211 replies to this topic

[tmcdonough10]

Another method I've found useful is to fill your mouth with a bit of water--maybe a bit more volume than you'd use when mouthwashing in the morning--, tilting your head upwards, and then dumping the powder onto the water before quickly swallowing.

Science Guy: I've been taking piracetam on and off for a year and, while I've read the relevant research (..or at least abstracts...) and find it to be extremely helpful, I still worry at times over what effects it might have on my brain over the long run. I know this is broad, and that piracetam is neuroprotective, but still: Maybe it's the economist in me, but I feel like all thing's have costs and benefits, risks and rewards, and I've yet to see the dark side to this moon....

[Raza]

Another method I've found useful is to fill your mouth with a bit of water--maybe a bit more volume than you'd use when mouthwashing in the morning--, tilting your head upwards, and then dumping the powder onto the water before quickly swallowing.

Ooh, I'm trying this. Thanks for the tip

The pain with piracetam is that 4.8 gram doses cost like 15 cents in 000 caps alone... that's the cost of a moderately expensive daily supplement by itself, with each dose. Kept me from daily use, even though I prefer the feeling to the other racetams.

[Crispy Cat]

The pain with piracetam is that 4.8 gram doses cost like 15 cents in 000 caps alone... that's the cost of a moderately expensive daily supplement by itself, with each dose. Kept me from daily use, even though I prefer the feeling to the other racetams.

I agree and have yet to find a bulk empty cap supplier (over 1000 per pack) and swallowing so many caps so frequently is not much fun (possible cause of stomach problems?)
.. in the end i took to weighing 5g into little sealed bags and taking them places with me... of cause this leads to strange looks at work when i pull out a bag of suspicious looking white powder and drop it into my drink!
and luckily ive not been stopped or searched by police who would probably mistake it for something far more serious

im thinking when i resume useage ill mix it with a nice bright pink strawberry protein shake powder to mask the taste and lower suspicion!

one of the things my friend mentioned is that after a few weeks you can get used to the taste of raw piracetam and he claims even enjoy it!! however thats not something im keen on trying :D

Edited by Crispy Cat, 06 October 2012 - 10:55 AM.

[manic_racetam]

Recently took a trip to Macao and decided to grab up a box of Nootropil from a local pharmacy. Cost was approximately $6USD for 90 x 800mg tablets.

I found it interesting that the recommended dosage was in fact 4.8g per day for the first few weeks. But it's suggested to drop down to a maintenance dose of 2.4g per day after that.

I found it more interesting that after 4 days of taking ~4.8g per day I was actually noticing effects from piracetam. This is after accepting defeat and thinking it was totally ineffective for me personally since I've done 3-4 week trials of diligently dosing powder each day with absolutely zero effects on cognition.

I looked at the ingredients on these tablets and there seems to be a lot of mannitol. I'm guessing the mannitol is improving delivery of the piracetam in the tablets across the blood brain barrier. So since I've still got almost a full kilo of piracetam I ordered up some mannitol from ebay and made a solution of piracetam + mannitol. I reduced it to a solid form and ground it up again.

So I've got about 100g of piracetam and mannitol mix that I plan on doing a trial with here in the next couple of days to see if mannitol is the key to piracetam efficacy for me personally. Will update when I get a chance. Attached is a scan of the insert provided with the Nootropil I bought.

 piracetam insert.jpg   248.16KB   81 downloads

[Raza]

Huh, good find.

Wiki explains:

Mannitol can also be used as a facilitating agent for the transportation of pharmaceuticals directly into the brain. The arteries of the blood–brain barrier are much more selective than normal arteries. Normally, molecules can diffuse into tissues through gaps between the endothelial cells of the blood vessels. However, what enters the brain must be much more rigorously controlled. The endothelial cells of the blood–brain barrier are connected by tight junctions, and simple diffusion through them is impossible. Rather, active transport is necessary, requiring energy, and only transporting molecules that the arterial endothelial cells have receptor signals for. Mannitol is capable of opening this barrier by temporarily shrinking the endothelial cells, simultaneously stretching the tight junctions between them.^[8] An intracarotid injection of high molarity mannitol (1.4-1.6M), causes the contents of the artery to be hyperosmotic to the cell. Water leaves the cell and enters the artery in order to recreate an osmotic equilibrium. This loss of water causes the cells to shrivel and shrink, stretching the tight junctions between the cells.^[9] The newly formed gap reaches its peak width five minutes after mannitol injection, and stays widely open for thirty minutes. During this timespan, drugs injected into the artery can easily diffuse though the gaps between cells directly into the brain.^[10] This makes mannitol indispensable for delivering various drugs directly to the brain (e.g., in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, or in chemotherapy for brain tumors.^[11]

