Nootropic Smoothie - Thoughts and Experiences Please!

[volatile]

Short term, probably not. However, are you only planning to live a few more years. If so, it hardly seems worth the effort of improving your memory. Personally, I concentrate less on gross memory and more on understanding what I need to know. In that way, I can derive what I need in short order and as Iuse the ideas more the overall knowledge improves.
Ethics committees are not standardised and can only act on what information they are given and what their background knowledge is. At least in a clinical trial, there should be medical supervision. In the privacy of your own home, there's no-one to effectively manage adverse reactions.

Thanks, Graham. You're right about the need for focussed study. But let me put it this way - thinking is what I do for a living. Right now, short term cognitive benefit would greatly benefit me in the short term, which would produce long-term benefits for my career. I'm writing a thesis - if I could increase my concentration and memory above normal, it would arguably result in a better piece of work, with consequent improvements in my career prospects. In this framework, short-term gain has long-term benefits which might well override any "risk".

In terms of medical supervision, do you suggest I speak to my GP in advance?

In any case, aside from the practical consequences I think I'm willing to try this purely because it's interesting. If human beings can increase their cognitive function through the ingestion of readily-available compounds, doesn't that have some quite profound questions to pose in terms of how all of us relate to education and knowledge?

 

[Graham Jackman]

Thanks, Graham. You're right about the need for focussed study. But let me put it this way - thinking is what I do for a living. Right now, short term cognitive benefit would greatly benefit me in the short term, which would produce long-term benefits for my career. I'm writing a thesis - if I could increase my concentration and memory above normal, it would arguably result in a better piece of work, with consequent improvements in my career prospects. In this framework, short-term gain has long-term benefits which might well override any "risk".

In terms of medical supervision, do you suggest I speak to my GP in advance?

In any case, aside from the practical consequences I think I'm willing to try this purely because it's interesting. If human beings can increase their cognitive function through the ingestion of readily-available compounds, doesn't that have some quite profound questions to pose in terms of how all of us relate to education and knowledge?

The big word is "if". As one, who bashed out a Ph.D. thesis on a portable typewriter on his lap, more than 30 years ago, I found that the most important point is to get one's ideas straight. Start at the end with the point you are trying to make and then work towards that. Most of it was written as I walked to and from work over the Longfellow Bridge, which allowed me to craft the sentences properly. I don't write sentences that I can't speak out loud.