hey there everyone this is michael duggal the nootropic reviewer and during this video i'm going
to do a side-by-side comparison of ashwagandha and l-theanine which are two of the most powerful
nootropics around stress around anxiety and stress management and a lot of people are actually using
them for performance and i have been using both nootropics for over five years and to tell you the
honest truth i am not crazy about both nootropics they are definitely not going to be in my top five
if you want to see my top five nootropics for this year then just watch this video over here
because these new tropics really aren't aided around productivity or making you earn more money
but they're more so related around feeling more filled enjoying your day a little bit more and you
being in a resourceful state through the course of the day now other people may disagree with me
on that but i'm talking about my experience there are going to be a few select nootropics that are
really going to help increase my focus increase my concentration but if i was to choose one of these
two nootropics as my favorite and what i would use comfortably in my stack on an everyday basis it
would be ashwagandha and that's only until now that's the journey of nootropics you're always
learning different things and you're disagreeing with yourself and kind of challenging your own
beliefs but it has been my experience more so that when i use l-theanine not only can it make
me somewhat demotivated but i actually find myself tired and i have found that if you do practice
intermittent fasting then l-theanine can do some strange things to your blood pressure that could
leave you end up being awfully fatigued so most people use l-theanine only alongside caffeine and
i think that way it's great if you are unfamiliar with either of these nootropics what you should
know is that both of them are naturally occurring l-theanine is an amino acid that's very difficult
to find in foods and diet but the one place you can find it in in moderation would be green tea
however you would have to like you know drink a good number of servings of green tea in order for
you to actually get that l-theanine benefit that you're looking for which kind of induce that state
of relaxation of calmness and trust that it really is quite powerful there has been instances when
i've ingested 200 milligrams of l-theanine and like i felt the same way after i would feel from
a 20-minute meditation just being very present being very mindful of my thoughts like a nice
enjoyable experience and of course something which will put you in a great mood so it's nice
kind of shorter acting versus ashwagandha ashwagandha it's also naturally occurring
it's a route found in india it's found in some places in the middle east as well as africa and
it's been used for centuries for inducing a state of calmness but ashwagandha can do a whole lot
more things than albania can do like looking at examine.com we can see that they have basically
compiled a number of studies to illustrate to us specifically what ashwagandha can be used for and
we can see that it's decent for stress it's decent for symptoms of depression for managing levels of
cortisol which is of course is going to help us be more healthy overall and as well even with power
output and testosterone some people seem to say great things about ashwagandha and helping their
libido and helping their strength and helping even their sleep that hasn't really been my experience
more so i look at ashwagandha like stress management anti-anxiety you can definitely feel it
working but it does take a bit of time to start working versus l-theta and l-theanine you can
notice it instantly when you take it the majority of people they use l-theanine when they need to
let's say prior to a presentation let's say if they're taking a caffeine serving then we
know that caffeine although it can really increase energy levels it often comes with
anxiety with a little bit of jitters with a little bit of uneasiness and fortunately when you pair
l-feeding with caffeine um l-theanine can actually help to offset some of those side effects
ashwagandha has a relatively long half-life therefore the ideal way to to actually use it is
by taking it twice a day this is the bottle from nootropics depot and it doesn't matter whether you
take it in capsule form or you take it in powder the powder doesn't really taste all that bad uh
this specific form of ashwagandha ksm 66 i find is the best form around allowing you to be calm
yet as well be productive there's different forms there's the ashwagandha root there's
also the sensoral form and there's one especially potent form called shoden which will really help
you with calmness it'll like put you to sleep uh there's this one study that showed shoddin
helped on a number of sleep measures when it came to instances of waking up when when it came to
having a deep restorative sleep showdown did seem to have really good results with a small dosage
of something like 100 to 200 milligrams prior to sleeping and with respect to the l-theanine dosage
one thing to be said about l-theanine it doesn't really matter where you get it from whether it's
nootropics depot whether it's somewhere else i've used it from a number of different vendors and it
pretty much feels the same every single time but what does really change things is how much you use