That's... pretty useful, really. I wonder what the delay for an oral dose is. Taking this shortly before a nootropic stack may really help absorption; even substances that we consider to cross the blood-brain barrier effectively usually concentrate everywhere else by preference.

Edited by Raza, 06 October 2012 - 05:37 PM.

[8bitmore]

[...] I found it more interesting that after 4 days of taking ~4.8g per day I was actually noticing effects from piracetam. This is after accepting defeat and thinking it was totally ineffective for me personally since I've done 3-4 week trials of diligently dosing powder each day with absolutely zero effects on cognition.

I looked at the ingredients on these tablets and there seems to be a lot of mannitol. I'm guessing the mannitol is improving delivery of the piracetam in the tablets across the blood brain barrier. So since I've still got almost a full kilo of piracetam I ordered up some mannitol from ebay and made a solution of piracetam + mannitol. I reduced it to a solid form and ground it up again.

So I've got about 100g of piracetam and mannitol mix that I plan on doing a trial with here in the next couple of days to see if mannitol is the key to piracetam efficacy for me personally. Will update when I get a chance. Attached is a scan of the insert provided with the Nootropil I bought.

Good, possible!, find regarding mannitol: I am on similar bandwagon in relation to feeling Piracetam little despite trying weeks of 800mg - 9600mg on daily basis (gradually scaling up), I feel other positive effects (more stable mood/more balanced bio-rhythm (sleep..etc.)) but nothing much on the cognitive scale. Looking forwards to update on whether you succeed in replicating exp with your own mannitol/piracetam mix - another possible option would be to try and make piracetam-liposome solution (I recently suggested likewise in thread on non-IM Cerebrolysin); I might try this option out myself when I get around to ordering/receiving ultrasound machine from Amazon.

[megatron]

I started taking piracetam three days ago and been upping the dosages every day. My last dose was 7,5g piracetam + 3g choline. I've seen no improvements thus far. I'll try upping my dosage till I notice something.

Edited by Megatrone, 08 October 2012 - 01:48 PM.

[optic]

Hello guys,

It seems you are taking enormous amount of Piracetam. Unfortunately I struggle with small doses and do not know what is wrong. Could you please advice me if I am doing something wrong here? I really do not want to kill myself with this stuff.

First time I took Piracetam (2x 800mg) with ALCAR (2x 500mg) and everything was fine. I had an instant kick, which was surprising as I have read that it takes about 7-10 days to see any effects of Piracetam. Unfortunately the next day I took the same stack and ended up with headaches and sleepiness after the PM dosage. I assumed this was due to lack of choline in my body. I stopped the Piracetam experiment.

A week after once my Alpha GPC choline arrived I took the following stack:
- Piracetam (2x800mg)
- Alpha GPC (2x 300mg)
- ALCAR (2x 500mg)
- Omega-3 (1x 1000mg)
- Modafinil (1x 100mg, 2x 50 mg)

I ended up with a massive brain fog and had problems with talking (forgetting words, mumbling). At least I was not that sleepy - thanks to Modafinil I believe. Please note that I had only 1 cup of coffee in the morning that day. No tea. I also had a nicotine patch (7mg) as I am trying to stop smoking.

Edited by optic, 09 October 2012 - 12:30 PM.

[GettingThere]

So I've got about 100g of piracetam and mannitol mix that I plan on doing a trial with here in the next couple of days to see if mannitol is the key to piracetam efficacy for me personally. Will update when I get a chance. Attached is a scan of the insert provided with the Nootropil I bought.

 piracetam insert.jpg   248.16KB   81 downloads

What's the ratio of piracetam to mannitol you've mixed? This sounds like it has tremendous potential for any supplement regimen.

