Limitless Mindset

This active thyroid hormone supplement is turning heads in the bodybuilding and fitness world as it superpowers metabolism and accelerates fat loss.

3,5-diiodo-L-thyronine which I’ll refer to from now on as T2, is discussed in over 110 scientific papers on Pubmed and has been the subject of a human clinical trial. Here I’ll break down its benefits and some of the science done on it.

This article is mostly going to focus on decoding what the human studies are saying about Thyronine and how this squares up with the anecdotal experiences of Biohackers online.

 Increases Metabolism

One of the main effects of T2 is increasing metabolism. This means that you’ll burn more calories faster. If you’re an avid exerciser or lift weights often you probably eat a bit more, but you probably don’t want those calories going to your tummy and covering up your six-pack.

The major difference between a Corolla and Corvette is that one consumes fuel faster producing a lot more power. No matter how much gas you put in the Corolla it won’t go any faster. As an athlete, a bodybuilder, an entrepreneur, a professional, or just a health-conscious person would you rather be more like a Corolla or a Corvette? If it’s the latter, T2 will empower your metabolism for peak performance.

While fully legal and non-prescription, it’s a secret weapon of some rather large and intimidating bodybuilders, we’ll call them T2erminators.

Fat Loss

Often as we age our metabolism slows and we put on pounds. We go to the gym and exercise, we diet but the pounds stick around on persistent fat sites, like our bellies. T2 is a potent accelerator of fat loss. 19 scientific papers delve into its mechanisms driving fat loss.

* It increases conversion from the problematic white adipose tissue into brown adipose tissue.

* From a 2015 study published in PLOS One [T2] a thyroid hormone derivative, is capable of increasing energy expenditure, as well as preventing high fat diet-induced overweight and related metabolic dysfunction.

Prevents Insulin Resistance

If you have a family history of diabetes and obesity, you want to be vigilant of developing insulin resistance. Diet has a lot to do with this, of course, but if a personal genotyping report reveals that you have the apoE4 or any number of other problematic diabetes-predicting genes it would be really smart for you to supplement T2 which maintains healthy insulin sensitivity.A 2011 animal study concluded...

T2, by activating SIRT1, triggers a cascade of events resulting in improvement of the serum lipid profile, prevention of fat accumulation, and, finally, prevention of diet-induced insulin resistance.

Thyroid Support

Our livelihood and vigor rely fundamentally on the Thyroid, the function or dysfunction of this small organ in our necks and the hormone it disseminates throughout our bodies determines much about our quality of life.T2 is a precursor to thyroid hormone, it does not feed you excess hormone that’s going to put you into hormonal imbalance. T3 or T4 are more direct precursors to Thyroid hormone, and they have an even greater effect on metabolism, but there’s some concern with them upregulating the hormone too much. T2 feeds you the building blocks that your Thyroid needs to meet your body’s demands.A recent Italian paper identifies it as a Novel Thyroid Hormone Metabolite:

Over 30 years of research has demonstrated that 3,5-diiodo-L-thyronine (3,5-T2), an endogenous metabolite of thyroid hormones, exhibits interesting metabolic activities.

Jimmy, a T2erminator, reported...

Great stuff - After a couple of weeks I noticed a HUGE difference in my metabolism. Thyroburn gave me more energy and completely jump started my thyroid. Awesome product.

It could be a preventative of Thyroid disorders like Hashimoto's disease, goiter, Graves' disease, and thyroid nodules.

Skin Hack

For the vain, Thyroid downregulation is problematic, it results in conspicuously unhealthy skin - think Golom in Lord of the Rings. Upregulating Thyroid hormone may restore such vibrancy and color to your skin that you no longer need to use filters on Instagram! T2 is a safe way to do that.

Energizing Nootropic

Nootropics are a secret weapon of high-performing entrepreneurs, students, and professionals. Nootropics give you an uptick in energy, motivation, and brainpower.The mechanism of T2 puts it more in the category of being a motivational Nootropic than a cognition-enhancing one. If you’re like many T2erminators, it will just give you loads of energy to get stuff done.With many Nootropics, you’ll develop a tolerance over time or you need to implement a cycling strategy to avoid exhausting a particular neurotransmitter pathway. With T2 these are not concerns as it just feeds the underlying energy generation system of the body.A collaborative European study identified that its Mitochondrial respiratory mechanism had a downstream effect as an antidepressant.

Mitochondrial Support

T2’s Nootropic effect is probably due to its mitochondria-empowering mechanisms. The Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell, the underlying energy generation system of the body.

* Several recent Italian studies found that it favorably modulated Mitochondrial respiratory pathways.

* [T2] may actively regulate energy metabolism at the cellular, rather than the nuclear, level, according to a paper published in Molecular and cellular endocrinology.

Like the classic Mitochondrial Nootropic Creatine, T2 will give you an edge in the gym and your athletic performance.

Cancer Preventative

Cancer is often caused by oxidative stress, free radicals disrupt the normal replication of genes and cells which results in cancer. A 2019 Italian study found that T2 protected from mtDNA oxidative damage. If you have a family history of cancer you should be concerned with prevention. From a 2017 paper:

The inhibitory action on DNL exerted by T2 makes this compound a potential and attractive drug for the treatment of some metabolic diseases and cancer.

Promotes Healthy Libido

Anecdotally, T2 makes you a Corvette in the bedroom as well. Its mitochondria-empowering effect will enhance sex hormones (for him and her).

