Collective Insights Blog

In April-May 2019, an unflavored and unsweetened 5-day sample of Qualia Nootropic Energy was sent to members of our beta tester community. Here's how the data stacked up.

Even with our staggering growth in technology and science, there’s a good chance we won’t make it to the year 2100. Change isn’t happening fast enough. The fate of humanity can no longer be left to politics or policy. Growth needs to start on a personal scale. We need, at a fundamental level, to become better humans.

In this blog post we will discuss some of the ergogenics commonly considered tools for physical performance and how they may also have nootropic effects as well.

Mental fatigue lies at the core of motivating yourself to hit the gym and to give the extra push in your athletic performance. In Workout Motivation: The Science of the Brain's Role in Exercise we broadly introduced the importance of our mind for exercise performance. The interconnectedness between the brain and body means many markers of physical performance are modulated by our mind.

Here we focus on mental fatigue, introduce you to some of the fatigue models (how scientists believe the brain is operating), explain willpower and self-control and how they interact with workout motivation, and provide actionable tools to help you follow through on a workout program.

Neuroplasticity, the nervous system's adaptive capabilities to change itself over a lifetime, is a fascinating subject. This and many other aspects of cognitive function inspired our science team formulate Qualia Mind, and provide the most broad support for human brain health in a once-a-day vegan formula. The science behind neuroplasticity, and the role environment and behavior plays in it, warrant a closer look, so we can support the biochemical processes that drive neurogenesis.

Qualia nootropics were designed to promote a sustained improvement across the whole pallet of objective capacities and subjective states that contribute to optimized, creative, productive flow states. This goal required factoring many creative-productive capacities simultaneously. 

Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter and neuromodulator (i.e., a messenger molecule released by nerve cells to signal and regulate other nerve cells). It plays important roles in cognitive function, most notably, in the neural mechanisms of memory. In addition to this memory function, acetylcholine is involved in supporting alertness, attention, and learning. It is also responsible for the neuromuscular junction. It helps skeletal muscle contract and has many health benefits.

What is glutamate? Learn more about the most abundant neurotransmitter and how it affects our brains. 

From air and water filters, to therapy lights, to exercise tools this list has a little of everything.

Huperzine A is commonly used as an ingredient in nootropic supplements and is found naturally in Chinese club moss Huperzia serrata, from which the nootropic gets its name. 

Artichoke extract, sometimes called artichoke leaf extract, has all the benefits of artichokes in a concentrated form. Artichoke extract offers a wide range of benefits. Let’s start by looking at some of the nootropic benefits.

DL-Phenylalanine (DLPA) is an amino acid supplement, a synthetic phenylalanine. Phenylalanine is a neutral,non-polar amino acid that plays a crucial role in many functions within the body. One of those functions is to produce tyrosine, a major component for synthesizing hormones.

Phosphatidylserine s a nootropic that has been the subject of a large number of studies intended to take a closer look at the variety of phosphatidylserine benefits. Some of these benefits stand out as particularly strong.

When discussing nootropics, several are usually the first to come to mind. Hordenine HCl (hordenine hydrochloride) is only just starting to come to the forefront of the nootropic movement. Research is still in the early stages, and we’re only beginning to understand the kinds of benefits hordenine provides.

Chances are you have black pepper somewhere in your home. While this common cooking ingredient can certainly spice up a meal, it also contains something that can at times be beneficial to your health. That nutrient is called Piperine. More often it is referred to as Bioperine. For those confused over the differences of Piperine vs. Bioperine, just know that Bioperine is Piperine’s trademarked name, so the two terms are often interchangeable.

As people grow more concerned about caring for their bodies, a greater emphasis has been placed on caring for the brain. The brain, after all, acts as the control center for the rest of the body. If something malfunctions at the level of the nervous system, chances are it will affect many other systems as well. One of the most important chemicals for maintaining proper brain function is choline.

Many people who are health conscious have likely heard of the benefits you can get from vitamin B6. Including vitamin B6 in your diet is relatively easy as you can find it in foods such as bread, pork, fish, eggs, and wholegrain cereals. These foods, however, may have depleted amounts of vitamin B6, in part because food preparation can lower that amount. Food that is frozen, canned, cooked, or processed usually leads to a lower level of vitamin B6 that you would get otherwise, so other dietary strategies should be pursued. For that reason, many people are choosing to include pyridoxal-5-phosphate (P5P) as part of their diet.

Just about every civilization throughout history has practiced some form of neurohacking - deliberately upgrading their physiologies to positively affect their mind and psyche. The consumption of probiotic rich and fermented foods, for example, goes back over 10,000 years.

Today, the emerging field of human microbiome research has indicated that gut microbiota may play an important role in influencing brain development, behavior, and mood in humans.

If neurohacking is about upgrading the hardware our consciousness runs on, we would be remiss not to mention these technologies of altered states.