Personally I can't drink or smoke the weed anymore. LOL. Experienced pretty severe alcohol addiction for a number of years and am finally getting back to near where I used to be. Can't take any supplements that mess with GABA receptors too much either, even picamilon caused a bit of alcohol cravings and I had to stop taking it. Didn't have any trouble with bacopa though, except for the sleepiness.
Noopept has been a pretty sweet ride. It's literally been the only thing I've found with lasting benefits. Like I said above the subjective "serenity" I initially got from mega-dosing has never returned. I usually take a month or longer break between Noopept cycles and now just take 30mg in the morning when I'm using it. Have been on the current cycle for almost two weeks and it's' going great. Most differences I notice are motivation to start and complete projects. Just finished a pretty sweet art project that took me over 40 hours and a bit longer than a week to finish. Over the last year I've consistently accomplished things I set out to do.
There are a number of factors involved that aren't necessarily correlated with Noopept. Abstinence from alcohol is a big factor, also Stablon that I've been taking for a year now could have something to do with the benefits I've received. But the Noopept is what helped me realize I was depressed in the first place. So it's all interconnected.
Too bad everyone doesn't react as positively as I do to the stuff. I'm guessing it has to do with specific gene variations in people that cause such a dramatic difference in effects. Hard to tell.
It's been a real trip though, to come from a place of knowing almost nothing about this seemingly exotic russian di-peptide, to having it incorporated into my regular supplement regimen and having a pretty accurate understanding of it (hopefully at least).
I think the warning via noopept.com about people with pre-existing hypertension should be taken seriously. Had my dad start taking it hoping to help with his cognitive decline, related either to aging or his 20 year long infection with Lyme's disease. And his blood pressure rose almost 40 points in a matter of three days taking just 10mg with breakfast. So I told him to stop taking it. I think regular BP readings should be taken when starting any new supplement.
Noopept is designed in Russia to be taken orally (swallowed).
This post explains my reasoning on that, and was confirmed by a native Russian speaker later. I still think swallowing the stuff is the best method for taking Noopept. If it's not working orally I don't see a problem trying it sublingually but am still fairly certain sublingual administration increases chances for side effects in sensitive individuals.
I'd say moderate additional choline intake wouldn't be a bad idea if taking noopept for extended periods of time. Nothing over-board, just an extra gram or so of choline citrate per day (or less if it causes over-cholination type side effects) should be fine. That's based on personal experience and not really backed by any studies I've got links to at the moment. When I did the 2 weeks of 200mg a day I found that 300mg of Alpha-GPC basically fixed all the side effects I was experiencing. So in a very non-scientific way I'd say that moderate choline throughout would be a good idea to avoid side effects when using long term.
And I'd agree with Mr. Happy's postulation that the one month break recommended by the manufacturer is likely to avoid down-regulation of TrkB.
Post with links to studies.
Need a scale accurate to the mg when dosing Noopept. It's a very small dose and the powder doesn't like to stay uniform. Even after putting it through a coffee grinder and keeping it in a container with desiccants it seems to clump up again on it's own.
Getting around using a scale is difficult. Noopept isn't very soluble in water and if you do manage to dissolve a gram in 1 liter of water it's susceptible to
hydrolysis How long it takes to degrade to a substantially lower potency I don't know, but long term storage would be a problem.
It's highly soluble in alcohol, but it's difficult to find edible forms of alcohol over 40-50%. And any amount of water would still cause hydrolysis (I would think so at least). So unless you had 100% ethyl alcohol (non-denatured) an alcohol solution wouldn't be a stable long term solution for volumetric dosing either. Propylene glycol wouldn't be a bad choice as long as it was not exposed to air for too long (to avoid absorption of humidity in the air).
But seriously, a .001g scale is around 20 bucks including shipping (amazon). Not a bad investment if you plan on dealing with bulk powders on a regular basis.
Totally done ranting, lol. If there are any inconsistencies or incorrect interpretation of data that anyone notices in this post I'd love to hear about it. Thanks