so some people take a little bit less leaning to ensure they're not feeling too fatigued or
too demotivated because it really can feel that way where you can have it at a higher dosage let's
say if you if you have used like a lot of caffeine for instance there's scenarios when you may have
100 to 200 milligrams of caffeine and what the recommended guideline seems to be is one
caffeine to two l-theanine meaning 100 milligrams of caffeine would go well with 200 milligrams of
l-theanine when i work out i'm usually using 200 to 300 milligrams of caffeine and i do find that
using l-theanine or just a little bit of alfinia helps to minimize the crash and the brain fog
and low-energy state you typically feel when you're experiencing a crash but a lot of people
look at elthini for productivity and i think that's horribly misunderstood this is something
which is going to help with stress management it will help with anti-anxiety but i don't really
see it like as a nootropic that's sustainable where i find alfinia could be suitable is if
you're in a very strike stressed out time maybe you're in a stressed out state maybe you've been
working all day now you have to attend a really important presentation um it kind of just helps
make you more centered like i mentioned feel like that state you get in post-meditation lowers your
heart rate a little bit but something that i've definitely learned from myself with respect
to nootropics is you want to be using nootropics that you could see yourself using every single day
you don't want to rely on supplements to take when you're feeling a bit stressed out because usually
that can be resolved by having thicker skin having some good mindset practices saying affirmations
doing visualizations meditations it can be fixed as far as uh nootropic that i'd much rather prefer
to take if i do want to clear my mind a little bit then it would be rhodiola rosea which is
one of the best herbs around stress management around fatigue management it's also great as an
appetite suppressant some people use it to lose weight and i've talked about it in depth in this
video right over here so to summarize in terms of the side effects of both l-theanine you're looking
at headaches you're looking at nausea you're looking at feeling a bit demotivated whereas with
ashwagandha you're looking at demotivation you're looking at brain fog some people do mention that
it messes with their thyroid levels ashwagandha can be a bit interesting that way i think with
either nootropic if your goal is productivity if it's make more money or if you're a student
get better grades then you want to be mindful that these two nootropics can be better off
um put into a stack so if you want to maybe consider taking ashwagandha along with newpad
because newpep is really going to boost your motivation levels to make sure that you're still
productive or of course we talked about l-theanine and caffeine you can also use l-theanine and
theocrine or dynamine which are two really popular stimulants as well but i still use either of
these nootropics without a nootropic stack the answer surprisingly would be no i'm currently
not taking l-theanine because i've noticed some of the negative side effects that i experience
when i'm fasting i am using ashwagandha but i'm only using ashwagandha because i have other
nootropics that are aiding me with focus and with concentration things like piracetam aniracetam
noopept alpha gpc i would really encourage you to watch a lot of my videos and you'll
gain more knowledge specifically on this and you can tailor a nootropic stack to specifically fit
whatever lifestyle you have whatever goals you have for me i'm all about productivity i have
found that ashwagandha has to some extent helped maybe it's just because i'm wired to be driven i'm
very ambitious but i do still like that ashwalanda keeps me in a good mood i find that i finish the
day feeling a little bit more fulfilled i find that when i'm in conversations with people i'm a
little bit more able to have rapport and maintain a level of rapport because i'm not overthinking
as much so it's good that way so my first dose of ashwana will typically be around two o'clock p.m
where i'm taking about 300 milligrams of the ksm 66 and then i'll have it once again around
6 o'clock p.m some days i skip that second dose it just depends how i'm feeling and that's worked for
me and you'll um commonly see it in sleep products so i wouldn't be concerned about using ashwagandha
prior to going to sleep because people do find that they get a better sleep experience once
they use it it's a little bit interesting that way like i mentioned the important thing is that
you're just getting in your serving once a day so that it's saturated in your system and you're
getting the whole ashwagandha experience and i hope you all did find this information helpful
what are your thoughts of the two my favorite is ashwagandha what's yours i would love to know and
if you have a question for me then go ahead and send me a message on patreon or you can send me a
direct message on instagram i thank you for your interest in nootropics and don't forget to join
our discord server where we have a 24 7 chat room we're answering questions in a very time
sensitive way and we're having a lot of fun i'll look forward to seeing you all next time