At Lost Empire Herbs we have a particular bent on performance. This started out with athletic performance. That, in turn, led to sexual performance (basically the herbs that help with one, help the other).
And there is a third area of performance we like to focus on…cognitive.
I have a lot of business owner friends. And among this group, perhaps more so than many others, they’re always looking for the edge in being more productive. After all, if you’re more productive, you can make more money and help the world better (yes, those two can very much go hand in hand).
And thus, nootropics aka smart drugs and smart nutrients are becoming more and more popular. The rise in “biohacking” further fuels this trend.
This is not a bad thing. Far from it. BUT there are some big misconceptions and lack of knowledge around the area.
In this article I aim to clear up what is a nootropic, what it’s not and why there are several classes of herbs that may be even more important to those that wish for cognitive performance.
Further, we’ll finish up with some non-herbal resources. Just like weight loss, or energy production, yes herbs can help, but they’re a 2-10% sort of thing, rather than the major drivers of your results.
Different Types of Intelligence
IQ has long been used as the standard for how smart a person is. Other types of intelligence like EQ or Emotional Quotient are often mentioned as IQ is obviously not everything. Howard Gardner created the model of seven types of intelligence: musical, visual, verbal, logical, bodily, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Later, two more types were added, naturalistic and existential.
Obviously, “smarts” is not a one-dimensional sort of thing. So when we look at improving cognitive function, it is useful to become more clear on what exactly that means to us.
The term nootropic, coined in 1972 by Corneliu Giurgea, denotes a drug, nutrient, supplement or food that improves one or more aspects of mental function. Some of those mental functions may be:
• Memory (short, long term, working)
• Focus, Attention, and Concentration
• Pattern Recognition
• Association
• Language
• Mental Imagery
• Problem Solving
There’s others that could be added to this list too. Motivation is one that comes up from time to time. But to expect something you take to make you more motivated just seems weird.
Creativity is another aspect that many people would like to improve. Although there might be elements of some of the above things, like pattern recognition, it also appears to be different. Those nutrients that help you focus on one thing are quite different on those that expand your frames of thinking. (Here, various psychoactive substances can certainly come into play. Steve Jobs credits LSD with helping to change his thinking, leading to Apple…and he’s not the only one.)
Ultimately, what most people take nootropics for are to become more productive. That’s a word that can mean lots of things, but in general, seems to encapsulate the benefits most people come to this area are looking for. That’s one of the reasons that I take certain herbs, including to help write an article such as this.
So now that we are a bit clearer on what we want, or at least have some options to choose from, let’s look at herbal actions.
Nervine Herbs
The term nervine is typically used to refer to just two of these groupings, the relaxants, and hypnotics. However, in a general sense, it merely means something that acts on the nervous system.
As such, this focus could then be broken up by different actions.
Nervine Stimulants
Some of the most used and well-known herbal substances in the world fall into the nervine stimulant category. As the name implies these stimulate the nervous system (in addition to some other areas of the body). The most famous of these are:
- Coffee
- Tea (specifically Camellia sinensis)
Some others would include:
- Coca leaf (with cocaine being an isolated extract many more times as powerful)
- Kola nut
- Yerba mate
- Guarana
- Cacao
- Ephedra
Several of these have caffeine, or related molecules like theobromine, though not all of them act through these specific molecules.
Nervine stimulation is neither good nor bad by itself. It certainly has some uses, though in Western society it is often overdone.
In fact, according to some, it was coffee that began the Industrial Revolution and largely got us to where we are today. Looking at the history of coffee and tea, not to mention the others is interesting. Did you know that coffee has been banned in certain countries at certain times, like Sweden in 1746? As with any strong drug it has had its ups and downs.
Nervine Relaxant
On the flip side of stimulation, here we have relaxants. This category is sometimes called sedatives as well. These are often separated from the stronger herbs, called the hypnotics, which will be covered next.
- Lemon Balm
- Gotu Kola
- Ashwagandha
- Chamomile
- Catnip
- Lavender
- Blue Vervain
- Damiana
- Red Belted Conk
It is important to note that just because these herbs are grouped together doesn’t mean they’re all the same. Ashwagandha is very different from chamomile.
Nervine Hypnotics
The Latin root meaning of the word sleep is hypnos. Although hypnosis is not the same as sleeping, here these herbs have a stronger effect on the nervous system and can aid people in falling asleep.
