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.
let me know in the comments:
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