Bystroushaak's blog / English section / Improvements / Vitamins, nootropics and other boosters
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Vitamins, nootropics and other boosters

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Small database of stimulants and other substances I've tried.

Kofex

This is something I have been taking for like five years with great success. It is very cheap (80 pills cost ~3€). One pill consists of 40mg caffeine and 10mg guarana.

It is basically just pure caffeine with guarana for moderate inhibition, which makes it work for longer time (~6 hours).

This also means, that standard caffeine protocol applies; you can build tolerance, so don't eat more than 2-4 pills / day and never more like 2-4 days in row. If you find yourself with tolerance, consume smaller amounts for ~ 1-2 weeks and then try to have few days without it.

This is off-course only useful for people who don't already have a tolerance from other sources of caffeine - coffee for example.

Ultra caffeine

This is caffeine with l-theanine. Basically, this is what can be found in tea, only pure and in higher dosages. L-theanine helps caffeine to take effect more slowly than it would if taken pure.

It is kind of pricey - 90 caps cost £ 10.95 (12.27€), which is 0.15€ per pill, compared to 0.03 per pill with Kofex.

Neurostim

Neurostim contains all kind of goodies mixed in right ratio:

Guarana 800mg

Cheap guarana sold as nutritional supplement.

For me, it has excellent result when combined with caffeine.

Nicotine

Just standard nicotine patches for smokers cut into squares and used when required. Nicotine has a nice effect for focusing, and the patches last for 24 hours. One patch can be cut into many (something like 16) smaller squares.

As far as I can say, it has only one disadvantage - small pieces dry faster, so you can't really use them for too long.

Lyft

Basically clean nicotine put into a pouch you stuff into your mouth for some time. It should work for 30 minutes, but I've found that maximum for me is 3 minutes and 30 seconds. More than this and my head starts to spin.

Effects: Great kick, it can make you more productive for something like an hour or two.

Cost: 100kč / 3.6€ per box.

Modafinil

I have a difficult relationship with modafinil. Sometimes it works as absolutelly excellent booster and sometimes it is just a bad trip, which makes your skin crawl.

I've noticed, that it is probably caused by the dosage, so I've taken lower dosage (~75mg of modvigil).

Effect is hard to describe. Sometimes it is better concentration, sometimes it motivates you to do stuff. Other times, it is just whisper of your soul. I've written a lot of blogs while on modafinil.

Relevant info: Managing modafinil.

Tried, but wouldn't recommend

Dynamine (methylliberine)

It should be something like better caffeine, which basically works the same way, but doesn't alter your blood pressure.

My first try was excellent, but all others were kind of meh. First of all, you can't really feel it that much. Compared to caffeine, it is really mild, the effect is almost un-noticable, but lasts really long.

Sometimes I go to sleep and have strange states of mind, which are kind of like sleeping but thinking at the same time.

It is not much pleasant and for me, it isn't a good stimulant for any kind of thinking work, eg. writing or programming.

Also it fucks with dopamine, so it can be quite unpleasant, letting you feeling like you are hollow, your skin crawls, and your brain want to sleep but can't, because it is kept up by chemistry.

Theacrine

Aka "that stuff in special kinds of tea". I did not like the effects, which by my standards were too much similar to Dynamine.

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