 Risk Grade: C

Throughout the scientific literature, it’s emphasized that T2 has not been rigorously studied in humans. The animal studies have not identified concerning side effects but T2 isn’t in the same risk category as more common supplements like Vitamin C or Nutraceuticals.

The Endocrinology article emphasized that it’s somewhat risky as a supplement.

it is not evident from the published studies what conditions allow for its safe and effective use in humans.

It urges...

more comprehensive studies in humans and animal models are clearly needed to fully evaluate any potential risks.

And it’s advised not to stack T2 with a bunch of other workout supplements, according to the article doing so according to the article, entails significant risk of untoward effects.

Sources

Bad news, I could not find a T2 supplement that measures up to the high standards I have when it comes to this sort of thing. There are a few T2 products of dubious quality on Amazon. Before taking a supplement like this you should demand to see a COA/spectroscopy report verifying purity.

Downloadable Thyroid Support?

You may be interested in taking L-Thyroxine (similar to Thyronine) 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...

Conclusion

Given the fact that it's hard to find and entails some risks if it's Thyroid support that you're after I think there are some better options out there. Notably, the Nootropic L-Tyrosine, the adaptogen Ashwagandha, Methylene Blue, and Iodine from a natural source like Irish Sea Moss.

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As I shared in a recent newsletter...

Earlier this year I was reading this entrepreneurship book, 10x Is Easier Than 2x, about exponential growth hacking in business and life. And I was getting really uncomfortable as I read it because it was calling out all the things I've been doing wrong with Limitless Mindset. All the ways I'd been limiting myself and the good I could do for you. It showed me how small I've been thinking. I've long prided myself on being a rule-breaker, a dissident, and an innovator but this book showed me how I'm falling far short of my potential because mostly I'm unoriginal in my endeavors. This book reminded me that I must find what I can do uniquely well that virtually no one else on Earth is doing.

After closing 10x Is Easier Than 2x one night, as I was going to the bathroom before bed, it hit me in one moment! In one of the few epiphany moments of my life, I knew how to align my strengths with my mission in life - which is to give individuals the means to reclaim their divine right to free will. Free will is that spark of Promethean flame in us all and the one thing that makes us really special as a species on this planet. Yet so few truly yield it! And so much about modern life deprives us of our free will, that the only way to truly take it back is by Biohacking; using the kinds of transformative tools that I've obsessively studied and self-experimented with for over 12 years now. That's my mission, and in that instant, I knew how to take it to the next level by combining my strengths to offer something truly unique to a small number of very special people - to you perhaps!

For the longest time, I have wanted to introduce something new and innovative in the Biohacking/Anti-aging/Personal development space, and I have figured that out this year. But first, I'll share...

10 things I've done "wrong" with Limitless Mindset

12 years ago when I first created the website and wrote my first few articles, I showed it to my brother, a very sharp businessman - he's done better than me in some ways as an entrepreneur. He told me "The website looks great" but asked, "Where are the ads?" Especially at the time, the internet was clogged with banner ads and white-box-with-blue-links Google ads. I explained to my brother that I only wanted to advertise or promote things that I had tried and could honestly recommend, but my website didn't look legit to him without a bunch of ads.

Not getting into the expert interview podcast game. Of the +500 podcasts I've done, about 30 are expert interviews, while the majority are MP3 presentations of articles and research I've done. Expert and author interviews are the best "growth hack" for podcasts and the dirty little secret of the podcasting biz is that they are often low-effort content for the podcasters themselves. The expert or author delivers the majority of the content, the podcaster just sits there and asks them a few leading questions. The way I did it was dramatically more labor intensive; research and write an original article, fact-check it, cite sources, then record and produce a podcast. This became even more time-consuming when I would produce it into an animated-vlog style video, I cringe at the amount of time I spent slaving away with the video editing software to produce videos that weren't all that great. Instead of doing formulaic author interviews, I actually read the books, took notes, and wrote +4000-word book reviews. Ultimately, though, I don't regret this because what I really value is originality; coming up with my ideas based upon my research.

Saying "no" to midroll ad sponsorships. Listen to the most popular, chart-topping, health and personal growth podcasts and you're listening experience is going to be interrupted by A LOT of midroll ads for VPNs, e-commerce stores, BetterHelp.com, Audible, food delivery services, and coaching programs, along with health products and supplements unrelated to the theme of that episode. You would think that the interruptive, century-old business model is on its way out and that listeners would converge on shows that didn't do this, but the most popular shows in the space remain clogged with midroll ads. And those midroll ads are what's making the Mercedes' payments for the biggest gurus in the space. I'll continue to leave this money on the table because it wastes the listeners' time and distracts from the content they've actually tuned in for!

Saying "no" to stories and short-form content. A few years ago the Silicon Valley elites decided that the collective attention span of humanity was far too long and decided to cut it down to under about a minute with short-form video "stories." Stories are a great way to hack subscriber growth on mainstream social media platforms, but I refuse to get into the "story" game because I don't want to participate in the race to the bottom while harming the working memory of my audience.

Not buying followers on social media. As an internet entrepreneur/"influencer" you're looked down on if you have less than 10,000 followers. In fact, once upon a time, I proposed a micro-collaboration with one of the bigger Biohacking influencers (someone you've almost certainly heard of), and his assistant told me that he wouldn't even consider a 30-second contribution to my 500th podcast episode because I ONLY have (legitimate) 12,000 social media followers, their minimum for collaboration consideration was 100,000. I argued that the number of social media followers is not the most meaningful metric and the one that many influencers are faking, and they did not respond.

