Welcome to part three in the biohacking series. from the previous two sections, we are talking purely about nootropic use. And this is going to focus on some personal as well as some scientific thoughts on how potentially to take nootropics and other supplements in general. So, unfortunately, the common mantra is that if some is good, more is better. But in this case, definitely a word of caution is an order. The body has its own unique, innate protective measures and these include feedback loops and down regulation, and I'll explain those here.

Just be patient. The first example is TSH, which is thyroid stimulating hormone. So the brain will release something called TSH to stimulate the thyroid gland to produce and release thyroid hormone. Once this is detected in the bloodstream and the desired levels obtained, the feedback loop shuts off the brain structure producing the TSH it's a way to prevent a person from becoming toxic on excessive thyroid hormones. That's how negative feedback works. The second mechanism is what's called reading Down regulation, any neurotransmitter, or chemical in the body has to work generally through a receptor or some type of mechanism that stimulates its action.

And so inside the brain, for example, dopamine or acetylcholine, or serotonin, these are common neurotransmitters, and there's others as well. But they actually bind to a receptor specific for them and exert their effect that way. What happens over time, particularly if there are excessive levels of these, the body will shut down those receptors or decrease the number of receptors available to these chemicals. That way, if there's constant surges of excessive chemicals, it doesn't cause the body to go sort of haywire, if you will. That's a way of the body to protect itself from constant stimulation. The third mechanism involves resistance and this is more of a pathologic mechanism, particularly thinking about diabetes.

So when the body is used to seeing high levels of sugar or glucose, the normal response For the pancreas, to dump out tons of insulin to get that blood sugar down to a more acceptable or normal level throughout the bloodstream and the tissues. Over time, the body becomes relatively resistant to the effects of insulin and it allows the blood sugar levels to rise and sort of establish what is considered a new norm essentially, and that norm unfortunately causes a whole host of problems throughout the body. And so the initial, you know, attempts are to try and regulate things to keep them in a what's called a homeostatic pattern, where there is some balance the sort of a yin and the yang, similar to lion's mane, which also has some effects on on excitability in the brain trying to balance the stimulation with the calm, which allows normal mental processes to take place.

The same thing happens throughout the brain when it's exposed to a variety of other substances. The take home point here is that with constant and chronic and repetitive use for a variety of substances will have less affected someone levels, you might know this as tolerance for somebody who drinks a lot of alcohol. Over time, it takes more and more alcohol to achieve that same effect for cocaine addicts that actually will burn themselves out where the cocaine is stimulating just a constant pounding on these the adrenal system and the brain releasing norepinephrine. And over time, those levels get depleted in the the attic sort of crashes and is left in nearly in a comatose state, if you will. So that all the time I work in the emergency department. So some thoughts on using nootropics in a common sense and safe fashion.

This is how I approach it when I use them myself. The first is to consider the intended purpose is it for an exam? Is it for a creative project, that'll have some bearing on what nootropic or nootropic stack I might choose for myself, particularly if I'm doing some creative writing, or working on some very complicated complex topic. The next is timing. A variety of nootropics have different onsets of action and duration, some can take effect as little as a couple hours in last 24 hours, others are a bit different. So knowing the timing of taking nootropics is critical when I'm approaching decision making about what, why and how I'm going to use a particular nootropic.

Keep in mind the feedback loops the down regulation process and resistant process, as opposed to pounding the body with a constant daily barrage of brain stimulating substances. Consider alternating some options. I have a variety of nootropics that I use depending on as I mentioned, the product or the project or what I'm working on, and I'll alternate those if I'm going to be writing intensively for several days I might, you know, rely on Lion's Mane if I'm going to be doing some other type of project that might be alpha GPC. Or maybe you combine that with some cp coline or some other substance and really creating a hierarchical or of what you want to achieve is really how I think is the best way to approach biohacking the brain for memory, enhanced cognition and performance data wraps up part three. We'll be adding some sections here in the near future, so be on the lookout for additional biohacking segments.