Noopept is a supplement with amazing properties that help with cognitive function. It also has a lower price tag, making it attractive to many people. Additionally, it is often combined with other nootropic drugs for synergistic effects. Furthermore, noopept is similar to the racetams, but although its chemical structure is different, it is significantly more potent.
What Is Noopept?
Nootropic drugs have been around for decades. In fact, scientists created piracetam in the 1950s. When this drug showed neuroprotective effects, more research was done into similar medications, and numerous variants of piracetam are no available.
Interestingly, noopept is a descendant of the racetams and works very similarly to piracetam. It was developed in Russia during the mid-1990s, where it is now in usee regularly as a prescription treatment for many cognitive disorders. Those disorders might include traumatic brain injury and age-related cognitive decline. Moreover, in the United States and Canada, noopept is an unregulated supplement that is available over the counter.
Noopept is popular for many reasons, including its affordability. Many people who use the supplement claim that they can feel its effects within an hour or so of taking it. That means it works faster than piracetam when you compare noopept vs piracetam. It also seems to last longer than many of the racetams, and it appears to have fewer psychostimulatory effects.
Noopept’s claims to action include enhancing cognition while offering stimulant properties. Many people who take the supplement also note its anti-anxiety properties. What’s more, the supplement offers significant neuroprotection at a lower dosage than piracetam.
Noopept Benefits and Usage
Learning and Memory
The noopept inherent design is to treat cognitive impairments, with its best-known uses being as a memory enhancer or “brain booster.” Like racetams such as piracetam, noopept helps with the formation of memories. It also has the added benefit of enhancing people’s memory consolidation and retrieval. It does this through acting on each phase of memory processing, from its initial collection to consolidating and recall of memories.
Much of the research on noopept’s effects on memory processing and recall was done on people who have cognitive damage. In Russia which is its country of origin, it is successfully in use to treat stroke, brain disease, and alcohol-related brain damage.
Research needs to be done in healthy brain models, but there are many anecdotal reports of people taking the supplement. These people note that noopept’s effects are cognitive enhancing. Some people even note improvement with sensory perception, such as improvement to hearing or vision.
Increased Levels of Brain Chemicals
Noopept is shown in animal models to stimulate two chemicals that are related to cognition, known as Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and Nerve Growth Factor (NGF). Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Nerve Growth Factor are proteins that help protect areas of the brain and promote memory.
Nerve Growth Factor is useful largely with the growth and survival of nerve cells such as neurons, especially those located in the brain. Nerve Growth Factor is a large part of neurogenesis, which is the body’s ability to build and create nerve cells. Amazingly, with neurogenesis, neural networks show improvement, and people and animals show enhancements to performance in each area of cognition.
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor is quite similar to Nerve Growth Factor, but it differs in areas in which it is active. This protein tends to work in the hippocampus, basal forebrain, and cortex. Interestingly, these are areas that affect learning, higher thinking, and forming memories. Moreover, it is useful in both forming long-term and short-term memories.
Neuroprotection with Noopept
Noopept is useful in more than just memory formation and processing. In fact, according to various studies, it shows neuroprotective properties, which help prevent health conditions that impair a person’s cognition.
Noopept also has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. As an antioxidant, it is quite potent and helps protect brain cells from oxidative damage from free radicals. The oxidative damage these free radicals cause is both neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and age-related cognitive decline.
Noopept’s anti-inflammatory properties also have the ability to give protection against a variety of stressors. In particular, systemic inflammation is associated with problems in spatial reasoning, short-term memory, and verbal learning. What’s more, decreasing inflammation helps to protect these areas of higher brain function.
Noopept also shows improvements in blood flow to the brain. For example, excessive amounts of calcium and glutamate are linked to neurotoxicity, and increasing the blood flow is one mechanism that decreases the amount of build-up of calcium and glutamate.
Anti-anxiety Properties
Noopept may also help some people with reduced anxiety both in animals and people. One study in people shows that giving Noopept at a dosage of 10 mg twice daily helps produce lower anxiety levels in people with mild cognitive dysfunction. It also appears to lower anxiety levels in animal studies. It is important to note that, while many people report anecdotally that the supplement helps relieve anxiety, there are reports from some users that noopept actually makes them feel more anxious. Therefore, more research must be done in this area.
Noopept Dosage
Noopept lasts for several hours in the body once taken. Because of its excitatory effects, it should not be taken late in the day, as it leads to interruptions in sleep.
The starting dose for noopept is 10 mg taken after you eat a meal twice per day. However, some people increase it up to 30 mg per day. Also, note that it should only be taken for a maximum of 1.5 months to 3 months at a time. For those taking it long term, the cycles should be broken up with a one month period where the supplement is not taken. This helps prevent tolerance from developing, a factor that has occurred in some people taking noopept over time.
You should not immediately jump to 30 mg of this supplement. You should only increase the dose over 10 mg twice per day if you are not noticing any of the benefits of taking noopept. In fact, in some people, higher doses of noopept actually diminish the cognitive effects of the supplement.