Not launching a "how to get rich selling Nootropics" course. It's well said that "the easiest way to get rich on the internet is to teach people how to get rich on the internet." I don't feel qualified to do this because I didn't get rich selling Nootropics, and if I did I wouldn't want to increase my competition by spawning an army of avaricious pseudo-experts doing whatever I did.

Not launching a "lifecoach certification" program. These were all the rage a few years ago, every big health or personal growth guru was offering, for a few thousand bucks, entry into an illustrious career of coaching. It might make some sense to sell a new generation of entrepreneurs on lifecoaching as an opportunity if it were a growing market, but sorry, the market for coaches is shrinking thanks to the great job our neoliberal political elites are doing destroying the middle class. I didn't do this because it would entail hawking a pipedream that 90% of my students will fail with, I don't see how it creates much value for the end consumer, so I've stayed focused on trying to solve problem people have in the real world with my Biohacking and lifehacking tools.

Focusing on researching Biohacking and anti-aging instead of SEO. To my dismay, my organic web traffic has slowly shrunk over the years as the quality and quantity of my content have increased dramatically. I think this has something to do with Google's centralization efforts trying to kill off the long tail of the internet. The adage, "Build it and they will come" has been proven false for me. If I'd put in less time doing the research I need to do to live up to my job title, Applied Neuroscience Strategist, I may have devoted that time to the SEO game; ranking for more of those prized keywords.

Not being more extreme to play to the audience on alt-tech. When I was censored by YouTube and shadowbanned on other mainstream social media channels, I didn't have many places to turn other than the burgeoning alt-tech pro-free-speech platforms. And you can build an audience on these platforms but only with extreme content; unhinged conspiracy theories, extreme fearmongering, racial identity politics, Trump worship, depressive red-pill content for angry men, etc. I'm certainly a dissident thinker, but I didn't get extreme enough to blow up on these platforms.

Spending a MASSIVE amount of time upd…

The Immortality Institute (aka Longecity.org forum) is the most popular online community of Biohackers and transhumanists. Their mission is to end the blight of involuntary death.

If you've ever wondered if there was a scientific community online where you can get your difficult questions answered and get respectful yet critical feedback on your Biohacking efforts I have good news for you, the Longecity community is precisely that! Serious Biohackers hang out there discussing what they are doing and the latest performance and antiaging science, it is one of my very best resources. If you see value in crowdsourcing you'll want to join Longecity.org and be sure to connect with me.

In my opinion, it's the best Biohacker forum on the internet

A lot of times there will be some exotic ostensibly Nootropic molecule, that I will Google, and a bunch of hypey, salesy blog articles come up, but then I will search the discussions of it on Longecity and I will find legitimate researchers, scientists, and Ph.D. students discussing nuances of its mechanism, study findings, and potential downsides that the bloggers were totally oblivious to.

In this podcast…

We discuss the state of transhumanism, anti-aging, and low-risk Biohacking strategies along with how to support and get involved with the emerging science of immortality.

Update

The internet (and the world) has changed A LOT since I interviewed Justin. I have to applaud him and the rest of the moderation team at Longecity for striking a delicate balance and creating a rare (in the current year) online space where free speech is respected and a high level of rational, skeptical scientific discourse is maintained. They have not acquiesced to stylish political correctness and modern dogmatic thinking but they also have not let Longecity devolve into a conspiracy theory echo chamber rife with spam and grift. It turns out that when you gather smart people, cultivate the discussion a little, and let people speak freely the resulting conversations are moderate, reasonable, and productive.Join and support the Longecity forum, I know of few places on the internet as well-managed!

And connect with...Justin on LongeCityJonathan on LongeCity

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The naive consumer often has this misperception that if something is for sale on store shelves or online it must be credible - it must have received some sort of stamp of approval from a concerned and responsible objective third-party.

Unfortunately, this is pretty far from reality with a lot of products, especially health supplements and Nootropics.

The dirty secret of the supplement industry is that it’s almost totally unregulated. Many of those suspiciously cheap products in shiny bottles you see for sale on Amazon are untested, impure, expired, and sometimes even fake. Amazon has no standards for what is sold in their vast online marketplace.

There are a couple of consumer pro tips that you should already know, don’t buy the cheapest option, check expiration dates, read reviews online, etc - but when buying supplements, something that you consume, which is going to potentially impact your health you need to be a little more discriminating, have some standards. Before ordering or consuming a supplement you should demand to see a Certificate of Analysis (as we’ve discussed elsewhere) and you should also demand GMP, which stands for Good Manufacturing Practice. If you’re not buying GMP-certified, the supplements you consume could have been produced in a dirty Chinese factory or literally in some guy’s bathtub in an apartment, you really don’t know.

To further muddy the waters, approximately 45% of supplement brands falsely label their products as GMP certified when they aren’t. All it takes is copy-pasting a generic GMP stamp onto a product’s packaging or website. Amazon and certainly your local pharmacy or vitamin shop are NOT going to double-check that they are selling real GMP supplements - that’s what you need to do.Legit GMP-certified supplements are transparent and publish their products verifiable LOT#s.

What does GMP mean?

According to Wikipedia:

The main purpose of GMP is always to prevent harm from occurring to the end user. Additional tenets include ensuring the end product is free from contamination, that it is consistent in its manufacture, that its manufacture has been well documented, that personnel are well trained, and the product has been checked for quality more than just at the end phase.

