 energy, sex drive, pain perception, and digestion. It’s known as the feel good hormone for good reason — a low level of this hormone is associated with anxiety and depression.
Sustained or chronic stress leads to a reduced level of serotonin, as many studies have proved. With a permanent drop in serotonin comes a depressed mood and despondency — principle players in anxiety and depression.
First and foremost nootropics are thought of as congnitive-enhancers — that’s why they’re often referred to as smart drugs. Many nootropics do their work by enhancing neurotransmitter function and improving the ability of nerve cells to transmit electrical signals. Some nootropics also affect hormone levels. You might associate hormones primarily with mood, sex traits and sex drive, but hormones have a large influence on cognitive performance as well.
Hormone imbalances can lead to poor mental stamina, troubles with memory and focus, difficulties in concentrating and confusion — all factors that negatively impact cognition. Hormone imbalances can also cause mood swings, irritability, fatigue, anxiety, and even depression.
People who take nootropics for cognitive enhancement may also inadvertently be improving their mood and lessening any anxiety they have. People who take nootropics for anxiety relief may also inadvertently be improving their learning, memory, and other cognitive functions. Not bad, as far as “side effects” go!
Certain nootropics can play a role in stabilizing levels of one or more of the hormones serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine, GABA, and cortisol — all hormones that play a role in stress, anxiety, and depression.
The medical community’s traditional means of treating anxiety is with the use of prescription drugs — antidepressants and anxiolytics in particular.
There are different types of antidepressants, with antidepressants in a class called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, being the most popular for the treatment of anxiety. SSRIs prevent the reuptake of serotonin — they limit the serotonin movement back into the nerve endings, thereby allowing released serotonin to remain in a person’s system. SSRIs don’t produce more serotonin, they keep existing serotonin available to the brain. Paroxetine (Paxil), fluoxetine (Prozac), and sertraline (Zoloft) are examples of popular SSRIs.
Anxiolytics, or anti-anxiety drugs, are a type of drug usesd to treat a variety of anxiety disorders. Unlike antidepressants — which need time to build up in the system and become effective work, and are usually a long-term approach to treating anxiety — anxiolytics work quickly and tend to be habit-forming. Benzodiazepines, which stimulate production of the calming hormone GABA, are the most commonly prescribed anxiolytic. Alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), and diazepam (Valium) are examples of often-prescribed benzodiazepines.
If antidepressants and anxiolytics are widely prescribed, and are often effective, why is there any controversy surrounding their use? The fact that both types of medications can produce adverse side effects — sometimes severe — and lead to addiction are the main points of contention.
Unlike people who take prescription medications for anxiety, people who instead try nootropics that are known to have the ability to stabilize hormones seldom experience any negative side effects at all. And the small percentage of people who do, experience only minor, non-severe effects. That’s what makes nootropics a better choice over prescription medications to treat anxiety.
Supplement manufacturers sometimes make exaggerated claims about the effectiveness of certain products. This is especially true regarding products that are touted as providing benefits for health issues people are desperate to cure — such as anxiety. Fortunately studies and years of anecdotal evidence shows there are numerous nootropics that can play a role in treating anxiety and stress disorders.
A nootropic falls into one of two categories: synthetic or natural. As the name implies, synthetic nootropics are made in a lab, usually with some particular goals in mind such as increasing blood flow to the brain. And again as the name implies, natural nootropics exist in nature — they’re vitamins, minerals, amino acids and other compounds that are extracted from herbs and other plants.
There are dozens — if not a hundred or more — natural compounds that are considered nootropics. Here we list several that are considered to be the best for relieving symptoms of anxiety and stress.
Ashwagandha is a small shrub that grows most commonly in dry regions of China, India and Nepal. Extracts of the plant’s roots and berries have been popular for thousands of years in Ayurvedic medicine — a thousands of years old India medical system from India with the aim of restoring balance in the mind, body and spirit.
