Awesome post, bmud.
It sounds like you're a few months ahead of me in nootropic experimentation, and your guidance is greatly appreciated. You're also a year ahead of me professionally: I'm a 2L (second-year law student for the non-legalites). I also have a script for Adderall (started in January) and so far it's done wonders for me. In fact, my experience with Adderall is what led me to this world of nootropics in the first place. I've had a few cognitive deficits, and Adderall helped for a few of them--but not others. It boosted my focus, attention span, creative thinking, big-picture analysis--but I still had trouble remembering people's names, recalling simple words, and had difficulty following instructions. I've always been a curious person and the Adderall made me even more curious - what was going on in my brain?
The mechanism of Adderall is not fully understood. Everyone knows amphetamines cause catecholamine (dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine) release, so they're common in studying the adrenergic and dopaminergic systems. But they aren't agonists of dopamine or adrenergic receptors. They may activate the Trace Amino-Acid Receptor (TAAR1)
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/18083911 (which actually reduces their effects) and they certainly modulate dopamine release and uptake:
http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/19244097 . The TAAR1 receptor is interesting, BTW - it was only discovered in humans in the past decade and appears to be very important to neurotransmitter modulation (it's also a receptor for PEA and tyramine).
A bit about me (since this is my first real post):
-25 years old
-Academically successful (this isn't the place to brag, but I know what I'm capable of and I want to take advantage of my brainpower). I've also chosen a career where my mind is my biggest asset and I haven't been at the top of my game.
-History of chemical imbalance (childhood rage episodes), treated by HRI Pfeiffer Treatment Center (orthomolecular therapy) with vitamin and mineral supplements. Need 100-150mg Zinc/day to maintain reference plasma levels.
-Always had a slightly obsessive personality. Sometimes wish I had OCD so that I'd keep a tidier apartment.
-Developed anxiety, depressive symptoms around age 19 (but don't fit into any DSM diagnosis).
-Experienced attention problems, short-term memory deficits for past 2 years
My experience led me to see a neurologist about my short-term memory (my insurance lets me see specialists without referrals). He pegged B12 and/or thyroid. My follow-up is Monday; perhaps I'll report back. I was already supplementing with SAMe, a B complex, Zinc, Magnesium, and some other things for a few months, and nootropics for a few weeks. I started sublingual B12 as soon as I could. It seems to be helping. And (before the healthcare bill passed) I got a $2000 MRI on a $2.5 million 3-Tesla machine. The radiologist's report said everything looked normal, so my memory deficits are probably not due to some injury or degenerative disease. (On Thursday I'll get to see my own brain in 3D at <1mm spatial resolution on my computer, which is pretty damn cool.)
Long-term, like everyone else here, I want to prevent aging and neurodegenerative disease. Both my grandfathers suffered from vascular dementia. One is alive and the other died several years ago. Physically they had some issues but their mental states led to physical deterioration. They both almost certainly had transient ischemic attacks that led to their conditions. It's sad to see genius disappear like that. Both were brilliant men. It's just a reminder that all the nootropics in the world can't save you from poor cardiovascular health. Both had been prescribed Aricept (donepezil) at some point and it didn't seem to help. But maybe more cholinergics would have done something...
In the short term, I want to accomplish three things with nootropics: (There are some other things I'd like to do with supplements and lifestyle, but that's for another thread/subforum.)
1) Improve short-term memory and verbal recall.
2) Reverse amphetamine tolerance/potentiate the Adderall. If I can get the same results you do, maybe I won't need it...
3) Prevent amphetamine-induced neurotoxicity and neurotoxicity in general.
My already obsessive personality (and seven-month interest-free credit card) led me to purchase almost every known nootropic (even the Russian ones!). The only things I haven't bought are MAO-A inhibitors, since I'm also on an SSRI (since August). I just got my Lion's Mane today... it will be interesting to see the results.
More details:
1) Improve short-term memory and verbal recall: methyl-B12, N-Acetyl Carnitine, and L-Methylfolate have really helped, I think. Yesterday I remembered a security guard's name - I met him over a month ago and hadn't talked to him since. But I only had to talk to him yesterday because I forgot to take my wallet with me when I left my apartment! So I'm getting there. In social situations it's embarrassing because I can't remember people's names after I meet them. I remember almost every other detail, but not their names.
My anomia is interesting: it applies to all kinds of proper nouns. For example, I remember drugs by their generic name, but not their brand name (I always remember "amphetamines" and "methylphenidate," for example, but have trouble coming up with "Adderall" and "Ritalin" - even though I've known about Ritalin since 4th grade and Adderall since high school). At the very worst of my memory deficits I'd forget my best friends' names. When I visit my parents, I call both their cats "cat."
My folate levels are high so i might be able to cut back. I know the 'folate debate' has been raging recently. It's unlikely that I have cancer now, but I want to be safe. (Maybe I should have asked for a full-body MRI, ha.)
2) Amphetamine tolerance reversal/potentiation: Most of the peripheral effects have subsided (thankfully, no more "amphetamine dick"), but the central effects have also subsided. When I started Adderall, I had a hypomanic episode that was the most productive and educational three weeks of my entire life. I learned more in those three weeks than I had learned in the previous two years. I won't go into details because it might identify me, but it suffices to say that I learned about diverse subject matter. I don't want to be hypomanic all the time, but I can feel the Adderall having less of an effect than it did a few weeks ago, even after I "came down" from the hypomania. I'd rather not increase the dose (I'm at 30mg XR in the morning and 15mg IR in the late afternoon). I might make another thread on this - there's a thread that's been circulating for a few years about NMDA antagonists and sodium channel stabilizers, and I hope to be able to contribute. I've only been using magnesium (500 mg/day) but mostly at night to avoid taking it with calcium-containing supplements. I'm moving some of the magnesium to the morning now to see what happens. For those concerned: yes, I'm seeing a good psychiatrist. He reduced my SSRI dose when I was hypomanic and that brought me back to earth.
3) Amphetamine-induced neurotoxicity. Anyone who knows about this, please chime in. There's definitely a trade-off between neuroplasticity and protection from damage. I have yet to try deprenyl (got plenty) and if it works, I plan on switching to rasagiline once it goes generic, sometime in 2014. Does it have the same benefits, or is there something benefit to deprenyl besides MAO-B inhibition?
I'll post more about my stack sometime in the future, once I get some things settled...
LongeCity