The chief objectives of GMP certification...

Manufacturing facilities must maintain a clean and hygienic manufacturing area.Manufacturing facilities must maintain controlled environmental conditions in order to prevent cross-contamination from adulterants and allergens that may render the product unsafe for human consumption or use.Manufacturing processes must be clearly defined and controlled. All critical processes are validated to ensure consistency and compliance with specifications.Manufacturing processes must be controlled, and any changes to the process must be evaluated. Changes that affect the quality of the drug are validated as necessary.Instructions and procedures must be written in clear and unambiguous language using good documentation practices.Operators must be trained to carry out and document procedures.Records must be made, manually or electronically, during manufacture that demonstrate that all the steps required by the defined procedures and instructions were in fact taken and that the quantity and quality of the food or drug was as expected. Deviations must be investigated and documented.Records of manufacture (including distribution) that enable the complete history of a batch to be traced must be retained in a comprehensible and accessible form.Any distribution of products must minimize any risk to their quality.A system must be in place for recalling any batch from sale or supply.Complaints about marketed products must be examined, the causes of quality defects must be investigated, and appropriate measures must be taken with respect to the defective products and to prevent recurrence.

If you are in need of a cure for insomnia, I recommend reading the FDA’s 21-part GMP compliance guide for dietary supplements. To achieve and maintain GMP accreditation American labs and facilities that synthesize and create supplements need to remain compliant with hundreds of stringent standards.

If you choose GMP supplements you can be confident that you’re consuming the real thing and you can be optimistic that they will have the desired effect on your health and well-being.

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In one of the more entertaining chapters of my book for men, Don't Stick Your Dick in a Blender, I write about the bad women I've dated hoping to disabuse men learning game of the misguided notion that they should date and try to seduce any woman that they find attractive.

I'll share another racy and illustrative episode from my ignoble dating history...

I met Anne the same way I met a lot of women, by having a very attractive Facebook profile. A thumbnail profile picture of an attractive blonde woman appeared in my pending friend requests which I happily accepted, flirtatious back-and-forth messaging ensued. I forget if she or I expressed some interest in getting a casual drink together for the ostensible purpose of networking, which is all too often a prelude to the most casual of flings. I was this entrepreneurial dabbler at the time; organizing parties at nightclubs and doing online marketing campaigns for clients; not particularly good at anything, I dipped my toes in almost anything that built my social cache and helped me meet girls.

I met her at this mojito bar in downtown Denver where the mixologist produced several very strong mojitos for us. She looked quite hot in a tan dress that hinted at her sexy curves. We proceeded to get a bit tipsy off the mojitos and name-dropped various local celebrities we were acquainted with. She casually revealed to me that she was into the swinger alternative adult lifestyle, not knowing better I was enticed. She told me I was a “vanilla” because I wasn’t really into that sort of lifestyle. A good early sign was that she was eager to impress me with her credentials as some kind of entrepreneurial businesswoman. She operated a small marketing firm apparently, was a professional photographer (and had the sort-of-cool photos on her smartphone to prove it!) Interestingly, she also had a photo with the former Federal Reserve Chairman of the United States, Alan Greenspan who apparently she had worked with and who had written her a personal letter of reference.

We proceeded to bar hop and get further inebriated. We dropped the pretense of networking and began face-sucking in between slurping our cocktails. We left the bar in her large SUV. As we drove past an empty parking lot she made the indecent proposal that she would fuck me right there in the parking lot if I had a condom. Preparation met opportunity as I slipped a condom out of my wallet, we hopped in the back seat, she lifted up her dress revealing some shapely fake tits, and rode me, cowgirl, for a few minutes. It didn’t last long as we lacked proper lubrication or room but it was exciting, and I felt like a character in a romantic comedy, being banged by a blonde bimbo in a back seat still wearing my blazer and shoes with my pants down around my ankles! We went back to my crappy apartment nearby which disappointed her but not enough to dissuade her from spending the night in my bed.

We stayed in touch and she invited me to join her and a few friends for a night out on the town a few weeks later. We had a few drinks and laughs over some beers at a rooftop bar and proceeded back to her rather swank room in a boutique hotel downtown. There, a friend of hers from the swinger community, a chubby, pear-shaped balding man knocked on the door bearing gifts; he broke out his stash of drugs; a little coke and some ecstasy. Not wanting to look like a square, I dropped some ecstasy with them. Then we proceeded to a party in the sprawling penthouse apartment perched at the summit of Denver’s prestigious One Lincoln Park building.

The party was a white party with everyone wearing white, so we stood out not only because of our more casual attire but because almost everyone there was black. It was hosted by one of Denver’s more upscale urban promoters. But we still managed to make friends and have fun. I had found the party the way I’ve found many awesome parties in my life, Facebook Events Near You. I think there was a $20 cover charge but I talked our way in with a little name-dropping. After taking in the expansive views for a while we taxied back to Anne’s hotel room.

By then I was getting pretty stupid off the cocktail of booze and MDMA. I think we took a sexy bath together and then I woke up the next morning on a plush bed with a headache.

A few weeks later she emailed me about a Fire and Ice party that I was hosting at a nightclub downtown. She made me the very generous offer that if I could get her and a couple that she was friends with on the guestlist she would buy me dinner at a swanky seafood restaurant downtown. I was the one responsible for managing the guestlist so, of course, I put them on it! Me, her, and this rather pretentious couple shared a succulent meal and a bottle of wine.

