We’ve all been there. You wake up a little groggy and just want to snooze for a little longer, but you can’t because of the thing that you have to do, you know, that thing you’ve been putting off.

So, after a choice word or two about the day, you pull yourself out of bed and go grudgingly about your morning routine. Maybe you’ll feel better after your morning brew.

Narrator: “They did not, in fact, feel better after their morning brew”

Instead, all it meant was that you’d run out of excuses before having to get to work and do the thing. You stare at the task, discouraged and overwhelmed; where do you even start? It wouldn’t be so bad if you hadn’t left it for so long, but it’s just been weighing on you so much. It started as a niggling feeling of “I should really do the thing”, but you kept procrastinating, and here you are all this time later, and absolutely needs to be done now.

Maybe another brew will do the trick—or maybe something a little stronger, to settle your nerves. Yes, that’s it, if you could only just relax a little first you’re sure you could do the thing; it’s a state of mind, after all, right? There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to do the thing, so why does it seem so hard?

You decide to take a break before you start work, as that way you’ll be able to give it your best for sure. You have a drink, maybe play a game to take your mind off things. You feel a bit bad because this is time you’ll have to catch up on later, but it’s self-care, isn’t it?

Half an hour into your twenty-minute break, you realise you’re still not relaxed yet; you contemplate the clock and decide to take it to an hour and then come at the task all guns blazing. When the hour’s up, you do feel a little more relaxed, but that’s followed by a sinking feeling as you realise that you still have the thing to do now, but you have an hour less in which to do it and you haven’t even started.

You realise that what you really need in order to do the thing is a bigger block of time, and to not be worrying about some other smaller tasks that you could get done quickly and easily if you did them now. That’s the trick! You put the thing from your mind, and do the little tasks instead. You are productive after all! It doesn’t matter that you didn’t do the thing today. It’s waited this long, after all, it can wait another day.

Later in the day, you decide the best thing you can do to get the task done tomorrow is to try to relax for the rest of today. Maybe your partner has ideas about how you could enjoy yourself with them, but your mind keeps wandering elsewhere and your body’s responses are reflecting that. You start to think you’re a failure in every aspect of life. Angry at yourself, you decide that tomorrow you’re going to get up early and do the thing straight away first thing, no excuses.

The next day, you wake up a little groggy and just want to snooze for a little longer.

How to break the cycle:

First, we need to break down what the cycle is. It’s not that you’re inherently lazy, useless, disorganized, worthless, or anything else that you’ve been telling yourself you are.

Rather, like far more people in the world than will care to admit it, you’re being kept paralysed between stress and anxiety. If it were to go on for long enough, we’d have to add depression to the list, and then that takes a lot of climbing out of.

So, how to nip it in the bud before needing expensive and time-consuming therapy, and/or medications that may have side-effects you don’t want?

If only there were harmless but powerful natural anxiolytics (substances with anti-anxiety properties) that also work to calm stress without reducing your performance (after all, Dutch courage only gets you so far and is hardly a performance enhancer).

As it turns out, even just one of the 11 active ingredients in Noobru™ has been found to do both of those things and more. The humble ashwagandha root, or at least, the well-studied strain that we use (KSM-66 Ashwagandha®) has been used as a traditional medicine for centuries, but has more recently come under a scientific spotlight; with 1,158 peer-reviewed studies under its belt, it’s been indicated that KSM-66 Ashwagandha® can reduce stress without causing stupefaction, and reduce anxiety without reducing alertness—and to top it all, it can also improve memory and sexual function.

Sometimes all we need is a little break from the hard time our own brain is giving us. Our stress responses and our anxiety responses evolved to be entirely appropriate for us when our day’s difficulties included such things as not being a meal for a sabre-toothed tiger. Nowadays, however, “avoid the scary thing at all costs” isn’t an appropriate response to a task that we’ve been putting off.

So, that’s what ashwagandha can do for us. Allows us to take on our day’s challenges with that extra edge of having dropped that unnecessary extra stress and anxiety. Well, that and improves blood flow, hence the benefits to memory and sexual function. But we’re prepared to take them as side-effects!

