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Silicon Valley’s Eating Up Super Ritalin. I Got the Best of It.
thedailybeast.com ^ | May 27, 2015 | Dan McCarthy

Posted on 05/27/2015 7:02:03 AM PDT by PROCON

Nootropics, the new staple ‘brain enhancers’ in Silicon Valley that purport to increase productivity and perception, exist in an unregulated legal gray area in the U.S. In Colombia, you can pick up even the shadiest kinds over the counter. I did just that.

In the months before a recent trip to Colombia, off to visit an expat friend living there, I had been hearing about nootropics. Or “smart drugs,” as they’re referred to. Brain enhancers. Mental magic.

Depending on which site you’ve read that’s proclaimed them the new “It” drug for bio-hackers of every stripe, all roads lead to the same place. Namely, there is a blossoming cottage industry of wholly non-FDA approved pills and powders that everyone from Wall Street titans to Silicon Valley geniuses have been using to augment their lives.

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: brainenhancers; drugs; eht; mentalsteroids; nerium; nootropics; ritalin; siliconvalley; smartdrug; smartdrugs
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It was just a matter of time.

Mental steroids, what could possibly go wrong?

It might kill us all, but if it’s a placebo effect, it’s a good one.

Right....a good one.

1 posted on 05/27/2015 7:02:03 AM PDT by PROCON
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To: PROCON

There’s a Bradley Cooper movie about something like it, I think.


2 posted on 05/27/2015 7:04:00 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: PROCON

Sounds...groovy.


3 posted on 05/27/2015 7:17:55 AM PDT by Buttons12
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To: PROCON

Lasts 6 hours? As long as it’s over by my mandatory afternoon naptime.


4 posted on 05/27/2015 7:18:59 AM PDT by moovova
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To: PROCON

Gotta wonder about long term effects, the possibility of self-inflicted insanity, the possibility of both of these things on the job.


5 posted on 05/27/2015 7:20:28 AM PDT by BlackAdderess ("Give me a but a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth". --Archimedes)
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To: PROCON

My wife works for Nerium. It was focused on skin creams that could effectively make you look ten years (or much more) younger. It is $110 a month and actually a very natural product. It is also sold via MLM.

I let her do her thing even though I’m not a fan of MLM’s. But a funny thing happened. Her customers became kind of addicted to the stuff because it WORKED.

But still, I wasn’t that interested because it was a “looks based” product.

Then, this month, they came out with something called EHT. It costs $30 a month. It’s also natural and is supposed to be a brain enhancer of sorts in that it “repairs synopses” or some such stuff. They tell you to give it a month to notice the effects.

So my wife and I started taking it 11 days ago. We are both 61 and I’ve battled ADD (or ADHD) my whole life but never taken drugs for it.

A weird thing happened. I won’t go into detail but since nobody here knows me, I’ll just tell you that our sex life dramatically improved (not that it sucked). And then my wife gets a message from one of her partners in the business that went something like this: My husband want’s to know what that was all about last night and can he expect more of the same in the future. Yeah, it was about sex.

And then we noticed that I got an entire weekend’s worth of stuff done by noon last Saturday.

And then at work I’ve always been a bit scatterbrained and had a hard time focusing even though my employers have always thought I was smart. But since FRIDAY I’ve been incredibly focused and organized, coming up with several ways to keep track of all the pokers I’ve got in the fire.

Something’s going on...and I LIKE it.


6 posted on 05/27/2015 7:26:48 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: cuban leaf

BTW, another odd side effect was we had a strong rainstorm and I was unwinding by playing “Command and Conquer generals zero hour” at the highest difficulty and it was almost boringly easy. That just hit me a few minutes ago.

I played a few skirmishes very quickly, bored of it and went on to my recording and other music related stuff.


7 posted on 05/27/2015 7:30:20 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: cuban leaf

” It’s also natural and is supposed to be a brain enhancer of sorts in that it “repairs synopses” or some such stuff.”

It’s a supplement derived from a coffee extract.


8 posted on 05/27/2015 7:31:14 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: cuban leaf

It’s coffee+

“Here are all of the ingredients you’ll find in Nerium EHT:

— Vitamins B6, B12, D3, and Folic Acid
— Magnesium Citrate
— Selenium
— Huperzine A
— Lipoic Acid
— Dicalcium Phosphate
— EHT
— Silica, Magnesium Stearate, Stearic Acid, Croscarmellose Sodium, Microcrystalline Cellulose, And A Capsule Coating Made From Titanium Dioxide, Polyvinyl Alcohol, Macrogol, Vanillin, And Talc.