[GettingThere]

Pharmacology of Piracetam: http://hightowerphar...s-volume-1.html

Can anyone verify the information in this blog regarding the pharmacology of piracetam? If valid, this really is a fantastic introduction to the mechanisms of piracetam that is explained thoroughly and concisely enough for someone with no scientific education past high school like myself can understand almost all of it.

Reading it felt like all the questions I've had about piracetam over the past several months were answered one after another, so I'm really hoping this is an accurate explanation

[golden1]

Hello guys,

It seems you are taking enormous amount of Piracetam. Unfortunately I struggle with small doses and do not know what is wrong. Could you please advice me if I am doing something wrong here? I really do not want to kill myself with this stuff.

First time I took Piracetam (2x 800mg) with ALCAR (2x 500mg) and everything was fine. I had an instant kick, which was surprising as I have read that it takes about 7-10 days to see any effects of Piracetam. Unfortunately the next day I took the same stack and ended up with headaches and sleepiness after the PM dosage. I assumed this was due to lack of choline in my body. I stopped the Piracetam experiment.

A week after once my Alpha GPC choline arrived I took the following stack:
- Piracetam (2x800mg)
- Alpha GPC (2x 300mg)
- ALCAR (2x 500mg)
- Omega-3 (1x 1000mg)
- Modafinil (1x 100mg, 2x 50 mg)

I ended up with a massive brain fog and had problems with talking (forgetting words, mumbling). At least I was not that sleepy - thanks to Modafinil I believe. Please note that I had only 1 cup of coffee in the morning that day. No tea. I also had a nicotine patch (7mg) as I am trying to stop smoking.

ALCAR makes me incredibly sleepy the next day. I've posted once or twice before about it, but no one seemed to have similar effects. It could be the same for you. You also might just be taking too much choline.

[Galantamine]

Pharmacology of Piracetam: http://hightowerphar...s-volume-1.html

Can anyone verify the information in this blog regarding the pharmacology of piracetam? If valid, this really is a fantastic introduction to the mechanisms of piracetam that is explained thoroughly and concisely enough for someone with no scientific education past high school like myself can understand almost all of it.

Reading it felt like all the questions I've had about piracetam over the past several months were answered one after another, so I'm really hoping this is an accurate explanation

I think it is exceptionally accurate.

Although, I might be slightly biased since I am the author.

[GettingThere]

Pharmacology of Piracetam: http://hightowerphar...s-volume-1.html

Can anyone verify the information in this blog regarding the pharmacology of piracetam? If valid, this really is a fantastic introduction to the mechanisms of piracetam that is explained thoroughly and concisely enough for someone with no scientific education past high school like myself can understand almost all of it.

Reading it felt like all the questions I've had about piracetam over the past several months were answered one after another, so I'm really hoping this is an accurate explanation

I think it is exceptionally accurate.

Although, I might be slightly biased since I am the author.

Touche sir haha. Very nice work, your explanation really should be a must-read for anyone who posts on these forums regarding piracetam, I know I've read countless "nootropic noob questions" posts that pose questions easily answered in your post.

[Galantamine]

Touche sir haha. Very nice work, your explanation really should be a must-read for anyone who posts on these forums regarding piracetam, I know I've read countless "nootropic noob questions" posts that pose questions easily answered in your post.

Thank you.

[Pirate]

Do any of you know if there is any reason not to take agomelatine (valdoxan tone precise) with Piracetam?

I'm currently on my first week of 4.8 a day (with lions mane and no choline just yet).

[manic_racetam]

So I've got about 100g of piracetam and mannitol mix that I plan on doing a trial with here in the next couple of days to see if mannitol is the key to piracetam efficacy for me personally. Will update when I get a chance. Attached is a scan of the insert provided with the Nootropil I bought.

 piracetam insert.jpg   248.16KB   81 downloads

What's the ratio of piracetam to mannitol you've mixed? This sounds like it has tremendous potential for any supplement regimen.

