Limitless Mindset

Hey mate, trying to get Modafinil in the UK can be a bloody pain in the arse, can't it?

Just kidding, I'm an American and won't be trying to emulate your parlance anymore, but I do live in Europe so I understand the frustration of dealing with layers of persnickety rules, regulations, and VAT taxes.

The good news is that Modafinil is worth it. As challenging and expensive as it may be to get your hands on Modafinil, if it's conducive to your neurobiology, it yields a return on investment.A friend of mine, who is a pretty successful business owner, told me that he makes at least an extra six figures a year because of his Eugeroics habit.It is the smart drug that the godfather of Biohacking, Dave Asprey used while he was simultaneously getting his degree at Warton and becoming a millionaire working in a tech start-up.

The last paragraph contained an if and it's an important if; Modafinil does not work for everyone. I would say, based on my informal research talking to hundreds of Biohackers and reading thousands of anecdotes and reports from smart drug users online, that Modafinil disappoints about half the people that try it, but for the other half it makes a difference, and enables many to kick-ass and run the world - quite literally, President Obama and Hillary Clinton both used it. They certainly aren't my favorite politicians, but it says a lot that this is the smart drug that could be found in the inner sanctums of political power.I can't guarantee that it's going to work for you, but considering the upside, it's well worth trying if you can afford it.

If you're a Brit with a keen sense of philosophically robust freedom, you perhaps have a bit of healthy paranoia about going to a general practitioner or local pharmacy for drugs. It seems to me that the UK is transforming inevitably into a totalitarian "healthcare" state, call me a conspiracy theorist but in a country where the government tries to monitor your every word and deed and with CCTV cameras and draconian digital cyber snooping I would not want myself red-flagged as a user of high end, performance-enhancing drugs.At some inevitable point in the future insurance companies, hospitals, and the NHS will want to quantify risk by profiling you based on your genes and the wealth of information in the data footprint you've made online.If you have too many red flags in your profile, you may have your insurance rates raised, need to pay a higher price or be sent to the back of the line for healthcare that you crucially need.We're in similar straits on the other side of the pond, which is why I buy Modafinil anonymously using cryptocurrency and have it delivered to an address unassociated with my name.

Perhaps you disagree with my politics and perhaps I'm more paranoid of Big Brother than I need to be, but isn't it nice to know that if you want to, you can get this powerful cognitive enhancer without anyone knowing?

By my estimation, RUPharma.com is one of the best sources of Modafinil if you as a British Biohacker value anonymity, quality, and reliability.

Making Your Selection

If you're brand new to Modafinil you may be confused by all the different names and designations, I'll try to simplify that for you. Three specific drugs fall into the broader category of Eurogics

* Adrafinil

* Modafinil

* Armodafinil

The first one Adrafinil I do NOT recommend. It does not work very well, I would barely call it a smart drug and it causes liver damage in the long term. For all the negatives of Adrafinil, I'm amazed at how many smart drug users I come across who say they ordered and used it; the only reason why that I can think of is that it's quite cheap. So you get what you are paying for.Modafinil is the most popular and probably the one you should use. It has an R-isomer and an S-isomer. The standard Modafinil dosage is 200 milligrams, although some people find that overstimulating. If you're particularly sensitive to stimulants cut the capsule in half.Armodafinil just contains the R-isomer, some argue that it's the better smart drug because

* It's more potent

* The effect is longer-lasting

* Its dosage is lower - 150 milligrams vs 200 milligrams

If you can afford it I'd encourage you to try both, some people find Armodafinil to be a major improvement but some people like my brother find it overstimulating.

Duration of Effect

Perhaps the most significant factor in deciding between the two is how long the effect lasts. The official purpose of Modafinil is NOT as a smart drug, it's as a wakefulness agent for Narcoleptics, so it will likely prevent sleep for up to 20 hours while it's in your system. Armodafinil has an even longer half-life of effect.Your mileage will vary though, but in general, you want to do these drugs very early in the morning of a very long day and plan to practice some good sleep hacks...

* Avoid bright screens and fluorescent lights. Hang out in a darkened room.

* No caffeine after noon.

* Practice non-stimulatory thinking for 60-90 minutes before bed.

* Drink my favorite sleep cocktail of apple cider vinegar and honey.

Otherwise, your sleep quality may crater or you may end up spending just hours in bed tossing and turning.

Selecting Quality

Modafinil differs from a lot of Nootropics in that it ultimately comes from just a few sources. It's different from, say, the Racetams which are produced in hundreds of different labs around the world, or Nutriceuticals which are grown on organic farms or picked from nature. With many hundreds of sources of these Nootropics as you can imagine there is a real spectrum of quality and you should demand a COA verifying >97% purity otherwise, you don't know what you're getting. With Modafinil, in contrast, the quality depends upon the brand.Two corporations produce branded pharmaceutical-grade Modafinil.Sun PharmaceuticalHAB PharmaceuticalsThis is where the Modafinil comes from which is used by the French Air Force, F-117 pilots, and US military snipers.

Expense

It's a bit more expensive than using Racetams, Adaptogens, or Nutriceuticals, a pill of Modafinil comes to about £2 and that will be, for most, a daily dose, if you need to have a kickass day. With a few exceptions when it comes to Biohacking and smart drugs, again, you get what you pay for.

Experiential

I've personally done Modafinil over a hundred times now and I can NOT for the life of me tell an experiential difference between MODALERT and MODVIGIL but there is a notable difference between these and the Armodafinil brands ARTVIGIL and WAKLERT. Armodafinil is more intense, you'll be more myopically focused on whatever is in front of you.The body sensations are about the same with both Modafinil and Armodafinil, they are subtle; it doesn't make you feel like dancing to techno or deadlifting weights. You'll be perfectly content to sit in front of a computer for 9 hours and work on a complicated problem although you may notice you're getting sweaty, even if you're not doing something that's physically excruciating.

Lifehacker Usage Ideas

Some very successful and happy people use Modafinil 5 days a week but they are in the minority of Lifehacker users of the drug - which is otherwise healthy people who are using it as a performance enhancer instead of people trying to treat their narcolepsy. I recommend using it just a few times a week, definitely not more than three, this is because it has a significant tolerance curve.The first time you do Modafinil you'll likely think, hell yeah, I'm never going off this stuff! But if you do it on consecutive days or more than just a few times a week you'll quickly run into diminishing returns and the stuff is kind of expensive so you want to get the optimum bang for your buck (or pound) from it.

A couple of ways that I use it...

Travel days

Days spent on planes, trains, and buses for me are always a weird combination of boredom and anxiety. Probably like yourself, I bring a book and a couple of good podcasts to listen to but at the same time, I try to remain vigilant of the environment around me. Over 5 yea…

A building block of several neurotransmitters that play a key role in a Limitless Mindset; dopamine, epinephrine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).

B6 (Pyridoxal or Pyroxidine) is a water-soluble vitamin that needs to be consumed daily, via diet or supplementation. It operates as a Nootropic or smart drug benefiting our cognition, memory, nervous system, and brain health in multiple dimensions.

This article is mostly going to focus on decoding what the human data is saying about Vitamin B3 and how this squares up with the anecdotal experiences of the Biohacking community.

Scientific Research

It's been widely studied, with over 2500 articles of human research published since 1945 - including over a hundred clinical trials conducted since the turn of the millennium.

Beneficial Effects

Some other positives of Vitamin B6...

