might interact to bolster one or another’s effects too far, it is still best to practice caution.

Dosing l-theanine

There is no agreed-upon dose for l-theanine. The research is at present too young. There isn’t enough data to be conclusive about it. However, most studies have used doses around of 200-400 mg daily, which seems to elicit the desired results.

Always practice caution, however. If you’re unsure about l-theanine, or about how much to take, do consult your doctor.

My final take

I’ve actually been using l-theanine quite passively for years now. This is because I’m a big fan of certain nootropics that include it as a matter of course in their formulae. In fact, I always question nootropics that omit it.

This is because it really does show a lot of promise. Largely, this promise relates to its anxiety fighting effects. This is where the data are arguably the most conclusive. It should keep you relaxed and stress-free, even when you regularly experience stressful situations, whilst also improving your focus and quality of sleep.

Then there are other, more niche benefits – fighting cancer, dealing with schizophrenia symptoms, helping with ADHD management. More research is needed. As ever, more research is always welcome. It allows for an ever-increasing amount of confidence and a diminished risk-factor.

However, for the moment, we can quite comfortably say that many of l-theanine’s purported benefits seem to have something to them. Certainly, its nootropic benefits seem quite solid.

These are all incredible benefits, especially as they pertain to your cognitive function and brain health. If they are true, they would make DMAE an incredible ally in the pursuit of optimal brain function and mental wellbeing.

Advocates believe that they can combine to mitigate the symptoms of, and help to treat, a wide range of medical concerns, including but not limited to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dementia and Alzheimer’s, and depression.

However, the scientific consensus is often pretty weak surrounding its main claims. Many of the claims go unsubstantiated, as we shall see, making DMAE quite a mixed bag for the moment.

What is DMAE?

DMAE (or dimethylethanolamine, often called deanol) is an organic compound thought by many to act as a potent nootropic chemical. It is produced naturally in a small amount within the human body, and can be found in exogenous, dietary sources like fatty fish.

There is actually very little data on DMAE content in common fish types. However, most experts agree that sardines, salmon, and anchovies are rich sources that should deliver plenty into your diet.

It is thought that DMAE’s main cognitive benefits come from its supposed ability to boost acetylcholine production. Acetylcholine is a key neurotransmitter, vital for enabling nerve cells, including neurons, to communicate with one another. It is responsible for many of the brain’s functions and plays a role in enabling some our most basic cognitive processes.

DMAE is also thought to possibly diminish beta-amyloid build up, a substance in the brain excessive levels of which have been tied to memory loss and cognitive decline related to the aging process.

This two pronged approach – boosting acetylcholine levels whilst diminishing beta-amyloid levels – should make DMAE a very powerful aid to cognitive health, function, and performance.

In fact, DMAE began its public life as a prescription drug, labelled Deanol. It was aimed at children who exhibited learning and behavioral problems in a bid to bolster their cognitive health. However, it hasn’t been available in this way for forty years – it hasn’t been sold as a prescription drug since 1983.

Nowadays, it is mostly available as a dietary supplement. You can buy it from plenty of different outlets in both powdered and capsule form for its nootropic benefits. Dosing can be a bit tricky, however – there is little scientific consensus and so instructions vary brand to brand, supplement to supplement.

You can also buy DMAE serum for topical use. That is, for use on the skin. As above, it is thought to combat signs of aging, including keeping you free from wrinkles. It’s often an ingredient in common cosmetics and skin creams as a result.

The benefits of DMAE supplementation

It is hard to talk in concrete terms about the benefits you can gain from DMAE. If the theories are true, they are quite profound – see below. However, there is a critical dearth of data surrounding its use. Most of the theory rests on small, older studies, alongside a fair amount of anecdotal data. This undermines its potential efficacy a great deal.

However, if you are sold on DMAE and its legitimacy, there are indeed some fantastic potential benefits to be gained from taking it.

Some of the better studied benefits pertain to its topical use and the benefits it may deliver to the skin. For instance, a high-quality, randomized clinical study published in the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology showed that a solution containing 3% DMAE worked effectively for reducing fine lines on the face, specifically around the eyes and forehead, after just four months. The same study reported improvements to lip fullness and shape (however such things might be measured…)

Further work on animals has shown that DMAE may contain hydrating properties for the skin.

Then there are the nootropic benefits, whose effects rely on much shakier data. For example, DMAE is thought to support working memory. However, the evidence is anecdotal and really quite limited. Advocates propose that it may help to mitigate memory loss from dementia and Alzheimer’s, but there is no clinical data supporting this claim.

DMAE may also show promise for treating the symptoms of ADHD. It is thought to reduce hyperactivity. However, the data are startlingly out of date. This claim relies on studies performed on children between the 1950s and 1970s. These studies found evidence that DMAE could calm children, enable them to focus better, and overall reduce severity of hyperactivity. However, no modern data support these claims.

DMAE is also thought to aid improved mood, boosting it whilst warding off the effects of anxiety and depression. There is some evidence for this, though it is also outdated and is very selective.

Most of the evidence comes from a study conducted in 1977 that focused on those experiencing age-related cognitive decline. DMAE was found to mitigate symptoms of depression whilst reducing anxiety and irritability. At the same time, they found that it boosted motivation.

Modern data are needed on a broader participant pool, however.

Finally, oddly, there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that DMAE may play a role in improving athletic performance. To do so, it is needed in conjunction with several other vitamins and supplements. However, there is no clinical data whatsoever supporting this theory.

Side effects and risks of DMAE

These lackluster findings are coupled with some pretty alarming side effects and risks, making the risk to reward ratio uncomfortably skewed.

To begin with, current medical advice is that those suffering with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or epilepsy should not take DMAE. It may worsen symptoms. It has also been linked with spina bifida, a defect in babies, when taken during pregnancy. If you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, then, you should not take DMAE. You should also avoid it if you are breastfeeding or planning to breastfeed.

High doses of DMAE have been linked to several side effects. This includes oral and topical use, and inhalation. According to the National Institute of Health, it can lead to severe skin irritation, including redness and inflammation, muscle twitching, spasms, and convulsions, sleep disruption, including insomnia, respiratory concerns, such as coughing, sneezing, and wheezing, and eye irritation.

There are also numerous drugs with which DMAE can potentially interact dangerously. These include cholinesterase inhibitors (which you’ll often see in Alzheimer’s and dementia treatment plans, and include the likes of Aricept, Cognex, and Reminyl), anticholinergic medications (usually involved in treatment for Parkinson’s disease, COPD, and overactive bladder), and anticoagulants.

You should always talk to a doctor before beginning a new supplement regime, especially where there are existing medical conditions and complications at play.

My final take

There is very little about DMAE that seems to be worth it. It doesn’t seem like a good thing to be taking. When considering any supplement, you need to look at the risk to reward ratio, as mentioned above. You should aim for the greatest reward for the least risk. In general, you want to keep the risk to as close to zero as is practical.

This is not the case with DMAE. The risk is too high. There are some troubling side effects that healthy adults may experience. There are some outright dangerous ones when there are additional medical complications to take into account.

Considering common medications for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia can interact badly with DMAE, and considering that those suffering from these diseases are amongst those allegedly standing to benefit the most, this makes it a bit of a write off from a safety point of view.

Then there is the reward, or potential reward. The benefits would have to be solid and profound to make up for those risks. They are not. They are barely strong enough to make up for the price of purchasing DMAE supplements, and would be even in a world with zero risk.

Most of the claims are fallacious. They are based on outdated data at best. At worst, they are based on nothing more than anecdote. This isn’t good enough in the supplement world. If it works anecdotally, it should be clinically tested. If it is shown to work clinically, great. If not, it simply remains an anecdotal cure – which is to say, it is no cure at all.

Then there is the competition. DMAE is far from the only nootropic ingredient out there. There are plenty. Many have been rigorously tested, found to work incredibly well, and come with very few, very minor side effects, if any at all.

As above, there is very little about DMAE that seems to be worth it.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that often doubles as something of a hormone, or chemical messenger. In both capacities, it is central to our feelings of wellbeing, pleasure, and reward. As such, it is also key to motivation, focus, and enjoyment and interest.

Your body needs to produce a certain amount. Excessive or limited amounts – too much or too little – can cause a number of potentially critical health concerns, both physical and mental. 

Dopamine 101

Chemically, dopamine is a form of monoamine neurotransmitter. It’s created in the middle of the brain, by a grouping of nerve cells in the hypothalamus, where it functions as a chemical messenger.

It is created through a couple of steps.

Firstly, the brain converts tyrosine, an amino acid, into dopa. Secondly, this dopa is converted into dopamine.

Dopamine doesn’t simply act as a neurotransmitter, though. It is a neurohormone. As above, it also works as a hormone.

It sits alongside epinephrine and norepinephrine as one of the three main catecholamines – which are hormones all made in the adrenal gland. It is the main hormone responsible for sensations of pleasure, motivation, and satisfaction. That feeling we get when we have accomplished something comes largely from a dopamine surge.

Dopamine also plays a role in addiction and addictive-style behaviors. We can begin to crave ever increasing amounts of dopamine, or reward or pleasure.

Things like having sex, eating, winning, gambling or earning more money, all cause dopamine surges, hence people can become obsessed with them. Alcohol can also cause heightened dopamine release, as can many illegal drugs.

Dopamine is also important for memory, learning, focus, sleep, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, mood, as well as controlling bodily movements.

It can affect your motivation, heart rate, vascularity and blood vessel health and function (in low levels it is a vasodilator and in high levels it is a vasoconstrictor), kidney function, attention, pain processing, and even lactation. It even plays a key role in controlling nausea and vomiting, as well as managing your fight-or-flight response (your reaction to perceived stress and/or danger).

Dopamine can also aid the body’s sodium and urine removal, limit the production of insulin in your pancreas, protect your gastrointestinal (gut, or GI) lining and minimize the movement of GI content, and limit your immune system’s lymphocyte activity.

Dopamine and your mental wellbeing

Dopamine is key to mental wellbeing. Though all mental health concerns are complex, often without one single root cause, many can be linked to sub-optimal dopamine levels in varied areas of the brain. For instance, schizophrenia has long been associated with dopamine levels. It was once thought that it was linked to dopamine system hyperactivity.

Nowadays there is strong evidence that symptoms are connected to excessive levels in different parts of the brain, including delusions and hallucinations. Other symptoms are connected to a lack of dopamine, including low drive, focus, and desire.

There is also a strong body of research connected attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (or ADHD, the cause of which is unknown for sure) with dopamine levels, possibly led by genetic disposition. Indeed, Ritalin, or methylphenidate, one of the leading ADHD medications, works by raising dopamine output.

As above, dopamine is also linked with addiction and addiction-like behaviors. Addictive drugs like cocaine work in large part by fueling large, quickly released dopamine surges, triggering the reward centre and leading to instant gratification and a sense of wellbeing. However, over time, repeated drug use leaves you craving more as your reward system is overloaded and its threshold is elevated. You will need to take increasing amounts to experience the same effects. You will also want to keep taking just to produce dopamine, as drug use can limit your body’s ability to naturally produce dopamine, leaving you dependent on it for your mood.

