Below are the nootropics and supplements I’ve been researching and the ones I plan to start taking as soon as possible, or the ones that I have already been taking.

If you are not familiar with nootropics or any of the supplements below there are little blurbs on most as well as links back to their respective Wikipedia articles. My broad goal here is to ensure I’m getting more than adequate nutrition and additionally I’m attempting to self-medicate for anxiety (primarily with Aniracetam, which has worked before). Futher, with any luck some improvements to my ability to focus and stay on task will be achieved.

No real need for a big introduction here as most of the content is inline below.

Nootropics

Aniracetam

Why? Anti-anxiety nootropic, full stop. If that’s not enough, there are potential synergistic/complimentary effects with other racetams such as Piracetam and Oxiracetam (below). Aniracetam may impact different parts of the brain and combine with Pir/Oxi-racetam to provide a broader set of benefits. As with most/all nootropics, research is arguably inconclusive but there seems to be real potential benefits and the anti-anxiety effects (if nothing else) are real as far as I’m concerned (and I had no foreknowledge of them before I started taking it).

Planned Dosage: 750 mg 3 – 4x daily = 2,250 – 3000 mg daily

Take With: 188 mg of Citicholine (564 – 750 mg daily). Risk of side effects if choline level is not maintained!

Food and/or Omega 3 supplement taken at the same time to possibly help with digestion/absorption (likely unneeded, but easy to do anyway).

Other notes: Aniracetam seems to have a very short half-life (on the order of 2-3 hours). This necessitates more frequent dosages or possibly higher less frequent dosages. Will need to experiment to find the best fit. In the past one 750 mg capsule lasted about 2-3 hours.

Updated notes: Aniracetam has a sort of powdered sugar like consistency. It is again, fat soluble not water soluble so it does not mix with water. It does seem to mix fairly well with orange or lemon juice (and probably some others). The ideal solution would likely be to buy some vcaps and fill them myself but I’m not quite ready to try that yet. I’m currently going to try blending a bit of orange juice concentrate, 2g of Aniracetam, 500mg of choline, and just enough water to make the whole mix come together. That should be pretty easy and sustainable.

I’m taking a higher dosage than originally planned as I’m not currently taking any other racetams (currently just Aniracetam, Choline Citrate, my multi-vitamin, and magnesium supplement). Assuming 750mg lasts for about two hours (which has been my experience) I’m taking about 2g which should last around five hours and I’m doing this three or four times a day.

Links:
Wikipedia
Amazon.com: Doesn’t have a Prime eligible supply.
SmartPowders: 180,000 mg for $49.99, 80 – 60 days supply.

Oxiracetam

Why? Potent racetam that may have similar effects compared to Piracetam and may compliment aniracetam’s own effects. Less important than Aniracetam, if it doesn’t seem worth the increased price may consider going back to Piracetam, looking at another “synergistic” racetam, or sticking with just Aniracetam.

Planned Dosage: 920 mg 1 – 2x daily = 920 – 1840 mg daily

Take With: 230 mg of Citicholine (230 – 460 mg daily) (see Aniracetam side-effect notes).

Other notes: Water soluble. Trying to keep dosages as low as possible especially while combining. Want to keep the benefits to cost ratio as high as possible (and the costs as low as possible).

Links:
Wikipedia
Amazon.com: Doesn’t have a Prime eligible supply.
SmartPowders: 50,000 mg for $49.99 ($39.99 on sale) 54 – 27 days supply.

Citicoline

Why? Some form of choline supplementation is needed and recommended with racetams to both avoid potential side-effects (such as head-aches) and to also allow the racetams to work fully. Choline is likely something that should be supplemented as it is (sans racetams). Further, Citicholine itself may have nootropic and other benefits and has no real drawbacks to choosing it over another choline supplement (apart from potentially the price).

Planned Dosage: 794 – 1210 mg daily (plus 100 – 200 mg of choline bitrate from multi-vitamin)

Links:
Wikipedia
Amazon.com: 120 x 250 mg = 30,000 mg for $35.34 ($30.04 with Subscribe & Save) for 37 – 24 days supply.
SmartPowders: 25,000 mg for $23.99 for 31.5 – 21 days supply.

The Supplements can be found on the next page.

So far, pretty fun. Have tried two different calorie counting tools so far, the About.com one and one from My Fitness Pal. Neither are perfect, but for my preferences the About.com one is a bit better as it tracks several additional nutrients.

With that said, it does not track Omega 3, Anti-oxidants, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Biotin, Folic Acid, Vitamin K, and probably several others that I have yet to notice. I would love to be able to track as many nutrients as possible especially as I’m ramping up a supplement schedule and would love to have everything documented and easily visible from the same location.

Similarly, it would be great to be able to track other medications and anything else that is ingested. Another feature I would love is a timestamp for when each entry is added to help in tracking the spacing of food.

Current Status

While I found calorie and nutritional counting to be hugely informative. The time it takes to each day painstakingly document everything I consume (at the exact quantity) was just too much for my preferences. If I was to relax and fudge it a bit it would be far more tolerable, but then I wouldn’t be getting the exact information that I was really looking for so I might as well just not use a log and do it in my head (as best as I can).

So that’s where I’m currently at. Maybe I’ll take another stab at it in the future, especially if I can find a more detailed tool to use (and one that’s used by people like myself who want everything 100% correct in their logging. Not just good enough).

After a small problem with the site’s database (I deleted it, oops). I’m finally getting this site back up and running. I’m working on a few initial posts and getting the layout of the site worked out as I prefer it.

For any that are looking to leave comments on this or future posts you will be required to have an account on the site before you can post a comment. If I know you (and you me) please feel free to contact me (you should know how) and I’d be happy to create an account for you! For anyone else I simply do not have the time or interest to battle with spam bots or to argue with people I neither know, nor care about.

This site is intended to be a creative outlet for myself, if you enjoy the content (as I hope you do), great. Please spread the word! If not, move along peacefully. :)