* If you spend a lot of time on your computer you are at a mild risk for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which Vitamin B6, a diuretic can prevent and even treat.

* It's essential to protein metabolism so athletes and those with high protein diets should boost their Vitamin B6 intake.

* Vitamin B6 has a mild diuretic effect and therefore can help cure hangovers and morning sickness during pregnancy.

* Athletes take it to accelerate the recovery process from intense workouts and sports-related injuries.

* Frequently reported effects include a decrease in headaches and fatigue.

* More good news, it is an antioxidant and fights various free radicals that cause cancer risks.

Vs Depression

Depression is frequently correlated to Vitamin B6 and due to its role in Serotonin production, it can be useful in treating depression. The elderly and alcoholics, frequently have Vitamin B6 deficiencies. Deficiency of this Vitamin manifests as fatigue, flaky skin, headaches, mild depression, and tingling sensations. One survey found that around 50% of Americans were Vitamin B6 deficient.

 Heavy Metal Detox

From Food Forensics by Mike Adams...

The good news is that research has shown several foods, vitamins and nutrients, and chelating techniques can help rid the body of toxic lead deposits. Vitamins B1 (thiamine) and B6 (pyridoxine) have both been shown to aid in reducing lead toxicity, with B12 reportedly shown to lower lead levels in the liver and kidneys, and B6 acting as an antioxidant and moderate chelator of the heavy metal.

It's one of eleven ingredients in my favorite detox stack, DETOX-19™.

Lucid Dreams

Vitamin B6 is also a lucid dreaming supplement. A study Effects of pyridoxine on dreaming: a preliminary study, suggests that 100 - 250 milligrams increase dream salience by causing cortical arousal during REM sleep.

 History

The beneficial effects of Vitamin B6 were first discovered by a Hungarian-American physician in 1934.

B Vitamins are Mitochondrial Support

From Dr. Lee Know's recent book...

Of all the nutrients defined as true vitamins , the ones that have the greatest direct impact on cellular metabolism and energy production are collectively known as the B vitamins . This group is made up of numerous distinct nutrients , and each is either a cofactor in an important metabolic process or a precursor of an important energy - related molecule. (2666-2669) 

Pyridoxal-5-Phosphate (P-5-P)

This is "The Mercedes" of B6 forms and the most bioavailable. Ben Greenfield mentions it in his Biohacking Bible...

When taken in the highly bioactive form pyridoxal-5-phosphate, vitamin B6 increases mental and physical energy, prevents neuronal damage, and plays a role in memory formation, focus, motivation, and mood and sleep regulation. (p. 168)

Food Sources

Organ meats, Bell peppers, turnip greens, spinach, nuts, and bananas are good sources of Vitamin B6. However, they can lose up to 50% of their Vitamin B6 content through processing, cooking, and storage.

Sources

Supplementation is a good idea for those whose diets don't include it daily.

If you're going to supplement, reach for the most Bioavailable form, P-5-P. And make sure to get it COA-verified as pure. That's what PureBulk.com, in the USA, offers.

Bulk Supplements in the USA offers lab-tested, COA-verified powdered Vitamin B6, the most economical form - although you may not love the taste.

Life Extension offers capsuled Vitamin B6 in several forms.

As an established brain support vitamin it's included in many Nootropic stacks including other ingredients that it shares synergies with...

Downloadable B-Vitamins?

You may be interested in taking it as an infoceutical - a non-pharmacological, side-effect-free version of the drug that takes advantage of the phenomenon of water memory - which is imprinted on water via quantum collocation and electromagnetism using this device...

Infocueticals typically have 1/3 or half the effect of the actual medicine being imprinted. If you're skeptical of Infopathy that's understandable, it's a game-changing application of a little-known scientific phenomenon. But I'd urge you to evaluate the scientific evidence (presented in my biohacker review) that downloadable medicine is no longer science fiction...

Cofactors

Vitamin B6 is an important cofactor (meaning that it works in chemical synergy) of Vitamin B12, another one of the most Limitless nutrients. B6 and B12 are a recipe for productivity, be prepared for a serious energy buzz! Lifehackers dosed on the two report getting their daily To-Do list done early and then writing another To-Do list.

It's more effective when taken with potassium, other B vitamins, and Vitamin C due to a synergistic gestalt action.

Recommended Daily

* Microdosing 1-2 milligrams is suitable for healthy adults.

* Pregnant women should take two milligrams.

* Those who are deficient may want to take up to several hundred milligrams daily.

* As little as 200 milligrams can be toxic.

Side Effects

Studies have been conducted with participants consuming up to 500 milligrams daily. This produces toxic effects such as nausea, vomiting, photosensitivity, abdominal pain, breast soreness, headache, and lack of appetite. Too much can lead to problems sleeping and vividly remembering your dreams. Research has only shown side effects from supplementation of the vitamin.

 Conclusion

It is essential to the maintenance of the central nervous system, as it plays a critical role in building new neurotransmitters. And you need those new neurotransmitters so choose the most bioavailable form, P-5-P. But because healthy adults need so little, it's a vitamin I would just get from a B-vitamin-rich stack or by snacking on a variety of tasty nutrient-packed nuts daily.

Share this with someone who loves nutritious nuts…

Support me on Substack? For $7/monthly?

HRV is a topic I've been interested in for a while as a Biohacker. I've completed over 300 HRV training sessions with HeartMath's devices; which has made me a better meditator and generally, a cooler cat. HRV is a particularly pragmatic metric for the Biohacker thanks to the abundance of science done on the topic and the advent of consumer-grade devices you can use to track yours.

The Pulse Cure, by Dr. Torkil Færø, is the most recent (and, in my opinion, approachable and actionable) book on the topic. The book is the result of a study group of 198 Norwegian volunteers that Dr. Torkil (as he refers to himself on his popular Instagram account) led in using HRV wearables. It is punctuated by a number of anecdotes from Dr. Torkil's Garmin watch study group. For example: Melina, 41, adds

Don’t get stressed out thinking that you have to follow all of the scores and data every single day. Go at your own pace! Eventually you won’t need to track all the data. You will learn when it is the right time to check your status. (p. 94)

Tusen takk (Norwegian for “a thousand thank-yous”), Melina!

HRV may seem nerdy and complicated, but one thing is guaranteed when you start self-quantifying it; unexpected edifying findings. You'll quickly learn some surprising things about how the way you eat, drink, sleep, exercise, socialize, or work impacts the state of your autonomic nervous system and with it, your energy reserves, health, and - ultimately - your longevity. Whether you've just heard of HRV or you're well-acquainted with it, this book will guide you to the health transformation that awaits when start measuring what's now so easy and affordable to measure.

About the author

Dr. Torkil Færø is an impressive guy, a doctor practicing medicine in Norway and abroad for decades, a traveler who has visited over 80 countries, and an "octo-glot" (a word I just invented for someone who speaks 8 languages). In our interview, he shares some life lessons from his time serving as a doctor in wartorn Angola in the 90s, a conflict I read about in "Cry Havoc" by Simon Mann. As a hardcore Biohacker, he's not your ordinary doctor, he writes about why medicine is often wrong...

1.   Medicine is not an exact science: the body’s ‘universe’ is so diverse and complex that it is not possible to get a full overview of it and it is difficult to find exact answers to questions about it.

2. Medical facts have a half-life of five years: what we once believed to be true now proves to be false, and what will turn out to be correct at some point has not been discovered yet. (p. 20).

And adds...