The party was a blast; after a few hours of dancing and enjoying the electrifying performance of my friend Hypnautic we stumbled back to my place and she stripped off her designer dress. I was a bit drunk but I distinctly recall her kicking me twice while we were having sex— non-consensually! In her kinky little sexual counter-culture probably a lot of guys (and gals) are into rough sex, even involving kicking, but I never agreed implicitly or explicitly to that sort of thing. It didn’t hurt much but it showed me all the grandstanding about consent in the swinger culture is really just virtue signaling and taught me to be a bit skeptical of women who dabble outside the fringes of normal sexuality. In retrospect, I questioned if maybe I was being too aggressive in bed and she felt the need to kick me defensively. Even quite drunk, I’ve never been aggressive enough that women felt the need to physically reproach me. She was a very confident, empowered woman, and if I did something that made her uncomfortable I’m pretty sure she would have just walked out of my bedroom or apartment. The next morning, still a little drunk we got brunch together, and she aired no complaints about my behavior the previous night, so I think it’s safe to assume that she just kicked me because it was fun for her.

She would lose interest in me. Being a vanilla, I probably wasn’t satisfying her more perverse desires. Which in retrospect is something I’m thankful for. There’s this very dubious legal concept of “retroactive consent.” If a woman has you hit her during sex and then weeks or months (or years) later decides she doesn’t like you so much, she can go to the police and wreck your life, even if she verbally consented at the time.

Two other troubling things I’d learn about her…

* On our initial date, she told me that she was 28. I think I was 24 at the time and was enticed by this sexy older woman. But later I googled her and found her date of birth on another social media profile which said she was a bit older, in her early-to-mid thirties. Odd to subtract five years from your age on a first date!

* Also, in a later email exchange, she admitted that she had two young children. Contradicting what she told me on our first date which was that she was divorced and had no kids.

I wasn’t sure if I should be flattered or indignant that she had lied to me at least twice on our first date to make herself a more attractive prospect to a young player like me but taken in whole, she earned her place in the constellation of bad women in my past. If you follow the advice of many pickup artist gurus, you’ll end up dating and seducing women just like this because they advise you to sleep with any woman willing to go to bed with you but clearly, you should be very intolerant of the kinds of red flags that were all too obvious in my episode with the non-consensual kicker.

For more racey (and edifying) stories, check out my book for men, Don't Stick Your Dick in a Blender: How to meet a nice girl instead - from a tantric husband with a better sex life than you!

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In this podcast, I discuss the seemingly contradictory Christian Transhumanist movement with Lincoln Cannon, Technologist, Biohacker, Thinker, and CEO of Thrivous, along with being the founder of Transfigurism and ChristianTranshumanism.org. I explain why I'm a reluctant Transhumanist and a pragmatic Christian.

Discussed...

1:37 What is Christian Transhumanism?6:43 Evangelizing Transhumanism11:54 Why humans need religion17:19 Pragmatic faith24:32 What is Transfigurism?Read: Transfigurism: A Future of Religion as Exemplified by Religious Transhumanists30:11 Transhumanism is the lesser evilThe Revolutionary Phenotype by J.F Gariépy37:20 Cavemen were cyborgs!42:49 Why I'm a reluctant TranshumanistRead: Transhumanism is a Trap45:38 Technologically enhanced compassion56:06 Christian compassion counters technological hubris1:00:42 Biohacking stuffBiohacker Reviews of Clarity Daily Nootropic and Alpha NeuroprotectorDual N-Back Pro Brain Training App

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This herbal alkaloid is a natural nootropic that boosts cerebral blood flow to the brain, has antioxidant properties, is a neuroprotective agent, and helps with subjective well-being.

It's another Nootropic with a range of anti-aging effects to maintain a mind that has four, five, six, or more decades of wear and tear but has limited value to otherwise healthy people or Biohackers looking to improve performance.

This article is mostly going to focus on decoding what the human studies are saying about Vinpocetine and how this squares up with the anecdotal experiences of Biohackers online.

Scientific Research

It has been the subject of +170 human studies which you can find on Pubmed. Vinpocetine is an alkaloid, technically not really a Nutraceutical since it's synthetically created, but is derived from vincamine, an extract of the Periwinkle plant.

Dopamine Blues

The mechanism of Vinpocetine (especially at higher dosages) has a net negative effect on Dopamine.

The abstract of a 2001 Mexican study articulates this...

The effect of vinpocetine, a nootropic drug with anti-ischemic potential, on the release of [dopamine] and its main metabolite, DOPAC, was investigated in striatum isolated nerve endings under resting and depolarized conditions...It is concluded that, in addition to the inhibition of presynaptic [voltage-sensitive calcium channels] permeability, which selectively inhibits the transporter-mediated release of all neurotransmitters, vinpocetine increases DOPAC by impairing the vesicular storage of [dopamine].

This is why in those who do not have cognition impaired by a deleterious condition, Vinpocetine may actually have an undesirable anti-Nootropic effect:Lack of motivationMid-afternoon productivity lullPoor focusBrain fog

A middle-aged Biohacker on Longecity reported:

"after thorough searching on the internet I came across very few stories of bad reactions to this supposed safe nootropic. I was attracted to it looking for something that would help my perimenopause brainfog and offer help for mild depression. After taking 2.5 mg for 6 days, I experienced an increasingly bad headache, dizziness, hot flashes and insomnia. I felt oddly wired and had trouble thinking clearly."