Of course, if you’d like some of that in your life, and you’re looking for the best way to take KSM-66 Ashwagandha® to get the best benefits of it, then you’ll be looking to take it a drink (much higher absorption rate than pills) but as a suspension not an infusion (more of the active ingredient present), and preferably in the presence of other substances that will increase its absorption and its effectiveness.

So, in short, and we may be biased but let’s face it, we made this product because we wanted it ourselves, if you want this ingredient in the best possible way for the best possible results, you really do want Noobru™!

Perhaps a trip to your doctor for advice isn’t a good option right now, so we asked ours. Based on the advice we received, the following are our top picks, based on their strengths as versatile—and in some cases critical—supporters of the immune system, with (the current climate being rather a relevant factor) a focus on defences against respiratory tract infections.

1)  Astragalus Membranaceus

This herb is well-recognised by the scientific community as an effective immune stimulant, as well as an antioxidant.

There have been at least 127 studies on Astragalus membranaceus’s role in fighting infection.

With the science behind it, we made sure to include this ingredient in Noobru™ Shield

2) Echinacea

Echinacea has long been used as a cold and flu remedy; now here in the modern age, there’s a large body of evidence to support its use to enhance innate and adaptive immune functions.

There have been at least 199 studies on echinacea’s role in fighting infection which was proof enough for us to put it in the powerful Noobru™ Shield stack!

3) Organic Panax Ginseng

Ginseng is known for many health-promoting properties; not least of all, that it stimulates innate immune function and so aids the body in fighting many pathogens.

There have been more than 445 studies on ginseng’s role in fighting infection! Holy moly - we would have been foolish to not include it in Noobru™ Shield!

4) Organic Elderberry

Elderberry extract is another traditional remedy that does enjoy the backing of modern science, shown to be effective against a wide variety of viral infections, including flu viruses. The mechanism of action is not yet known, but the effects are clear.

There have been at least 65 studies on elderberry’s role in fighting infection - it's a go-to ingredient for many - we made sure it's in the prime spot for Noobru™ Shield!

5) L-Theanine

Green tea and its derivatives are well-known antimicrobials, and l-theanine itself also enjoys a lot of evidence showing its beneficial effects on immune function, most notably innate immunity and protection against upper respiratory tract infections, along with gut health, oral health, and inflammatory processes such as white blood cell production.

There have been at least 16 studies on l-theanine’s role in fighting infection , and many more studies have shown that it increases relaxation, reduces anxiety, improves attention AND sleep quality!

We love including L-Theanine in our products and Noobru™ Shield! is no exception!

The Truth is - Getting ill sucks!

If it isn't enough that you feel terrible -

• Cold sweats
• Weak,
• Feverish,
• Tired
• Congested 
• Fed up!

You also can't work (certainly not at your best!) which can mean:

• Letting down your colleagues (who may have to cover for you)
• Upsetting your boss
• Missing deadlines
• Not being able to provide for your family

You also can't do the things you love to do! 

• Play your favourite sports
• Eat (and taste) delicious food
• Hang out with your friends

It's a challenge just to get out of bed!

Then, if all that isn't enough:

Unless you quarantine or isolate yourself - you could end up infecting your family and you friends!

Who wants THAT on their conscience?

We certainly didn't! Which is why we did our research into the most effective, science-backed, immunity boosting ingredients on the planet - and formulated something very special!

So, Maybe you don’t have access to all of these right now, but because of our infrastructure already in place for our main product line, we do. So that’s why we’ve added them (in optimised daily doses) to our latest nootropic product, Noobru™ Shield.

We’ve put into it not just the optimised daily doses of the important supplements mentioned above, but also the cholinergic nootropics alpha-GPC and choline bitartrate—these choline supplements are most widely taken as cognitive enhancers for their benefits to learning and memory, but they also promote calm alert relaxation, and reduce physical and mental fatigue.

In other words, just what your body needs to be able to function at its best without being ravaged by immumnodepressive stress and anxiety. 

It's called Noobru™ Shield  - and we think it's the best immunity + focus, drinkable supplement on the planet! 



Click the link to learn more

When it comes to cognitive enhancement, we talk a lot about raising levels of this or that neurotransmitter, but what actually are neurotransmitters and what does it mean?

Put simply, a neurotransmitter is a chemical used by a neuron to transmit an on/off message from one side of a synapse (a sort of neural connection point with a slight gap between) to another.