The way we practise medicine is backwards: we wait until people become ill before we ‘heroically’ intervene. (p. 17)

"The doctor of the future will be oneself."

Albert Schweitzer, German doctor, theologian, organist, musicologist, and philosopher (p. 12).

A "doctor of oneself" - that's what we call a biohacker!

I'm proud to announce that Dr. Torkil is part of the expert client consulting team for our new flagship program, Anakainōsis.

Why do we need HRV monitors?

Why do we need to use monitors? We need them because our bodies speak softly, and we are poor listeners. (p. 83)

Good point. We often stoically soldier on through the stress and overwhelm that life throws at us, not listening, and we pay a high cost in preventable health conditions. How do you start listening better...?

Quantify your "body budget" with an HRV-measuring Garmin smartwatch

The book pulls no punches in pitching what I am now convinced is currently the best HRV wearable - Garmin's line of fitness tracking watches.

Each of us has a certain amount of physiological energy that is available to us to be used for physical and mental tasks. I call it a body budget. (p. 26) 

I would recommend that you try to get the energy level of your Body Battery up to at least 80 in the morning and not under 20 in the evening most days of the week (the scale goes from 5 to 100). (p. 88)

This is a brilliant feature! It lets you know if you've got the biological reserves to push hard on a given day (but it shouldn't be your only source of self-knowledge - don't use it as an excuse to be a wimp!)

The most affordable models of heart rate monitors are sufficient for most users, but the big advantage of using the more expensive Garmin models is that they can assess the efforts you make during exercise. This is especially useful for those of you who do not work out regularly because you may have a greater need for recovery after exercise than you think. The watches can also estimate your fitness level and your biological age, which are among the most important factors for having good health in the future. (p. 87)

A big, practical advantage of Garmin watches is that the functions can be set so that with a touch of a button you can find out your stress level in the present moment. (p. 88)

 Having done over 300 HRV training sessions with HeartMath's devices clipped to my ear, I really like the idea of an HRV tracking watch...

The issue with many HRV devices is that you only give biofeedback data when you're using them. Whereas, a watch is just a watch - you can sleep, swim, eat, or even make love with it on (just be careful with the lube!)

The book moves on to discuss several other popular HRV wearables...

About the Oura Ring

it is especially good at assessing sleep quality and the different phases of sleep. The Oura Ring also shows a recovery score that tells you if you are ready for a challenging day or not. Each morning you can look at your scores in the app connected to it and, based on what they say, make better decisions when you are looking at the day’s tasks ahead of you, such as whether you should take several small breaks or allow yourself to go for an extra run. (p. 89)

Dr. Torkil compares the Garmin to the ring, which he recommends highest if sleep is something you struggle with

When it comes to assessing my sleep phases, I rely mostly on the Oura Ring, which gives a fair indication of the night’s sleep quality and recovery. The Garmin watch proved slightly less precise in its assessment of sleep phases but offers a better picture of the quality of recovery. (p. 129)

About the WHOOP band

What WHOOP is especially good at is comparing the scores of your morning recovery with your stress levels during the day in order to be able to recommend how much you should exercise and exert yourself. (p. 90)

If you're a biohacker ballin' on a budget HRV smartphone apps are a decent option

It is possible to use a mobile phone to take short readings by having the camera phone and the torch function work together to get your heart rate variability. Go to the App Store (iPhone) or Google Play (Android) and search: Heart rate variability camera. A variety of options will appear. HRV4Training (hrv4training.com) is a good one, but I have not tried all the alternatives. Using your phone, you can then take a current snapshot of the state of your nervous system and assess it several times during the day. (pp. 91-92)

When I first tried an EmWave device over a decade ago, I was pretty skeptical of the HRV camera apps (that would sometimes burn your finger a little). However, I compared the app's scores with device readings on my laptop. And found that the app did a not bad job, it was generally consistent with the device. But, I still think that an HRV device is a smart buy.

Wrangling the mammalian brain

Discussing the sympathetic and parasympathetic duality in the autonomic nervous system nervous system

To gain control of the balance between these two systems is to acknowledge the animal in us. We are not merely human. We are human animals. And if we overlook the animal in ourselves, we also become less human; ultimately, we have less energy to utilise our advanced brains. (p. 47)

The first pitfall of the mammalian brain

comparing yourself to other people. Mammalian survival is closely connected to our intense…

The cobalamin Vitamin B12 plays an essential role in the normal functioning of the brain and human nervous system.

The chemical components of B12 are involved in brain metabolism and the manufacture of neurotransmitters.

This article will mostly focus on decoding what the human studies are saying about Vitamin B12 and how this squares up with the anecdotal experiences of Biohackers online.

Scientific Research

Being the king of B vitamins, there's an abundance of research done on it; nearly 8000 articles of relevant research are published on Pubmed and over 600 human clinical trials in this century alone.

A Gateway Brain Vitamin

I feel confident recommending Vitamin B12 as a gateway smart drug to those beginning their Biohacking. Many people email me asking questions about exotic new Nootropics when I question them a little and I discover that they have done very little to optimize their diet and lifestyle before diving into the murky water of cognitive enhancement. Since B12 plays a role in so many foundational processes that power our minds and bodies, people should begin their Biohacking by ensuring they are getting enough of the B vitamins before diving into hardcore Nootropic or pharmaceutical solutions.

An Energizing Nootropic

Vitamin B(12) is essential for DNA synthesis and for cellular energy production.

According to a University of Sydney paper. The mechanisms of action of Vitamin B12 empower a demanding work hard, play hard lifestyle both in the short and long term, Biohackers on Longecity.org regard it as one of the top Nootropics for motivation and energy.

To quote a long-term user of B12 and a "Professional Shark Tamer" on Amazon:

I take one of these per day (in the morning) and it makes SUCH an overall difference in my energy level. I can immediately feel the difference. If you are feeling sluggish, depressed, and anxious...take this product! I have been getting over a nasty stomach infection and after a month-long bout of heavy duty antibiotic therapy I was left feeling drained of ALL my energy. I literally felt like I couldn't get my body feeling like it used to "pre-medication" and was actually losing hope in ever feeling that energy again. Then I tried this. Call me crazy but I swear this boosted my mood and lifted me off my feet on the first day of usage. I actually felt BETTER than I did before the antibiotics! I feel amazing now! I don't get sleepy mid-day and I am alert and far more positive since starting this.

Of the +200 Nootropics I've tried, Vitamin B12 passed the snooze test most impressively; you set your alarm about 30-40 minutes early then you leave your Nootropics and a glass of water next to your bed, and when your alarm goes off take the Nootropic and then go back to sleep. The Nootropics should kick in and wake you up. When you are relaxing in bed in that semi-conscious state, it can be a really cool sensation to feel the Nootropics switch on, especially when it happens in the middle of a lucid dream.

It's frequently praised as a "cure" for the post-lunch, mid-afternoon energy crash. It also may have some value as a focus drug, quote one articulate self-experimenter:

There is a distinct boost to my concentration that comes from it, as in it becomes much easier to stay settled on what I am focusing on, as well as the depth and richness of my thoughts increases with regard to the natural detail that spawns from them.

B Vitamins are Mitochondrial Support

From Dr. Lee Know's recent book...