I was actually having real trouble finding any information on ratios. I searched google.patent for piracetam tablet formulas but didn't come up with any ratios. I resorted to looking at any tablet formulations with mannitol and found another tablet (didn't save the link) that had 1000mg active substance and 200mg mannitol. I figured this would work. Not a very scientific approach honestly but the ratios are 100g piracetam to 20g mannitol.

I run out of tablets tomorrow so plan on starting the home-made mix after that. Will update in a few days hopefully but have been super busy lately.

[owtsgmi]

So I've got about 100g of piracetam and mannitol mix that I plan on doing a trial with here in the next couple of days to see if mannitol is the key to piracetam efficacy for me personally. Will update when I get a chance. Attached is a scan of the insert provided with the Nootropil I bought.

 piracetam insert.jpg   248.16KB   81 downloads

What's the ratio of piracetam to mannitol you've mixed? This sounds like it has tremendous potential for any supplement regimen.

I was actually having real trouble finding any information on ratios. I searched google.patent for piracetam tablet formulas but didn't come up with any ratios. I resorted to looking at any tablet formulations with mannitol and found another tablet (didn't save the link) that had 1000mg active substance and 200mg mannitol. I figured this would work. Not a very scientific approach honestly but the ratios are 100g piracetam to 20g mannitol.

I run out of tablets tomorrow so plan on starting the home-made mix after that. Will update in a few days hopefully but have been super busy lately.

Looking forward to your results!

Hello guys,

It seems you are taking enormous amount of Piracetam. Unfortunately I struggle with small doses and do not know what is wrong. Could you please advice me if I am doing something wrong here? I really do not want to kill myself with this stuff.

First time I took Piracetam (2x 800mg) with ALCAR (2x 500mg) and everything was fine. I had an instant kick, which was surprising as I have read that it takes about 7-10 days to see any effects of Piracetam. Unfortunately the next day I took the same stack and ended up with headaches and sleepiness after the PM dosage. I assumed this was due to lack of choline in my body. I stopped the Piracetam experiment.

A week after once my Alpha GPC choline arrived I took the following stack:
- Piracetam (2x800mg)
- Alpha GPC (2x 300mg)
- ALCAR (2x 500mg)
- Omega-3 (1x 1000mg)
- Modafinil (1x 100mg, 2x 50 mg)

I ended up with a massive brain fog and had problems with talking (forgetting words, mumbling). At least I was not that sleepy - thanks to Modafinil I believe. Please note that I had only 1 cup of coffee in the morning that day. No tea. I also had a nicotine patch (7mg) as I am trying to stop smoking.

The forgetfullness, mumbling could be the modafinil. I found it had definite withdrawal symptoms including brain fog, etc. I bought too much which is now collecting dust.

[dirdir207]

Any updates on the mannitol, I'm incredibly intrigued.

[greekpsychonaut]

The pain with piracetam is that 4.8 gram doses cost like 15 cents in 000 caps alone... that's the cost of a moderately expensive daily supplement by itself, with each dose. Kept me from daily use, even though I prefer the feeling to the other racetams.

I agree and have yet to find a bulk empty cap supplier (over 1000 per pack) and swallowing so many caps so frequently is not much fun (possible cause of stomach problems?)
.. in the end i took to weighing 5g into little sealed bags and taking them places with me... of cause this leads to strange looks at work when i pull out a bag of suspicious looking white powder and drop it into my drink!
and luckily ive not been stopped or searched by police who would probably mistake it for something far more serious

im thinking when i resume useage ill mix it with a nice bright pink strawberry protein shake powder to mask the taste and lower suspicion!

one of the things my friend mentioned is that after a few weeks you can get used to the taste of raw piracetam and he claims even enjoy it!! however thats not something im keen on trying :D

Replace your friends piracetam dosage with pramiracetam as a joke.

[Crispy Cat]

Replace your friends piracetam dosage with pramiracetam as a joke.

haha i dont think he would be my friend much longer!! pramiracetam is the worst!!

[greekpsychonaut]

I always talk about it because it is comically bad tasting.

[Raza]

I always talk about it because it is comically bad tasting.

Truth. Most bad-tasting things have either an awful taste or a vile odour, but prami combines intense bitterness with just a whiff of fishy 'off'-ness to impressive effect.