Heightened dopamine levels, either through natural reasons or due to drug use, have been linked to heightened aggression and competitiveness, alongside low impulse control.

Low dopamine levels, meanwhile, can lead to low motivation and enthusiasm. It is closely linked with depression. You may experience insomnia, or trouble sleeping, alongside tiredness, fatigue, a lack of motivation, a low mood, a lack of optimism, low libido and sexual dysfunction, and slower-than-usual speech and movement (all the hallmarks of depression, in other words).

It also plays a key role in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, which is characterized by the dopamine-producing nerve cells slowly dying off. As dopamine is responsible in part for controlling the muscles, this can lead to the stiffness and spasms we associate with Parkinson’s.

Getting a handle on your dopamine levels

It’s easy enough to tell if your body is producing appropriate, or healthy, amounts of dopamine if you know what you’re looking for. If you regularly feel happy and content, well-motivated, alert and focussed, without any undue aggression, stress, or anger, and no signs of addiction, then your dopamine levels are probably about where you want them to be.

How to tell if your dopamine levels are low

However, if you regularly feel overly tired, fatigued, and lethargic, lack motivation, or have any depressive symptoms like those listed above, your dopamine levels are possibly low.

This can be accompanied by sleep problems like insomnia or trouble staying asleep, mood swings, energy loss, low sex drive, and poor focus.

How to tell if your dopamine levels are high

High dopamine levels can be just as problematic as low levels, as we have seen.

Symptoms can be very enjoyable, including bouts of sustained euphoria, high energy, drive, focus, and sex drive. However, these can be accompanied by sleep problems such as insomnia, poor impulse control, and heightened aggression.

Balancing your dopamine levels

Luckily, there are ways within a certain range of managing your dopamine levels.

Firstly, you should address the root cause of your dopamine imbalance. Talk to your doctor or healthcare provider, who will be able to advise you and take you through this journey.

Causes can include mental health concerns or lifestyle factors such as excessive stress, drug abuse and/or dependency, a lack of sleep, obesity, or dietary factors like excessive sugar or saturated fat. Levels can also be impaired by concerns with the adrenal gland.

Your doctor will be able to prescribe drugs in many situations that can help a great deal. For instance, if low dopamine is causing depression or schizophrenia, or indeed if depression or schizophrenia are lowering dopamine levels in a vicious cycle, common medications like antidepressants and mood stabilizers can be very beneficial.

Therapy and counseling can also often help you to break this vicious cycle, allowing you to take back control of your dopamine production and, more broadly, your mental wellbeing.

Those suffering with diseases like Parkinson’s can often be prescribed medication to help bolster their dopamine output. There is even plenty of experimental data on human patients proving that exogenous supplies of dopamine, injected regularly through an intravenous pump, can mitigate symptoms and slow decline.

There are also some great lifestyle hacks for balancing your dopamine output, particularly if you suffer from low levels. To start with, you can address the lifestyle factors above. Try to mitigate your stress levels, avoiding stressful situations if at all possible.

Try to get plenty of sleep, steer clear of addictive substances, or get help to manage dependency where needed, and maintain an active lifestyle. The latter will help almost across the board, helping you to maintain healthy body composition, improving your sleep quality naturally, and naturally elevating your mood whilst helping you to manage stress.

Indeed, there are plenty of activities in which you can take part that should help you to raise your dopamine levels. As a good rule of thumb, these include anything that make you feel good (though within limit – cocaine use may make you feel good in the moment, but as we have seen, is very unhealthy).

Exercise is chief amongst these, in whatever form best suits you – walking, running, weight training, swimming, yoga, playing team sports… any and all should help.

Meditation is also great for improving dopamine output. It also pairs well with physical activity forms like yoga and tai chi, making these great options.

Massages have been shown to improve dopamine output. So have simple things like socializing with friends and loved ones.

A healthy diet is key for keeping every aspect of your overall health in check, and things are no different here. Diet can go a long way to maintaining dopamine health. Go for plenty of leafy greens and healthy fats and proteins as a good general rule.

You should also try to pack your diet with lots of foods that give you l-tyrosine. As we have seen, this amino acid is converted into dopamine, so is crucial for maintaining a healthy dopamine output. Bananas, avocados, and almonds are all great plant sources, whilst eggs, lean beef, and chicken are all great animal sources. Certain micronutrients, supplements, and plant sources are also thought to aid production. These include vitamin D and magnesium, omega-3 supplementation, and the spice turmeric.

Your dopamine production

If you think your dopamine production may be off (see above), it’s always a good idea to talk things through with your doctor. As we have seen, dopamine output is crucial to our overall physical and, especially, mental wellbeing.

If you can get your levels right, you can improve your quality of life in just about the most fundamental way imaginable. A healthy lifestyle and diet represent a great place to start.

There isn’t a person on this planet that doesn’t experience anxiety at one time or another. It’s awful, isn’t it? That feeling of unease and worry, maybe even fear – it can have a paralyzing effect on you, and it can act as a roadblock – stopping you from getting where you need to be.

There are different degrees of anxiety, of course. Some of it is relatively mild and controllable, some of it requires professional help and medication. It can sometimes prevent us from performing well at work, or getting sleep, and it can also isolate us from society and ruin our relationships.

This article is designed for people that suffer from relatively mild anxiety. If you find that your anxiety is affecting your day-to-day life or causing you major distress, you should seek help from a medical professional.

For milder anxiety, there are certain measures you can take to help alleviate feelings of anxiety, and we are going to be taking a look at one of them today – drinking chamomile tea.

Now, as a Brit, I was brought up believing that there aren’t many problems that a cup of tea can’t solve, so this is the article I was born to write! But there is good science behind this, and we are going to be taking a look at precisely why chamomile is an effective antidote to anxiety.

First though, let’s take a look at anxiety.

Anxiety

While anxiety can be triggered by many different external factors, and caused by things that happened to us a very long time ago, it manifests itself in the same way.

When we’re feeling stressed or anxious, our bodies release hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, which then go on to cause the physical feeling of anxiety. They increase our heart rate, and cause us to sweat. Our breathing will begin to speed up, and we can feel sick. We don’t want to eat, and we may feel like we need to use the toilet.

All of this comes from the release of these stress hormones.

While it is important to look at the triggers of anxiety, and try to address why they make us feel like they do, we can also look for ways to help lessen the impact – to help us calm down so that the physical reaction to feelings of anxiety don’t make situations worse.

So that the one thing we were worrying about earlier in the day doesn’t mean that we don’t sleep at all that night.

Chamomile is a great way to help with that.

Health Benefits of Chamomile

So what is chamomile? It’s a little flower, not too dissimilar to a daisy.

There are plenty of different species of the chamomile plant, but the two main ones from which we get drinks are Chamaemelum nobile and Matricaria chamomilla.

In terms of its use in medicine, chamomile has been used for centuries. In fact, not many herbs or flowers have been used in medicine for longer than chamomile has.

In ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece, Chamomile was used to treat all manner of ailments from stomach cramps to skin conditions.

The big thing about chamomile is that it has antioxidant properties, which means that it can help to protect your body against free radicals, which attack your cells.

If you are exposed to radiation, smoke free radicals are produced which can harm your body. They are even produced when your body breaks down food, so it is vitally important that you build up protection against them.

That’s not all, though. As well as being an antioxidant, chamomile has analgesic properties. This means that it can act as a painkiller, whether you are suffering from an injury, a headache or even arthritis. Obviously if you are in a serious amount of pain, the doctor isn’t going to hurry over to the kettle to prepare a cup of chamomile tea for you, but to help ease pain, it can help.

I suffer from migraines regularly, and chamomile is one of the pain reducing techniques that I employ when I am suffering.

It has even been shown to have anticancer properties – in a recent study, chamomile was proven to slightly inhibit the growth of cancer cells, while leaving ‘normal’ cells untouched.

On a more mundane level, it is thought that inhaling steam that has been infused with chamomile extract can help cure the common cold, which obviously isn’t a serious condition, but knowing something that can help is certainly desirable when you are in the midst of a cold and feeling sorry for yourself.

Furthermore, chamomile has been proven to help recovery from diarrhea, particularly in children. And, some great news for parents of very young children, it has been shown to help get rid of colic in children – and nothing in this article will help people get better sleep than helping to remove colic in babies!

While chamomile has been used to help with skin conditions, such as eczema, the results are pretty inconclusive, so chamomile may not have a significant role to play in coping with skin conditions.

What we are most interested in, for the purposes of this article, is how chamomile can help us with anxiety – so let’s take a closer look.

Chamomile as a Cure for Anxiety

Chamomile is known for helping us relax. For centuries it has been used to help us get to sleep – a nice cup of chamomile tea before bed has been recommended by grandmothers all over the world for a very long time!

But there is much more to this than just being an old wives tale. Chamomile has some anxiolytic properties – attributes that help to reduce the impact of anxiety. It has a tranquilizing effect on us, which even though it is incredibly mild, it still helps us stay calm and promotes relaxation.

The main antioxidant that is present in chamomile is called apigenin, which helps to bring together various neuro-receptors in our brains – this has the effect of making us feel more calm and relaxed.

Studies have been undertaken to prove the impact of chamomile on anxiety, and while more research is required in order for us to get a bigger picture on the full impact, participants in the study that took chamomile were seen to have a modest decrease in their feelings of anxiety compared to those that had been given a placebo.

The most common type of anxiety is a variety called generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and a small study in 2016 reported that people that took chamomile over a long period of time reduced their symptoms of GAD “significantly”.

Larger studies are needed, and there are many different types of anxiety that need to be examined too, but this is a clear indication that chamomile could help people that suffer from anxiety.

This is linked to the ability to help us sleep – it is much more difficult to get to sleep if we are feeling anxious. So in another trial, ten patients on a cardiac ward fell into a deep sleep (lasting more than 90 minutes) immediately after drinking a cup of chamomile tea.

Again, more clinical trials are required, but there is plenty of evidence, on top of its use for centuries, to suggest that chamomile can play a significant role in helping people to get to sleep.

How Should You Take Chamomile?

Chamomile is available in many different forms. As with most things these days, you can buy supplements – some will be ‘chamomile flower’, some will specifically be ‘apigenin’. There are many different strengths and doses available, and if you want to go down this route, it could be a good idea to speak to a medical professional to find out what sort of dose is the right one for you.

However, one of the really great things about this is that chamomile tea is genuinely delicious, and the very act of taking the time out to prepare and drink a cup of tea can act as protection against anxiety in itself.

So that is what I would urge you to do. Individual bags of chamomile tea are available from most grocery stores. All you need to do then is put the kettle on, pour boiling water over the bag in a cup, and wait for it to brew.

There is something incredibly therapeutic about tea because it isn’t instant. The brewing process forces you to take a couple of minutes to wait. It forces you to do nothing – don’t miss that opportunity.