Of all the nutrients defined as true vitamins , the ones that have the greatest direct impact on cellular metabolism and energy production are collectively known as the B vitamins . This group is made up of numerous distinct nutrients , and each is either a cofactor in an important metabolic process or a precursor of an important energy - related molecule .(2666-2669)

Vitamin B12 plays an important role in supplying essential methyl groups for protein and DNA synthesis, and has numerous functions. However, for the mitochondria, vitamin B12 is involved in several important metabolic processes, including the generation of S-adenosyl methionine (SAMe), which is important for cell function and survival. (2730-2733)

Empowering Neuroplasticity

Or neurogenesis is the capacity of the brain to grow and adapt to the challenges presented to it.

Anytime you take on a cognitively challenging new task, whether it's learning a new language, playing a musical instrument, programming IOS, or salsa dancing that sensation of frustration at your snail's pace of improvement is the gears of neuroplasticity working in your mind. Personal development, on any level, requires stimulus - usually trying to learn something you suck at (salsa dancing anyone?) - and fuel, which is comprised of your environment and what you are feeding your brain. Vitamin B12 is a potent fuel and chemical building block of new synaptic connections.

The abstract from a 2014 Yunnan University paper includes some interesting conclusions:

In this review, we summarize the manner in which nutrients can protect against oxidative damage to mitochondria and lipids in the neuronal circuits associated with cognitive and affective behaviors. These nutrients include... members of the vitamin B family (Vitamin B12 and folic acid) and magnesium. Accumulating data have shown that these nutrients can enhance neurocognitive function, and may have therapeutic benefits for depression and suicidal behaviors. A growing body of studies suggests the intriguing possibility that regular consumption of these nutrients may help prevent the onset of mood disorders and suicidal behaviors in vulnerable individuals, or significantly augment the therapeutic effect of available antidepressants.

According to a 2007 Chinese study:

...both vitamins [Vitamin B9 and Vitamin B12] are essential for normal brain development, and have a role in neuroplasticity and in the maintenance of neuronal integrity.

 Vs Depression

The authors of a population-based study of 278 people conducted in Rotterdam, The Netherlands concluded that low Vitamin B12 levels were a cause of depression and not merely a symptom of it.

The association of vitamin B(12) and folate with depressive disorders may have different underlying mechanisms. Vitamin B(12) may be causally related to depression...

This is an important distinction that's not always understood by laypeople; marketers and people with agendas will often make sensationalistic claims based on a small piece of data that draws a vague and often purely coincidental connection between two things. Like when we hear someone claim that violent video games cause school shootings, hopefully, we all understand that it's not actually video games that cause shootings but that mentally unstable young men belong to a demographic that's just more likely to play violent video games.

However, in the case of depression and Vitamin B12, the researchers of this extensive study are saying that depression in a lot of their subjects was indeed, caused by the deficiency.

Deficiency

Unless one's diet is strictly controlled for both quantity and quality of B12 sources, the risk of deficiency is serious. It's very important to maintain healthy B12 levels, at levels only a little below normal, symptoms such as fatigue, insufficient memory, and depression can occur. Signs of deficiency include:

* Fatigue and constant tiredness

* Lack of energy

* Shortness of breath

* Frequent headaches

* Heart palpitations

* Moodiness or depression

* Stomach upset

* Sudden weight loss

These are obviously very ubiquitous symptoms that even a quite healthy person will probably experience sporadically, so if you suspect you are deficient a blood test is the best way to verify. Other conditions associated with deficiency:

* Anemia

* Peripheral neuropathy

* Surgical resection

* Autoimmune pernicious anemia

* Celiac

* Crohn's disease

* Chronic pancreatitis

* Achlorhydria

* Atrophic gastritis

Serious B12 deficiency can cause irreversible damage to the mind in the forms of mania and psychosis.

 An Anti-Aging Vitamin

Especially beyond age 64, high levels of it have been shown to combat Alzheimer's disease and brain atrophy in the elderly.

A study of +700 women by the National Institute on Aging in the United States stated:

After adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics and health status, the subjects with vitamin B(12) deficiency were 2.05 times as likely to be severely depressed as were nondeficient subjects... In community-dwelling older women, metabolically significant vitamin B(12)deficiency is associated with a twofold risk of severe depression.

According to a 2013 University of Oxford study:

Our results show that B-vitamin supplementation can slow the atrophy of specific brain regions that are a key component of the [Alzheimer's disease] process and that are associated with cognitive decline.

Cognitive Enhancer

The conclusion of the body of research done on Vitamin B12 is that it's highly beneficial to those with cognitive deficits but it doesn't affect the baseline in those with healthy cognition. A 2012 University of Melbourne study encapsulated this saying:

There is a small subset of dementias that are reversible with vitamin B12 therapy and this treatment is inexpensive and safe. Vitamin B12 therapy does not improve cognition in patients without pre-existing deficiency.

Cognition deficits are not limited to the elderly, several lifestyle factors can lead to cognitive deficiency:

* Obesity

* High Cholesterol

* High blood pressure or hypertension

* Smoking

* Frequent alcohol consumption

* Even low-income levels are linked to cognitive shortcomings.

A double-blind placebo-controlled human trial of 300 subjects conducted by the University of Chile concluded:

...higher vitamin B12 intakes that might potentially may contribute in preserving neurophysiologic and cognitive function and thus improve quality of life for older people in Chile.

 Food Sources

Where does come from? Your intestinal tract contains bacteria that produce B12, but scientists agree that it doesn't produce enough to satisfy your body's needs. The B12 in your diet comes from animals you eat, the best sources being:

* Shellfish (Cooked Clams, Oysters and Mussels)

* Beef liver (Liverwurst Sausage, Paté de Foie Gras and Chicken Liver Paté

* Fish (Mackerel, Salmon, Herring, Tuna, Canned Sardines and Trout)

* Sardines

* Tuna

* Eggs

* Red Meat (especially lamb)

* Oysters

* Chlorella

* Low-fat dairy (skim milk)

* The liver has a particularly high amount of B12

Chemically and industrially, it's produced via a bacterial fermentation-synthesis process.

For Vegans & Vegetarians?

Vegans and vegetarians need to take B12 supplements regularly or eat B12-fortified foods. To quote a 2010 paper out of the School of Molecular Bioscience, University of Sydney:

Vitamin B(12) deficiency is common, mainly due to limited dietary intake of animal foods or malabsorption of the vitamin. Vegetarians are at risk of vitamin B(12) deficiency as are other groups with low intakes of animal foods or those with restrictive dietary patterns.

Cyanocobalamin vs Methylcobalamin vs Hydroxocobalamin

If you are Vitamin B12 deficient, either form will benefit you, however, certain forms are more bioavailable than others. Certain molecule shapes are more likely to cross the blood-brain barrier or benefit the central nervous system.

Cyanocobalamin is the base model, it's less bioavailable, and the benefits it offers are less proven. Pass on it, especially if your personal genotyping turns up the MTHFR gene.

 Methylcobalamin is significantly more bioavailable, however, the body is a master regulator and if you have sufficient Vitamin B12 levels already it gets flushed.

 Hydroxocobalamin is the holy grail of Cobalamins, the most bioavailable, and the most expensive. It releases at a slower pace which increases the baseline of the vitamin in the body. To quote a Dutch human study:

...application of hydroxocobalamin in cobalamin-deficient patients results in fast nasal absorption and leads to sustained increase of baseline cobalamin concentrations.

So for Biohackers who already have a highly calibrated diet and want to supplement their energy levels and spark neurogenesis for high-leverage skill acquisition, Hydroxocobalamin is the clear choice.

