Smart Drugs Part 2, CIL-TEP

I loved the movie Limitless starring Bradley Cooper. In the movie, Cooper's character (Eddie Morra) is given a pill that unlocks the use of 100% of his brain power allowing him to write a novel overnight, learn day trading in days, and eventually run for the US Senate. The thought of taking a pill that could give you "limitless" energy and focus is appealing to industry leaders and Biohackers alike. Some people have resorted to taking amphetamine's which have serious health issues associated with long term use. Nootropics are the safer alternative.

Nootropics 102

Nootropics are commonly referred to as "smart drugs". The truth is they only enhance your existing memory and focus. They do so through several mechanisms. One such mechanism is the increase of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), a second messenger derived from adenosine triphosphate (ATP). 

CILTEP

The second Nootropic that I have ever tried was CILTEP by Natural Stacks. CILTEP is a simple stack of Artichoke Extract, Forskolin, Acetyl-L-Carnitine, Vitamin B6, and L-Phenylalanine. The Forskolin increases cAMP levels, which is supported by the Acetyl-L-Carnitine. The Artichoke Extract reduces inflammation associated with the degradation of cAMP. While the Vitamin B6 and L-Phenylalanine support the production of dopamine. I have noted better than normal focus on CILTEP, with energy and motivation also improved to a lesser extent. 

Fix Your Diet First

No supplement or drug is going to overcome a month of bad decisions, with the exception, perhaps, of amphetamine's. If you have brain fog, weight gain or are not sleeping well, you need to straighten out your diet first. As I said before Nootropics only enhance your existing memory and focus, do yourself a favor and optimize what you have with real food, moderate exercise and good sleep. Lastly, most Nootropics are not super cheap, so why waste a dose if you are hung over and going to sleep in?

Give Your Brain a Rest

As with all Nootropics, I will introduce breaks between courses. I will typically go with a one to two weeks on, and one week off of any particular Nootropic. I do this for two reasons. As Tim Ferris says, "there is no biological free lunch". Life is about balance. Periods of more focus should be followed by periods of less focus. Secondly, I want to return to baseline before trying another Nootropic.

Stay well engineered,

Devon


If you found this information helpful, I would appreciate it if you clicked my Referral Link and checkout all the great Bulletproof products for yourself.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Mold in an Unlikely Place

In my Moldy Coffee post, I highlighted the dangers of mold and the mycotoxins they produce. That post was focused on coffee and the Ochratoxin A, but there are many other types of mold and mycotoxins to be aware of and avoid at all cots.

It was mid afternoon and I was hungry for a snack. I reached into my desk drawer and pulled a low carbohydrate protein bar from my drawer. When I opened it I was surprised to see white fuzzy mold growing on my snack.

This just goes to show you that you can never be too diligent in your quest to rid yourself of dietary mold and reaffirms that your best choice is to consume fresh, whole foods instead of pre-processed food products whenever possible.

Stay well engineered,

Devon


If you found this information helpful, I would appreciate it if you clicked my Referral Link and checkout all the great Bulletproof products for yourself.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Smart Drugs Part 1, Alpha Brain

I loved the movie Limitless starring Bradley Cooper. In the movie, Cooper's character (Eddie Morra) is given a pill that unlocks the use of 100% of his brain power allowing him to write a novel overnight, learn day trading in days, and eventually run for the US Senate. The thought of taking a pill that could give you "limitless" energy and focus is appealing to industry leaders and Biohackers alike. Some people have resorted to taking amphetamine's which have serious health issues associated with long term use. Nootropics are the safer alternative.

Nootropics 101

Nootropics are commonly referred to as "smart drugs". The truth is they only enhance your existing memory and focus. They do so through several mechanisms. One common way is through Acetylcholine regulation.  Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter, the carrier of chemical messages in your brain. The more neurotransmitters that you have, the more messengers you have to carry the messages between your neurons. Nootropics will often increase Acetylcholine, or its precursors, or decrease the elimination of Acetylcholine because your brain thinks you have enough.

Alpha Brain

The first Nootropic that I had ever experimented with was Alpha BRAIN from Onnit Labs. Among other naturally occurring compounds, Alpha BRAIN contains L-Alpha glycerylphosphorylcholine (Alpha GPC) which an Acetylcholine precursor, giving your brain more raw materials from which to make Acetylcholine. I find that 2 capsules per day gives me better focus and better recall of names, dates and other sometimes trivial information. Focus is slightly improved, if only that I better recall what I should be doing right now.

Fix Your Diet First

No supplement or drug is going to overcome a month of bad decisions, with the exception, perhaps, of amphetamine's. If you have brain fog, weight gain or are not sleeping well, you need to straighten out your diet first. As I said before Nootropics only enhance your existing memory and focus, do yourself a favor and optimize what you have with real food, moderate exercise and good sleep. Lastly, most Nootropics are not super cheap, so why waste a dose if you are hung over and going to sleep in?

Give Your Brain a Rest

As with all Nootropics, I will introduce breaks between courses. I will typically go with a one to two weeks on, and one week off of any particular Nootropic. I do this for two reasons. As Tim Ferris says, "there is no biological free lunch". Life is about balance. Periods of more focus should be followed by periods of less focus. Secondly, I want to return to baseline before trying another Nootropic.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

If you found this information helpful, I would appreciate it if you clicked my Referral Link and checkout all the great Bulletproof products for yourself.

