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What I learned gathering nootropic ratings (2022)

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Re: What I learned gathering nootropic ratings (2022)

#4
time to put a pebble on the pile of anecdotal evidence for exercise as a life-changing nootropic. for two years now I've been doing 20 minutes of resistance training and 20 minutes of cardio every day and it helps so much with everything that its reached a point where my wife will flat out tell me "go lift" if I'm being irritable or having a hard time focusing.

Re: What I learned gathering nootropic ratings (2022)

#6

Another win for exercising. It's crazy to me how many people have miserable health, complain about their body and mental state endlessly, but still put up any roadblock they can think of to avoid exercising of any form.

It's bad habits from a younger age. I remember in my 20s, I didn't need to exercise at all and yet my body felt perfect. And so was my mental health. It was after several years of sedentary lifestyle that it clicked for me that my health was declining and exercise was needed to restore it. I suspect this could be the case for many: you don't need exercise and your body remains in a tip top shape when you are young.

Re: What I learned gathering nootropic ratings (2022)

#7
The tl;dr is:

1. Apart from ADHD medications, which are very powerful, most drugs and weird obscure supplements have little effect (there are some intriguing but noisy results about peptides).

2. Exercise— especially weightlifting and HIIT— is also very powerful. There's evidence of a dose-response curve where light exercise is good but intense is better.

Arguably this is pretty unsurprising, from an evolutionary perspective. It would be strange if our brains had "one weird trick" to perform a lot better with no downsides, since if it existed evolution should've found it. But being in good shape confers large benefits.

Re: What I learned gathering nootropic ratings (2022)

#9

Another win for exercising. It's crazy to me how many people have miserable health, complain about their body and mental state endlessly, but still put up any roadblock they can think of to avoid exercising of any form.

I have chronic fatigue problems, which exercise exacerbates. I swim 3 times a week, but have to carefully regulate the intensity or it triggers post-exertional malaise.

The exercise is important for my general health but it isn't positively correlated with my cognitive functioning. Quite the opposite.

Re: What I learned gathering nootropic ratings (2022)

#10

Another win for exercising. It's crazy to me how many people have miserable health, complain about their body and mental state endlessly, but still put up any roadblock they can think of to avoid exercising of any form.

I think the big road block for many people is that exercise itself also hurts?

I know that is a hurdle I have with my kids. They complain that jogging/running hurts. It is hard to convince people that that never really changes, and that it also hurts for the people that are doing it every day. Obviously acute pains are a different thing, but there is a reason recovery is a vital part of exercise. We all have to recover from pushing limits. You can't expand your limits without pushing, though.

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