Sources

Pass on the cheap stuff in the white plastic bottles on sale at vitamin shops or on Amazon. The smart money is on getting lab-tested, purity-verified Vitamin B-12.

Above I asserted that Hydroxocobalamin is the most bioavailable, but unfortunately, I cannot recommend any of the consumer supplement vendors of it which you can find on Amazon. It's commonly taken as an injectable shot. If you know what you're doing with needles, you can get pharmaceutical-grade Hydroxocobalamin vials. If you're in the EU or UK you can get Hydroxocobalamin in a solution from Metabolics.com.

You can take it as a sublingual solution (some people find the energizing effects from this form more noticeable) from our recommended vendor, Pure Nootropics.

If you want to stock up and save you can get Methylcobalamin, capsuled or powdered, from Bulk Supplements.

PureBulk.com in the USA offers COA-verified Cyanocobalamin, capsuled and powdered, at very competitive prices.

 Getting B12 from a Multivitamin?

Vitamin B12 is a great case study of the general uselessness of multivitamins, it's a well-known enough vitamin that most laypeople have heard of it and know it's important to general health. However, the vast majority of multivitamins that include it use the cosmetic grade or less bioavailable, cheaper forms of Vitamin B12. I wouldn't trust the B12 in a multivitamin or Nootropic stack if they are not explicit about the form used and prove it by publishing a COA showing purity. The only one I'm aware of on the market currently is Clarity Daily Nootropic (which I tried - it's pretty good).

If you've ever noticed, while taking a multivitamin, that your pee is colorful, that's because the individual components of the multivitamin are just being flushed out of your system.

Downloadable B12?

You may be interested in taking it as an infoceutical - a non-pharmacological, side-effect-free version of the supplement that takes advantage of the phenomenon of water memory - which is imprinted on water via quantum collocation and electromagnetism using this device...

Infocueticals typically have 1/3 or half the effect of the actual medicine being imprinted. If you're skeptical of Infopathy that's understandable, it's a game-changing application of a little-known scientific phenomenon. But I'd urge you to evaluate the scientific evidence (presented in my biohacker review) that downloadable medicine is no longer science fiction...

Recommended Daily

Two to three micrograms per day is the recommended daily allowance for healthy adults. So you might be a little confused as to why many supplements deliver a 5000-microgram (that's 5 milligrams) dose. However, B12 is not well absorbed when taken orally and deficiency is common. There have been numerous clinical trials done dosing human participants with thousands of micrograms orally, without statistically significant occurrence of negative side effects. And the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has not set a tolerable upper intake level (UL) for vitamin B12, due to the low potential for toxicity. This suggests that even very high doses are unlikely to cause harm.

As an experimentation-prone biohacker, you'll want to try both doses - 2.4 micrograms and 5000 micrograms - especially if you suffer from a few B12 deficiency symptoms.

Side Effects

It would seem that there's no such thing as too much of a good thing as B12 has very, very low toxicity, and taking it in quite large doses appears to not harm healthy people. Theoretically, those with cobalt allergies should avoid B12 supplements as B12 contains cobalt.

Related Rant

An article was published on WebMD entitled Folic Acid, B12 May Increase Cancer Risk. This is a great example of a pet peeve of mine because the fine print of the article clarifies...

70% of all the patients in the study were either current or former smokers, including more than 90% of those who developed lung cancer...

So the patients in the study were already at huge risk for cancer and somehow the researcher drew a thin grey line between cancer and these B Vitamins, and WebMD with its loyalty ultimately to its pay-per-view advertisers published this clickbait article, which few laypeople are going to read in its entirety. This is why the layperson's understanding of health science is so bad! This is why I spend more time on Pubmed than Facebook! When you hear an outrageous science fact like...

* B Vitamins cause cancer

* Exercise causes cancer

* We only use 10% of your brain

Instead of getting your facts from a website that has a bunch of ads plastered all over it...

* Do a search on Pubmed for human clinical studies.

* Pay attention to the conclusions the researchers make in the abstracts.

* Use a forum like Longecity.org, the Limitless Mindset Secret Society, or Reddit.

* In the forum post a new topic, entitle it something like Questions about _____? or Does ______ cause cancer?

* Write a quick synopsis of your understanding of the topic based on the studies you read.

These forums have a bunch of helpful and very knowledgeable members and moderators, a lot of who are researchers and scientists, along with Biohackers who have many years of self-experimentation and self-quantification. These members will jump in on your posts and give you honest, courteous feedback on the accuracy of your conclusions. If you are incorrect they won't be rude and insulting, these online communities are generally very respectful. I feel like that's a more accurate way to get information about your health decisions than reading from these content farm health websites.

End rant.

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Jacques Derrida was a philosopher (that I’m not a fan of) who you may have never heard of. Derrida is one of the architects of corrupt modern society and an intellectual vandal who brought a sledgehammer against civilization.

He created a very insidious virus — not a literal virus but a very viral idea; a mind virus, an intellectual contagion. And ideas are powerful, aren’t they?

His idea, to summarize, was that civilization must be burnt down. Completely. That civilization was utterly corrupt to its core and, like a house hollowed out by termites, should just be burnt down to the ground.

He had what was likely a very traumatic childhood growing up as a French Jew in Algiers during World War two. Obviously, his brain had some major malfunctions yet he had that Jewish verbal intelligence, the capacity to craft persuasive prose, and a bit of French charm and swagger.

He was the father of deconstructionism, which is quite possibly the worst idea ever.He believed that virtually everything about civilization was bad and beyond saving.

* Democracy and republicanism were terrible and had to go.

* The church and religion were terrible and had to go.

* The family and the way we raise children were especially terrible and had to go.

* Science and mathematics were terrible and had to go.

* Even rationality and logic were terrible and had to go.

He wrote 40 books that contain all sorts of egregious inconsistencies and contradictions. His response, when confronted with this, was that rationality and logic were at the core of this evil system of oppression (aka civilization) and that he would not be constrained by them.

And in a world traumatized by the Second World War, many fertile minds bought what he was selling. He was a tremendous influence on many schools of thought that arose in the second half of the 20th century; post-modernism, cultural Marxism anthropology, feminism, social sciences, literary interpretation, applied linguistics, etc. 

His mind virus found a powerful ally of convenience in the KGB. After World War Two communist spies successfully infiltrated the inner sanctums of power in Western countries. The KGB worked very discretely to infiltrate and place those infected with the virus into positions of influence in academia, government, media, and Hollywood, and the virus spread.

Now that you know about this virus, you’ll see it everywhere

Out in public on the streets, on TV, at your workplace, and at your school - it is prolific. If you turn on the news right now, you won’t need to watch long to see unwitting disciples of Derrida still hellbent on burning civilization to the ground.

Less conspicuously, the virus has had a terrible yet hidden effect on the integrity of science.

The sad truth is that some domains of science have abandoned logic and reason just like Derrida did.

We dream of this Star Trek world where we can live as long as we like in perfect health, and travel to stars; where all disease and widespread poverty will be eradicated. A world of true abundance for all may be a world where unborn babies will have their genes CRISPR edited so that they have +120 IQs.However, the reality is that we will never reach that world if Derrida’s virus continues to spread, infect, and corrupt the sciences. If his odious idea virus out-competes rationality, logic, and empiricism we can count on the future being a cruel, dark, and savage experience for seven, eight, nine, or maybe even ten billion human beings.

This is why I’ve begun a video series that’s a whole lot more practical about how we can tell the difference between bad science and good science.