Take a seat and try to switch off your brain as you wait for the chamomile to infuse into the water, and for the water to cool enough for it to reach a drinkable temperature.

If you want to step things up a notch, use fresh chamomile. Again, it is widely available, and even really easy to grow yourself if you have the space. Then all you need is a teapot.

You can create your own blends – try adding a little bit of ginger, honey or mint to it – maybe some lemon or lavender? You can experiment with it to find your ideal flavor, and all the while ensure you are making yourself a nice, relaxing drink that will help you switch off for a few minutes. To give yourself time to get your head in order.

Here is my perfect chamomile tea recipe:

Use three tablespoons of fresh chamomile, plus a couple of slices of fresh ginger and a pinch of dried lavender. Pour boiling water over, and leave for around 5 minutes to brew. Then, just before you drink it, add a teaspoon of runny honey, and add a small wedge of lemon.

Are there any side effects of taking Chamomile?

While chamomile is a completely natural flower, in very rare occasions it has been known to cause a few different side effects. These include dizziness, nausea and even (in very rare instances) allergic reactions. Some people have found that they have suffered from eczema after taking chamomile, but again, this is very rare. If you experience any of these symptoms, seek medical advice.

You should also seek medical advice before taking chamomile if you are pregnant or on medication, especially if they have blood thinning qualities. Chamomile can have an anticoagulant effect, so it should never be taken in conjunction with blood thinners.

So even though chamomile is generally regarded as a harmless flower, it is always better to ask for professional medical advice before taking it regularly if you have any concerns.

Verdict

Chamomile is a wonderful treatment for anxiety – even if we don’t really know exactly how effective it can be.

Just to clarify, it is clear that chamomile does something to help reduce the impact of anxiety, but to what degree, and which forms of anxiety it is the biggest help for, is not quite clear at this stage. All we know is that it helps.

Of course, if you are suffering from severe anxiety, you are best advised to seek professional medical help – doctors can help you get to the root of the problem with therapy and medication.

If you are looking for things to help you with day-to-day anxiety, though – the sort of anxiety that causes you a bit of trouble falling to sleep at night, or that knocks your confidence a bit during certain situations, then chamomile can play a crucial role in combating it.

The mere act of pouring yourself a lovely cup of chamomile can provide some comfort, but there is plenty of science to back up the theory that the drink itself will help you to relax, and to prevent some of the physical symptoms of anxiety. It can certainly help you sleep better, and provide you with a host of other minor health benefits at the same time.

There are loads of over-the-counter treatments for stress and anxiety out there, but there aren’t many that are as cheap, enjoyable and effective as chamomile. Put the kettle on, and let the tea do what it does best.

A good mood can be fleeting. It can be ephemeral, hard to pin down, hard to sustain. Depression, anxiety, fatigue, or simply the blues, can take all of us – even at the best of times. However, there are things we can do about them all. There are things we can do to boost our moods.

Lifestyle factors play a large part, of course – live healthily, stay active, eat well, don’t take on too much, try to socialize where and when you can. Mood boosting supplementation can also work incredibly well. There is a whole range of supplements dedicated to improving your cognitive and mental wellbeing, boosting your mood and keeping it elevated.

I want to take the opportunity to explore some of the best mood boosting supplements that I have tested and deliver my verdict on what should work best for you…

TLDR: The No.1 Mood Boosting Supplement

I would always go with NooCube. It’s natural, potent, and incredibly well thought out and put together.

There is plenty in its formula to improve your cognitive wellbeing. There is also plenty in there, like bacopa monnieri, that should keep stress and fatigue at bay.

It’s a perfect, all-round mood booster that I cannot recommend enough.

Check Best Deals On NooCube Here

Mood Boosting Supplements

If all your ducks are in a row and you are living a healthy, active life with appropriate medical and self- care, you’re onto a winner. However, we don’t need to stop there. We can take it further. This is where supplementation comes into play. Luckily for us, the modern market is crammed with supplements designed to improve your mood and cognitive and mental wellbeing.

The following six mood boosting supplements are fantastic examples of how the modern supplement industry can help you to improve your mood and truly make the most out of your life as a whole.

NooCube

NooCube is one of my all-time favorite supplements. It’s one of the best supplements for boosting your mood and maintaining cognitive health and wellbeing.

It’s a nootropic supplement. This means that it is designed primarily to support brain health and cognitive function. However, it also supports your mood in a couple of very clever ways.

Of course, supporting brain health and cognitive function will by themselves lead to an improved mood – or, rather, improved overall mental wellbeing. This list isn’t short on nootropics for this very reason. However, there are also a couple of elements to NooCube that really do make it stand out as a mood booster in its own right.

The benefits it gives you come from a long list of top-tier ingredients all designed to improve executive function and working memory whilst also lending you mental energy and clarity. And, of course, all designed to elevate your mood.

For me, the list’s star player has to be Alpha GPC, an incredibly worthwhile ingredient that is often strangely underutilised in the modern nootropic marketplace. It delivers choline to your brain, which is crucial in maintaining healthy neurons, and in protecting against cognitive decline whilst also acutely improving cognitive functionality.

It will help you to keep on top of your short- and long- term cognitive wellbeing, allowing for an elevated mood – both immediately and over time.

Then there is bacopa monnieri, which is seen a lot more often than Alpha GPC. It’s no wonder – it’s a fantastic ingredient. It is one of the best compounds going for relieving the effects of stress and anxiety. In a nootropic context, this allows for improved clarity, especially under stressful conditions. For the purposes of today’s list, it helps to keep stress and anxiety at bay, two of the lead causes of low mood and depression.

Bacopa monnieri is a potent antioxidant, too. This means that it helps to ward against oxidative stress in your brain.

Oxidative stress is a lead cause of depression and stress, and of age-related cognitive decline. Loading your diet and supplement regime with antioxidants can therefore help to fight against low mood now whilst also ring-fencing your lasting, long term brain health.

There is a lot more to NooCube’s formula than these two. You get a couple of amino acids known for elevated your mood and warding against stress, for example. In fact, everything in there should play a crucial role in keeping your brain young and healthy, your cognition firing as you want it, and your mood boosted. It’s one of the highest-quality, most intelligent supplements around which is why I take it on a regular basis as part of my usual supplement regime.

To enjoy the full benefits I would recommend trialling it for at least three months – some of the ingredients you will feel the impact of immediately, whilst others will take a few months to compound – at which point you will be able to decide whether or not this is the supplement for you – it likely will be.

VyvaMind

VyvaMind is a real contender with NooCube for the top spot. Its formula isn’t quite as well-rounded as NooCube’s, but it’s still incredibly high-quality. If you’re looking for something that gives you a bit of low stimulant dosing, a large bit of cognitive support, and a decent mood boost, it’s a solid, safe bet.

You only get six ingredients where plenty of the leading nootropics give you anything from 11-20 (some go even higher, but at that point it begins to get a little bit silly and ineffective). However, this lean formula actually lacks very little. It gives you everything you should expect of a good nootropic – a boost in energy, improved clarity, focus, working memory, executive function, and so on, as well as a decent sense of calm.

In short, these six ingredients are well-combined for mood support.

VyvaMind is amongst the most well-researched nootropics on the market. It’s been through several iterations as the company behind it seeks to tweak and fine tune it (to masterful effect, I have to say). This level of R&D is rare, welcome, and shows itself fully in the results.

I mentioned amino acids for combatting stress and anxiety in NooCube’s formula. Specifically, these are l-theanine and l-tyrosine, and you get healthy doses of them with VyvaMind. This means no more tension. You also get a good dose of citicoline, which works in a similar way to Alpha-GPC, vitamins B12 and B6, and 75 mg of caffeine for a quick pick me up (it’s about the same as you would get in a single shot of espresso).

The formula is short and to the point. It seems under-engineered, but it’s not.

It’s elegantly simple and the manufacturer have taken their time getting there, perfecting their recipe. Your brain should be clearer and more focussed even as your energy levels jump and your stress levels plummet.

There is nothing more I would want to see from a good mood boosting supplement.

New Mood

We’re moving away from the traditional nootropic template that has so far occupied this list. Our next product, New Mood, offers something a little different. Rather than enabling improved cognition, elevating mood and diminishing stress and anxiety across multiple pathways, it goes straight for the source – it boosts your mood by manipulating serotonin output.

This is quite a good idea in principle. Serotonin is a key neurotransmitter. Optimizing output can be central to maintaining feelings of wellbeing. It should boost your mood quite ably. However, our understanding of serotonin’s effect on the mood has been disrupted recently. A recent meta-study disproved the theory that depression is linked to low serotonin levels. It seems that this conventional wisdom is incorrect.

This is problematic. Most of our major forms of depression treatment revolve around SSRIs, serotonin medications thought to address a deficit we now know doesn’t really exist or do much.

This has led to a bit of an outcry as many have accused the medical profession of giving us medications that don’t work. Except that they do work – SSRIs have been shown to be very good for treating depression. They just don’t work the way we thought they did. Nor do we know quite how they work. All we know is that boosting serotonin levels is a good way of treating depression.

It is certainly a good way to boost your mood. With this in mind, I think New Mood will survive this new data and continue to deliver promising results for a long time yet.

Its formula rests on L-tryptophan and 5-HTP, serotonin’s building blocks. You also get a hit of vitamin B6, which should help to catalyse serotonin production, alongside a few other micronutrients linked with elevated serotonin output.

All told, this should boost serotonin levels which, though the why is fuzzier than it was, we know it will lead to improved mood.

Serotonin production isn’t New Mood’s only trick, however. Its formula also contains several traditional botanicals known for their ability to fight stress and anxiety. These should act in concert with that boosted serotonin output to give you a sense of calm happiness that is often all-too vanishingly rare in the modern world.

New Mood Instant

New Mood Instant is an adapted version of New Mood Original (see above). As with its older brother, it is designed to elevate serotonin levels, which, as we have seen, is a great idea for boosting your mood. Also as with its older brother, it boosts serotonin levels by delivering its two key building blocks, L-tryptophan and 5-HTP.

Again, you get a good hit of vitamin B6 to work as a catalyst in creating this extra serotonin, and again, you get a good array of traditional botanicals useful in warding off the signs and symptoms of stress and anxiety.

Thus far, its base DNA looks pretty much identical to New Mood Original. So why have I bothered including it in this list?

The delivery methods are quite a bit different. This may not sound like too big a deal, but it can actually make a massive difference.

The original product comes as a capsule. You simply take a couple of them in the morning and enjoy a slow release of ingredients, thus effects, throughout the day. New Mood Instant, however, comes in powdered form. This powder has a faster rate of absorption. As serotonin levels can fluctuate on an hourly basis, this may prove useful (though none of the ingredients are acute, so I’m not sure quite how useful this could be).

However, it’s incredibly easy to use. Throw it into your protein shake or simply drink it in water in the morning to enjoy a quick burst of positivity. It tastes nice, with a range of fruity flavors such as mango, orange guava, pineapple, and elderberry lavender (the latter of which is particularly nice).

