The Essential Nootropics Stack

Originally published via Armageddon Prose Substack:

As tends to happen on a long enough timeline, I have discovered another cliché to embrace: the internet optimizer Reddit nootropic bro.

I’ve got myself what they call a “stack.”

My wife thinks it’s a problem. I hold that out as a possibility, because that’s how open-minded I am.

But, I counter when she nags me about how much space they take up, all of these I’ve taken great pains to read about at length via research published at places like the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

(Why the government allows the publication of literature expounding the benefits of non-pharmaceutical, mostly natural supplements like these, I have no idea — at any rate, that’s a problem the pharmaceutical lobby will likely soon remedy.)

Here’s what’s, like, totally, in my stack, bro, in rough order from what I consider most fundamental to most dubious in terms of benefit:

• Liquid cod liver oil
• Creatine monohydrate
• B-complex
• Magnesium (as magnesium glycinate)
• CoQ10 (as ubiquinol)
• CBD oil
• NAC
• Niacin
• Quercetin
• Zinc
• Turmeric extract (/w piperine for maximum bioavailability)
• Vitamin K2 (as MK-7)
• Lion’s Mane mushroom extract
• Cordyceps mushroom extract
• Piracetam
• Glycine
• Maca root extract
• Citrulline
• Nascent iodine

I don’t include any vitamin D currently because I get a lot of sun, but if I didn’t it would definitely be at the top of the list. Also, although I don’t take it every day, I try to keep some evil ivermectin (aka horse paste) handy at all times, which you can buy over the counter in most places outside of the First World Nanny State.

          Related: COVID Propaganda Roundup: The Ivermectin War

I have also dabbled with, but don’t regularly take: kratom, modafinil, ginseng, ashwagandha, and probably more stuff I can’t think of now.

What do you all rely on?

Is anything essential not on the list?

Ben Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.

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