This week I addressed the question: What is Pseudoscience?

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There’s this popular misconception that everything gives you cancer.

Cigarettes give you cancer.Booze gives you cancer.Pesticides on fruits and vegetables give you cancer.Toxins in your shampoo or soap give you cancerCell phone signals and wifi (maybe?) give you cancer.Stress gives you cancer.Red meat gives you cancer (Or is it NOT eating red meat that gives you cancer?)BPAs in plastic containers give you cancer.Mold in your house gives you cancer.Pollution gives you cancer.Even the “health” supplements you take (might) contain toxins that give you cancer. Geez!

Eventually, you start thinking…

Damn! I guess I’m just going to get cancer… Might as well just enjoy life because I’m going to get cancer one way or another. Why worry about it if you’re just going to die anyway…?

At least that’s how a lot of people think. Unless you’ve devoted some time to studying health and staying up to date with research and science, you’ll likely believe that "everything gives you cancer." There’s some truth to this. The truth is that there are A LOT of toxins in our environment and they will give you cancer. This is why SO many people have cancer. The advice we’ve been hearing ad nauseam from the gurus and the diet experts is to remove the toxins from your environment.

This is pretty good advice if you have $2000 a month to spend on really good organic food and products, you could probably avoid a lot of these toxins and it really would improve your health and make you feel better.

* But a lot of those organic products are not actually organic, “organic” is a marketing scam half the time.

* Your house might contain toxic mold that you don’t even know about. Or your office. Or your Airbnb rental.

* If you’re like me, you like to eat out at restaurants a couple of times a week with friends or family. I have a quite disciplined diet but who knows what sorts of toxins these restaurants are putting in their foods?

* If you fly, you’re consuming all sorts of nasty toxins that promulgate the passenger cabins of cost-cutting airlines.

* If you travel or commute daily, unless you can afford a fancy late-model Mercedes or Lexus with an onboard air filter in the air conditioning, you are breathing a lot of pollution in.

* Maybe you’re a real freedom-loving type who likes to go down to the gun range to keep your shooting skills sharp in case of a zombie apocalypse, guess what you have to worry about? Lead toxicity.

Despite your best efforts, you’ll still consume a lot of toxins unwittingly and you might still get cancer anyway (like this guy!)

Do you do much international travel for business or pleasure (or both, at the same time)? Well, you can look up the pollution index to make sure you’re not going somewhere with an egregious polluted environment but perhaps you’re a bit more adventuresome like me…

A couple of times a year I’ll take a mini-vacation going salsa dancing in Moldova, lounging at a resort town by the black sea, or hiking a volcano in central Panama. Who the hell knows what kind of toxins I expose myself to in these sorts of locales. Also, every once in a great while I like to get my Winston Churchill on and smoke a Dominican cigar!I, for one, am NOT going to be going toxin-free anytime soon.

Does that mean that it’s just an inevitability that I’m going to get cancer? Not hardly.

Head Strong, an excellent book I’m reading demystified the toxin-mania for me. What people don’t understand is that our bodies are quite good at dealing with these toxins - thank God, Mother Nature, or evolution for the systems we have for getting rid of a lot of these toxins. From the book...

Your body requires a lot of energy to detoxify and expel or neutralize these toxins. Anything you can do to increase your cellular energy production, therefore, can also enhance your body’s ability to detox. But given today’s influx of toxins, you can’t get by with the same amount of cellular energy that would have been serviceable a hundred years ago.Dr. Frank Shallenberger (who discovered and named EOMD) estimates that we actually need 50– 100 percent more energy now than we did a hundred years ago to get rid of all of the toxins that are inside our bodies, slowing down our energy production and making us weak.(p. 37)

So instead of trying to live like a monk and avoid all toxins at all costs, a much more pragmatic approach is to minimize toxins as much as you reasonably can but focus on Biohacking to optimize mitochondrial function to double cellular energy production.

So you’re thinking…

Great. How do I optimize mitochondrial function?

Well, that’s what the book is about! And I’m not finished reading it yet.One thing that I know from five years of research that helps mitochondrial function is (surprise, surprise) using certain Nootropics.

Also…Two of the main organs that purge toxins are the kidney and liver, which is why I recommend performance-enhancing Adaptogenic herbs so highly. There’s excellent evidence that they repair and maintain the function of these vital organs. If this Mitochondrial strategy makes way more sense than being OCD and paranoid about toxins all the time you might want to read this book along with me...

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I have Biohackers who contact me often complaining that their countries make it difficult or impossible for them to get quality, pharma-grade Nootropics.

Americans who have never lived abroad have no idea how lucky they are that they can Google search for any supplement they want, identify a high-quality source of it, digitally swipe their credit cards, and in 5-7 days it will reliably arrive at their doorstep.

In other countries they have a confusing mess of regulations and laws about what supplements are allowed:

* You never really know if you're allowed to import a supplement until you do.

* About a 3rd of the time, it will get lost in shipping. The shipping firm almost always charges you some (surprise!) extra fees.

* Anything health-related is more likely to get stuck in customs, sometimes they will release it, sometimes not.

* There's a 20% - 30% VAT tax.

Recently I ordered some things shipped to Sofia, Bulgaria and after waiting two weeks on shipping it was a royal pain in the ass to pick them up at the airport. You have to give power of attorney to a Bulgarian firm to fill out the paperwork to release your packages. It doubled the cost of the items and took at least half a day.

I lived for several years in Europe and three years in Latin America, in that time I've had so many debates with young Europeans, Canadians, and Australians that mocked my American libertarianism. I was so backward because...

I believe that people need to take care of themselves, it's not the government's job to take care of people who make bad decisions.

I don't trust the government to defend me and my family. I value the right to defend myself.

They implied that they were so much more evolved than Americans because they have...

Free healthcare

Free college

Paid maternity leave

Two months of paid vacation yearly

The unwitting young socialists I've debated think they are free. But because they value security, comfort, and hedonism over philosophically robust freedom their countries are sliding further and further into communism. The totalitarian fist constricting freedom manifests as these arbitrary restrictions on supplements.

In a way, it's fair that these cultures that traded freedom for security are now less secure and less free.

In any city in Europe, you are always within a stone's throw of someplace selling cigarettes and booze, but God forbid that they allow people to import and consume the health supplements they want!

Anyways...

Here are 16 Biohacks that are available to you virtually everywhere.

Brain Training (Dual N-Back)

From a rainforest hut in Costa Rica to the forlorn hills of Moldova, I've brain-trained with Dual N-Back. For me, it has marked short-term and long-term effects.Within about 20 days of usage, you'll experience a positive effect on your emotional reactivity, focus ability, and short-term memory.

Perhaps thanks to the mainstream media, brain training has caught a bad rap in recent years, many people who have NOT tried it think it's a total waste of time.

However, anybody who's looked at the science will conclude that brain training is worthwhile.Looking at the science means actually reading papers in the science journals or on PubMed NOT merely consuming an opinion of the science by a journalist, a blogger, or a podcaster. Looking at the science concerning Dual N-Back you'll find that there have been a couple of studies published that expressed very mild skepticism or failed to demonstrate significant effect BUT there have been more studies that did demonstrate transfer effects to general intelligence.The balance of the weight of the science is on the side of it being beneficial and you can find a lot more veteran Biohackers online talking about its very real effect on focus, mood, and short-term memory than those who found it unremarkable.