Mind Lab Pro

Now we’re back to a hardcore, no fuss nootropic, with Mind Lab Pro. It shares the same basic DNA as most nootropic supplements, so will perform very similarly to something like NooCube. It’s also just about the only nootropic on today’s market that can give NooCube a run for its money – it boasts incredibly high quality across a very well-informed, intelligently blended formula.

It aims to benefit the brain across a few different pathways. In doing so, it bills itself as something of a whole-brain supplement, which most of its competition in today’s market cannot compete against.

Mind Lab Pro optimizes and improves your brain’s generation and maintenance of waves and chemicals whilst also optimizing regeneration within the brain and keeping it relatively safe from the effects of aging.

You will see a good deal of short-term benefits to your mental wellbeing and cognitive health with Mind Lab Pro alongside these longer-term effects. These benefits are quite varied, though they all combine nicely to give you the nootropic kick you should expect from this kind of high-level supplement.

Working memory and executive function should both improve, as should clarity and focus. There is also an energy component to Mind Lab Pro as it improves blood flow to your brain, thus delivering more oxygen and nutrients to where they are most sorely needed.

In the longer-term, you should see improved neural plasticity and less degeneration from oxidation and stress. In the short-term, you can expect greater cognitive function, greater clarity, and a heightened, more energetic mood.

Genius Joy 

Finally, I want to talk about Genius Joy, a great little natural mood booster from The Genius Brand that plays a little differently to the nootropics that make up much of this list. It is designed almost solely to mitigate the effects of low mood and even depression.

The Genius Brand are always good to look into – they produce some outstanding, innovative products, all focussed on improving brain health and cognitive function, or in other words biohacking your way into improved health and wellbeing. Their flagship nootropic, Genius Consciousness, is similar to NooCube and Mind Lab Pro (if not quite in the same league as these two stalwarts).

You should see some kind of advancement to your cognitive health and wellbeing from Genius Joy. However, that’s very much a secondary concern. Mostly, it is focussed on serotonin levels, similarly to New Mood’s offerings. We have already seen the benefits on offer by optimizing serotonin output, even if the mechanics aren’t as well understood as we previously thought.

Genius Joy should, in short, lead to a greater amount of joy in your life, if such things can be quantified. It should enable lower stress and anxiety levels, smooth out mood swings, give you lasting, level headed energy levels, keep you focussed and alert, all whilst allaying the effects of depression. 

It’s not your normal nootropic, but it should do the job anyway.

It achieves all of this using a genuinely brilliant list of high-quality ingredients. You get the amino acids we have talked about above, specifically tyrosine, to keep your anxiety levels in check and grant you improved focus and motivation. You also get a good dose of rhodiola rosea, a favorite ingredient of mine. It should help a great deal in fighting anxiety and stress.

There are some odd choices, however. It relies almost entirely on oral 5-HTP consumption for its serotonin effects. This isn’t all-too effective – the delivery mechanism would be better off using New Mood’s for greater effects. It also relies on SAMe, which enjoys no clinical support at all – it doesn’t really work as a serotonin booster.

You will get some benefits from Genius Joy, especially if you are after something to bring your stress and anxiety levels down. The formula could just do with being a little better thought out.

My final verdict

I would always recommend something of a two-pronged assault if you’re looking to boost your mood. Firstly, you fight the depression and/or anxiety that is underpinning your low mood. Secondly, you elevate your brain health and cognitive function to allow for a clearer outlook working at the top of your game.

Everything in this list should do this. Of course, as I mention below, if we’re talking about clinical depression or chronic anxiety, you may want to look into a medical intervention. Speak to your healthcare provider. If you’re simply looking for a mood boost, however – making you happier, more energetic, and less stressed – the items in this list will give you this superbly.

A good nootropic will be a lifesaver. It will go together with everything else you do in your life (again, see below) to boost your mood to really ramp your brain into gear. You should find your short term mental wellbeing improved even as you enable longer-term brain health.

There are plenty of good options out there. We’ve seen six strong contenders today. However, if you want to boost your mood, you need a good nootropic. And if you want the best nootropic, you should go with NooCube.

Verdict: Best Mood Boosting Supplement

Mind Lab Pro and VyvaMind will also work wonders, but if you want the best, you can’t beat NooCube.

The range of high-quality ingredients, the mix of convention and left-field, the breadth of what it manages… it’s top in its field.

Check Best Deals On NooCube Here

Natural Ways to Boost Your Mood

As I mentioned in the introduction to this mood boosting guide, there are plenty of ways in which you can naturally improve your mood. Lifestyle factors, habits, nutrition, and even a few handy little mental hacks can all work together to elevate your mood, keep you calm and happy, keep your energy levels where you want them, and keep your head clear.

Any or all of these will pair incredibly well with some of the mood boosting supplements I’ve looked at above.

Maintain an active lifestyle

Keeping active is central to remaining healthy. However, it isn’t only our physical health we’re improving when we get moving. Exercise is fundamental to keeping your mental health as you want it, not least by naturally boosting your mood.

Exercise can boost your mood in both the short- and long- term.

In the short term, you will get a massive endorphin rush. This will lead to an elevated mood, decrease symptoms of stress and anxiety, improved sleep quality, and improved energy levels. You should gain confidence, learn how to better tap into your potential, and develop new skills, all of which will come together to boost your mood in the long run.

As little as half an hour per day can do it. Intense forms of exercise like HIIT, circuit training, sprinting, and so on, can lead to a big adrenaline rush that should give you these short term benefits in an even greater form.

But it needn’t be ferocious exercise. It can be low to moderate exercise – going for a walk, cycling, yoga, all will do it.

In fact, gentler forms of exercise are perfect for overcoming stress, tension, and anxiety. You can learn active and passive meditation through forms like yoga and tai chi, whilst also improving your mobility, flexibility, and joint health, or find a little headspace in which to destress as you go for an evening stroll around the park.

Keep a gratitude journal

Gratitude journals can be fantastic for your long-term mood. It’s an easy, simple process that doesn’t take up too much time, especially once the habit has become ingrained in your daily routine.

Simply keep a journal next to your bed. Once daily, write a few sentences in it. This may work best in the evening, when you can reflect on the day that has just been.

Go over what you are grateful for. You could write about one thing in a bit of detail. You could simply list a few things. They can be large (your home, your life, your family) or small (bumping into a friend, having a nice dinner). I prefer the latter for daily use.

Frivolous as it may sound, these little things really do add up, especially when you stay mindful of them.

Live more mindfully

This leads on from the idea of keeping a gratitude journal. Living more mindfully has been linked with lower stress levels and a boosted mood. Plenty has been said about mindful living. I’ve certainly written a lot on the subject. Some like to dismiss it as a modern fad whilst others see it as the next best thing. The truth is that it’s neither. It’s old as time and simply represents a good way of grounding yourself.

To quote Hemingway in For Whom the Bell Tolls:

Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.

Hemingway in ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’

Take care of your nutritional intake

You are what you eat, and all that. Less tritely – specific foods and drinks can help you to boost your mood and keep your overall mental wellbeing in fine fettle.

In particular, capsicum has been linked with an improved mood (as well as a heightened metabolic rate as a bit of a side benefit). Anything with capsicum in it should be good for your mood. This includes anything like cayenne pepper, chillies, and paprika.

Caffeine is in a similar boat to this. It can elevate both your mood and your metabolism. However, don’t overdo it. Too much can lead to increased stress, anxiety, and fatigue. Moderate amounts, however – three cups of coffee per day, for example – can have quite a profoundly positive effect on your mood.

Omega-3 is also always a good shout. It has been shown to help mitigate depressive symptoms. You will get it most abundantly in fatty fish like tuna and salmon, so including these in your diet is always a good idea. You can also get it in supplement form, some even suitable for vegetarians.

Then there is cocoa, one of the best ingredients out there for improving your mood, and the reason why many people feel borderline addicted to chocolate.

The sugar you get in chocolate will give you a mild, temporary high, but this crashes, so I don’t recommend relying on it too much. However, cocoa products also give you mild doses of caffeine, theobromine, and N-acylethanolamine.

These have all been linked with an improvement to your mood. You also get tons of flavonoids in chocolate. These will increase blood flow to the brain, leading to more energy and further consolidating these benefits.

Seek out professional help

These are all great tips if you feel a bit blue, or if you feel like you could make more of your innate happiness and sense of wellbeing. The supplements above are similar – they are great for augmenting already quite robust mental health.

However, your mood may of course be a much graver problem. If you find yourself going beyond being a little blue, you may be suffering from clinical depression or something similar.

If you feel you need help, you should absolutely bear the advice in this article in mind. It will all help. You should also consider talking with your healthcare provider. They may deem it necessary to put you in touch with a counsellor or therapist, or even to prescribe mood altering treatments like antidepressants. 

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and sometimes simply ADD, is a fairly widespread condition that makes life a struggle for millions. It impairs executive function, attention, and working memory, whilst also often causing wild outbursts of energy.

This is no small thing. Executive function includes things like adaptable thinking, self-monitoring, planning, self-control, organization, and time management.

Impairing all of these things can make life incredibly hard to navigate. Working memory, meanwhile, is the relatively minor amount of information that your mind can hold onto and use in the completing of cognitive tasks. Again, impairing this can make life profoundly difficult.

If you find yourself struggling with any of these facets to a degree to which it is really affecting your quality of life, there is a good chance that you are suffering from a form of attention impairment. You may want to schedule an appointment with your doctor to discuss things further.

Luckily, there is quite a detailed body of knowledge lying behind ADHD and similar neurodivergent traits. As such, there are plenty of options for treatment, with common courses including talk-therapy and stimulant-style medications like Vyvanse, Adderall, and Ritalin (plus plenty more). All told, this kind of treatment plan can help to mitigate your symptoms whilst giving you the power to better manage them.

I would add another strand to this kind of treatment plan combination. There is a range of supplements out there that are designed solely to improve executive function, focus and concentration, and working memory – they are known as nootropics.

And there are some genuinely brilliant nootropics to help with ADHD out there. I want to run through some of my top picks today – a list of nootropics that I am sure will represent a solid ally to anybody looking to better live with ADHD.

TLDR: No.1 Nootropic For ADHD

Any of the supplements listed on this page will go to long lengths to mitigate symptoms associated with ADHD. However, VyvaMind features a stripped back, impactful formula that is easy to manage, affordable and has a high degree of efficacy in dealing with ADHD like symptoms.

For improved focus, mood and calmness – VyvaMind is a top choice.

Check Best Deals On VyvaMind Here

Top Nootropics For ADHD

These nootropics – often referred to as ‘smart drugs’ – could be the perfect accompaniment to any good ADHD treatment plan. They will all augment your executive function, working memory, and mood. They are, in short, the best of the best in today’s nootropic market.

They are also entirely made up of natural ingredients. Often a mix of vitamins, minerals and herbs – all chosen for a specific purpose and with a growing body of clinical evidence behind them.

