Nootropics Safe If Underage?

Hello! Been a forum lurker for a while but this is my first post.

While cruising this site yesterday, I came across a post about nootropics. Having never heard of them, I decided to check them out and I've decided I'd like to experiment with a stack of L-Theanine and Caffeine. However, I was trying to research whether it would be safe for someone my age (15) to ingest and if there'd be any adverse side-effects while taking them and no one had really researched into it. Has anyone knowledge on this subject or the likelihood of there being any unpleasantries?

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  • Hey man, looks like I am not the youngest one on the forum anymore. Being within a year of age of @Carl_The_Lime, I am also interested noots and their effects on still developing brains. However, off the top of my head I can tell you that for people our age, caffeine probably isn't all that good of an idea. I would recommend that you watch this video here.

    The basic idea is that just like other stimulants, you slowly build up a tolerance to the drugs. At only 15, I don't think it is advisable to being taking straight caffeine, it will mess with your mind man. It also might make you a bit of a coffee junky later in life, you will need to consume more caffeine to feel it's effects. .

    As far as the L-Theanine I will leave that up to others wiser than me. However, as far as I can tell, such mentally enhancing supplments seem to be mostly bogus, at least the rather tame ones (Please correct me if I'm wrong)

    Recently there has been some talk of other noots here, as well as a discussion on some physically enhancing supplements here

    Any insight would be greatly appreciated. 


  • I think the general idea messing with your brain chemistry during developmental periods usually leads to addiction, depression, and other issues. Caffeine itself alters insulin and adrenaline levels, things that you need to not mess with when you are in your teens.

    As always, the best nootropics available seem to be eating healthy, getting sleep, and exercise. Set a good baseline for yourself so that you can experiment from a stable point later. Just my advice.
  • Shame, you seem to have confirmed my fears.

    No matter, it's a simple wait of a couple of years till I can try again safely. Who knows, maybe by then they'll be some even better ones out there. Thanks for the advice, guys.
  • I, however, am interested in psychological manipulation. Some of these practices has to have a least SOME psychological cons. Yes, to depression, @glims, as these kind of things tend to mess hormone levels, along with other symptoms. Being in the younger generation, I'm thinking now night be the time to prepare myself and others physically and mentally for these kind of body modifications. Its not just a tatoo that you can cover up and forget about. let me know if you have any ideas or discussions.
  • I can't remember what noot it was but im pretty sure there was one that slowly had permanent long lasting intelligence effects on the brain ( making more intelligent and faster thinking or atleast better at thinking, think fish oil but like way better) but on the topic of experimentation what kind of effect would that have on someone still growing like carl ( author of the text post ) or me ( i am also 15 (yay?) )
    would such a noot if i could find what it was, assist in the development of the brain? aka would such effects that help the brain assist it during the youth to a larger degree?
  • This post is like a magnent to all of us youngsters. I feel like however we are all just looking for justification to try nootropics, and stating our ages just makes it seem that much more juvenile. For people out age, I think @glims nailed it. A healthy lifestyle is much more important than any brain enhancing drug.

    @EmberErikson and @Arkcon10 both pose valid points of discusstion. Would there be any advantages to starting early?
  • I was just talking with someone about life extension technologies and how in murine trials, they found that there was an increase in the effectiveness of treatment when done at a younger age.  It is possible that there may be something like that for noots, but I don't know of anything like that. The problem is that most noots are not very well studied, except for some of the racetams.

    If anyone knows about a paper on this effect, I'm all ears
  • i know not of any paper's but i just have a question
    what are the more effective noot's that have been tried/tested? like i know most of the racetams have been proven effective to some degree and there was that substance called mondafil that acted similarly to caffeine, but are there anymore ones out there with proven effects?

  • edited December 2015
    I saw this and will share my experience, also I am about your age.(little older but less than 19) I can tell you caffeine can quickly replace sleep. I was working a crapy job that I had led me to 18-20 hour days Between schooland work, with a lot of work place enduced stress. I had 3-4 jumbo cans of monster a day for about 2 months I cat extremely depressed.(To elaborate I got really lonely, jaded and extremely annoyed by everyone around me. Another thing worth mentioning was I started to see things that weren't there, like shadows from the corner of my eye, and every now and then there were these sparkling dust particles that I would see for about 1-2min with a reasonable amount of light headedness.) I could not function at all, simple things that should have been no challenge were like climbing mountains. I doubt you will under go as much stress as I did, but head my warning that caffeine can really fuck with your head, so be careful.... No I did not get addicted I haven't had but maybe 2 or three monsters sense I left that job.

    Sincerely,
    John Doe
  • Read through this post guess I'm the youngest one
  • edited March 2016
    It's not a good idea to take any substance for improving cognitive functions when you're 15. Your brain will continue development until at least 25; Arkcon and Ember may be right in that some of these drugs might help you during this period, but no nootropics are tested for this effect. There's no documentation, and any of these drugs that you take run the serious risk of impairing development that you can't get back, or just ruining your QoL, like in JohnDoe's case.

    Stick with exercise and diet, it'll help more and improve you ten times better in the long run - it's boring, I know, but it's probably a better idea than playing roulette with pharmaceuticals. 
  • My first comment too. I'm the same age (15) but I've been using moderate amounts of caffeine in my stack since I was 12 or 13. I naturally have a high caffeine tolerance but my mum also drinks on average 8 cups of instant coffee a day (which is obviously extremely dangerous).

    Caffeine does definitely affect me in a negative way. L-theanine works really well with a VERY low dose of caffeine. If you can find a way to ingest caffeine in extremely small amounts, I couldn't see any dangers of it. Just make sure you take a week off every second week or so.

    With all that said, you should still be very careful and monitor how it affects you when you're taking it, and when you're not. 
  • I am 14 at the moment, and have been using nootropics some. I have a huge caffiene tolerance. I have used noopept and love it. Need to get some more.
  • @glims said:
    I think the general idea messing with your brain chemistry during developmental periods usually leads to addiction, depression, and other issues. Caffeine itself alters insulin and adrenaline levels, things that you need to not mess with when you are in your teens.

    I would also add that immature metabolism works a bit differently to adults (there is a reason why there are paeds after all) so the effects are even less predictable.

    As always, the best nootropics available seem to be eating healthy, getting sleep, and exercise. Set a good baseline for yourself so that you can experiment from a stable point later. Just my advice.

    And as someone who is going to work in a profession where 24-50 hr shifts are the norm, I’m laughing at this.

  • I drank about a pot of coffee a day in my mid teens and 2 pots a day in my early 20's mixed with a lot of chocolate powder. That stuff was heaven. It numbs the world after a certain point.

    What @JohnDoe said was the same as my experiance, white sparkles and shadows from the corners of my eyes. Even now after having toned the intake down a bit I still see them.

    It also made me feel like I was on autopilot and detached from the world. My brain would think, my body would do but the consciousness was absent.
  • tbh I used a majority of caffeinated products by the tme i was fifteen to get me through school and beyond....at 15 if you have big exams coming up, then anything can help... if i knew about these nootropics back then. i wouldn't of go through years of special education and certainly would of been doing a-levels and university. and sticking with the OU

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