Can anyone explain Nootropics to me?

jennknut

My sister has early onset dementia/alzheimers so I was doing a little googling and I stumbled into this whole area regarding Nootropics, specifically Noopept. It seems that a lot of people take this for memory retention, etc. Thanks

apullum

I'm sorry to hear about your sister.

The general category of "nootropics" includes a lot of substances that people believe will enhance cognitive ability. There is little scientific evidence that these things work in healthy people. A limited amount of evidence suggests that noopept and similar drugs might be useful for people with certain types of brain injury or disease, but there are very few studies at this point: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20166767

Overall there's really not much research on these things, so we don't know whether they work or whether they have unforeseen drawbacks. I would speak with your sister's doctor about any supplements you would like her to try, in case there is any possible downside or potential for interaction with her other medications.

kshama2001

Examine.com is considered to be a good source of info: https://examine.com/supplements/noopept/

Do discuss with her doctor, who is preferably a specialist.

Also ask about diet. My mom is concerned about Alzheimer's as my grandfather had it, and recently bought a book that pitched "mild ketosis" as a way to combat Alzheimer's. However, the book also mentioned that numerous studies showed that the Mediterranean diet was beneficial, and as this is basically how she eats, and keto would be difficult for her, I suggested she just keep eating as she was.