So let’s take a look at the best nootropics for ADHD…

NooCube

NooCube is one of my favourite supplements. It’s my nootropic of choice, the one I use most. It helps me to focus and keep up a good pace of work, allowing me to hit some often quite ferocious deadlines with far greater ease than I experience without it. It’s also pretty reasonably priced, especially for the quality you get, and includes a very intelligently blended set of ingredients.

It does what all good nootropics doo – it will augment your executive function, working memory, and mood, as I mentioned above. You will feel greater clarity of thought, greater presence, and far more productive, whilst seeing your focus and concentration increasing a great deal.

ADHD can often be characterized by a struggle to organize your thoughts – indeed, it is characterized by several trains of thought racing through your brain at once, all vying for attention.

It can be overwhelming and can make even the simplest of tasks almost impossible to complete. This is where a good nootropic like NooCube will help you. NooCube will allow you to marshal and organize your thoughts; it will allow you to better direct your attention to where it is most needed.

Much of NooCube’s potency relies on the dual combination of bacopa monnieri and Alpha GPC. They do a lot of the work in its formula.

Bacopa monnieri is a particularly potent botanical. Its main role in NooCube’s formula lies in its ability to bolster nerve signal reception. This will lead to improved reaction times, enhanced cognitive processing, and, vitally, improved working memory.

Alpha GPC boosts acetylcholine production in your body. Acetylcholine is a key neurotransmitter, important for maintaining optimal memory and learning capacity.

NooCube also contains a couple of amino acids that I like to see in all good nootropics – l-theanine and l-tyrosine. They combine to give some pretty impressive benefits to your cognitive health and mental wellbeing.

L-tyrosine helps you to better deal with stress, mitigating its effects while also reducing mental fatigue. L-theanine is a mood enhancer that should boost serotonin and dopamine output in your brain. In turn, this boost should also lead to an enhanced attention span.

This is the foundation of the formula. It’s far from all, though. There is plenty more at work.

For starters, you get a fair kick of huperzine A, known for its ability to improve memory capability, and oat straw extract, which should heighten your concentration and focus. These two botanicals will go a long way to improving executive function and working memory. You also get a couple of berry polyphenols as resveratrol and pterostilbene, which are both excellent antioxidants. These should reduce oxidative damage from stress whilst also keeping your brain younger for longer. 

The list goes on. There is plenty in NooCube that combines to make it a true benchmark – it is the nootropic against which I measure all others. It is high-quality, well-designed, and incredibly potent, all without giving you any kind of nasty side effects. All things equal, it’s the one I would go for.

Its manufacturer also offers a generous 60-day money back guarantee, just in case it doesn’t work for you (though I doubt many people need to make use of it) so there really is nothing to lose in trying it.

Hunter Focus 

So we have a good benchmark in NooCube. However, they are far, far from the only game in town – anything in this list will serve you well. Enter Hunter Focus – one of the heaviest hitting nootropics going.

It’s got a lengthy formula packed full of ingredients designed to do what a high-end nootropic should do – aiding executive function, working memory, and cognitive energy. In short, it’s perfect for anybody looking to augment their ADHD treatment plan.

You get three complexes with Hunter Focus. Combined, these all deliver a full twenty active ingredients. The complexes are Concentration Activation, Memory Matrix, and Mood Amplification. The names alone should tell you just how much Hunter Focus can do for you.

The Concentration Activation and Memory Matrix will be of obvious use to anybody looking to mitigate their ADHD symptoms. Given that anxiety and depression often come hand in glove with ADHD, the Mood Amplification matrix is also thoroughly welcome.

The Concentration Activation rests largely on citicoline, which works in a very similar way to Alpha GPC. We need citicoline. It splits in two to make choline and cytidine, the former of which will convert into acetylcholine.

Luckily, it’s a naturally occurring compound in the human brain. Unluckily, none of us produce an optimal amount.

An exogenous source like Hunter Focus’ citicoline content is therefore a good idea for anybody looking to boost their concentration and focus. Acetylcholine optimization can lead to improvements across memory and learning, too, by improving communication between your brain’s neurons.

The cytidine from citicoline will convert into uridine, which will help to maintain longer-term cognitive health.

The Concentration Activation complex also contains the two amino acids l-theanine and l-tyrosine. As we saw with NooCube, these bring their own benefits to cognitive function and mental wellbeing, making them a great inclusion for any nootropic supplement.

The Memory Complex, just as vital for somebody looking to overcome the symptoms of ADHD, works on both long-term and working memory. It uses lion’s mane mushrooms as its primary focus, which I applaud – lion’s mane mushroom is truly one of the best nootropic ingredients that money can buy. It delivers a bumper haul of erinacines and hericenones, compounds known for helping to optimize cognitive health and function.

Both elicit a greater quantity of nerve growth factor (NGF) in the brain. NGF, as may of course be obvious, helps nerves to grow. Or, more specifically, it plays a key role in repair and maintenance of nerves and pathways within your brain. This in turn should help to optimize memory function.

The Memory Complex also makes tremendous use of maritime pine bark, which I also like to see in this kind of supplement. It’s one of the most scientifically justified ingredients you’ll see in any of the supplements included in this list, with a wealth of data attesting to its ability to improve cognitive ability and brain function.

These improvements are particularly stark for concentration. It improves blood flow to the brain, which means more nutrients and oxygen to power it.

Hunter Focus uses maritime pine bark that is standardized with 95% proanthocyanidins, marking it as perhaps the best quality you can buy.

You will also get a generous helping of bacopa monnieri in the Memory Matrix. As we have seen, this can greatly improve nerve signaling, leading to improved overall cognitive function and working memory.

Finally, we have Mood Amplification. This makes great use of phosphatidylserine (PS) and ashwagandha, the latter of which I take daily in one form or another. It is perfect for helping you to overcome symptoms of stress and anxiety, which are common features of ADHD. It also helps to raise choline levels, whose importance we have already seen. Meanwhile, PS supports elevated NGF levels, further helping to repair and maintain neurons.

Hunter Focus is about as complete a nootropic as you will be able to find. Though it’s perhaps a touch behind NooCube for out-and-out quality, it’s still a potent ally to anybody looking to improve their cognitive health and focus, including those looking to mitigate the symptoms of ADHD.

Vyvamind

Vyvamind is a strong choice for anyone looking for a good, all-natural nootropic supplement for ADHD. It’s an incredibly good choice for those looking to mitigate or even overcome ADHD symptoms. As with everything on this list, it’s a nootropic, not an AHDH medication – it isn’t specifically designed for ADHD symptom relief. However, their website does make a big deal about it being good for those struggling with attention, and quite rightfully so.

You get many common ingredients with Vyvamind, ingredients we’ve seen plenty of in this list. On first glance, though, the formula may seem a little less punchy than some of the other products I’ve looked at – NooCube and Mind Lab Pro (see below), for instance. However, there is far more at work that a second look will really highlight.

We have the amino acids l-tyrosine and l-theanine, alongside a good dose of citicoline. We’re already onto a winner, if thus far a little vanilla seeming. It will do near enough everything you need it to with these ingredients alone. Add vitamins B6 and B12 (dosed at a generous 2.5m g and 50 mcg respectively), and you’ve really got quite a firm foundation. You should see some significant improvements to your focus, concentration, and cognitive processing from this little lot.

There is something called the stimulant-paradox with ADHD. In short, stimulant drugs can lead to a decrease in excessive motor activity. This is why Vyvamind bats so strongly for ADHD symptom mitigation – it contains a high dose of the stimulant caffeine anhydrous, one of the highest-quality, most bio-available, most-potent caffeine forms going.

Both the theory and the research underpinning Vyvamind are incredibly robust.

I’m a big fan of that formula – the ingredients are great. The baseline nootropic benefits are solid, with an array of common, time-tested nootropic ingredients that should work as well as any other. Though it’s perhaps a little shy of something like NooCube or Mind Lab Pro here, it’s everything you could want. And then the stimulant profile comes into play, making it absolutely perfect for those looking to overcome ADHD symptoms.

Of course, you could argue that taking something like NooCube with a cup of coffee will do the trick. It will give you the stimulation alongside its world leading nootropic blend. It’s true, and I’ve made the same argument myself.

But we’re talking about ADHD here.

Simplicity is key – the fewer things you have to think about, the better. We don’t want to overcomplicate things. Grab one supplement, throw it back, and get on with your day with your symptoms immeasurably improved. (Do note, however, that too much caffeine on top of ADHD medication can be a no-go, so approach with caution).

It also comes in at a really reasonable price point, which is always nice to see. There are some good multi-buy deals on offer, too – if you go for a three-month bundle, you’ll get them for less than fifty bucks a go, which is decent in the nootropic world.

It’s a front runner. Perhaps not for the nootropic market as a whole, though it’s still a strong contender. But I really like it for those struggling with symptoms associated with ADHD.

Mind Lab Pro

I keep talking about two nootropics leading the market. We’ve already seen NooCube, the first. Now it’s time for the second, Mind Lab Pro from Opti-Nutra. It’s one of the highest quality supplements going in any area. It’s certainly one of the best nootropics.

Mind Lab Pro is incredibly well designed. Its template is similar to Hunter Focus’. You get a three-pronged approach from it, as it targets three specific areas that should unite into something like full-mind wellbeing.

The recipe is a bit slimmed down compared to Hunter Focus. I like this. Hunter Focus have arguably too many ingredients in their list, whilst only a small handful do the real heavy lifting.

This isn’t to say that Mind Lab Pro is minimal, however. It gives you a blend of eleven different natural ingredients. They are all blended to work in synergy and bring about some of the best benefits offered by any nootropic, anywhere.

You get a good hit of lion’s mane mushroom with Mind Lab Pro. This does a lot of its work, with no surprise – we’ve already seen the benefits it can bring. It should do a good job of raising your natural NGF output, which in turn will lead to improved executive function and longer-lasting brain health.

It also makes good use of citicoline, which again, we have seen before. The choline you’ll get from this will go a long way to improving brain cell regeneration and keeping you feeling and thinking young and healthy.

Then there are three beefy botanicals that we’ve also already seen – bacopa monnieri, PS, and a particularly high-quality form of maritime pine bark that brings a wide and plentiful array of antioxidants.

Clarity, focus, and attention should all improve thanks to these, and stress and anxiety symptoms should begin to diminish quite rapidly.

The two amino acids, l-theanine and l-tyrosine, once more raise their heads, enabling improved mental wellbeing and further improving your focus and attention.

As we can see, it shares the same basic DNA as any good nootropic. However, it diverges from the template from here on out with a couple of added extras.

Firstly, it’s perfect for stress. It contains the powerful herbal adaptogen rhodiola rosea. As an adaptogen, rhodiola rosea can help to fight the signs and symptoms of stress, enabling your body to better deal with it. Further to this, it also brings about its own nootropic benefits, helping to optimize your mental processing speed and ability, boost your attention span and focus, and give you more cognitive energy.

I would recommend rhodiola rosea to anybody looking for something to help them overcome ADHD symptoms. It would work well in isolation. To include it in a high-end nootropic (at what is actually quite a reasonable price point) is almost too much to resist. It represents a solid tool in any neurodiverse tool belt.

