 Thinking of trying parisitam to improve your cognitive ability. Watch this. Our first caller is Kara from Colorado. Kara, what's happening? How come we help you? Hey, Sal. Hey, guys. Um, before I get going, I just wanted to say, um, so I was a trainer from 2012 to 2015 and I love the industry. I did some thinness shows at the time and I just didn't see an out. So I kind of stopped everything qualified for nationals in bikini and stopped from there, did my own thing for five years or so. 2020 said enough is enough. I went back to my coaching business and in November, I started training again, uh, probably because of you guys. Cause I heard, I found your podcast maybe in April and I just want to thank you for giving language to all the bullshit in the fitness industry. Um, yeah, yeah, I just really resonate to what y'all say more than anyone else and I'm just so appreciative. So I just want to say thank you so much for everything that you do. Yeah. Thank you for those words. Thanks. Cool. So yeah, my question that I asked was, um, I heard you, Sal, talk about Prishtan and Coleen in an episode pretty early on, um, an earlier episode and I was just wondering. So Cole, I got some Coleen and it's really been helping with my brain fog as I'm coming off of having COVID. So I'm wondering if there's a way to go about looking up new tropics and I don't really know much about, uh, new tropics drugs, but I like supplements. I like playing around with supplements and I'm just interested in holistic health and yeah. Cool. No, it's good question. So Prishtan is a drug from the racetam, uh, categories of drugs. So it's actually a synthetic product. It's a prescription in some countries, uh, but here in the U S it's, uh, like a gray market, so it's not really regulated. You could buy it over the counter and it's loosely, I guess, categorized as a, um, new tropic. So in some studies, it's been shown to improve things like verbal fluency in people who have, uh, noticed declining, uh, verbal fluency or memory recall in people with, you know, who have like early stages of maybe dementia and stuff like that. So a lot of people have messed around with these substances to see if it's done anything for them. Um, I'm one of those people I've messed around, you know, I make no, it's not a mystery that I like to mess around with compounds and supplements and stuff to kind of see what happens. Now here's a deal with, uh, Prishtan. This is my personal experience and then also the experience that I've, I've had, uh, you know, having other people try it. For me, it's got a bit of a racy feel. I notice maybe an improvement in some things, but I also noticed that I crash when it kind of wears off and don't feel so good. So this is why I've never really used and I've tried lots of the race attempt molecules. There's Anna race attempt. There's lots of different, you know, oxy race attempt. I believe another one. There's lots of different types and they're all supposed to be a little different. I wasn't really a huge fan. I gave some to Adam, Justin and Doug for fun, uh, just to see what would happen and they all had headaches and didn't, didn't feel good, uh, from them at all. Um, choline is a natural compound. Probably should be labeled essential. Um, it's not currently labeled essential, but I think it probably should be. You find it in certain foods like egg yolks and if it's low, supplementing with it can help with, you know, kind of cognitive performance. So Colleen's pretty good. Caffeine can help some people if they're fatigued, but I will say this, um, when it comes to substances and supplements to help with, I guess, mental acuity or to help with brain fog, they pale in comparison to, and I know it must sound like a broken record. They pale in comparison to things like diet, exercise, stress management and sleep. They really don't, they're really poor substitutes. Like if you have poor sleep, caffeine can help, but it doesn't do at all. What good sleep would do for all of those things. And, uh, so, you know, keep that in mind. But as far as the race attempt drugs are concerned, um, I'm not, I'm not really a big fan. That's why I talked about them once. And then I really haven't really brought them up except for maybe to talk about kind of that gray market part of the supplement industry that I think is interesting, but I don't think that they're, they're really great, uh, for, you know, what people say they're for. So what, what do you think, because I, uh, yeah, I didn't have a good experience with these at all. Um, what are some recommendations, though, that you would give her for, like, natural neutropics? Or is there, are those considered the neutropics because they're, because they're natural? Because they're lion's mane. Yeah. What are some, what are some natural, uh, substances that she could take instead of that if she wanted to try? You know, the thing with the, the, the word neutropic, if you look up what it's supposed to mean, it literally means, uh, a substance that, uh, upon taking will improve cognitive performance. Now, technically, like I mentioned caffeine, technically caffeine is not a neutropic. However, the reason why I put caffeine in that category is if you are fatigued, your mental performance will drop. Taking caffeine does improve mental performance in that particular context. So that's why I like to put that there. Some people would put drugs like Adderall or Ritalin in that category. However, there's interesting studies that show that they don't really improve cognitive performance. They just make, they just make people more interested in the boring shit that they don't want to be interested in. And so that makes people feel like they're, you know, they're smarter when they take them. Now, exogenous ketones, would that be a classification of neutropic? Because I know it does help, like, you know, my, my clarity in terms of my sharpness of a memory recall. You know, it's weird about that. So going into ketosis for some people makes a big difference. I would imagine it's probably people who either A have issues with blood sugar or insulin, you know, like Alzheimer's is like type three diabetes. Some people will call it. Or you're eliminating lots of food intolerances. And so you feel less inflamed, less bloated, a little bit sharper from doing so. You can experiment with that. Kara, you can go on a ketogenic diet. Just make sure you get adequate sodium. I want to say that a lot of people will go ketogenic, feel like garbage and think they call it the keto flu. Oh my God, I feel typically it's when you go on a ketogenic diet, you drop carbohydrates, you're, you're gonna lose a lot of water. And when you lose a lot of water, you need a lot more sodium. And so, you know, like we work with a company called LMNT. It's a great product. If you want to drink something that tastes good with salt, otherwise salt the shit out of your food, add a little salt to your water. That