- Skullcap
- Valerian
- Passionflower
- Kava Kava
- Hops
- Wild Lettuce
Once again these are quite different plants. Many of them are also great anodynes or pain relievers, which can help with sleep if pain is what is keeping someone awake.
And different people are affected by different herbs in a variety of ways. Valerian root is a strong hypnotic…to some people. If I take it I’ll often wake up groggy the next day because it is too strong for me. But some people experience the exact opposite and are stimulated by it.
Nervine Trophorestorative
Trophorestorative is a term you may not have heard. The key part is in “restorative” as these herbs help to restore, strengthen and rejuvenate the area they work on, in this case, the nerves. In Chinese medicine, these would be called tonic herbs. However, the word tonic can mean multiple things in the Western traditions, so trophorestorative is used instead.
- Milky Oats
- Skullcap
- Lion’s Mane Mushroom
- St. John’s Wort
- Wood Betony
Nootropics
Finally, we come to nootropics. Unlike the others, this is a new term that has not been around long but means something that improves one or more aspects of mental function. Still, we can classify some of the herbs from the various other categories into this category.
- Coffee
- Bacopa (my #1 favorite)
- Schisandra
- Ginkgo
- Gotu Kola
- Rosemary
- Calamus
- Sage
- Mucuna
Shen Tonic
In Chinese medicine, Shen has a lot to do with the nervous system. The mind is considered to reside in the heart (not the brain), and the heart is where Shen resides. Modern research shows that the heart has a tremendous impact on the brain and nervous system (check out the Institute of HeartMath for more details).
Many of these herbs would likely also be classified as nervine relaxants or trophoresoratives.
Adaptogen
Like nootropic, adaptogen is a modern term. In addition to the many other effects on stress, the adaptogens tend to produce some cognitive effects.
Several of these may act as nootropics to some degree. After all stress is not just about the endocrine system, but the nervous system as well.
- Ashwagandha
- Schisandra
- Rhodiola
- Eleuthero
- Ginseng
The Potential Problem
One issue that more people should be aware of is that overuse of adaptogens can lead further to burnout. People that use adaptogens to continually push harder and longer may eventually crash harder (just like those using nervine stimulants).
In our Western world, where working hard is so highly valued, we tend to go overboard in this direction.
There’s nothing wrong with being productive, however, it must be done in balance. To further drive in the one direction, without bouncing back thru, will simply force you to bounce back harder and longer.
Often times, these people would be better served by taking relaxants, hypnotics, and trophorestoratives by themselves or in combination with adaptogens.
This isn’t just about balance with herbs or supplements but also should be done in lifestyle practice. By all means, work hard. But then balance that out with meditative practices or other stress relieving activities.
Coming in the Future…
Because the nervine materia medica is so important, we’ll release some more of these herbs in the future.
In the meantime, I’d like to point you to one of my teachers, and the person that lent a ton of insight into this topic, Sajah Popham, and the great herbal products he produces at Organic Unity.
You can find many of the herbs mentioned above that we don’t carry there.
Other Nootropic Supplements
There is a whole lot out there in the field of nootropics that is not herbally based. Here at Lost Empire Herbs, we trust in the wisdom of nature and thus like to focus on herbs.
There are drugs like modafinil and the various forms of racetams (piracetam, aniracetam, oxiracetem, etc.). I just say no to drugs :)
Otherwise, most of the supplements out there are isolated nutrients (sometimes isolated from plants, sometimes otherwise), often just single amino acids, that are typically aimed at doing something to the various neurotransmitters we have.
While not an exhaustive list, here are a few of the major players:
- B-vitamins
- Choline and Acetylcholine
- Hyperzine A
- GABA and Phenibut
- Tryptophan and 5-HTP
- L-Theanine
- Acetyl-L-Carnitine
- Vinpocetine
- Creatine
I’ve experimented with a number of things, but I always come back to the herbs. It’s hard to know exactly which neurotransmitter you need to boost or inhibit without lots of self-experimentation.
And when you’re using drugs or isolated nutrients the possibility of doing something wrong is higher than a full-spectrum extract of an herb. I’d say most of them are generally safe but if you take something every day over the long term who knows.
Plus my reaction to some of these supplements isn’t always good. I recall trying this one thing that was billed as the real NZT after the movie Limitless, which was a powder that came in a test tube. While I certainly felt focused for the first hour or two, I felt “cracked-out” after that.