Another Biohacker concurred:

"Two days ago I took both Vinpocetine tablets within an hour of each other. Yesterday I woke up with a headache and didn't feel good for most of the morning. I was really tired, couldn't focus, didn't want to do anything..."

Subjective Well-Being

Amongst those whom Vinpocetine does work for, it seems to be a common sentiment that it improves general mood and outlook.

Two Russian studies totaling over a thousand human subjects demonstrated a positive effect on the well-being of those over 45 years old...

Patients showed the significant improvement on a scale that assessed self-rated health, activity and mood. The emotional state was normalized in 50% of patients during the treatment with vinpotropile.

To quote Mind on Longecity:

"The positive effects are mild but noticeable. I seem a little sharper (mentally speaking) and it puts me in a good mood."

These have the effects of...

* Improving concentration abilities

* Alleviating symptoms of menopause

* Combating chronic fatigue

* Helping age-related memory impairment

The enhancement of auditory and visual perception is also reported. Some bloggers have even said of it:

"The mental clarity I experience is second to none. If your brain could take the most refreshing, cleansing shower it had ever experienced, then, the water would be vinpocetine without a doubt."

Vasodilation

Vinpocetine widens the blood vessels, which increases blood flow to the brain. Delivering more blood and oxygen to the brain, fueling cognition. From a 2011 Indian study:

Vinpocetine, chemically known as ethyl apovincaminate, is a vinca alkaloid that exhibits cerebral blood-flow enhancing and neuroprotective effects. Non-clinical and clinical studies have suggested multiple mechanisms responsible for the beneficial neuroprotective effects of vinpocetine.

The benefit to Biohackers of Vasodilation is that whatever other Nootropic you're consuming - caffeine, Racetams, Adaptogens, Modafinil - you get more of it flowing to your noggin.

Vs Neuroinflammation

It has a noteworthy helpful effect on the very challenging condition of Neuroinflammation. From a 2011 Shanghai study:

...the administration of Vinpocetine in hypoxic mice also inhibited inflammatory molecules, indicating that Vinpocetine as a unique anti-inflammatory agent may be beneficial for the treatment of neuroinflammatory diseases.

Also an anti-inflammatory agent, that has a positive effect on neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's disease. In an English double-blind, placebo-controlled study on the elderly with dementia, those who were administered 30 Milligrams daily for a month scored consistently better than those on a placebo.

Memory

It's not going to be my go-to recommendation for improving memory. There was just a single human study that showed an effect that would be desired by Biohackers. 40 milligrams daily of Vinpocetine significantly improves memory in healthy adults, from a placebo-controlled study of twenty women:

However, memory as assessed using the Sternberg technique was found to be significantly improved following treatment with vinpocetine 40 mg when compared to placebo and results suggested a localised effect of the drug on the serial comparison stage of the reaction process.

However, 40 Milligrams is a very high dosage of this Nootropic.

Anti-aging

From a 2011 Swedish study that compared otherwise healthy young Swedes to their elderly counterparts

The present data indicate that... vinpocetine may serve as a molecular imaging biomarker of the activity of the [translocator protein] system and, consequently, of the up-regulation of microglia during ageing and in neuroinflammatory diseases.

Reaction Time

The human study of women found that 40 milligrams improved reaction time in memory scanning tests by 70%.

A couple of other notable studies have shown improvements in reaction times when using Vinpocetine in combination with some other Nootropic cofactors, according to a study from The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California in combination with Ginkgo Biloba it improves reaction time by 50 milliseconds

Ten tasks (perceptual, attention and short-term memory) were presented in a standardized manner designed to maximize performance, with substantial pre-test practice employed to minimize response variability... A 'working memory capacity' paradigm demonstrated a reliable 50 ms response time decrease between the placebo...

Another 2011 study of 30 retired NFL players found that Vinpocetine was a key ingredient in a cognitive enhancement cocktail that improved reaction time:

The trial average was six months. Outcome measures were Microcog Assessment of Cognitive Functioning and brain SPECT imaging. In the retest situation, corrected for practice effect, there were statistically significant increases in scores of attention, memory, reasoning, information processing speed and accuracy on the Microcog... This study demonstrates that cognitive and cerebral blood flow improvements are possible in this group with multiple interventions.

I don't think a 50 or 100-millisecond reaction time improvement is going to make that big of a difference unless you are a professional gamer or marksman. If your Biohacking objective is reaction times, there are probably better options than Nutraceuticals.

Vs Cognitive Decline

From A review of nutrients and botanicals in the integrative management of cognitive dysfunction:

Dementias and other severe cognitive dysfunction states pose a daunting challenge to existing medical management strategies. An integrative, early intervention approach seems warranted. Whereas, allopathic treatment options are highly limited, nutritional and botanical therapies are available which have proven degrees of efficacy and generally favorable benefit-to-risk profiles...Vinpocetine, found in the lesser periwinkle Vinca minor, is an excellent vasodilator and cerebral metabolic enhancer with proven benefits for vascular-based cognitive dysfunction.[Vinpocetine] offer[s] interesting contributions to a personalized approach for restoring cognitive function...

Vs Cerebrovascular Disease

From a 2002 study:

Vinpocetine is a compound widely used in the prevention and treatment of cerebrovascular diseases... The brain regions showing increased uptake in the human brain correspond to those in which vinpocetine has been shown to induce elevated metabolism and blood flow. These observations support the hypothesis that vinpocetine has direct neuronal actions in the human brain.

