Nootropics or smart drugs are any substance that improves cognitive function, they seem to be having a bit of a moment right now it's been claimed that 1 (one) in 5 (five) academics have used them, and the same proportion of Surgeons.

So, if the medic that's rummaging around inside your body is hyped on a smart drug, should that be telling us something? They're also all over the nerdiest side of the web with social media sites and forums dedicated to tracking them.

 Since 2015 some Esports which is video game tournaments like ESL one cologne have tested competitors for Adderall doping although on the other hand some reSpot teams are now sponsored by smart drug companies, so the line is kind of blurred.

First things first, then where did smart drugs come from?

In one way we've had them for a really long time: caffeine, it's probably the most popular drug in history, it's estimated that 90% of people in the entire world use caffeine in one way or another. You could justifiably call it a smart drug because it can help you concentrate and feel more awake, it stimulates the release of extra noradrenaline and dopamine in your brain. In fact, its clever making effects have been credited with kicking off the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th Centuries.

Today's low-key smart drug fans like to take their caffeine with another compound L-theanine and you can find both naturally in green tea. The combo is probably the best studied of all than our tropics, although that's not really saying all that much, one small study from japan suggests that L-theanine reduces psychological and physiological stress responses, the idea is that it helps take the edge off the rush of caffeine. It's a popular additive to drinks there in Japan too, and a food supplement in The US, but in Europe, there's a ban on any claims about its health benefits, since a cause and effect relationship hasn't been sufficiently established.

Yet next there are a bunch of compounds called the Racetams, they have had a huge influence on the nootropic movement, the word Racetam was invented in the 1970s by a Romanian psychologist in chemists after being inspired by the first of the Racetams was to be discovered piracetam, he said that they enhanced learning and memory and distinguished from other drugs by saying that they did not induce direct reticular, limbic or other subcortical events which mean that they didn't affect the brain stem, the limbic system which deals with emotions and memories or motor skills.

 Piracetam is a simple molecule and all racetam share a part of this basic structure. piracetam has been used to treat Epilepsy and studies show that it could be really good for elderly patients and those with dementia but we still don't understand much about what makes piracetam and other racetams work, what they do in the brain, or if they can help make you smarter and like with many of the other nootropics most people are still studying them as medicines, rather than as day-to-day enhancers.

We do know a little bit more about 2 (two) of the most popular nootropics though, which are widely used in medicine, Adderall and Modafinil, now let's take Adderall first if you know what I mean, it's a prescription drug a stimulant which is approved for treating attention deficit, stroke hyperactivity disorder or ADHD among friends. Its main effects seem to relate to the neurotransmitters, noradrenaline, and dopamine, now amphetamine-like drugs like Adderall can improve focus to help make dole tasks seem interesting you'll concentrate more, but you won't necessarily get smarter.

So, secondly what about Modafinil, well understanding of the cognitive enhancing mechanisms of modafinil is a little bit more sketchy. The drug affects pretty much every major neurotransmitter in the brain including dopamine and noradrenalin, so some of its effects are probably similar to those of Adderall in some studies though modafinil does seem to help with tasks like decision-making, planning, and fluid intelligence, being more effective the longer and more complex the task is, which suggests that, unlike Adderall, modafinil could be seen to make you smarter.

But what are the downsides of smart drugs, well again we just don't know that much about them. Reported side effects range from the miles to headaches and excitability and ironically brain fog to the more serious effects like being able to let go of emotions or tasks or focusing on inappropriate things like spending work time playing games on your phone, which none of us would ever do. Now especially with the anecdotal tales, we have to bear in mind the possibility of the so-called Nocebo effect that you may be feeling headachy or distracted because you know that you've taken something that's meant to affect your brain, but then again the placebo effect could also be driving the many positive reports of smart drugs if you know that you've had a concentrate and enhancing drug you might just feel inspired to concentrate on your work a little bit more.

So, we have to look at what scientific studies have been done and there are suggestions that Adderall and modafinil may improve the abilities of low performers but actually damage the performance of people who usually perform, well at tasks this is thought to be because there is an optimal level of neurotransmitters to have if yours is low then raising it can help but if you already have that optimal level then increasing it further would move you out of the sweet spot and generally be a bad call. There's also the issue of adaptability, regular coffee drinkers will know that after a while you need that caffeine just to feel normal, there's a chance that regular users of smart drugs might find the same thing you just can't function without it having it doesn't raise your game any longer, and since drugs like modafinil are illegal without a prescription in the UK.

I haven't even got to the obvious dangers involved in ordering untested unregulated drug compounds off the internet. Who knows if that Adderall you've ordered really is Adderall, I'm just not sure that we know enough about brain chemistry to say for certain that a drug can or can't make you smarter or even what that actually means.

However, I am happy to report that some of the people who study, these chemicals reckon best, the effects of the drugs are equivalent to taking a nap or going for a run and that's something that everyone can do and doesn't involve ordering dodgy pills off the internet.

So, and if any of you have any questions.



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