How Noopept Works
The exact mechanisms of how noopept works are not entirely understood. Researchers do know that once the supplement is taken, it metabolizes through the liver and rapid absorption occurs across the digestive tract. Then, once it enters the bloodstream, it readily crosses the blood-brain barrier. All of this happens rather quickly, and the maximum concentration of noopept in the body occurs within 15 to 20 minutes.
The supplement appears to work on the brain through several routes. It sensitizes the brain to acetylcholine, which is an important neurotransmitter that has been associated with cognition as well as learning. By becoming more sensitive to acetylcholine, the brain increases the neural response to this neurotransmitter.
As noted previously, noopept increases NGF and BDNF, largely by increasing their expression. These neurotrophic proteins are important in the formation of memories and cognition. It also acts as a neuroprotectant through its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
In animal studies, noopept helps modulate AMPA and NDMA receptors. These receptors are useful in regulating the brain levels of glutamate, an excitatory neurotransmitter. By decreasing the amount of glutamate in the brain that leads to toxicity, neurons are protected from damage, and the body shows enhanced neuroplasticity, which is critical to forming long-term memories. Noopept also helps the brain eliminate some excesses of calcium and glutamate, all while improving blood flow to the brain.
Stacking or Combinations with Noopept
Noopept combines with other nootropic drugs for synergistic benefits or in other words, the desirable effect. One common stacking scenario uses noopept in combination with piracetam, which has a combined benefit greater than taking these supplements separately. Because these two nootropics work on different neurotransmitters (which are acetylcholine and glutamate), stacking may lead to enhanced functionality and bolster cognitive processes. You may also find that adding a choline supplement such as Alpha GPC may be beneficial by limiting the headaches that are often reported by people who use piracetam and noopept, especially early on.
Choline supplementation may also make the piracetam more effective. This combination is taken one or two times each day, with recommended dosages being 10 mg of noopept, 2 g of piracetam, and 300 mg of Alpha GPC.
Another common stacking scenario uses noopept in combination with aniracetam and sulbutiamine. Using these nootropic drugs in combination with each other may bolster cognition, decrease anxiety, and improve mood. The relaxed mindstate this stacking combination produces is believed to enhance creativity. Like noopept, sulcutiamine should be cycled so that you do not develop a tolerance to it. The recommended dosages for this combination of nootropics is to take noopept at 10 mg, aniracetam at 750 mg, sulbutiamine at 200 mg, and Alpha GPC at 300 mg. This combination can be taken once or twice per day.
Forms of Noopept
Noopept comes in several different forms that you can take for easy and convenient dosing. The most common ways are to take the noopept powder or noopept capsules. These forms offer ease in getting exactly the amount you need to take for effect. Moreover, they are a reliable way to consume this nootropic.
Noopept is also taken sublingually, which gets it into your system even faster. In fact, taking noopept sublingually allows you to get maximum absorption within a few minutes when you take it under your tongue.
A new, relatively novel way to take noopept is through noopept nasal spray. This does offer an easy way to take the product, but more studies need to be done to determine its effectiveness. This features an easy way to take a mostly pure product. In fact, analysis shows a range of between 99 % and 99.5% pure in most noopept nasal sprays.
Noopept Side Effects
For most people, noopept appears to be safe and generally well tolerated. Side effects tend to be minor and occur more commonly when the supplement is taken in higher dosages than the recommended starting 10 mg up to twice daily. Side effects include headaches, dizziness, irritability, and restlessness. Supplementing with a choline product may help limit the headaches that can develop, which is why many users also take Alpha GPC.
Anecdotal reports show that when higher dosages of noopept are taken, it may impair short-term memory temporarily, which is one of the reasons the lower dosages are favored.
Because noopept increases blood flow, it has been linked to increases in blood pressure in adults with hypertension. It should also be avoided in people with kidney or liver problems, as these organ systems help to metabolize and process noopept.
Things to Keep in Mind When Using Noopept
Researchers do not know all of the potential effects of noopept, particularly in healthy people as there are too few studies at this time. Also, as with many medications and supplements, it is not advisable for pregnant or nursing women.
Noopept is also contraindicated in people who have lactose intolerance.
If you take other medications or supplements, first consult with your doctor before starting noopept. When you begin taking it, cycling this nootropic is generally recommended so that you do not develop a tolerance to the product.
In Summary
Noopept is a generally well-tolerated nootropic supplement. It is popular both for its reported effectiveness and affordability, especially given that its standard dosage is relatively low. It is easily stacked to form effective combinations, and many of its side effects are related to the dosage, making these relatively easy to control. In addition, building tolerance is avoided by cycling every month or so, making it an effective product for many people to take over the long term. Regardless of your experience with nootropics, noopept is an effective supplement that deserves further research and consideration for your regimen.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Products discussed are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.