The Piracetam Protocol for Racetam Non-Responders
A certain percentage of people who try it get zero results from Piracetam.
Others will try Piracetam, get a nice productivity buzz for a few hours that’s comparable to a cup or two of coffee but when they try to push the dosage up they get headaches, brain fog or run into a tolerance curve quickly. This is part of the reason why the Piracetam source I recommend offers a very flexible 100% money-back guarantee.
However, on the other end of the user experience spectrum, a number of anecdotal reports speak in grand terms to Piracetam’s capacity as a transformative upgrade tool for the minds of otherwise healthy, young people. It has an uncanny, yet frequently reported effect of bringing back once-forgotten memories, both good and bad.
The good news is that for the vast majority of people who try Piracetam, it has a significant, almost immediately noticeable effect on productivity, focus, and memory, indeed this is the reason it is the most popular smart drug.
The reason for this inconsistency is complex, Piracetam, while frequently sold as a supplement, is a drug with a range of very complex interactions in our neurobiology. To maximize its effect there needs to be several high-quality cofactors present in your biology.
The Piracetam rabbit hole goes very deep, yet unfortunately, most people who take it just barely poke their heads in it.
Piracetam, a choline source, and ALCAR are a favorite of holistic biohackers but there’s a specific protocol that should be followed.
Piracetam
Start taking Piracetam on its own at the recommended dosage 3–4 grams daily and begin pushing the dosage up to the point that you either start getting Piracetam headaches or the Piracetam starts to lose its effect. Quality control is pretty important when it comes to the Piracetam itself; it’s very important to make sure you are only consuming Pharmaceutical grade Piracetam as verified by a 3rd party lab’s certificate of analysis (COA). Peak Nootropics or Pure Nootropics are the highest quality, verified Piracetam sources that I’ve found, they are who I buy my Piracetam from.
Choline
Then add a Choline source, at a 1:4 ratio (1 gram Alpha GPC : 4 grams Piracetam). This will potentiate the Piracetam and get rid of the headaches, you could even experiment with pushing the dosage up. If you can’t afford supplemental Choline, an excellent (and cheap) dietary source of Choline is egg yolks. Since you are probably taking at Racetams at higher dosages, you are going to need to eat 4–8 eggs a day to get sufficient Choline, which is kind of a lot of eggs. Eggs are perfectly healthy for you but I just don’t think they taste great so I prefer Alpha GPC.
ALCAR
Then add ALCAR at a dosage starting at 500 milligrams daily and push the ALCAR dosage up by 100 milligrams daily, some biohackers take up to 1 gram of ALCAR daily in this three-part stack. Remember how we said that Piracetam has these interactions with very complex neurobiological systems? One such example is the ACh system; our neuroplasticity mechanisms to learn and develop personally along with the peripheral nervous system throughout our bodies depend profoundly on this system. Since Piracetam dials up and puts increased demands on the ACh system without ALCAR supplementation eventually you will face diminishing cognitive enhancement from Piracetam. Sometimes you hear reports of people starting to take Piracetam and for 2–3 months they get awesome results from it, yet eventually, it loses its effect for them.
A 2013 Brazilian study investigated how Piracetam and ALCAR positively affect membrane permeability:
These results shed new light into… the mechanisms underlying the protection against [membrane permeability transition] and cell death by the compounds l-carnitine and piracetam.
Potassium
Over the course of a +15 page discussion, a diverse group of Biohackers has reached an interesting conclusion about Piracetam none response. A Swiss study, Aldosterone receptors are involved in the mediation of the memory-enhancing effects of piracetam, stated:
The blockade of the memory-enhancing effects of piracetam resulting from adrenalectomy can be abolished by substitution with either corticosterone or aldosterone.
Aldosterone is a compound intimately involved with adrenal function, so Piracetam none response is tied to adrenal dysfunction, a challenge faced by so many people in our high stress, high stimulus world.
The crowdsourced data on this is that as much as 88.88% of the Piracetam none responders failed a simple flashlight-mirror-pupil dilation test, indicating low levels of the hormone aldosterone.
In our diets, Aldosterone comes via Potassium, so beating Piracetam none response could be as simple as supplementing Potassium or increasing consumption of dietary sources:
Rhodiola
Many self experimenters report that it has a synergistic effect on memory and cognition with Piracetam. In one of my favorite biohacking books The Rhodiola Revolution, the authors remarked at the transformative effect on verbal intelligence that the adaptogen had in combination with Piracetam…
“Rhodiola rosea appears particularly helpful to patients with cognitive problems when combined with piracetam, a drug that increases the fluidity of nerve cell membranes and activates brain waves.[13,29] In one large study, piracetam alone — administered within 7 hours of stroke — improved bloodflow to the areas of the brain responsible for speech15 and enhanced language recovery.[10] The addition of Rhodiola rosea and Panax ginseng produced even better results.”
Self-experimenter extraordinaire Abelard Lindsay has some interesting insights on its effects on memory…
“I have a curious thing that happens when I take Rhodiola. Besides the good mood and anxiety lowering effects. Often times after taking it, random memories from my childhood or 10 years ago will come to me spontaneously. I’m not trying to remember them, they’ll just show up. What’s also interesting is they are mainly neutral or slightly pleasant memories. This has happened to me a number of times pretty reliably. The effect seems to be increased when combined with Piracetam.”
I couldn’t find anything in the scientific literature indicating specifically that the two had a synergistic effect, however, Rhodiola is so conducive to the mindset goals of those using the Piracetam Protocol that its inclusion is warranted.
Following this process, over approximately 3–4 weeks, you’ll optimize your stack for your brain chemistry. I hope you will implement the Piracetam Protocol and won’t waste anymore Piracetam and more importantly your time.
The cost of this stack is…
$40 Piracetam (500 Grams)
$50 Alpha GPC (50 Grams)
$16 ALCAR (100 Grams)
From $10 Potassium
From $13 Rhodiola
Total: $129 for a 3–6 month supply