The neurotransmitter molecules are made and/or stored in the neuron on one side of the synaptic cleft (gap), and when the neuron is excited, it releases the chemical into the gap.

On the other side, there are receptors, where the neurotransmitters will fit like keys to a lock when they encounter their appropriate receptor. And when the key fits, the receptor then turns on (or off, depending on the neurotransmitter and the circumstance) a pre-programmed response.

Let’s take an example: acetylcholine (used for, amongst other things, learning and memory)

Acetylcholine is a big molecule, too big to fit through the blood-brain barrier (think of this barrier like a net that lets through only things under a certain size), so it needs to be assembled inside the brain. Any supplements adding to this acetylcholine stock need to be in a form that can be taken apart on one side of the blood-brain barrier and reassembled on the other, like an IKEA bookcase that was too big for the doorway.

Once present in the brain, this hefty molecule is stored in the pre-synaptic terminal; think of it as the bus shelter before braving the journey that is the synaptic cleft.

Then, when you need to do something involving for example learning and memory—like you are right now, reading and learning—the neuron “fires”, that is to say, releases the acetylcholine into the synaptic cleft.

Carried by nothing more than momentum, it reaches the other side, and if it’s lucky, meets an acetylcholine receptor that isn’t blocked. If it meets receptors for other neurotransmitters, say, dopamine receptors or serotonin receptors, it’ll just bounce off, because it’s not the key for those particular locks. But when it meets an acetylcholine receptor, it’ll fit in place, and the neuron on the other side will reverse polarity as a sort of neural switch, passing on the message.

Your brain knows how to interpret this message, and will now tend towards relaxed creativity, learning and memory, alpha wave brain patterns, and in short, all the things associated with the task that you’re performing at the time.

So what happens after the job is done? Why doesn’t it just build up and build up? Well, one of three things happens: either the neurotransmitter will be broken down by a specially tailored enzyme (in the case of the acetylcholine we’ve been looking at, the enzyme that breaks it down is called acetylcholinesterase), or for some neurotransmitters, especially smaller ones, it will be directly taken back up into the neuron whence it came (by a process called “re-uptake”), or it’ll just be dispersed by diffusion, and play no further part in this scene.

This means we can “hack” our own brains, biohacking is tricking them into engaging (or avoiding!) certain states of mind, by affecting these neurotransmitter levels (remember, while we talked about the journey of one molecule there, many are released at once to convey the message, and if you don’t have many, the message isn’t going to be strong, or perhaps not received at all) in one of several main ways:

1. Add more of the neurotransmitter, so there’s just more of it in the brain to use—an example in Noobru™ is Alpha GPC, which is a precursor to acetylcholine, meaning that the brain can take it and then assemble the acetylcholine on the other side of the blood-brain barrier
2. Inhibit the enzyme that breaks down the molecule—an example in Noobru™ is Huperzine A, which is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, so that the synapse keeps more molecules of the neurotransmitter intact and ready for use
3. Inhibit the re-uptake process itself—some examples with which you may be familiar are SSRIs (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) that inhibit serotonin re-uptake, thus helping you feel more relaxed and happy by having more serotonin available, or modafinil (a dopamine re-uptake inhibitor) that helps you feel more awake and motivated by having more dopamine available.

Most of the ingredients in Noobru™ are geared around using various methods for increasing levels of acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin, and GABA—sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly (for example, the Noobru™ ingredient sulbutiamine, in addition to the things it does directly, also prompts the brain itself to use its own processes to take actions to increase choline levels)

So when we say that Noobru™ ingredients work synergistically, that’s really not just office culture mumbo-jumbo, “oh yes, we synergised the process and dynamically captured the potential”, we really mean it, for example (since we’ve been talking about acetylcholine the most here):

Alpha GPC allows the brain to make more acetylcholine

CDP-Choline adds more choline directly

Huperzine A inhibits the breaking-down of acetylcholine, so allows you to keep higher levels for longer

Sulbutiamine ensures your brain is down with this plan of having more acetylcholine so everything goes smoothly

Absorbagen, as the name suggests, helps your body to better absorb other ingredients; you can have the best ingredients in the world and they’ll do you little good if you don’t absorb most of them.

