Nootropics are quickly become the most fashionable (and, as of this writing, still legal) drug of 2015.
According to CNN, Silicon Valley investor Dave Asprey starts his day with a cocktail of about 15 nootropic pills to help combat “brain fog.” Just yesterday, the Huffington Post wondered in a headline if nootropics are the “Secret of the World’s Tech Billionaires?” Everyone from entrepreneur Tim Ferriss (who’s fine with the risks associated with Nootropics “even if it shortens your life by five years”) to a rising number of college students (11% in the U.S. alone) are hooked on the brain-enhancing supplements.
But do they work? And more importantly, are they safe?
Here’s the claim: Nootropics work by protecting the neurons in your brain from damage and strengthening neuroplasticity, the response to sensory information. That means improvements to your attention span, memory, learning capacity, and overall cognitive health.
But the reality is, the science is still foggy on these so-called smart drugs. Nootropics have been proven effective among people who suffer from cognitive deficits, including Alzheimer’s disease, but whether they provide brain-boosting effects to the average, healthy guy is still unclear, says Emily Deans, M.D., a Massachusetts psychiatrist.
“While supplement companies often have an impressive list of references for their products, those references are usually rodent studies of the individual ingredients, not human trials of the product,” she says.
And consider the possible side effects: Certain nootropics may slow your heart rate and cause diarrhea. In some cases, long-term use could cause the “benefits” to backfire and instead lead to reduced functioning, irritability, insomnia, and anxiety.
Maybe that’s what the San Francisco Chronicle meant in a recent piece on nootropics, in which they claimed that the supplements were “the latest milestone on Silicon Valley’s road to dystopia.” A bunch of anxious investors who can’t sleep and suffer from endless diarrhea? Sounds pretty dystopian to us.
If you just want an extra edge at work, stick to a proven brain supplement: coffee.