Then there is a really, really good B vitamin complex. We’ve already seen what B vitamins can do for your cognition and cognitive health – they are intimately involved in maintaining optimal cognitive processing. You get decent doses of vitamins B6, B9, and B12, which should collectively keep your brain young, improve shorter term cognition, aid executive function, and level out your mood.

Mind Lab Pro represents a really good bet for anybody struggling with ADHD. 

CentraPeak

Now onto our final offering, a nootropic par excellence aimed mostly at men.

A lot of the time I take issue with this kind of gendered focus in a supplement – it’s generally a pretty erroneous marketing gimmick. Not so, here. CentraPeak is a particularly clever nootropic that gives you a bit of something extra.

Specifically, CentraPeak aims to optimize cognitive health and healthy function whilst also optimizing your natural testosterone output. Hence, it’s aimed mostly at men. This isn’t to say it won’t work for women – it’s still a solid nootropic that will give you great cognitive benefits. But it really comes into its own in a men’s health context.

And optimizing testosterone output in conjunction with providing solid nootropic benefits is actually a very clever idea. The symptoms of poor cognition and low testosterone overlap considerably. Both include sluggishness, brain fog, lack of drive and focus, increased stress and anxiety. One can easily cause the other, too – plugging a testosterone deficit, or optimizing natural testosterone output, can lead to improved cognition all by itself.

This may or may not be helpful in an ADHD context. Or, rather, CentraPeak’s nootropic properties will be helpful, but testosterone output may seem a little divorced from ADHD. However, the last thing you want when struggling with ADHD is low testosterone levels further complicating your thought processes and diminishing your mood – if your testosterone levels are low (which is easy to find out with a simple blood test) and you suffer with ADHD, CentraPeak is probably your best bet.

CentraPeak makes use of many of the same ingredients as the other nootropics on this list. For instance, you get good doses of the botanicals rhodiola rosea, ashwagandha, and PS, which should all go a long way towards improving focus and clarity and overcoming the effects of stress and anxiety.

Ashwagandha has also been linked with optimal testosterone output – my testosterone booster of choice, Prime Male, which I take daily, makes great use of it. You get plenty of the amino acids l-theanine and l-tyrosine, of course, alongside some decent quality pine bark extract.

Then there are some unique ingredients which set CentraPeak apart from the crowd.

Firstly, it uses Korean ginseng. This isn’t much of a nootropic, though it does lead to improved circulation, which should in theory mean more blood flow, thus more oxygen and nutrients, to the brain. Rather, it’s a great libido booster, helping you to overcome one of the main symptoms of low testosterone.

It also uses both Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) and velvet bean (or Mucuna Pruriens). Both work in conjunction to help raise your total and free testosterone levels by inhibiting estrogen production.

We also find plenty of vitamins in CentraPeak’s formula. Vitamin D3 is there to raise testosterone levels – it acts as a precursor to testosterone, as a secosteroid hormone, and elevated amounts have been with elevated testosterone levels as a result. There is also vitamin B6, which we have seen already. In addition to its potential nootropic benefits, B6 is also important for regulating estrogen production and stimulating androgen production. Both of these factors should lead to heightened testosterone output.

Finally, the vitamin complex contains K2. Vitamin K2 is important for general men’s health. It plays a key role in keeping your bones healthy whilst also boosting testosterone output. It also has its own nootropic benefits, particularly in maintaining longer term cognitive health.

It’s the minerals doing a lot of work in CentraPeak’s formula, however. Especially for boosting testosterone production.

Chief amongst them is zinc. You cannot maintain appropriate testosterone levels without it. With it, you can go a long, long way towards optimizing them.

Then there is boron, which is known for its ability to increase levels of free testosterone in your system. It’s also a bit of a nootropic, too, able to enhance both long- and short- term memory, whilst simultaneously benefitting attention and focus.

Magnesium citrate, meanwhile, inhibits testosterone binding by SHBG, whilst also potentially aiding total testosterone production.

As above, CentraPeak may make for an odd choice for ADHD. I’m certainly not putting it at the top of the list. However, if you’re struggling with ADHD and low testosterone as a man (which more people are than you might think), it’s really worth considering. It really could be a game changer, giving you back your cognitive health and mental wellbeing through multiple different pathways.

Prescription Drugs Over Nootropics for ADHD Treatment

Please do note that nootropics do not represent a treatment plan for ADHD in and of themselves. They are no substitution for prescription medication for those who need it, and will not replace proper, doctor-led healthcare. Rather, they are what they are to anyone – a supplement, an auxiliary, and addendum. This is where they really come into their own.

If you have ADHD, and are in a good treatment plan, but are still feeling like your cognitive health and wellbeing is firing sub optimally, you are ripe for nootropic experimentation. Also, if you don’t want to take prescription medication, and if perhaps your symptoms are on the less severe side of things, nootropics may make a good cornerstone for your treatment plan.

It’s also quite common to struggle with several symptoms of ADHD without quite crossing the threshold into being diagnosable. This is where modern medicine can be a bit blinkered. You need to exhibit several ADHD symptoms to be valid for medical intervention, no matter your wellbeing.

As far as treatment plans go, you either have ADHD or you don’t. If you don’t, but only don’t by a whisker, you’ll be dropped without treatment, despite suffering from several symptoms.

If this sounds like you, again, you may be ripe for nootropic experimentation. Nootropics may be just the thing to bring you up to speed where modern medicine may otherwise deem you fit for purpose. Because this is what nootropics are about. There is fit for purpose. Then there is optimal functioning. Nootropics bring you up to the latter, no matter where you may be starting from.

Verdict

This is a very tough call. We have an incredibly strong list, here. Pretty much anything on it will benefit you – everything here will help to optimize your executive function, working memory, and mental wellbeing. However, they are all subtly different. As such, they all have something subtly different to bring to the table.

If you’re looking for pure quality, it’s hard to argue with NooCube and Mind Lab Pro. Of these, I typically prefer NooCube, but it’s a close-run thing. They are both excellent. However, they are both quite vanilla – they excel as nootropics without adding anything extra into the mix.

If you are struggling with low testosterone as a man, it will be making your ADHD symptoms worse. It will at least be impinging on your physical and mental wellbeing when most need both to be working in your favour. Try CentraPeak. It may change your life. I certainly found my life changing for the better when I began taking a good quality natural testosterone booster in my early thirties.

But if I’m to choose the best nootropic for those struggling with ADHD, all other things being equal, I would be very tempted by Vyvamind.

It’s not the best baseline, vanilla nootropic. That’s always going to go to NooCube. However, including a good quality stimulant, caffeine anhydrous, makes a big difference. It will trigger that stimulant paradox.

Then, paradoxically, of course, you will find yourself calmer and more focussed. This is a great place to start for the rest of the ingredients, bringing you into a calm, focussed mindset, relatively free from stress and anxiety, possibly for the first time ever.

It really can be quite profound.

The supplement industry is a changeable thing. Crazes come and go. Some stick around. Though relatively new and still gaining traction (albeit very, very quickly), the nootropics market looks set to stand the test of time. And how could it not?

Nootropics, or smart drugs as they are often referred to, are a breed of supplements designed to aid cognition, boost mental wellbeing whilst supercharging executive function. They help you to keep up with the fast pace of modern life without burning out, reducing the suffering of brain fog, and stopping you from getting too stressed and anxious.

It’s a crowded marketplace, too, as newcomers take their shot seemingly every week. There are so many, in fact, that it can be a little baffling. How do you choose one from the crowd? Luckily, there are some outstanding nootropics that I really wouldn’t do without. Pick any of them and you’ll be onto a winner.

I’ve collated some of my all-time favorite nootropic supplements below, including a couple that I use on a regular basis, giving you the ins and outs on why I love them so much. These are the best nootropics that money can buy, all of them more than capable of improving your brain health, mental wellbeing, and cognitive function.

Our No.1 Nootropic Recommendation

I would recommend anybody use NooCube. It’s my personal nootropic of choice. It’s pretty much the best nootropic available today, with proven benefits in every area it seeks to address. Two months of it should change your life – and then you’ll likely want to stick with it.

You also get a two month guarantee, just in case during those 60 days NooCube doesn’t live up to your expectations. This is great, though I doubt many people will use the refund option and if like me, you’ll find this nootropic supplement pretty life changing.

Check Best Savings On NooCube Here

Our top nootropics

Every item in this list goes a long way to satisfying the above criteria, giving you all the benefits you would expect of a good nootropic. This includes greater clarity, improved mood, more energy, improved memory, lower stress and anxiety levels, and general improvements across pretty much every area of executive function.

I thoroughly recommend NooCube, as we will see. However, any item from this list will do its job incredibly well. You will do well on any of them.

NooCube 

NooCube is one of the best supplements money can buy in any category. It’s also my own nootropic of choice. I generally have a couple of bottles of it in my supplement cupboard at home and tend to dip into it fairly frequently – daily, during particularly stressful, taxing, or generally busy periods.

It will give you some pretty profound benefits to your mental clarity, focus, mood, and energy, aiding productivity and improving your overall outlook on life.

It works across five main strands of cognitive wellbeing: boosting memory, improving focus and concentration, diminishing stress and anxiety, improving attention span, and improving eye-brain connection.

It does all this and more using a blend of top-notch, high-quality ingredients, all of which enjoy robust scientific underpinning.

Firstly, you get a good dose of bacopa monnieri, one of my favorite nootropic ingredients. It’s a simple enough herb that has been shown to improve nerve signal reception. This will lead to enhanced cognition and improved reaction times. It will also improve working and long-term memory.

Our second ingredient, Alpha GPC (another firm favorite of mine), works well in conjunction with bacopa monnieri. It boosts the body’s acetylcholine production. Acetylcholine is a crucial neurotransmitter that plays a key role in learning and memory.

You also get a couple of very useful amino acids with each serving of NooCube. These are l-tyrosine and l-theanine.

L-tyrosine is there for its ability to fight stress whilst also holding the symptoms of fatigue and lethargy at bay. L-theanine, meanwhile, enables more dopamine and serotonin to be released into your brain. These will both boost your mood whilst improving your reaction times and attention span.

Huperzine A goes a long way to further improving your memory function. It also pairs with oat straw extract to further improve focus and concentration. Meanwhile, the polyphenols resveratrol and pterostilbene are rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatories, which will help you to fight oxidative stress and slow the aging process. They can help to delay age-related cognitive decline.

This isn’t a comprehensive list. There are plenty more ingredients in there that can work wonders for your cognitive and mental health and wellbeing. However, they are some of the most potent, most effective ingredients going in the nootropic world.

All told, they should keep your brain healthy, young, and functioning optimally whilst also giving you more energy, focus, and concentration, improving your mood, and giving you a clearer head far freer from the effects of stress and anxiety.

NooCube offer a 60-day money back guarantee when you buy it online through their own website. I would go with this. In the unlikely event that NooCube doesn’t really do it for you, you then won’t have lost anything.

