Alpha Brain vs Multivitamin vs Palcebo

Recently started experimenting with Alpha Brain which is a nootropic. I have been taking a men's multivitamin for a while now (Opti-Men) which I enjoy because it also has trace amino acids and flavonoids along with the usual vitamins and minerals. There are a couple complaints I have with my multivitamin, such as folic acid in it which is what I consider an anti-nutrient, but it's quantifiably effective and about 10c per pill. Alpha Brain is about $1 a pill if not using any discounts so I'm going to run some tests before I make the dive into a $30-$90 a month commitment for a pill and even more importantly I want to see if it's effective at all, period.

 Game Plan:

Spreading the experiments out through several days to add validity. Obviously since the test group is one person (me) it won't have the weight of a double blind controlled scientific study, I am aware of that. Will take measures that are in my power to control my diet and environment during these next couple days.

Quantifying Resources:

Heart Rate

General Mood State

Brain Work Shop Dual N-Back

Brain and Body Observations


Alpha Brain and Multivitamin:

Average Heart Rate: 64

General Mood State: Good, Relaxed, Slight knee joint ache may affect focus in a small way.

Dual N-Back:
D3B 50%
D3B 66%
D3B 50%

Observations: Can sense more eagerness to communicate and ease of sentence formation which I will attribute to Alpha Brain. Feel energized which I attribute to the amino acids in the multivitamin. Fasted for breakfast to not skew the effects with many other chemicals.

Alpha Brain:

Average Heart Rate: 60

General Mood State: Good. Alert.

Dual N-Back:
D3B60%
D3B72%
D3B73%

Observations: There is an apparent increase on the mental side, even versus the Alpha Brain + multivitamin which would need to be ran through further experiments before I would actually say the multivitamin hurts mental function.

Multivitamin:

Average Heart Rate: 53

General Mood State: Good, Relaxed, Slightly hungry body has been in ketosis.

Dual N-Back:
D3B44%
D3B53%
D3B42%

Observations: Once again fasted. Believe the fact that I performed worse with the multivitamin than the placebo is less that the multivitamin actually makes me worse and more variation.

Placebo (aka nothing, maybe I'll take some vitamin C and tell my brain It's the best ha):

Average Heart Rate: 57

General Mood State: Not bad, but can tell I'm not as...alert and lucid, you could say.

Dual N-Back:
D3B50%
D3B55%
D3b46%

Observations: No extreme observations. Not overly tired or dull or anything. Feel slightly less driven.

No comments:

Post a Comment