When someone talks about EHT, they could be talking about the overall supplement that includes all of the ingredients listed above. Or they could be talking about the EHT extract itself. That EHT extract is derived from coffee.”
http://supplementpolice.com/nerium-eht/


9 posted on 05/27/2015 7:33:37 AM PDT by dynoman (Objectivity is the essence of intelligence. - Marylin vos Savant)
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To: dynoman

Exactly.

It’s natural. And if you want to know about coffee and cancer, go to youtube and watch “The Beautiful Truth”. Several years AFTER watching that movie we became acquainted with a woman who had stage four breast cancer and used ONLY the treatment in that movie - and is now cancer free for several years.

What works, works.

What is expensive, is expensive.


10 posted on 05/27/2015 7:38:37 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: dynoman

BTW, when my wife first got into Nerium, I read a LOT about it on the internet and decided it was poison. But I had to dig deeper to see what was REALLY going on. There were a LOT of posts and sites put up by their competitors. And when your competitor has an army of MLM folks, they can be a formidable internet presence. Eventually the results spoke for themself.


11 posted on 05/27/2015 7:40:35 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: cuban leaf
Thanks for the review.

I'm a few years older than you and have noticed over the years that my mental concentration and acuity ain't what it used to be.

I'm going to explore these products to see if it will work for me.

Did you notice any negative side-effects?

12 posted on 05/27/2015 7:48:22 AM PDT by PROCON (CRUZing into 2016 with Ted.)
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To: PROCON

Screw the FDA (and the DEA). It’s nobody’s business what goes into my body unless and until I cause harm to someone else.


13 posted on 05/27/2015 7:50:27 AM PDT by RedStateRocker (Nuke Mecca, deport all illegal aliens, abolish the IRS, DEA and ATF.)
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To: cuban leaf

Send me a pallet...


14 posted on 05/27/2015 7:52:31 AM PDT by null and void (In a world where lies and propaganda masquerade freely as truth, communication is everything.)
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To: PROCON

The article is about Provigil (generically known as Modafinil). It is a prescription drug in the US, but available over the counter in other countries.


15 posted on 05/27/2015 7:56:26 AM PDT by BeauBo
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BFL


16 posted on 05/27/2015 7:58:39 AM PDT by Lurkina.n.Learnin (It's a shame nobama truly doesn't care about any of this. Our country, our future, he doesn't care)
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To: BeauBo

For anyone curious about his drug, I’m qualified to comment. In fact, I took modafinil this morning. I have narcolepsy, and have taken a number of different drugs (all legally), including Ritalin and methamphetamine. My own experience is that it does help me stay awake (although nothing will keep me awake in meetings, not even modafinil), and it does enhance overall alertness.

All of these drugs have a tolerance effect for me, so that they become less effective. Modafinil supposedly does not have a tolerance effect, but it does for me, so I stay off of it as much as possible, so that it will be more effective when I actually need it the most.

There are side effects for me: dry mouth, irritability when the medicine wears off, and fragmented, restless sleep the night after I’ve taken the drug. Also, I find that it has a muting effect on emotions. As an example, I’m much less inclined to want to laugh (or even have the sensation of humor) during a funny movie.


17 posted on 05/27/2015 8:28:15 AM PDT by Texan Tory
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To: PROCON

None. But it’s only 11 days in. It’s pretty natural stuff so the main risk is that it does nothing.

It’s kinda weird. I feel no different except there is a bit of a more positive attitude about everything.


18 posted on 05/27/2015 8:57:46 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: PROCON
Just read an article yesterday about Schmilk, an energy drink, that Silicon Valley types are drinking so they can work without having to take a lunch break.

Unbelievable.

19 posted on 05/27/2015 9:07:29 AM PDT by Lizavetta
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To: PROCON

Revved up until you need to sleep to refuel - and the people don’t get enough sleep, causing over-dependance on caffeine and the new drugs as their performance degrades.

And that’s assuming the stimulants in the nootropics aren’t as dangerous for your heart as diet supplements that are stimulants.


20 posted on 05/27/2015 9:11:48 AM PDT by tbw2
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