It has been used for +20 years in Europe to treat cerebrovascular disorders.

Mitochondrial Neuroprotection

According to a 2008 in vitro study, Vinpocetine protects from cytotoxicity of excessive glutamate overexposure that has a deleterious effect on Mitochondrial function:

To test this hypothesis, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) of cultured neurons was measured by flow cytometry...Vinpocetine reduced the decrease of mitochondrial inner membrane potential induced by glutamate exposure...In summary, the present results indicate that the neuroprotective action of vinpocetine in culture can not be explained by its effect on neuronal [peripheral-type benzodiazepine receptor] alone and that additional drug targets are involved.

Sleep

A couple of people have suggested that it has a positive effect on sleep if taken before bed...

"However if I take a pill of vinpocetine around 8-9pm and go to bed at 11pm then I wake up at refreshed around 6am. If I skip a pill then I oversleep and wake up groggy as always around 7-8am. So taken in the evening It somehow seams to shorten my need for sleep."

It's not really stimulating, like something likely to hurt your sleep, so it's worth trying.

 Mechanism of Action

The distinctive feature of Vinpocetine is that it crosses the blood-brain barrier effectively and quickly. From a simian study out of Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden:

The uptake of [11C]vinpocetine in brain was rapid, and 5% of the radioactivity totally injected was present in the brain 2 minutes after drug administration, indicating that the compound entered the brain readily. The radioactivity uptake was heterogeneously distributed among brain regions and was highest in the thalamus, the basal ganglia, and certain neocortical regions.

Using Vinpocetine you'll often notice an effect shortly after taking it. This is not just your imagination. A study of otherwise healthy humans found an increase in Cerebral blood flow after a mere 20 minutes.

* It's a PDE inhibitor

* Increases cGMP concentrations

* Inhibition of sodium channels

* Implicated in enhancing potassium current

* It has a weak effect on Glutamine transmission via AMPA and NMDA receptors

Drugs-Forum.com even reports that it increases cerebral blood flow more than any other nootropic.

Sources and Pricing

It is typically sold as 5 or 10-milligram capsules, powdered Vinpocetine is kind of a pain to deal with. My preferred source in North America is Pure Nootropics, they offer Vinpocetine capsuled and, importantly, verified by a certificate of analysis.

The self-experimentation community holds Vinpocetine and Piracetam in high esteem as a synergistic stack. RUPharma offers a pharmaceutical version of this, VINPOTROPILE®.

The most economical form is powdered Vinpocetine.

It's also available in numerous Nootropic stacks combined with other ingredients, you'll want to double-check that the Vinpocetine dose is low, between 10 - 30 milligrams.

Usage and Dosage

It has poor bioavailability in fasted humans, so it's a good idea to take it with a meal. Its half-life is relatively short; Vinpocetine levels are highest in the blood about 90 minutes after consumption. So you need to take it 2-3 times a day.

10 milligrams low30 milligrams medium60 milligrams high

To quote a long-time Biohacker, gcurrie on Longecity:

"I've been taking it pretty much non-stop for over six years, between 10-20 mg daily.I notice a decrease in clarity when I temporarily stop.Absolutely no negative side effects that I have noticed."

 Vinpocetine Biohacker Review

Day 130 milligrams with Coluracetam and Adaptogenic tea. The taste of Vinpocetine is very bland; not a gross drug taste like a lot of Nootropics have, nor an herbal earthy taste, you could perhaps compare the taste to flour, so nothing to complain about. This is one powder I wouldn't hate consuming daily.I was in a great mindset all day but it's hard to say if the Vinpocetine was to thank

Day 230 milligrams just with Coluracetam. Feeling a bit more energetic and in a positive mood, staying grateful.

Day 330 milligrams alone in the morning and 40 milligrams in the afternoon. I'm really starting to like this stuff...I've done meditation and my breath counting exercise at least twice now on Vinpocetine and found it had a positive effect on my distractability (absence of distractability) and generally positive mood.I did the 30 milligrams in the morning before 10 AM, skipped caffeine, and by 4:30 PM was still feeling a bit of a buzz, the effect had not worn off but I wanted to explore the dosage curve and stimulate my productivity and creativity throughout the rest of the day so I did another little spoonful and even upped the dosage a little.This is the upper-end dosage of what I'll take, this is just about over the stimulant watershed for me!Along with feeling more energized, it's something of a vigilance agent (like Modafinil) that makes me a bit more alert and awake.

Days 4 and 5Second doses of Vinpocetine are becoming problematic. I've noticed that I fall into an unfocused, unproductive funk after doing an afternoon dose of 30-40 milligrams. If this persists I'll have to quit Vinpocetine.

Day 6I did a little smaller single dose in the late afternoon and felt better. Nicely focused, although not notably energetic.

Day 7I did two smaller doses of 20-25 milligrams in the morning and the afternoon. I did not find this dosage as sedating as before. Although, the Nootropic effect itself is pretty underwhelming.

Days 8 and 9I did try it before sleep a couple of times and there was a negligible effect; I don't think it negatively affected my sleep, nor did I feel better in the mornings as some have reported.

 Cofactors

Ginkgo Biloba, ALCAR, Fish Oil, Alpha-Lipoic Acid, Huperzine-A, and Vinpocetine is a Reaction Time Stack as demonstrated in two studies.