For me though, NooCube edges the race as the best nootropic available with a fair price point and impressive range of well thought out ingredients that have been sourced for their high quality.

VyvaMind

I hadn’t come across VyvaMind until a little while ago – it’s not a market leader by any stretch of the imagination. However, I became intrigued when I began to look into its formula.

It’s solid, made for high performers looking for a significant boost to their cognitive abilities. But it’s dinky. It’s a small, small formula whose simplicity nevertheless speaks of elegance rather than meanness.

In fact, you only get six ingredients with VyvaMind. This sounds like cause for concern at first. However, even the best nootropics out there rely on only a couple of star players in their formulas. Everything else is sort of the icing on the cake.

Each ingredient is also perfectly dosed at a clinically useful, entirely optimal amount. It’s pretty much a perfect blend of everything you need and nothing much that you don’t. Nothing wasted.

You will get 200 mg of citicoline per serving, alongside 300 mg of l-tyrosine and 150 mg of l-theanine. This is an automatic win. There are other ingredients I might like to see in there, but nothing truly necessary. This is supported by a good B vitamin complex, with 2.5 mg of vitamin B6 and 50 mcg of vitamin B12, and 75 mg of caffeine anhydrous with each serving (about the same as a strong single espresso).

Citicoline is the winner in the VyvaMind formula though. It has been shown to significantly improve productivity over time in those who take it.

It is a brain chemical that is found to occur naturally and that gives longer lasting, clearer energy levels than something like caffeine, alongside a good boost to your focus and concentration.

You also get a good antioxidant dose from it, which should help to ward against age-related decline whilst promoting neurotransmitter repair and growth. The B vitamins add to this, improving memory and mood whilst protecting longer-term brain health.

The two amino acids, l-theanine and l-tyrosine, often come as a pair. There is a good reason for this. Together, they bring about a wide range of benefits, that include fighting stress and anxiety, aiding focus, concentration, and attention span, and even livening up your creativity.

Then there is the caffeine anhydrous (a particularly high-quality caffeine form). It should give you a good energy spike when you most need it, without going overboard. It’s a modest serving, just enough to work, not enough to increase anxiety, give you the jitters, or lead to any great mood or energy crashes.

This stripped-back approach makes VyvaMind low cost without sacrificing any quality or efficacy – it works perfectly well with just a few superstar ingredients and is suitably placed in position two on my shortlist.

Hunter Focus 

We’ve started strong with VyvaMind and NooCube. Luckily, with the current nootropic market being what it is, there’s no need to stop – we can stay strong for a good while yet!

Case in point, Hunter Focus, our next offering. It’s another top-notch nootropic that really should go a long way to improving cognitive and mental health and healthy functioning.

It takes a different approach to VyvaMind. Where the latter gives you a stripped back, streamlined formula, Hunter Focus go for plenty of support through plenty of pathways, using plenty of high-quality ingredients, all dosed towards the higher end.

These ingredients are all grouped into three distinct formulas, Concentration Activation, Memory Matrix, and Mood Amplification, which all combine to give you everything a good nootropic should.

Their names are all fairly self-explanatory and fairly accurate – they do what they say they’re going to do.

Concentration Activation’s benefits mostly rest on citicoline, which we’ve already seen. Our brains don’t produce optimal amounts, while optimal amounts can lead to far greater cognitive health and function. A top up is always welcome. You also get the two amino acids l-tyrosine and l-theanine. As we have seen, each brings pretty startling nootropic benefits to bear.

The Memory Complex uses lion’s mane, which I always love to see in a nootropic supplement. Lion’s mane is very rich in erinacines and hericenones, both of which are highly regarded nootropic ingredients known to support cognition functioning and brain health in the long term.

They stimulate nerve growth factor (NGF) production in the brain. NGF in turn enables improved maintenance of the brain’s nerves and pathways. This should improve both long- and short- term memory, whilst mitigating stress- and age- related damage to the brain.

You also get a good dose of maritime pine bark, one of my firm favorites. It’s amongst the most well-researched nootropic ingredients going, resting on a solid, solid base of clinical data. It has been proven to benefit cognitive functioning tremendously, with particular benefits to attention. Hunter Focus uses a pine bark extract that is standardized with 95% proanthocyanidins. This means it’s one of the better quality, more potent forms of it going.

The Memory Matrix relies heavily on bacopa monnieri, the benefits of which we are familiar with. Again, it’s a good choice with a great deal of research showing the benefits it can bring to your cognitive ability and mental wellbeing.

You get two ingredients in the Mood Amplification, but they are two of the best ingredients that can be added to a nootropic – phosphatidylserine (PS) and ashwagandha. I wouldn’t consider living my life without the latter. The former is also an incredibly useful tool to have in your belt.

Firstly, PS is an aminophospholipid. It can help your brain to repair itself, renewing neurons by eliciting greater NGF output. It also boosts glucose metabolism, which in turn means more fuel for your brain to use. Ashwagandha, meanwhile, is just about the best ingredient going for fighting stress. It is a traditional Ayurvedic treatment for stress and anxiety whose properties and uses are being borne out by modern clinical data.

It is also useful for boosting your cognitive abilities by repairing and reinvigorating your brain’s dendrites and axons. This will lead to increased natural choline output as well as improvements to your memory.

There are few supplements out there as well-thought-out or potent as Hunter Focus. If you’re looking for something to keep your brain healthy and your mood balanced, you really would do well to consider investing in it.

Mind Lab Pro

There are a couple of supplements that lead the nootropic market. Everything on this list has its place; many play a unique role, fulfilling criteria that others can’t. However, in terms of getting the job done with quality and aplomb, there are only two. We’ve already seen the first, NooCube. Now it’s time for the second, Mind Lab Pro from Opti-Nutra.

It’s an incredibly high-quality, potent nootropic with few (if any) side effects. It plays on several different pathways in the brain to give you some of the best results this segment of the supplements market has to offer. It’s one of the best-researched, most clinically robust, data-driven supplements I’ve ever come across. Certainly, it’s one of the better nootropics in this regard.

In fact, I’ve always considered it to be a bit of a 3-in-1 nootropic. Or a whole-brain supplement, maybe.

Firstly, it is great for your long-term brain health. It elicits optimal brain regeneration and protection. Secondly, it helps to maintain healthy brainwaves and chemical balance. Finally, it is a cracking nootropic that should do everything you want a good smart-drug to do.

Let’s break it down a bit.

For starters, you will gain plenty of neurological benefits from Mind Lab Pro. It should help to improve your short- and long- term memory, aiding both recall and overall information retention. These memories will stick around and they’ll come back to you much quicker, meaning nothing more stuck on the tip of your tongue. Focus and clarity should improve, as should your ability to multitask.

You should also experience a bit of an energy boost – quite an impressive one, actually, for a supplement that doesn’t contain any stimulants. Energy, motivation, and mood should all pick up, without any of the ups and downs associated with stimulants like caffeine.

In the long run, Mind Lab Pro should help to optimize your brain’s plasticity. This will mean greater cognitive health as you age, with a great deal of protection against cognitive decline.

This all comes from an incredibly smart blend of eleven top-tier nootropic ingredients, all of which combine to bring a great amount of well-rounded health benefits to bear. 

It uses lion’s mane mushroom, of which we have already seen I am a great fan of. It’s a great ingredient for improving NGF production, keeping your brain functioning optimally in the long-term.

You also get citicoline with Mind Lab Pro, whose benefits we have already covered – it should lead to improved energy levels and braincell regeneration. Then there is bacopa monnieri, PS and a form of maritime pine bark that is particularly high in antioxidants.

Cumulatively, these should all improve your mental clarity, fight stress and anxiety symptoms, improve your memory and learning, give you greater focus and attention, all whilst warding against age-related cognitive decline.

Mind Lab Pro is rich in amino acids, too, with a good complement of l-tyrosine and l-theanine. These should combine to further the benefits to your mental performance, warding against stress and anxiety whilst boosting focus, attention, and cognitive clarity.

This is a solid baseline. It doesn’t quite explain my love for Mind Lab Pro, or at least not fully. It’s a good example of a very good nootropic, with plenty included that we have already seen. Everything is high quality and well-done. But the cherry on the cake comes from a serving of rhodiola rosea, which is a herbal adaptogen, and finally a solid vitamin B complex.

Rhodiola rosea enables you to better maintain an optimal level of cognitive energy, all whilst boosting attention span and mental processing ability, learning, and both short- and long- term memory. As an adaptogen, it can also further mitigate the damaging effects of stress. This will combine to give you improved clarity under pressure even as it elevates your mood and executive function.

Meanwhile, vitamins B6, B9, and B12 are all vital for keeping your cognitive processes working optimally. They work especially well to combat age related cognitive decline, giving you improved mental performance and mood both now and in the long run.

There are few supplements out there that come close to giving you the kinds of benefits on offer with Mind Lab Pro.

CentraPeak 

CentraPeak is a clever nootropic supplement. Though there are better straight nootropics out there – Mind Lab Pro, NooCube etc. – this carves out a great little niche for itself. CentraPeak is aimed primarily at men and performs a couple of tasks. Firstly, it is a decent enough nootropic. Secondly, it helps to optimize testosterone levels – hence why they pitch it as a ‘male vitality booster’.

This is an incredibly good idea. Plenty of the issues that nootropics look to solve are also caused by low testosterone levels.

Low testosterone can affect your mood, leaving you lethargic, unmotivated, unfocussed, anxious, and depressed. It can give you pretty bad brain fog. Optimizing levels can therefore represent a great leap forward for both your cognitive health and mental wellbeing.

It will also give you many other benefits associated with optimal testosterone levels – the ability to maintain healthy musculature and body composition, good sexual and reproductive health, and so on.

All men should think about taking natural testosterone supplements, especially as they age. We all begin to lose testosterone year on year after about the age of thirty. Modern life, diets, and environmental concerns are also chronic for lowering testosterone levels, leaving levels lower than ever.

We’ve already seen plenty of the ingredients included in Centrapeak’s formula on this list. It includes high quality nootropic botanicals like rhodiola rosea and it also contains vitamin D3, which is key to optimizing testosterone levels.

I take Prime Male daily, of which vitamin D3 is a key component. Vitamin D3 is the sunshine nutrient, so should also help you to overcome Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

You also get plenty of ashwaganda, which as we have seen can relieve the symptoms of stress and anxiety. It can also improve testosterone output and sex drive. CentraPeak contains pine bark extract, too, as well as the two amino acids l-theanine and l-thiamine, giving you a good, solid nootropic baseline.

There are some additional, cleverly combined vitamins included. You get a good dose of vitamin B6, as Pyridoxine HCL, which should boost natural testosterone levels in a couple of ways.

Firstly, it should stimulate testosterone-producing androgen production. Secondly, it can help your body to better manage estrogen production. Vitamin K2 is there, too, mostly for its more general ability to improve men’s health. It can lead to improved bone health, which is nice. More relevantly, though, it will also likely contribute to optimized testosterone levels whilst also preserving cognitive and mental health in the long term.