Ashwagandha is considered an adaptogen — a plant that assists your body’s ability to handle stress. One of ashwagandha’s traditional uses was as an in the treatment of anxiety, and to this day that remains one of its biggest claims to fame.
Like many adaptogens, ashwagandha’s main means of reducing stress is by reducing the body’s production of cortisol. Cortisol is often referred to as the stress hormone, as the adrenal glands release it in response to stressors. Cortisol certainly isn’t always bad — it’s responsible for the fight-or-flight response that can be important to a person’s survival.
The body is supposed to bring on this response only infrequently, and for only a very limited time when it is needed. Chronic stress can result in elevated levels of cortisol, which has a negative effect on the body. Studies have shown that ashwagandha lowers cortisol levels, with a resulting lessening of anxiety, disorder, and depression (since stress plays a prominent role in each of these disorders).
Magnesium is an important mineral in that it plays a role in hundreds of functions in the human body, including supporting the immune system, regulating blood pressure, and balancing hormone levels.
The body doesn’t make magnesium, it must receive it through a person’s diet. The best sources of magnesium are seeds, soybeans, nuts, greens, and whole grains. Over 50 percent of Americans are deficient in magnesium, which makes sense when you consider that in our fast-paced, fast food society many people don’t eat these healthy foods on a regular basis. Additionally, a stressful lifestyle has a way of depleting an already too-low level of this mineral.
Like ashwagandha, magnesium reduces a person’s release of the stress hormone cortisol. In the case of magnesium, this is done indirectly by suppressing the ability of the pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone, or ACTH. ACTH is what ultimately controls the production cortisol by the adrenal glands.
Manufacturers of magnesium products usually bind the magnesium with other substances to make the magnesium more easily absorbable. The binding substance then appears in the product name. For instance, magnesium citrate is magnesium bound with citrate (citric acid). Magnesium citrate is used as a laxative, so obviously that’s not the supplement you’re interested in for dealing with anxiety.
Instead, look for magnesium glycinate — magnesium bound to the amino acid glycine. This form of magnesium has a high bioavailability (most of the magnesium makes it through your digestive system and is available for use by your body). Additionally, glycine has been shown to have a calming effect on its own.
Serotonin acts as both a neurotransmitter and a hormone. Serotonin plays a key role in regulating anxiety and mood. The amino acid tryptophan is a precursor (a compound that through chemical reaction produces another, different compound) to a chemical called 5-hydroxytryptophan, or 5-HTP. In turn, 5-HTP is a precursor to serotonin.
Consuming foods rich in tryptophan, or taking tryptophan supplements, would be one way to try increase your serotonin levels. But the path to go from tryptophan to 5-HTP to serotonin is an imperfect one, so if your goal is to increase serotonin, then it’s more efficient to skip the tryptophan and go directly to taking 5-HTP supplements. There are very few foods that are a naturally rich source of 5-HTP (the seeds of the African plant Griffonia simplicifolia being one of those few sources), so supplements are certainly your best bet if increasing serotonin levels is the goal.
Research has shown that 5-HTP reduces stress and anxiety as well as panic attacks. For some study participants 5-HTP even worked as well as popular prescription antidepressants to treat mild or moderate depression.
Inositol is a carbohydrate that is a sugar similar to glucose. Some foods, including nuts, beans, grains and fruits, are good natural sources of inositol. Inositol plays a role in the production of two “feel good” hormones: serotonin and dopamine.
People who suffer from anxiety or depression usually have low levels of inositol, so it’s thought that increasing inositol can contribute to lessening the symptoms of both of these conditions. Research has shown this to be the case, including one study that compared inositol and the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) prescription antidepressant fluvoxamine. Improvements in reducing anxiety were very similar for both treatments, with the participants given the inositol even experiencing fewer panic attacks than those given fluvoxamine.
People who try nootropics for anxiety issues often take more than one nootropic. That’s why Pure Nootropics has packaged the above four nootropics (ashwagandha, magnesium, 5-HTP, and inositol)