hey there everyone this is michael duggal the nootropic reviewer i review nootropics and in this
video i'm going to share with you nootropics that i will not be using this year heck maybe i won't
use them forever but i have learned that these nootropics are pretty much like counterproductive
when it comes to improving my productivity and making more money or they have some really bad
side effects and the very first one will surprise you a little bit it is l-theanine which is
probably one of the most popular nootropics out there specifically for relaxation for calmness
for keeping you in a state of peace blissfulness and where it's most commonly used is along with
caffeine and that's how i was personally taking it i was typically taking it in a ratio of like 100
milligrams of caffeine with 200 milligrams of l-theanine thinking that l-theanine was
helping to keep me calm and helping to eliminate those negative side effects from caffeine but
i have now learned that l-theanine was making me far more relaxed than i would like to have feel
so this is l-theanine um if you were to get it by itself it's typically sold in like 200 milligram
capsules and it's great for mood it's great for relaxation but if you're somebody whose goal is
to like really just get the most out of your day be as productive as possible and you don't find
caffeine really does cause you to have like severe anxiety then i would say you're going to be better
off without the l-theanine and if you just take it by itself then the problem is that you may be
a little bit too tired or too relaxed to want to do anything that would help you to go ahead
and achieve your goals so it's interesting that i've been using l-theanine for years
sometimes once a day sometimes twice a day but over the past three months what happened was i
stopped using l-theanine and i pretty much like only had a little bit if i was using a nootropic
blend or a pre-workout that had some l-theanine contained within the product and my productivity
has really shot up and i've learned that l-theanine may be something that i don't
need perhaps it's this stage of my life here's the thing about caffeine like there's
no denying that caffeine and l-theanine is a very effective product but the way that
i prefer using my caffeine is i'm using it before i make calls or before i make presentations so
it's not like i really need elthini to kind of put the brakes on that and to tone down my energy
i need the caffeine to really lift me up and keep people engaged so that's where i'm using caffeine
but if it was such that i was using caffeine like prior to doing independent work maybe i'm
behind my computer kind of like tunnel vision work then i would consider using the l-theanine
but again that's just not how i'm using caffeine so you're gonna have to decide whether you like
it or whether you don't but if you are somebody who's consistently been taking alfini for years
uh like myself and i would strongly encourage you like just try 60 days off of alfini
nothing wrong with that and then you can really know if it's helping to enhance your productivity
because i definitely believe like having less nootropics is better keeping things simple and
keeping them in a routine that you can follow then here's the second nootropic it's um magnolia bark
these are the tablets from nootropics depot though i also have the powder form from um lift mode and
many of you like you kept on encouraging me to try magnolia bark and i hate to say it but i've
tried it so many times it really doesn't do much for me i have used it during the course of the
day as well as prior to sleeping and what magnolia bark is good for similar to l-theanine is to help
keep you relaxed help you to be productive while maintaining like a state of peace yet it's not
something which is going to like put you to sleep straight away like melatonin will and so there's a
lot of success stories out there of people using magnolia bark for productivity these are pills
which are 200 milligrams each um it's instructed to take one tablet per day again i did not notice
anything from it whatsoever the great thing about magnolia bark is it is very inexpensive
so if you're somebody who has had a little bit of success with some of the more relaxing supplements
like a lemon balm or like alphini and you're looking for other options magnolia bark is a
great one and it seems like pretty free of side effects or side effects are fairly uncommon
so i have to say thumbs down though some people like it i think a nice alternative is taking lemon
balm i typically take a lemon balm extract once just right before sleeping and it really helps
me get in the state of relaxation and i've talked more about that supplement right over here you'll
likely find this video quite informative this is the next supplement that i will be discontinuing
my use from it's panic's ginseng and i've used a number of different forms of ginseng over the past
few years and i really like that it does help to decrease my stress levels yet it's slightly
stimulating which means you can't take it too close to bedtime and it gives this like kind of
like uncomfortable stimulation a little bit like caffeine which is not what i want from a product
that i'm going to be using for relieving stress a great alternative to that is rhodiola rosia
of the ginseng products i would say the best one um from my experience so far would be this form
here it's the gs 15-4 by nootropic steeple and they have done a phenomenal job with this product
gs50-4 because before i discovered this particular form of panax ginseng i didn't like it so i went
from not liking ginseng to feeling kind of like neutral about it if rhodiola rosea was not in the