It wouldn’t be a testosterone booster without including zinc. Zinc is just about the number one ingredient you need to optimize your natural testosterone output. Most of our dietary zinc comes from red meat and shellfish, so if you’re on a vegetarian or vegan diet plan, you should definitely consider taking some form of it.

This is hardly the only worthwhile mineral included in CentraPeak’s formula, however. It includes boron and magnesium (as highly bioavailable magnesium citrate). Boron has been shown to improve free testosterone output whilst also boosting physical and athletic performance. It also works well in a nootropic context, bringing improvements to both long- and short- term memory, as well as brain function and attention. Meanwhile, magnesium has been linked to higher levels of total and free testosterone, in part by preventing testosterone binding by SHBG.

CentraPeak includes Korean ginseng, too, which is one of the better testosterone optimizing botanicals out there. It can also improve your circulation and contribute to healthy libido and sexual function.

Finally, Centrapeak includes Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) and Mucuna Pruriens, or velvet bean, which are both very clever additions. I3C is a fantastic anti-carcinogenic and is an antioxidant rich nutrient in its own right. It also works to inhibit estrogen levels, which tend to enjoy an inverse relationship with testosterone. Meanwhile, velvet bean inhibits the testosterone reduction by lowering prolactin production.

I would recommend CentraPeak to any man over the age of 30, especially over the age of around 40, looking to protect their long-term health whilst improving their cognitive and mental health.

It’s an excellent offering as a nootropic (if not the best). It’s a solid offering as a testosterone booster (again – if not the best). There are better individual products out there – as above, NooCube or Mind Lab Pro as nootropics, or something like Prime Male for testosterone. However, getting something that does an admirable job of looking after both is really quite special.

Brainzyme Focus Pro 

If you’re looking for a good energy kick from your nootropic, you might want to look at Brainzyme Focus Pro. It gives you clarity, improved cognition speed, improved short and long term memory, whilst also giving you plenty of energy.

The manufacturers’ focus in their branding revolves around this energy boost, alongside mood support. For example, they claim that Brainzyme Focus Pro can give you up to 8 hours of heightened energy. Having looked into the ingredients, this is probably actually quite an accurate claim. And, of course, you will see your focus and concentration improved a great deal, alongside your memory and recall.

The formula is quite intensive, with a full twenty active ingredients. They’re all natural and plant based, as you would expect in a good-quality nootropic, with few side effects noted. It’s a fast-acting supplement, too, so you should begin to see at least some of the benefits almost immediately.

We’ve seen plenty of the ingredients on this list already, as the same trusted favorites crop up once more. These include the amino acids l-theanine and l-tyrosine, alongside a great vitamin and mineral complex. It gives you a good dose of choline, as well as gingko biloba for mood support.

Then there are the ingredients we haven’t seen yet. Notably, Brainzyme Focus Pro includes plenty of guarana seed, which is where we see that immediate and long-lasting energy pick up come into play. Guarana works in a very similar way to caffeine, though it is slower release and a lot steadier. You get the energy minus the buzz, the jitters, the anxiety, and the energy crash.

The manufacturers also claim that Brainzyme Focus Pro includes ‘polyphenols.’ Well, it will do, I’m sure. And this is a good thing at first glance. They are micronutrients taken from plant sources and you typically see them a lot in nootropics. However, there are thousands of varying types of polyphenols, all of which have different properties and give different benefits. We need a bit more information on exactly what goes into Brainzyme Focus Pro, here.

Brainzyme Focus Pro also includes maca root and bromelain. This is really quite clever. Firstly, maca root is great for mental health and wellbeing. It can mitigate symptoms of anxiety and even depression whilst also giving you lasting energy and a bit of a libido spike. It’s also great for improving cognitive functioning and motor skills. Meanwhile, bromelain has been shown to improve memory function whilst also giving anti-inflammatory properties.

Brainzyme Focus Pro is a bit similar to CentraPeak. It’s far from the best straight nootropic on this list. However, it performs a very specific function incredibly well. If you’re looking for something that will support your cognitive health and healthy functioning whilst also giving you a great, long-lasting energy boost, it will likely be a great addition to your supplement regime.

It’s one of the more cost effective nootropics on this list and it deserves its place here.

Alpha Brain 

Lat but not least, we end with Alpha Brain by Onnit, a nootropic I particularly like. I didn’t really want to like it when I first came across it a few years ago. Joe Rogan, the podcaster, is heavily involved with Onnit. He is a shareholder. He’s also not particularly well known for his scientific rigour – his podcast has been known at times for being a hotbed of pseudo-scientific, or even anti-scientific, information, with a fair dash of conspiracy theories thrown in. He is not a trustworthy source.

So I tried Alpha Brain a few years back with a healthy degree of skepticism. It nevertheless won me over. Bowled me over, in fact. It’s a great nootropic that managed to get my vote when I really didn’t want to give it.

It should do everything it claims to do, which is a lot – it’s a well-rounded nootropic offering all the benefits you would expect.

It uses three proprietary blends alongside cat’s claw to get these results. This is where I part ways with it a little. I don’t like proprietary blends. They basically mean that you will never know how much of any given ingredient is included in a supplement.

Though all the individual ingredients are listed, their quantities are hidden. You should always know what you’re putting into your body – this includes how much of anything you’re putting in there. It’s a big mark against Alpha Brain.

Cat’s claw is also a little suspect. There is very little clinical data backing it up.

However, the three blends themselves regain a fair amount of lost ground. They are Onnit’s Flow Blend, their Focus Blend, and their Fuel Blend, and all largely do what they claim. Their names are pretty self-explanatory, of course. Together, you will find flow states easier to come by, find yourself with improved focus, and find your brain well-fuelled for lasting energy.

Collectively, these three blends improve serotonin and dopamine response. They also boost your body’s acetylcholine levels (a form of which, choline, we have already seen in this list). As we have seen, this should lead to many of the benefits we would expect of any good nootropic.

Alpha Brain also makes hefty use of l-tyrosine and l-theanine, whose efficacy and utility mean they keep turning up in this list. They should support elevated levels of serotonin and dopamine, adding a good mood boost to the cognitive enhancements already on offer.

You also get another firm personal favourite supplement of mine in Alpha Brain’s formula, in the form of oat straw extract. It’s a natural botanical with a long history of use in various forms of traditional medicine. It has been clinically shown to bring cognitive benefits to bear. It does this largely by improving vascularity, bringing more blood to the brain. This means more oxygen and nutrients to the brain, which should keep it functioning optimally.

The Alpha GPC choline form found in Alpha Brain (one of the best forms, if not the best, often found in the best nootropic supplements) combines with phosphatidylserine and bacopa to improve communication both within your brain and between your brain and the rest of your body.

Then there is huperzia serrata, an ingredient capable of allowing for significantly boosted levels of acetylcholine. It inhibits acetylcholinesterase production, a catalyst that works to break down your body’s acetylcholine content.

I could go on. The list is actually quite extensive. However, we begin to see the unscientific muck I generally associate with Joe Rogan after this point. The above ingredients are the only ones with any kind of clinical underpinning. Everything else is pseudo-science at best, with no scientifically justified merit to them.

It’s a shame. It doesn’t undo the good work that the actual active ingredients do. It’s still a great nootropic.

It’s just quite pricey for what it is, and a large part of this bloated price comes from an ingredients list bloated with largely useless, unnecessary additions. They could have cut costs and made it more affordable without sacrificing any kind of quality or efficacy simply by following the science.

Verdict

Nootropics form a core part of my supplementation regimen. I’m a writer with hard deadlines and hefty word counts to keep to. This is taxing and stressful. I’m also only able to do a good job of it if my brain is in gear – my brain is, in essence, my livelihood. I want to look after it any way I can.

I’m always eager to try anything to improve my cognitive and mental wellbeing. Aside from a healthy diet, plenty of sleep, and an active lifestyle, nootropics are the most profound way of doing this.

I’m always happy to spend money on a good one. However, if I’m going to, I want it not just to be good. I want it to be the best. For me, as above, this is NooCube. I don’t use it exclusively – or, at least, I’ve used other nootropics to good effect. Notably, I’ve always found Mind Lab Pro to work incredibly well. However, NooCube is sort of an old reliable for me – it’s the only supplement I know will do the job every time, to the highest possible standard.

NooCube is the best-quality product on this list. And when you’re up against the likes of Mind Lab Pro and Alpha Brain, that’s a hell of a claim. It’s the best in a line-up of brilliant offerings. The science is sound. The ingredients are well-dosed, intelligently blended, and high-quality. It doesn’t cost the Earth when measured against the benefits it gives. And it gives real-world, noticeable benefits that really can change your life.

Any item on this list represents a good use of your time, money, and attention. However, if you want to skip to the best, go with NooCube.

What Do Nootropics Do?

The nootropic marketplace is something of a broad church. There is a lot of variation. Indeed, the products below share some DNA whilst still varying from one another in some really quite profound ways. Each one’s benefits will depend entirely on the ingredients blends they contain (which we will of course run through in detail).

But what is the shared DNA? What do they all have in common?

Well, they each seek to fulfill a few key goals. In a very general sense, they all aim to improve cognition and cognitive wellbeing. However, this is a vague enough statement that it doesn’t mean all too much.

Most nootropics – at least all the good ones – will increase the action of useful neurotransmitters such as glutamate to some degree. They will also generally inhibit the expression and action of depressant neurotransmitters such as GABA. This means that they will give you more energy, make you more alert and clearer headed, and generally aid clarity and recall.

Most will also offer benefits to your memory. This will largely focus on your short term memory, including that recall. However, many have been shown to potentially safeguard your longer term memory. Citicoline, a common ingredient, can for example protect the integrity of nerve membranes. Another, cerebrolysin, can promote nerve fibre regeneration.

All told, this will all lead to improved signal transmission between neurons, and thus clearer thinking, more energy, and far greater memory.

A lot of nootropics will also actively aim at improving energy levels. Even those that don’t will likely improve your natural energy levels by virtue of their benefits to your cognitive health and clarity.

Some will rely on caffeine, others will rely on improved blood flow; there are plenty of ways of achieving this effect, most of them well-represented in the nootropic market and in the high quality nootropics I have shortlisted for you in this article.

It isn’t all about performance, of course…

Mental wellbeing is a cornerstone of nootropic usage. Alongside the above benefits, which should all contribute to your overall mental health, most nootropics will elevate your mood whilst simultaneously lowering your stress levels.

In many cases they can manipulate dopamine production, your brain’s reward chemical. It is dopamine that makes you happy – dopamine is released when you eat chocolate, make love, work out, anything that makes you feel happy.

Dopamine will also often lead to greater relaxation. This will go hand in hand with a slew of ingredients aimed directly at mitigating the effects of stress and anxiety, which most good nootropics will include in workable, potent doses.

This will mean better sleep, too, which will compound the cognitive benefits offered by nootropics themselves to take your cognitive health and healthy functioning to a truly optimal level.