Meditation

This is a long-term Biohack for a limitless mind. If you start meditating today (which you really should if you aren't) it won't change your level of focus, happiness, and productivity much tomorrow but if you can stick with it for a year or two it has a profound transformational effect on your mind.

It requires very little; you should ideally do it in a quiet room but the environment doesn't need to be perfectly tranquil; I've done some of my best meditation.on park benches and trainsThere are a couple of tools like Headspace or Insight timer that you can download on your smartphone that are free or cost very little.

Quality Coffee + Green Tea

You may have heard mixed things about coffee. The truth is that high-quality coffee, consumed in reasonable amounts can be a highly effective Nootropic, especially when taken alongside an L-Theanine source like green tea.

Obviously, if you have the option of buying mycotoxin-free, organic coffee fresh from the farmer who produced it that is preferable, but often you don't. In those cases follow this rule of thumb: Good coffee should be palatable drunk straight black without anything added.

If the coffee has that strong bitter taste that we classically associate with coffee and needs to be mixed with milk or cream to taste pleasant, that's a good sign that it's not really healthy coffee. If it has a slightly bitter taste that is still pleasant, it's likely fine.

You'll also know how anxiety-prone it makes you after multiple cups. For me, if I drink 2-3 cups of coffee and notice myself getting irate with little things, that's also a sign that it's not good stuff. Actual healthy coffee consumed in reasonable doses should wake you up, and make you alert and motivated but not anxious and overstimulated.

In almost any city in the world, you can find an organic or vegan food grocery store that sells high-quality coffee or go to a hipster cafe and you'll likely find some tattooed baristas who are real connoisseurs of 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine (the chemical name of caffeine).

Caffeine and L-Theanine are regarded as one of the most efficacious Nootropic combinations. A 2010 Dutch human study, The combination of L-theanine and caffeine improves cognitive performance and increases subjective alertness, suggested consuming Caffeine and L-Theanine in approximately a 2:1 ratio. From its abstract:

The combination of moderate levels of L-theanine and caffeine significantly improved accuracy during task switching and self-reported alertness... and reduced self-reported tiredness... There were no significant effects on other cognitive tasks, such as visual search, choice reaction times, or mental rotation. The present results suggest that 97 mg of L-theanine in combination with 40 mg of caffeine helps to focus attention during a demanding cognitive task.

This stack is one of my favorites and I consistently start my mornings like this...

* The Umami taste of green tea actually improves the bitter taste of the coffee.

* Green tea has a subtle anxiolytic effect that is synergistic with coffee.

* Green tea is something of a creativity stimulator, so the two together are a great writing stack (if I want to take this to the next level I will add some supplemental liquid Nicotine).

The two together make me clear-headed and motivated.

Diet Hacking

Often new Biohackers put the cart before the horse by ordering a bunch of fancy supplements or technology before optimizing their diets. We, profoundly, are what we eat. If your diet regularly includes...

* A lot of sugary junk foods.

* Non-organic meat or animal products - Not consuming meat is a whole lot better than consuming factory-farmed, grain-fed, hormonally treated animals. I'm not a vegetarian but I avoid eating a lot of meat unless it's from a pretty credible source.

* GMO foods; avoid regularly eating cheap food from big box grocery stores or fast-food restaurants and try to purchase your food from local farmers or organic sources. Once after 2 months of eating fresh bananas in Costa Rica, I returned to the United States and ate a banana at my mom's house from Walmart and I could …

It's been a few years since I took a serious look at Kratom research...

It would be a real understatement to say that I was disappointed to find that (after the FDA tried to ban Kratom in 2016) there has been no effort made to fund meaningful Kratom science. Namely, double-blind placebo-controlled human studies.

2024 Update: We've got a quantum more of too-little-too-late science done Kratom, a clinical trial of 12 Americans was completed this year.

2022 Update: Good news on the clinical study front, we finally got A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Study on Kratom and Pain Tolerance - a collaboration between Yale School of Medicine and a Malaysian university. Its abstract concluded...

Kratom decoction demonstrated a substantial and statistically significant increase in pain tolerance.

The study involved just a 1-day inpatient stay and 26 male subjects, but it's a good start.

2019 Update: Two years ago I criticized the Kratom industry and the American Kratom Association for doing very little to legitimize Kratom by way of funding and conducting a human, placebo-controlled pre-registered clinical trial. Look on Pubmed, there's still no Kratom human clinical trial - apparently in 2018 $3.5M was granted to scientists to further research Kratom, and "They're optimistic human trials can begin in five years." Kratom is now banned in 6 states and a handful of cities. As of 2019, the American Kratom Association is offering a good manufacturing practices (GMP) qualification for vendors, this is a step in the right direction but really too little, too late.

Scientific literature published on Kratom in 2017 concluded:

Our data analysis has not determined if biochemical benefits of kratom may prove to outweigh its toxicity and risks. On the contrary, it seems that its potential side effects outweigh the benefits, and severe and real health hazards can, insidiously, lead to death. Kratom clinical, psychological, and medical manifestations can be disturbing.

From the abstract of another 2017 paper:

...kratom has been reported to be abused together with other illicit substances with high risk of potential addiction. There are also anecdotes of an adverse effect and toxicity of kratom, i.e. tremor, fatigue, seizure, and death. Different countries have distinctive regulation and policy on the plantation and use of this plant when most of the countries banned the use of it because of its addiction problems and side effects.

Kratom users have to realize that state and federal policymakers are going to be reading these studies and making decisions about the legality of Kratom. The bureaucrats who actually make decisions about the legality of Kratom could care less about testimonials on forums and all those guys on YouTube making video blogs about how great Kratom is. Right now, things are not looking good for the future of Kratom!

Kratom has failed to grow up as an industry.

I cannot in good conscience recommend that anyone buy or consume Kratom from any of the vendors selling it online currently.If I go to any of the popular eCommerce stores selling Kratom it's evident that they have no quality standards.

The Nootropics industry, by comparison, has some quality standards; the sources of the Adaptogenic herbs and cognition-enhancing Racetams that I recommend...

* Display 3rd party certificates of analysis verifying that they are >97% purity.

* They do mineralogy reports showing the level of lead and mercury in soil that for example makes the performance-enhancing herbs grown there safe for human consumption.

* They do a chain of custody showing where it came from and how long it sat in storage.

* When it comes to Nootropics, the credible vendors put their real names, faces, addresses, and phone numbers on their websites.

In the case of Kratom, you have no idea if...Your Kratom was grown in the garden of a monastery by monks on the side of a mountain...OrIf it's been grown in a trash dump next to a former ammunition factory.You have no idea if your Kratom was grown by an organic farmer in the United States and if the only middleman has been the eCommerce store you are buying it from...OrIf it was grown in a factory farming operation on the other side of the world and sat in the cargo hold of a massive boat for 6 months and was contaminated by toxic engine fumes.You have no idea if your Kratom is relatively fresh and was recently produced...OrIf it's changed hands five different times and has a fake expiration date.

Wherever the financial incentives create moral hazard, you need to demand evidence of quality. None of the Kratom stores online have any of the credibility indicators that I look for and I cannot recommend that anyone buy from them. If this changes I will let you know.

Kratom already has a big target on its back because in 2016 there was this massive grassroots uprising that defied the government.If the Kratom industry remains so downright dodgy, you just make it all the more appealing a target to government regulators to come and ban it. They can point to the fear-mongering #FakeNews mainstream media stories about how bad Kratom is and say...