There are others besides me that know more about all these nutrients but I say again, I’ll stick to the herbal materials.
Non-Supplement Resources for Cognition
In these articles, we don’t like to focus solely on the herbs. While the herbs can produce amazing results, ultimately other factors of lifestyle are even more important.
Yes, you may be able to keep going on less sleep by loading up on coffee and adaptogens, but it is not going to make you healthier. What you need is more sleep. Herbs can, of course, assist in that, and there are many other behavioral things you can do.
All the basics are going to be very important:
Many hormones act on the brain and nervous system too, so making sure those are working is going to improve your thinking too. Thus ensuring you have optimized hormones is important, both for men and for women.
How to Think
When it comes to cognition, how you think becomes very important. I’m a huge fan of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) as it helps you to step behind the curtain, so to speak, and see how you are thinking. From this position, you can change things and get very beneficial results.
Let’s say you want to improve your memory. First of all, do you believe you have a bad memory? If you do, that will stop you from improving it much, even if you do the right things or take herbs. Alter that belief, and anything you do will become much more effective.
Then look at what you’re trying to remember. Ultimately if you’re able to make things rich in sensory detail (sight, sound, feeling, smell, taste), it becomes much easier to do. Techniques for remembering people’s names or something like a random deck of cards in order rely on using more senses than people typically do.
As an example, in NLP they modeled people who were good at spelling versus those who were not. It wasn’t because of IQ or anything like that. Instead, good spellers see the words they’re spelling whereas bad spellers sound them out. Because English is not phonetic the visual works much better. Other languages may be different. And this strategy is a trainable ability.
Although we may all have things we’re better or worse at, and some of this may be genetic, I believe that anything can be improved.
If you’re trying to be productive, being capable of entering a “flow state” at will is helpful. Processes like anchoring, among others, can be very helpful. That’s how I’m able to crank out these articles, writing every single day, without a hint of writer’s block.
NLP is a BIG subject. I’ll point you to a good starting resource, The User’s Manual for the Brain Volume 1 by L. Michael Hall and Bob Bodenhammer. There is one caveat, though. It is very tough to learn NLP from a book. For best results, you need hands on training.
Some other great non-NLP books on different areas of thinking include:
- How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie
- De Bono’s Thinking Course
- How to Think Like Leonardo Di Vinci by Michael Gelb
- The Einstein Factor by Win Wenger
- Super-Learning by Shiela Ostrander
Of course, there are much more than that, but those are all great to start with.
Conclusion
So if you want to be a genius and maximally focused, productive, creative and a variety of other things it could be boiled down to a few simple things.
- Make sure you have a strong foundation of health.
- Figure out how to think better in whatever capacity you wish to have. You can model people that are great and read books from many of them too. Then take action and find what works for you.
- Use herbs to help supplement what you’re doing.
Take control and you can be much more than you are currently capable of.
I hope you’ve enjoyed and learned from this article. Please post any comments or questions below. Thanks!
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Linda says
Thought on hypertension
Logan Christopher says
Got an article or two on the subject coming up. In the meantime there’s some info on that here: https://lostempireherbs.com/the-heart/
Donna Kelley says
I was in a coma on life support for 10 days and post traumatic amnesia for 3 weeks thereafter when I was 20(auto accident). Diffused axonal brain damage with mostly frontal lobe damage. Since that time I have had a motivational issue. For a while I took opioids which made me feel “normal” again. Of course that didn’t last due to a plateau. I now take Zoloft, Wellbutrin, lisinopril/hctz, lovastatin, coffee, 5 hr energy 1-2x a day and ambien and melatonin for sleep. What can you recommend for motivation/drive? I am now 46 by the way.
Chelsea Satterthwaite says
Hey Donna! Please contact our support team at [email protected] with questions about our products.
Keith Gatto says
I saw a video with you showing how to make your tincture with pine pollen a while back. Where do I find that video? I recently purchased the mega dose and tried to make a tincture and I don’t think I mixed it right. I used a high quality vodka but I’m not getting the WOOD I was getting with your pine pollen tincture. Can you tell me the mix ratio? It is getting too expensive to be trying all the products so I’m trying to reduce some. The “Blue” works great for stress. The “Lions Mane” is fantastic for memory & learning. I’m a believer now. And the tincture bundle is great, When you get the 4 pack back in stock, I’ll get it again . Thanks
David says
Fascinating – I had no idea there were so many natural nootropics. Most of the time when people talk about nootropics it’s all about the fancy racetams and stuff like that.