[greekpsychonaut]

Yup. Time to write a funny story about it.

[NilsOlav]

I notice huge changes just from taking 1-2 grams daily. You do not need to take 4.8 grams; all of those studies were done on people with real medical issues.

[deh707]

I notice huge changes just from taking 1-2 grams daily. You do not need to take 4.8 grams; all of those studies were done on people with real medical issues.

I agree. I've been taking Piracetam for 5 months straight now. When I started, effects were only noticeable at 2g minimum. When I bumped into this thread 1 month ago, the 4.8g dosages were even better.

However, over the past 2 weeks, anything over 1.6g is counterproductive for me, resulting in lethargy.

Lately, I've been sticking to 800mg-1g, 3x a day, with stronger effects than ever.

I guess when enough piracetam has been cycling in your body over an amount of time, it's best to stick to standard or lower dosages.

[Major Legend]

Recently took a trip to Macao and decided to grab up a box of Nootropil from a local pharmacy. Cost was approximately $6USD for 90 x 800mg tablets.

I found it interesting that the recommended dosage was in fact 4.8g per day for the first few weeks. But it's suggested to drop down to a maintenance dose of 2.4g per day after that.

I found it more interesting that after 4 days of taking ~4.8g per day I was actually noticing effects from piracetam. This is after accepting defeat and thinking it was totally ineffective for me personally since I've done 3-4 week trials of diligently dosing powder each day with absolutely zero effects on cognition.

I looked at the ingredients on these tablets and there seems to be a lot of mannitol. I'm guessing the mannitol is improving delivery of the piracetam in the tablets across the blood brain barrier. So since I've still got almost a full kilo of piracetam I ordered up some mannitol from ebay and made a solution of piracetam + mannitol. I reduced it to a solid form and ground it up again.

So I've got about 100g of piracetam and mannitol mix that I plan on doing a trial with here in the next couple of days to see if mannitol is the key to piracetam efficacy for me personally. Will update when I get a chance. Attached is a scan of the insert provided with the Nootropil I bought.

 piracetam insert.jpg   248.16KB   81 downloads

Interesting! I am currently living in Hong Kong, Macao is only a boat ride away! Do you roughly remember where the pharmacy was? Next to which casino?

[manic_racetam]

Recently took a trip to Macao and decided to grab up a box of Nootropil from a local pharmacy. Cost was approximately $6USD for 90 x 800mg tablets.
 piracetam insert.jpg   248.16KB   81 downloads

Interesting! I am currently living in Hong Kong, Macao is only a boat ride away! Do you roughly remember where the pharmacy was? Next to which casino?

Surprised you can't find piracetam in any Hong Kong pharmacy. Most pharmacies in China carried it. I doubt you'd need to take the ferry over there. But if you are really interested it was a smallish pharmacy near the facade. If you are starting at the bottom of the hill walking up the main tourist walk-ing road towards the facade (you know the street where they have all the cookies and beef jerky they're shoving into peoples mouths? that one), you'll notice a large two-story pharmacy/drug-store. The people in that one are not very friendly and looked at me real weird when I asked how much a box of nicergoline was.

So I wouldn't suggest going in there. If you keep walking towards the facade there is another pharmacy/chemist that is in a much smaller shop about 200 meters up from the first one. I believe the sign was green with white Chinese characters. It's on the right side of the street if you're heading uphill. They have piracetam in there. I was buying metformin as well and he asked who it was for, I told him it was for my grandpa. He said it was prescription only but still sold me the tablets.

But if you haven't already done it I'd check a few pharmacies in Hong Kong, I'd be really surprised if they didn't have it, it seems pretty common in Asia. Might be worth looking around, would save you $40US on the ferry ride. In traditional and simplified Chinese piracetam is 吡拉西坦. I don't speak cantonese at all but in mandarin it's bǐ lā xī tǎn (might not help much in HK)

If all else fails you can print it out and show them.

[dirdir207]

Any update on the mannitol?

[SuperjackDid_]

I have Piracetam more than a KG ,but how to use it without irritability issue ,i have to use Piracetam out quickly before it will get expired ,please tell me why ,how to consume Piracetam in larger dose .

[killshot]

Challenge Accepted!

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