Look at this scary drug being sold by these shady websites... We have to ban it to save the children!

Also, consider the absurdity of Kratom being sold at liquor stores and gas stations. Everyone knows that nothing good is sold at liquor stores and gas stations, except for gasoline and maybe bottled water.

Presumably, the people making a lot of money selling Kratom online would have a vested interest in keeping it legal, but I don't see any evidence of long-term thinking on their behalf.Yes, I did post a less vitriolic version of my concerns on the American Kratom Association Facebook page and they censored it.They've raised over $500K; what are they doing to fund research and actually protect the future of Kratom? Nothing that I can tell.If that changes I will let you know, I'm going to praise good behavior and long-term thinking and I'm going to condemn injudicious short-term thinking.

I'll make a philosophical point that a lot of people are missing here...

Freedom is not free.

A lot of Kratom users assume that they deserve the right to consume Kratom as part of their human rights...They really don't.A lot of people (especially Kratom users) are ignorant about philosophy and history. They assume that we deserve rights just for being alive. This is not the case.As I've said elsewhere, human rights are antithetical to human nature and the natural laws that govern the universe.

Human rights are like airplanes.

Airplanes are massive, metal machines that defy gravity; despite being very heavy they soar gracefully high above the earth.Airplanes are difficult to build, they are designed by ingenious, intelligent engineers. built to stringent specifications and maintained by expert mechanics. No airplane is built by an idiot or else it would crash and people would die.Airplanes were not built by the ancient Greeks, the conquering Romans, nor the mathematically inclined Arabs, even the British who built an empire that the sun did not set on could not figure out how to build an airplane. This is because the airplane is a result of thousands of years of men devoting their entire lives to mastering the mechanical world and the sciences.Do you deserve an airplane?NO.You have to pay money to ride in an airplane because traveling above the clouds at hundreds of miles an hour is an unnatural and extraordinary thing.

Human rights (including the freedom the consume what you want) are similarly unnatural and extraordinary.Particularly in regards to Kratom, I do not see anyone paying for this right!

If you use Kratom, you are enjoying freedom that you do not deserve. I'll encourage you to share this video with whoever you buy your Kratom from.

I should not have to remind you that Kratom is a major threat to the most powerful pharmaceutical companies in the world...

* Merck

* Bayer

* GlaxoSmithKline

* Pfizer

Kratom competes with and undercuts the d…

Since April of 2017, Pubmed has been standing up for science by publishing conflict of interest information on the study abstract page instead of allowing it to be buried behind an academic paywall.

This resulted from 62 scientists and physicians, and five United States senators petitioning the National Library of Medicine & National Institutes of Health to make public the funding sources of studies. This makes me more optimistic about institutions and politicians — in the news, it seems that all we hear about is how corrupt and incompetent institutions and politicians are but sometimes they act in our best interests!

So it's reasonable to view science published after April of 2017 as a little more credible.

I created a VERY CATCHY melodic serenade about the shoddy state of Big Science in modernity…

Share this with someone who spends a lot of time on PubMed…

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This +700-page, $16 book is a summarization of the +200 interviews that Tim Ferriss has done on his podcast.

In this review, I'm going to do more than just summarize the summarization; I've been living a Tim Ferriss kind of lifestyle for well over a decade now and I'm going to add my own edifying experiences and insights to some of the passages of the book.

You may think...

I don't need to read this book. I'll just listen to the podcast.

As I discussed in the High Leverage Information Diet, podcasts themselves are a pretty limited medium for learning...

* With listening to podcasts, your listening comprehension is pretty low because you're almost always doing something else at the same time (Commuting, working, at the gym, etc). With reading, the only thing you are doing is reading, your attention is not divided. Reading is one of the better ways to absorb knowledge; this is why wealthy, successful people are consistently really well-read.

* With reading you can meter your absorption of knowledge, speed read sections on stuff you already understand well, or take your time on something new you want to understand.

* Tim's interviews are long, often over 2 hours. Some of the interviews are quite technical as well, they'll spend a lot of time having a granular discussion of weight lifting techniques or risk quantification of startup investment.

* Also, the podcast has ads and sponsors, which aren't really annoying but I'd much rather spend $15 on a book than listen to hundreds of advertisements.

* The book summarizes each interview, so it's a great companion to the podcast. After reading the book I went and listened to the podcast interviews that I found particularly interesting.

I hope to see more podcasts doing the same thing! In fact, I'm considering doing the same thing myself because I'm aware that few people are going to go through and watch the +600 videos I've done and +800 articles. Update: Check out my memoir and lifehacking manifesto, How to Be Cross Eyed...

If you're bored of the tired problem>generalization>platitude>strategy formula that most self-help books follow you'll enjoy this memoir of adventures, failures, and unexpected successes across three continents. I'll share with you some powerful tools for transformation - biohacking, smart drugs, flowstate, red pill mindset, and tantric sex - with which I've managed to pack several lifetimes' worth of peak experiences into a single decade.

An information diet/highlighting hack

I've got a bit of a system for devouring content-rich, dense books like this, I highlight in three different colors

* Yellow - Anything useful I want to remember - might get added to my SuperMemo mnemonic flashcard collection

* Blue - Anything I want to research or look up videos or podcasts on later

* Red - Anything that strikes me as beautiful language or is cleverly worded.

Meditation

Unsurprisingly...

More than 80% of the world-class performers I’ve interviewed have some form of daily meditation or mindfulness practice.

Or

“cultivating a present-state awareness that helps you to be nonreactive.”(p. 149)

That's a pretty good definition of mindfulness!

I believe there is a minimum effective dose for meditation, and it’s around 7 days.(p. 152)With “Just Note Gone” we train the mind to notice that something previously experienced is no more. For example, at the end of a breath, notice that the breath is over. Gone. As a sound fades away, notice when it is over. Gone. At the end of a thought, notice that the thought is over. Gone. At the end of an experience of emotion— joy, anger, sadness, or anything else— notice it is over. Gone.(p. 156)

It's said that this is the meditation technique you might want to do if you're ever tortured (I do it when I'm getting an arduous deep-tissue massage!)

Loving-Kindness Meditation

to increase your happiness, all you have to do is randomly wish for somebody else to be happy.(p. 158)I tend to do a single 3- to 5-minute session at night, thinking of three people I want to be happy, often two current friends and one old friend I haven’t seen in years.(p. 159)

This is an intermittent meditation method, you do it for just seconds every hour and it has a real antidepressant effect. My reminder is to just do it every time I go to the bathroom which is about once an hour because I drink a lot of water and tea.

One woman reported:

Happiest day in 7 years. And what did it take to achieve that? It took 10 seconds of secretly wishing for two other people to be happy for 8 repetitions, a total of 80 seconds of thinking.(p. 158)

Men vs Women

He notes that substantially more men end up at Transcendental Meditation (TM), and substantially more women end up at vipassana.(p. 150)

Which I like because it's politically incorrect; saying that men and women prefer different types of meditation - because our minds differ fundamentally...

On a tangent; I've always wished I could be in a woman's mind for just a day ...Women, in general, are more impulsive and make decisions more emotionally but at the same time I think are more introspective - more self-reflective.So I imagine that being in a woman's mind is kind of like being constantly pulled in different directions by my emotions and being anxious all the time that I was going to make a bad decision on a whim and that life was going to go badly for me.Maybe some female commenters can tell me if that is pretty accurate or if I'm way off.