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Inbox Zero

I have posted about how to efficiently organize and archive your email, hack your junk mail and even archive your sent mail. I believe that your inbox is your to-do list. If you have a cluttered inbox, it is hard to find your priority. Today I am going to share my top 10 tips on how to keep your inbox tidy 

1. Send Everything to the Trash

At the end of the day, most of the email I receive ends up in the trash. Why not start there? I start by sending all emails with "@" in address (all emails that I know of) to the trash with a simple Microsoft Outlook rule. (See Hack Your Junk Mail)

2. Allow Exceptions

I augment this rule by allowing emails from my organization's domain and the domain of our parent and sister organizations.

3. Allow More Exceptions

As I find emails in the trash that I do not want automatically sent there, I add them to the exceptions list either by specific email address or domain. After a few weeks, the email that ends up in the trash usually belongs there, even if I want to read them first.

4. Batch Your Email Viewing

Once you have streamlined your inbound email, you will need to check it less frequently. Some people have even as gone as far to setup an auto-reply message informing senders that they only check their email at certain times and to use more direct methods of contact (email or text) if it is urgent.

5. Identify Important Emails Quickly

When you do finally check your email, you want to identify the important emails quickly. I use Microsoft Outlook conditional formatting to mark emails from my Boss, the Executive Leadership Team, and their Assistants with a different color and font to ensure they stand out.

6. Delete Unimportant Emails

Once you address the important emails, it is time to address the rest of your email.  Not all emails that make it through your filters are golden. If you batch your email viewing, you will quickly spot chains, or threads, of email subjects that occurred in your absence. You can usually pare this list down to the most recent emails, except, but be sure to review emails with attachments wherever they lay in the chain. If the email does not require action from you, or contain any vital information that you would want to reference later, delete it.

7. Use Cloud Archives

Emails that do not require any action from you, but you do want to reference later should be archived somewhere. For this, I use Evernote. Evernote is a cloud based system that can be used to store notes,  business cards, emails, documents photos and so much more. There are many other ways to organize your documents in the cloud, you will just need to figure out what works for you and/or your organization.

8. Use Short-Cuts

I use Microsoft Outlook Quick Steps to send Evernote emails to frequently used @Folder and #Tag combinations at the click of a button, instead of having to type them into address bar and subject line each time.

9. Use Reminders

Just because an email is not important now, does not mean you will not need to review it later. There are many ways to be reminded. Calendar reminders, Evernote reminders and FollowUp.cc, just to name a few.

10. Get Family, Friends, and Coworkers Involved

I have done my best to share these tips with my coworkers and employees. Once they understand my motivation and how I use email, we communicate much more efficiently.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

If you found this information helpful, I would appreciate it if you clicked my Referral Link and checkout all the great Bulletproof products for yourself. Also, please note as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Moldy Coffee

Moldy Coffee

Coffee beans are the seeds of the coffee cherry. If you have ever gone fruit picking then you know it can be challenging to collect the fruit that has not been damaged by animals or insects, and even more so to collect the fruit without damaging them yourself. Even then, it is a race against time to consume the fruit before they mold and decay.  As one might expect with mass produced food products, the situation is considerably worse. According to this 2003 Pub Med Article which examined 60 samples of Brazilian coffee, 91.7% of of the coffee samples were contaminated with mold and 33% of the samples tested positive for Ochratoxin A, a mycotoxin.

Mycotoxins

Mycotoxins are produced by mold. Ochratoxin A is a mycotoxin produced by molds such as Aspergillus and Penicillium. According to Food Safety Watch, Ochratoxin A is nephrotoxic (damaging the kidneys), and genotoxic (damaging DNA), and teratogenic (damaging a fetus). According to this American Cancer Society publication, the mycotoxins produced by Fumonisin B1 & B2 found on corn are linked to cancer and according to this 2011 Pub Med Article, both Ochratoxin A and Fumonisin are known to cause brain damage. In short, mold produces mycotoxins and mycotoxins are bad for you.

Roasting Does Not Eliminate Mycotoxins

According to this Pub Med Article, roasting moldy coffee beans at 200 deg-C (392 deg-F) only reduced the Ochratoxin A by 12%. Since roasting does not eliminate all of the mycotoxins produced by mold, it is imperative to try and eliminate all mold from your diet, starting with your morning cup of coffee. 

Negative Publicity is Free Publicity?

Perhaps it is purely a coincidence, but shortly after I inquired about the mold criteria of a local coffee roaster, a podcast regarding Bulletproof Coffee appeared on their website and iTunes. Their first mistake was: They made Bulletproof Coffee incorrectly. They used the wrong coffee beans, substituting their El Salvador roast the first day, a dark Guatemala roast the next day and even suggested using "really junky coffee". Hopefully you understand by now what a mistake this was. Their second mistake was: They did not change the rest of their diet. One of them even admitted to eating a muffin (so not Bulletproof). Their third mistake was: They did not give it enough time. A week is not nearly enough to see any physical changes, and mental changes can be subtle or even subdued by other lifestyle choices (muffins). Their fourth mistake was: They clearly do not understand intermittent fasting. With intermittent fasting, you restrict the window you eat, not restrict the calories you eat. The point is to increase insulin sensitivity, not eat less. Lastly, They clearly do not understand the ketogenic diet. As I showed in my New Plan for 2017, my protein consumption is only about 20% of my calories. While 5% calories from carbohydrates may seem low to some people, leafy greens and bright vegetables with all their vitamins and phytonutrients are relatively low in carbohydrates. Despite the negative publicity, hopefully other listeners of this podcast have researched Bulletproof Coffee and come to their own conclusions about how important mold-free, mycotoxin free, coffee is.

If you found this information helpful, I would appreciate it if you clicked my Referral Link and checkout all the great Bulletproof products for yourself.

Stay well engineered,

Devon

These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These statements or products referenced are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.