usually makes up the difference. But also you go in ketogenic diet. You can expect some, some performance drops in strength. So if you, so it's a bit of a trade-off. Like you're not going to be a strong, not have much stamina and endurance, but you may feel sharper doing something like that. Fasting can do that really quick. Like if you did a 24 hour fast, you may notice, oh my God, I feel sharper. What is it in the Organifi Pure that makes me feel that way? So products like that are more like, you're looking at, I'm glad you said that because I was going to go there. I totally forgot. There are compounds that help with brain health. So like Lion's Mane, for example, is one of those things. So if you took Lion's Mane, you might not know, you're probably not going to notice anything until you take it for two or three weeks. Right. And then, and then what they'll show is it's, it's improving brain health a little bit over time. Things that help with your gut. So like Organifi Pure has got certain compounds that'll do that. That's why when you take it. I want to digest the enzymes in there too. A little bit. Yeah. So that's why when you take it over time, you start to kind of notice like, oh, I feel, you know, I feel kind of good. What I like about it is more, it's more natural ingredients in terms like what they use. So for me, like it didn't have that. I don't know if it's because of the artificial blend that you get from the race of Tams, but that's what really gave me a headache. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't get a headache from this and it does over time. It really does help with your memory. You recall. It does. It's just one of those. You know what it is. Okay. If you take something, this is a general rule. If you take something that you feel right away, you can almost always bet that you're going to get this adaptation response in the body in the brain where it starts to down-regulate receptors and change its own production of certain chemicals. And so then over time, it stops to be as effective. And then when you go off of them, there's this kind of rebound effect where you feel, you know, kind of crappy for a week or two. And it just, again, it doesn't substitute lifestyle by any stretch of imagination. Now for someone with COVID brain fog, this one's a really interesting one. I personally, now I'm not going to recommend this. I'm not a doctor. But what I would do care if I was you is I would see if going on a ketogenic diet for a week or two makes a big difference. I have a hunch that the anti-inflammatory effects of the ketogenic diet would have a positive effect on somebody like you. But you have to experiment with it and see, you know, how you feel. But I hope that helps you out really. There's really nothing out there that's going to make a huge difference aside from your, you know, things that might help improve brain health in conjunction with, you know, good diet, exercise and sleep. Care, have you tried the Organified Period? I haven't, no. Give that a try. I mean, Justin and I both love that. Yeah. And I had a bad experience with the race 10 stuff. Yeah. How's your sleep, by the way? Sleep is pretty good. Yeah, I've been, I've been really toned in since I like quit my day job and just working for myself. So it's been awesome. How? Just, just off of COVID, I just noticed like brain fog and like a significant increase with the choline. So I was just wondering from there, I'm like, oh, this stuff is great. How long, how long ago did you get over COVID? Maybe like two weeks ago. Okay. You know, here's some good news. That brain fog typically lasts maybe a month or two at the most. I know Adam felt fatigued for like, what, it was like six weeks or so after? Yeah, I'd say about six weeks. And then it kind of got better after that. Yeah. My wife, the same thing. So, you know, there's very, very small percentage of people from what I've read where it lasts really long. It's usually from what I've read and people I know, it's like a month or two afterwards at most. Cool. That makes a lot of sense. Okay. Does that help? I hope that helps. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's interesting. Percitam sounds like cratum in a way. It's not at all. Cratum is a, yeah. I love cratum. It's nothing like that for sure. No, but hold on. Cratum, you will have, cratum does have addictive properties and you will have withdrawal if you take it regularly and then go off. Cratum, that feeling that you get from cratum is the same thing that you get from like an opiate, right? So, it pairs with the opiate receptor. You get that feeling of like happy and joy. So, it's less to do with like the mental clarity and more of that. Like mood. Yeah. Yeah. It always puts me in a good mood. Yeah. But when I talk to people about cratum, and I'm afraid, I'm not afraid, I'm very cautious to talk about it on the show because of the withdrawal, people can... Oh, it's very addictive. I found myself starting off with like six of those 500 milligram pills and then quickly to eight, then quickly to 10, then 12. So, you quickly move up. The body adapts to it and then you feel like you got to take more just to keep up with it. I also have shared in the past about, I battled with opiate addiction in the past. So, it's something that is I'm very aware of. It's like the lesser of an evil, right? Yeah, yeah. It's way, way, the withdrawal is bad but nothing like an opiate. Right. Right. But I could get there though. I know people that keep scaling up before you know it, you're taking 30 or 40 of those things and then good luck, you know, so. Definitely. I had to give it up. I was like, no, this isn't working after a while. You sound a lot like me, Kara. I understand the feelings. It's a good time, but you got to be careful. Exactly. Yeah. Cool. Awesome. Thank you, Kara. Thanks for calling in. Thank you so much. Take care. Yeah. I, boy, identify a little bit with what she's saying. You know, you look for things to, that you either can change your state of mind or help with certain, you know, challenges you have and in some ways it can become a little valuable. But like when it comes to like improving your mental clarity, like, man, if I get a good night of sleep, there isn't a thing that I've ever tried or stack that I've ever tried that even comes close. Well, I'd be tearing hands down. Yeah. Nothing comes close to something like that. I think that and actually just being fasted going and stuff like that. I always feel that when I'm, that's the one. So I hate working out fasted, but I love to podcast or do something where I need to be sharp. Totally. I'd notice a huge difference when I'm just not fed. It's wild. Yeah. I know. When I'm, when we're going to go in and do like a big interview or something, I really need, like, I want to be sharp all fast. Yeah. Because it does make a difference for me, but working out performance wise, that's totally different.