picture then i'd probably be using this it's okay you can get a nice short-term benefit but i don't
like that uncomfortable stimulation that i get from it and i have always seen ginseng a little
bit overrated let me know if you disagree with my thoughts on ginseng be sure to comment below and
let's jump into the very next nootropic which is going to be this one right here it's phenylalanine
and the way that i see phenylalanine it's like a weaker form of l-tyrosine what we know about
l-tyrosine is it's one of the best supplements you can take for motivation and for focus it increases
dopamine levels and makes it such that you can get like a good 90 to 120 minutes and so why
phenylalanine became popular i have no idea i heard some really neat things about using it with
caffeine can cause somewhat of a euphoria and that was why i was using it i was taking a little bit
of it pre-workout not too much because l-tyrosine was doing most of the magic when it came to
using something along with caffeine for the energy production benefits and with
phenylalanine i've been a little bit disappointed i didn't notice any sort of like cognitive
enhancing effects what commonly happens after a couple of weeks of use of phenylalanine is people
seem to build her tolerance and that they need to take more phenylalanine in order to get the same
benefit that they got from day one so this is the product um l-phenylalanine from nootropics depot
i wouldn't advise you get the powder if you do choose to try it in capsule form it's going to be
just as effective while not having that bad taste in your mouth because this stuff really does not
taste great at all this is our next product these are the melatonin capsules 300 milligrams each and
the way that i was using it prior was to help me when i was jet lag maybe i was helping it on
a day that i needed to fall asleep earlier than i would typically need to but now i've learned
that rather than taking melatonin i'd be better off just doing something like um having a warm
shower before i sleep maybe reducing my caffeine intake throughout the course of the day but if you
have tried enough nootropic specifically around sleep then you'd likely find a better alternative
because what you need to understand about melatonin is that you are ingesting basically
a hormone you're going to be better off relying on your own normal natural melatonin production
and use that to help you fall asleep if you're somebody that needs to take melatonin to fall
asleep then i would strongly encourage you to do some research find some natural health practices
that can help you get to sleep simple things like getting sunlight in the morning has been proven
to help i don't like melatonin that much it seems to not enable me to sleep longer than seven hours
it's like it makes me sleep very effectively but i don't sleep as long as i want to especially for
those days when i plan to sleep in so i will probably take this maybe a handful of times
during the year i think it's horribly overrated if you've read anything about melatonin helping you
with fat loss or blunting your appetite i think it actually does the exact opposite by not enabling
you to sleep and here's our next supplement although it's not really a nootropic it's more
like a supplement you use around workouts it's bcaa's branched chain amino acids which include
leucine isoleucine and valine and what they're good for is improving protein synthesis meaning
it's more likely that when you ingest protein in your diet that it translates to building muscle
through building muscle tissue and branch chain amino acids as a supplement have been
in my routine out of my routine and i pretty much concluded like i don't really have any use
for them because one thing good about bcaas is that they will help you with recovery they will
help you build muscle post-workout but if you're already taking like a post-workout protein shake
or if you're eating a meal then you're gonna be just as fine there are some people who say like if
you take branched chain amino acids independently before your meal it can really help you to boost
protein synthesis and make it such that you actually build more muscle during the course of
the day but i have seen no difference whatsoever and as far as it being anutropic there's pretty
mixed evidence there's uh there was actually a study done a couple years ago when they said
that bcaas could actually negatively influence mood uh however there has now been a study
saying that bcaas can help with anxiety and can actually um help with weight loss as expected so
i've not seen no benefit with it as a nootropic however the great thing about bcaas is that if
you are somebody who fast during the course of the day like you practice intermittent fasting
then you can use some bcaas around your workout sure it may mean that you're no longer fasting
because you're taking bcaas but it's going to really help you with recovery and it's going to
help you to protect your muscle especially when you're working out like if you work out fasted i
would strongly recommend that you take some bcaas prior to your workout and i hope you did find this
information helpful i want to know more from you tell me what is one nootropic that you will stop
taking throughout the course of the year or you're going to discontinue forever
and i really hope you did get value from this video thank you for your interest in nootropics
and if you'd like to chat with me one-on-one you can do so over on patreon or you can send
me a direct message on instagram and be sure to visit our discord server where we're having a 24 7
chat room and we're having a lot of fun and i look forward to seeing you all next time