 Side Effects

Again since it lowers dopamine for some there's a range of unpleasant side effects. The most commonly reported are:

* Headaches

* Brain fog

* Sleepiness

* Another somewhat frequently reported side effect is mild gastrointestinal upset, this can be assuaged by lowering the dosage.

Conflicts:Anticoagulant and Antiplatelet drugs moderately interact with Vinpocetine. Notably Warfarin (Coumadin).

Conclusion...

This is another overrated Nootropic, it's irresponsible for so many products and multivitamins to include it because its dopamine-lowering effect makes it a negative Nootropic for many Biohackers.

Before I spent +15 hours researching it, I always assumed that Vinpocetine was an above-board Nootropic because it's such a commonly used ingredient in popular Nootropic products. Based upon my examination of anecdotal reports of Vinpocetine usage about a third of the Biohackers who use it experience negative side effects. Vendors of products like AlphaBrain or TruBrain could probably retain more of their customers if they excluded Vinpocetine from their stacks.

Theoretically, the value I see in Vinpocetine for otherwise healthy people is that it increases blood flow to the brain, so it should increase the potency of other Nootropics you're taking; this is why some people report that it releases the power of caffeine for them. However; there are other, more proven vasodilation agents like...PiracetamPicamilonGinkgo BilobaNitric oxide promoters like Beetroot juiceEven Capsaicin which is what makes chillis so spicy!Or hanging upside down

The more I researched Vinpocetine the more I thought, why is this such a popular Nootropic?

I think it's just because the Periwinkle flower from which it is derived is so beautiful; it is a stunning flower and people just assume that anything that comes from it must be great! Well, looks can be deceiving!

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You've probably heard before that the EMFs from smartphones, Wifi, and blazing-fast 5G networks are dangerous to your health. You've also probably heard that this is just a "crazy conspiracy theory" and that all this wireless radiation is fine.

EMF*D thoroughly breaks down the real science on this controversial issue, it's the latest title from Dr. Mercola, a titan in the health freedom movement.

I'll address the "skeptics" first

You might be saying to yourself...

Cellphones causing brain cancer? Hasn't this notion been thoroughly debunked along with chemtrails and the flat earth movement? I defer to scientific authority on these kinds of matters. I BELIEVE in science. if it was really bad for us there would be credentialed scientists on the nightly news letting us know!

First of all, thanks for even considering arguments against EMFs and 5G! Too many people just mindlessly accept what their television tells them to convince them to buy a product. A few important points...

* If you're a respecter of science, you should read this book because it's full of science, it's a very thorough documentation of the significant body of science that underlies the EMF threat to our health.

* Unless you're an experienced scientist yourself, evaluate contentious issues (vaccines, climate change, etc) first with critical thinking about human nature and economic incentives and then look at the science. Here's why, science is corruptible, scientists are more like politicians than they are like priests, because of the perverse system that many of them have to operate in, don't place unquestioning faith in them. You can read scientific papers on Pubmed but understand that there is a huge noise vs signal issue in science; the federal funding of science to the tune of $30 billion turns science into a very political game. Unfortunately, a lot of science is tantamount to a propaganda article published in Pravda, the Soviet Union's state-run newspaper. You'll need to be very adroit with science to differentiate between real science and propaganda masquerading as science. You'll need to read long boring studies and pick out potential errors in their statistical analysis. And this all assumes that the scientists publishing a paper aren't simply lying and fabricating their data.

* Industry funding of science is also problematic because corporations fund science to make money, NOT for the public good. You may not be able to scrutinize myriad data and evidence supporting a scientific claim, but you are capable of asking "Cui Bono" - who benefits here? If there are big, greedy corporations funding science, that will result in them profiting millions or billions, you should be very suspicious of that "science". If there is science done by scientists who don't stand to gain much that's a lot more credible. On almost any contentious science issue, you can ask which side is going to profit a vast fortune from winning this debate? And who is just concerned about human wellbeing?

* A lot of naive people think if something is really bad for us, then they would tell us on the nightly news. Or they think that a simple Google search or a Wikipedia article will reveal the truth. Again, you have to think about the massive economic incentives; the mainstream media makes billions in advertising revenue from Big Telecom, as do Google and the rest of Big Tech. Wikipedia is a little more independent, but they enjoy a very privileged position with their articles appearing in the most authoritative position in Google searches, they aren't going to allow articles critical of Big Telecom to achieve prominence.

If you're still skeptical of the danger of EMFs, consider that...

The most consistent voice of reason has come from the scientific community. In 2015, 190 EMF scientists from 39 countries issued the International EMF Scientist Appeal to the United Nations calling for the WHO to adopt “more protective exposure guidelines for non-ionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) in the face of increasing exposures from many sources.” (p. 79)

I had the pleasure of living in one of the sexiest cities in the world — Medellin, Colombia for over a year.

During this time I cross-trained learning game and mastering a second language, Spanish. I also spent time in Central America and lived in Valencia, on the sun-kissed southern coast of Spain, which (by the way) is a better place to pick up chicas than Barcelona.

This spreadsheet contains over 100 pick-up lines, jokes, anecdotes, rapport-building questions, and charming expressions en Espanol, and corresponding English translations.

We read and discuss the controversial philosophical new article by Biohacker and maniacal Transhumanist Serge Faguet, People who make bad health choices f**k everyone else. Regulate them like polluting factories.

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