1 reply to this topic

[snickersonnootropics]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and I've recently started taking a few nootropics. I took some noopept a few weeks ago but I'll talk about that in another topic.

I'm writing this because I currently have pretty severe brain fog and I wonder if it's mercury poisoning.

I probably did the classic newbie mistake of taking a few formulas instead of specific ingredients.

My current stack is:

Jarrow Formulas: Neuro Optimizer (4 x day)

- 500 mg Acetyl L-Carnitine 

- 500 mg L-Glutamine

- 500 mg Taurine

- 300 mg Cytidine 5'-diphosphocholine (CDP Choline)

- 120 mg Phosphatidylcholine

- 100mg Phosphatidylserine

- 50 mg Alpha Lipoic Acid

 

Omega 3 Fish Oil (2 x day)

- 640mg Omega 3 Fatty Acids

- 360 EPA

- 240 DHA

 

A B - 50 complex (from source naturals)

 

Bacopa (3 x day)

- 100 mg Bacopa

 

I take these for 5 days (some days with noopept some days without) in the 4th day I started to have a bit of brain fog. In the 5th day the brain fog has gotten worse.

I believe there are 2 possible scenarios:

1. I've read that alpha lipoic acid (i take 4 x 50 mg.day) can move mercury throughout the body and cross the blood brain barrier and deposit in the brain and leave it there after ALA reaches it's halflife. I don't have any mercury amalgams (dentistry) and don't have any record of high mercury but maybe ALA poisoned my brain with Hg. 

2. Too much choline

 

As you can see, I'm a newb when considering nootropics. I want to start with chemical ones like piracetam, aniracetam and experiments with noopept and modafinil but I wanted to start slow and develop from here. Right now, I have difficulty concentrating and I am pretty worried (as most newbies are). I hope it don't have Hg poisoning. Could it be excess acetylcholine?

 

Thanks for your help!

Edited by snickersonnootropics, 21 October 2014 - 01:29 PM.

[TiredAt45]

Unless you have a known source of mercury intake such as amalgam fillings or a recent history of eating fish suspected of carrying mid-high levels of Hg, Occam's Razor would suggest looking at the most obvious variables, which are the large amount of supplements and drugs you are putting into your body.

 

The habits of people on this forum are often extremely unscientific.  Take a new drug/supplement, along with 20 other things, plus on/off twiddling with 2-3 other drugs/supplements, then try to deduce the effects of the new drugs.  Then, when something weird happens, suspect something completely tangential...  Makes me wonder at a very deep level about the actual efficacy of any nootropics considering how little rigorous logic gets applied here.

 

How can such haphazard experimentation lead to any meaningful data?

 

Consider stopping all supplements for 1-2 weeks, unless there is a clear medical basis for taking them.  Such as, in my case, vitamin D and potassium are low per several blood tests.  Then, with variables controlled and a baseline established, try only the single substance or synergistic combo that interests you while logging relevant parameters such as mental clarity, etc., for some logically chosen duration of time, without messing around with any other stuff during that time.  Then go back to baseline.  Then and only then, draw some conclusions, prefaced by the fact that you have only your subjective perceptions to go on.

 

Then maybe, just maybe, you will have something objective.

 

That said, the levels of choline you are taking with the Jarrow's concoction does seem to be on the high side.

 

Finally, what kind of omega-3 supplement are you taking?  Is it known to be among the very highest quality?  Note that it is nearly impossible to be sure with any of these things whether they are clean of Hg or other toxins and/or even if they are what they are advertised to be.  Even if there is a cert. of analysis (COA) you don't know for sure if it's 1. legit. vs. fabricated, 2. lot tracking is accurate, 3. methodologically sound, 4. representative of your particular sample, etc. unless you analyse the damn stuff yourself.  A very high barrier to certainty, I realize.  The point is just that there are many uncertainties.

 

Good luck.

Edited by TiredAt45, 22 November 2014 - 01:35 AM.