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Shvoong Home>Medicine & Health>Smart Drugs, Vitamins & Nutrients Summary

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Smart Drugs, Vitamins & Nutrients

Article Abstract by: cathiesblogg    

Original Author: Jimmy Magahern
  • Summary rating: 4 stars (3 Ratings)
  • Visits : 146
  • words:600 
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Get smart
      Smart drugs are a biochemical mixed bag : vitamins, herbs, nutrients,
and prescription drugs that share one feature: claims that they enhance memory, creativity, alertness, learning, or physical performance.
The way that some work is by increasing blood flow to areas of the brain involved in momory storage and retrieval. Others accelerate the growth and repair of nerve cells throughout the central nervous system. Others affect mental functioning by altering body processes that modify brain activity.
The most vommon way of feeding our head and our "neurochemistry" is by regularly loading up on the four basic food groups and along with that additives such as coffee or colas
"Smart Drug" users go a step further, hoping that mega-doses of benign chemicals can raise brain levels of the precursors the body needs to assemble such neurotransmitters and otherwise fine-tune mental and biological processes.
Some of the smart drugs are "natural" and we have known about them for a very long time. "Fish" for example. There is evidence that seafood bolsters the brain through a nutrient called dimethylaminoethanol, or DMAE. This has been shown to improve memory and learning as well as increasing energy levels and elevate mood.
There are three basic groups of smart nutrients; Supplements as B-5 and choline.
Herbs such as Ginseng, ginkgo biloba, and gotu kola.
Amino acids such as phenylalanine and tyrosine.
Then again some turn to the "Hard Stuff" --- prescription drugs and black-market elixirs that are purported to maximize brain power. The "Hard" thing about them is it is harder to predict their potential side effects. These drugs are used to treat specific diseases and medical conditions such as injury-related brain damage or alzheimers disease.
The way that they are different are unlike the gentle buzz often ascribed to the natural substance, some smart drugs trigger full-fledged psychoactive effects. Instead of providing bigger and better building blocks for the brain, some smart drugs are believed to alter the way the brain puts those blocks together.
The top commonly-used "Hard" drugs are:
Vasopressin (Diapid) -A pituitary hormone marketed as a nasal spray to improve bladder control in some fors of diabetes. Also triggers acetylcholine.
Hydergine -One of the most widely-used treatments for senility, hydergine is believed to stimulate nerve cell growth and protein synthesis in the brain.
Piracetam (Nootropl)- used in Europe treating alcoholism, senlity, stroke, and Alzheimer''s disease, piracetam has no approved medical use in the US today because it is believed to aid development of new brain cell receptors.
Do they work? some of it is just plain ole wishful thinking. Doubters point ot the fact that intelligence and creativity have strong genetic roots that aren''t easily altered.
There is limited evidence backing claims for the "Hard" smart drugs based on Alzheimers patients and other victims of  brain traumas.
For the time being more research needs to be done on the "Hard" drugs . Smart nutrients probally won''t hurt.
Published: May 09, 2007
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