Of course, not all of the 11 nootropic ingredients in Noobru™ are part of the choline team; in fact Noobru™ works on quite a collection of the brain’s systems, and many ingredients have multiple functions (for example, sulbutiamine is also an anxiolytic itself, meaning it reduces anxiety), and some are real renaissance molecules, like l-theanine; working on the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, and GABA, as well as having a lot of direct functions of its own—in short it is the very model of a modern nootropic molecule—but the real magic in Noobru™ is how all these ingredients work together.

For those of us who like a cup of coffee in the morning, there’s some good news about how to get the most out of it. But what’s with the image header in this article? Did the web admin, perhaps not having had enough coffee, slip up and put the wrong image in?

The real story, as it turns out, is that coffee may be king, but the king is not complete without his queen: l-theanine. Of course, caffeine is a popular stimulant that is generally considered safe and is easily available. Those of us particularly keen to justify our morning coffee may also point to its antioxidant effects exceeding even those of green tea. But what if caffeine could be supported, enhanced, and some of its less desirable effects softened while keeping the benefits? That’d be coffee, super-powered! And here’s where l-theanine comes in. But what actually is it?

This nifty little compound is an amino acid first found in green tea. It’s also found in other kinds of true tea (such as black tea, white tea, etc, but not in herbal preparations often called tea, such as camomile tea, peppermint tea, etc), and also in one particular kind of wild mushroom, but that’s not widely available. Popular supplements are often lab-made, though some higher-end supplements, such as Noobru™ use naturally derived forms.

L-theanine, be it from green tea or elsewhere, reduces caffeine’s effect on the heart, and also inhibits dopamine receptors—dopamine being the brain’s reward-signaling chemical—meaning that dopamine triggered by various rewarding activities (including drinking coffee) will now have a longer gentler effect, instead of a sudden spike followed by an equally sudden slump. It’s not surprising then that in combination with caffeine, l-theanine has been shown in studies to promote better performance in dopamine-dependant tasks. While dopamine’s most well-known for being the brain’s reward-signaling chemical, it is also the neurotransmitter responsible for critical path analysis, working memory, and many linguistic functions, so having it in a stable fashion, rather than just a brief hit followed by a crash, is a real game-changer.

So if you’d benefit from science-backed improvements to activities that require focus and improved attention, such as faster simple reaction time (e.g., hit the button when you see the light), faster numeric working memory reaction time (e.g., think fast: what’s 17+4/2?), and improved sentence verification accuracy (e.g., where’s the typo in the sentence you just read?), then l-theanine is the key that unlocks caffeine’s otherwise untapped potential. And if you take it without caffeine, is it still worth having? Yes, it is.

L-theanine also supports healthy brain function due to its effect on your natural production of serotonin and GABA, and its effects on the dopaminergic system aren’t dependent on caffeine, but rather simply improves such if put together. Taking l-theanine can give you a lift in mood (thanks to the increased serotonin and GABA, and more stable dopamine levels), reduction in stress and anxiety (thanks to the increased serotonin and GABA) and gentler more sustainable wakefulness (thanks to the increased serotonin and more stable dopamine levels) followed by better sleep (thanks to the anti-stress and anti-anxiety effects) when you do decide to call it a night. And as we all know: better sleep, better brain.

So l-theanine with or without coffee gives us quite a different experience to that of coffee alone: coffee alone being a stimulant that works primarily by a combination of vasoconstriction (as in a fight-or-flight response) and tricking adenosine receptors into not reporting your tiredness to you—which is why after staying up with coffee alone, you’ll often find you’re extra-exhausted afterwards; not so with l-theanine to smooth out caffeine’s rougher edges!

And that’s without getting into the other benefits of l-theanine; it’s also known for boosting immunity, promoting alpha brain wave generation (associated with an awake, alert, relaxed state), and glycine production for relaxation and further supporting happiness due to its added support of dopamine levels.

So, how much l-theanine should we have, and how should we take it?

As it’s not an essential nutrient, there’s no recommended daily amount, but 200mg/day is a popular dose that’s been well-backed in studies. You could get that from about 10 cups of black tea, or 40 cups of green tea, or one 200mg supplement. We don’t drink quite that much tea, so we like to supplement ours with Noobru™, especially as a refreshing chaser to a morning coffee.