Health and Fitness

A Guide To Nootropics And Their effects

Amber

Whether you’re having a dull day with no work inspiration or no mood to brainstorm ideas, we’re sure you’ve wished to have your brain run a little faster to get the work done and go back to laze off. It turns out, some drugs and supplements can help you with this. Although it doesn’t provide a superhero effect of popping the pill and immediately increasing brain efficiency, these pills can help calm various symptoms of nervousness or laziness and help increase your work productivity.

The term nootropics refer to anything that can positively affect your mental skills. Known as the smart drugs, these are supplements to make you smarter and help improve your focus and concentration. But do they work in doing so? Let’s look at what a nootropic is and the effect it can have.

Types of Nootropics

Nootropics can be prescribed or added to your diet based on the dose and the concentration. While these types have different levels of research in progress, these are the overall classes that are said to have mind-boosting effects.

  • Prescription nootropics

These are prescribed to treat medical conditions like ADHD. These stimulants help calm down the symptoms dealing with the medical disorder. Since these directly affect your brain, it is not advised to take them without a prescription. These also have potentially dangerous side effects that can be fatal if not taken in the correct dose.

  • Supplement nootropics

These are just supplements you add to your diet daily that have claimed to improve certain aspects of concentration.  Some popular supplements include

  • Caffeine- To prevent sleep and help you stay up.
  • L-theanine- Help you relax and stay alert, improving focus
  • Omega-3 fatty acids- a well-studied enhancer that prevents brain aging
  • Racetams- May have neuroprotective effects
  • Ginkgo biloba- Can potentially improve brain function
  • Panax ginseng- May help prevent brain diseases
  • Rhodiola- Help cure neurodegenerative diseases 
  • Creatine- Helps with reasoning and short-term memory.

Do nootropics work?

While prescription nootropics are well researched and prescribed, many over-the-counter nootropics are not well studied and are said to have mind-enhancing effects. Overall, nootropics do have a positive effect on brain function.

  • Increases productivity

These drugs help you get your work done efficiently and help with burnout and other work-related mental health issues.

  • Replaces sleep with work

Supplements like caffeine help you stay awake, enabling you to work more when you’re sleepy. However, lack of sleep can have harmful side effects and is not an advisable practice.

  • Reduces stress and helps with attention disorders

Many of these supplements provide relaxing effects and help calm down symptoms contributing to decreasing productivity like anxiety, stress, etc. These drugs are also highly beneficial for people with attention disorders and help them lead an everyday life.

While most drugs are proven to boost your brain, they also have pretty harmful side effects. Similarly, these supplements to make you more intelligent do not have any side effects but are less likely to be effective.