Don’t forget about the best and least expensive nootropic of all, though – exercise!
Chris Donachie says
I am interested in discovering more about nootropics from a herbal point of view. What I was wondering is, which ones act as a nutrient to help restoration or recovery, much like taking protein and aminos following a workout, and which ones are just stimulants like a pre-workout drink, or as I suspect coffee would be ( which I am trying to drink less of ). I am seeing from this article, that perhaps I should be looking at Lions Mane and Ziziphus to begin with. What herbs might you recommend?
I am learning Martial arts, Guitar, French and rrussian on top of all other aspects of the day to day. I like to meditate before I go to sleep and often fall asleep doing so. I would like to make sure that I am giving my brain the nutrition it needs to recover much I I give my body Protein, carbohydrates , essential fats and other nutrients it needs.
Appreciated,
Chris D
Zane Christopher says
Hi Chris, just based on your meditation I would highly recommend the new herb we released yesterday, Gotu Kola. Helps getting into the meditative state easier so you can go deeper. It helps the body with collagen production too which helps the body recover from training faster. Finally, acts as a nootropic and really tones the brain.
Check it out: lostempireherbs.com/product/gotu-kola/
Otherwise, I would also recommend Bacopa for your language and guitar work. Super potent and I think is probably the best herbal nootropic there is that I have tried so far. There is a reason they put it in almost all nootropic isolate supplement products even if it is the only herb they use. Shilajit is often sited as a nootropic and is really good for recovery and getting more nutrition from the food you eat so that is a good one to combine with some of the other ones.
Get what you can but definitely check out gotu kola. It seems like a good fit for you. Let us know how your herbal nootropic consumption works for you too! Whether it’s our products or someone else’s. Thanks and good luck!
Mike says
What is the best stack for ADD type symptom? And well being. Thanks, Mike
Logan Christopher says
First of let me start by stating I am not a doctor.
We don’t carry anything specifically for ADHD, but I know Gingko Bilboa is often prescribed as an alternative treatment. There is also some evidence that Zinc can be helpful. For general well being I strongly recommend shilajit, reishi and pine pollen. Keep in mind that we’re all different, so you may want to experiment for a bit to find the stack that works best for you.
John Kemmy says
I’m 66 and for the past 7 years or so I’ve lived with ED. No, not a guy. Or the talking horse. The other one. So I’m going to start with Thor’s Hammer. For the past three years, I’ve been fascinated by scholarly research findings (and even the building of a new paradigm) around the nature of human performance. Specifically, I’m working on creating a new paradigm for second language acquisition. My point is that I’ve recently challenged myself with having to think critically for extended periods for the foreseeable duration. Besides wanting to take advantage of the ‘free int’l shipping for orders over $200″ (I live in Hanoi), I want to support my new level of sustainable ‘brain work’. Do you have any recommendations or cognition packages designed similar to Thor’s Hammer? A product that takes the complexity of ‘brain work’ into consideration like TH evidently so effectively deals with ‘wood work’? If not, please suggest how I can make my $200/free shipping objective, given what I’ve just shared with you. Thanxx millions for all YOUR work!!! John
Zane Christopher says
John, we have been trying to get back a mental formula for awhile now. The only reason we stopped carrying one was because seven ingredients was too hard to keep each in stock at anyone time!
Still, Logan really wants a formula back that works with less ingredients and we are working towards that. Until then, the only thing we can offer you is single nootropics or the best offer, the cognitive package which includes them all: https://lostempireherbs.com/product/cognitive-enhancement/
Thank you for your reply, I am more then sure all those nootropics will support your extensive brain work!
Daniel says
Can you give a call I want to make more orders .
But at the same time I want to ask a question if you
Have something for the eyaculation precoz if you do . Pls
Let me know ok
Robert says
You might consider adding “The Edge Effect” book, by Dr Eric Braverman to your list. He treats a lot of brain conditions/imbalances with amino acids, several of which you mentioned; tyrosine, acetyl-carnitine, glutamine, tryptophan, which promote the neurotransmitters for the four main lobes of the brain. Interesting how the Meyers-Briggs personality profile maps to deficiencies of these in the brain. Just thought I’d share…
admin says
Thanks for the suggestion. I actually just bought that book but haven’t read it yet. I’ll bump it up to the top of the “next to read” list.