Home ›› 09 Jul 2022 ›› Opinion
Nootropics consists of a wide range of supplements and medications that people think or suspect may improve the brain’s cognitive functioning — including thinking, memory, executive function, creativity and motivation.
The concept of such a simple way to boost brainpower to become more productive, focused and intelligent is undoubtedly enticing. But this long held-dream of the perfect brain boosting smart drug, or nootropic, is still just that: a dream.
Other names for nootropics include smart drugs, brain boosters and cognitive enhancers. They can include everything from vitamins and minerals, “natural” chemicals obtained from plants, prescription medications to novel “designer drug” compounds.
As anyone on antidepressants or other medications for psychological conditions can tell you, adjusting your brain chemistry isn’t as easy as popping a pill. While psychotropic medications can be hugely important to improving mental health, there are a lot of downsides to these medications. And when healthy people start experimenting with brain-altering drugs like nootropics, things can go south pretty quickly.
The word nootropic (pronounced new-tropic) was first used by Corneliu Giurgea, a Romanian neuroscientist, in 1972. He thought that smart pills should be developed and freely available, used to boost the brains of the general population and increase human intelligence.
“Nootropics work on improving cognition, memory, alertness, concentration, creativity and attention,” Amira Guirguis, a senior lecturer in Pharmacy at Swansea University in Wales, U.K., said. “They became known as cognitive enhancers, compounds that amplify how the different cognitive functions in the brain work and how we process information.”
Today, ethical questions abound about nootropics, and scientists and product developers are still searching for drugs that boost the brain in ways that are helpful, sustainable and safe. The nootropics we have today are either questionably effective, hold the potential for abuse and addiction or have negative side effects.
Many companies have taken advantage of people’s desire to perform better and have tried selling solutions by packaging up supplements marketed as brain boosters for healthy people. These are typically sold as “natural” combinations of vitamins, minerals and plant-based compounds or extracts.
These naturally occurring compounds are sometimes called “nutraceuticals,” “neuroceuticals” or “micronutrient” compounds. They’re typically sold as supplement mixes available over the counter at your local drug store or available for purchase online from a wide variety of retailers.
A report from Grand View research pegged the value of the brain booster supplement industry at $7.21 billion in 2020, expanding to $13.38 billion by 2028.
According to the report, popular ingredients in these natural or herbal brain booster supplement combinations include: B complex (12 and 6) vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, acetyl-L-carnitine, huperzine-A, citicoline and alpha glycerylphosphorylcholine. Herbs and food products such as ginkgo biloba, ginseng, lion’s mane, curcumin, echinacea, bacopa monnieri, L-theanine from green tea, turmeric, guarana (a plant extract that includes caffeine) and bilberry extract are also commonly included in these formulations. Caffeine is perhaps the most commonly used nootropic, found in many food products like coffee, tea and chocolate. “When we say natural, we also include nicotine and caffeine,” Guirguis told Live Science. “These two are kind of ‘acceptable’ cognitive enhancers — we use them because they’re going to improve our memory, productivity and alertness, and ability to do things.”
One of the most common classes of nootropics that people talk about, especially in relation to students and professionals, are the “smart” prescription drugs like stimulants that are thought to increase attention for hours of focused studying or working.
According to a review of cognitive enhancers published by Guirguis in the journal Brain Science, the most common prescriptions used as smart drugs include methylphenidate (Ritalin and Concerta) and amphetamine-salt based stimulants like Adderall and Mydayis. “These prescription medicines are used by people who have cognitive deficits, like ADHD, and some psychiatric disorders as well such as schizophrenia,” Guirguis said. But healthy people sometimes abuse them to focus on work or school.
livescience
