The Piracetam Protocol
| By Jonathan Roseland |
I'm not a doctor, medical professional, or trained therapist. I'm a researcher and pragmatic biohacking practitioner exercising free speech to share evidence as I find it. I make no claims. Please practice skepticism and rational critical thinking. You should consult a professional about any serious decisions that you might make about your health. Affiliate links in this article support Limitless Mindset - spend over $150 and you'll be eligible to join the Limitless Mindset Secret Society.
A certain percentage of people who try the renowned smart drug get zero results from Piracetam.
Others will try Piracetam, and 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. 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 one of the most popular smart drugs.
The reason for this inconsistency is complex, Piracetam, while often sold as a supplement or research chemical, is a drug with a range of very complex interactions in our neurobiology. To maximize its effect there need to be several high-quality cofactors present in your biology.
The Piracetam rabbit hole goes very deep, yet 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 of 800 milligrams - 4 grams daily and begin pushing the dosage up to the point that you either start getting headaches or the smart drug 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). Here are some sources that meet these high standards...
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 is egg yolks. If you are taking 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 - the Mercedez of ACh precursors.
ALCAR
Then add ALCAR at a dosage starting at 500 milligrams daily and push the dosage up by 100 milligrams daily, some biohackers take up to 1 gram daily in this three-part stack.
Remember how we said that Piracetam has very complex interactions with our neurobiology? 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. You'll hear reports of people starting 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 non-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 non-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 non-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 non-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 on 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. In one large study, piracetam alone—administered within 7 hours of stroke—improved bloodflow to the areas of the brain responsible for speech and enhanced language recovery. 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 any more Piracetam and more importantly your time.
The cost of this stack is...
$40 Piracetam (125 Grams)
$22 Alpha GPC (100 Grams)
$20 ALCAR (90 Grams)
From $10 Potassium
From $30 Rhodiola
Total: $122 for a 3 - 6 month supply
Piracetam, properly unleashed, is a truly powerful smart drug that will make you a dangerous dude (or dude-ette)!
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