The need to follow a healthy diet and balanced lifestyle was long viewed solely in the context of preventing or containing widely known noncommunicable and lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular illness, cancer and kidney problems. The realization that the brain too needs to ‘eat’ for optimal health, function and longevity came much later.
There is one key problem though — getting all the nutrients your brain needs from meals alone is not always possible or practical. Nootropics (also known as smart drugs, cognitive enhancers or brain supplements) help bridge the nutrient gap and ensure your mind is getting the fuel it requires to be firing on all cylinders.
Still, nootropics is an umbrella term that covers thousands of distinct products. Figuring out which one is best for you can be a herculean task. If you are like the majority of people, you do not have the time, budget or expertise to scoure this enormous product list to distinguish between the best and the average.
That’s where we come in. After evaluating the nootropics available in Canada, we have narrowed down to a top five. These brain supplements demonstrate efficacy that’s best in their class. Read on to find out how.
Best Nootropics Canada
NooCube
Best for Coherent Communication
Mind Lab Pro
Best for Long-Term Neural Plasticity
Vyvamind
Best for Allergen-Sensitive Users
CentraPeak
Best for Men
Thesis
Best for Personalized Blends
1. NooCube – Best for Coherent Communication
A brain supplement by Wolfson Brands Limited, NooCube is a blend of multiple ingredients that have tried-and-tested cognition-enhancing capabilities. It helps boost memory, accelerate mental response and elevate concentration.
The well-thought-out combination of amino acids, herbs, vitamins and other micronutrients is crucial for brain health, cognitive capability, mind energy and coherent communication.
Each NooCube component is backed by multiple studies proving its effectiveness. The productivity gains from the repeated use of this cognitive enhancer can form the foundation needed to propel you to a new plane of achievement and break through mental impediments to consistent success. Its ingredients include l-tyrosine, l-theanine, green oat straw, cat’s claw vine, bacopa monnieri and alpha GPC.
Key Features
Pros and Cons
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Why Buy NooCube
NooCube’s buyers currently exceed 120,000. In a marketplace where anyone shopping for nootropics is spoilt for choice, such a large number of purchases may be viewed as a significant endorsement of the product’s efficacy.
Further, NooCube has steered clear of caffeine, a stimulant that is widely used in smart drugs. While caffeine does help improve alertness, it may be accompanied by unpleasant peak-crash cycles. Caffeine may also trigger adverse effects in caffeine-intolerant persons.
About the Manufacturer
Wolfson Brands Limited is a UK-based wellness company that was founded over a decade ago. Within this relatively short time, it has earned a reputation for the production of world-class supplements. Other brands from Wolfson Brands include Crazy Nutrition, PhenQ, Smart Protein, Proactol XS and Battle Ready Fuel.
2. Mind Lab Pro – Best for Long-Term Neural Plasticity
A smart drug from Opti-Nutra, Mind Lab Pro aggregates about a dozen cognition-enhancing ingredients that boost mental health and cognitive performance over both the short- and long-term.
The clinically proven ingredients address pathways that govern brain waves and neurotransmitters as well as brain cell regeneration and protection.
Mind Lab Pro seeks to be a holistic nootropic that drives overall brain performance as opposed to being a product that focuses on just one or two aspects. It enhances concentration, multitasking, knowledge recollection, retention, response, clarity, motivation and relaxation. Over the long term, Mind Lab Pro supports neural plasticity, brain structure and slows mental decline. Its ingredients include rhodiola rosea, phosphatidylserine, maritime pine, l-theanine and citicoline.
Key Features
Pros and Cons
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Why Buy Mind Lab Pro
A substantial proportion of brain supplements address just one or two aspects of cognitive function. That could be memory capability, performance, concentration, motivation or relaxation. Mind Lab Pro offers both short- and long-term gains for the different facets of brain health includig neural plasticity.
Like NooCube, Mind Lab Pro does not contain caffeine. It enjoys the endorsement of multiple prominent personalities and health experts.
About the Manufacturer
Opti-Nutra Limited is a UK-based health supplement maker that aims to build products designed for the performance conscious buyer. Mind Lab Pro is the company’s flagship brand. Opti-Nutra has other products but under a different brand – Performance Lab. These include Performance Lab Carb, Performance Lab Energy and Performance Lab Sleep.
3. Vyvamind – Best for Allergen-Sensitive Users
A product of a Vyva-mind, Vyvamind is a cognitive enhancer that improves brain performance, mind energy, response, focus, mood and calmness.
Made from extensively researched ingredients, it steps away from the inclusion of herbal and plant components as well as the fixation with ‘natural’ compounds that’s widespread among nootropic products.
Instead, Vyvamind picks ingredients primarily based on their proven impact on brain health. It also keeps the ingredient list small – just six and that’s including a couple of vitamins. Vyvamind is made from citicoline, l-tyrosine, l-theanine and more.
Key Features
Pros and Cons
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Why Buy Vyvamind
Some nootropic brands often take pride in their long list of ingredients as they try to create a one-stop-shop brain supplement. There is nothing necessarily wrong with having dozens of ingredients. However, some cognitive enhancers contain compounds and minerals that do little more than add up to the ingredient count but without commensurate health value for the end user.
By maintaining a small set of ingredients, Vyvamind looks to create a product that is easy to understand and that has predictable, consistent results. It does not contain caffeine.
About the Manufacturer
Vyva-mind is a UK-registered supplement maker. Unlike many wellness companies that opt to have multiple products, Vyva-mind is a one-product business. While this has the downside of limiting the business to a single income stream, it does allow it to focus on making its sole product really well. Going by the market’s positive response to Vyvamind, that strategy does appear to have paid off.
4. Centrapeak – Best for Men
If you have shopped for a testosterone booster in the past, you will probably be surprised to find Centrapeak in a list of the best nootropics. It’s not a mistake though – Centrapeak plays the dual role of both testosterone support and cognitive health.
Cognition improvement is one of the side benefits of healthy testosterone so nearly every testosterone booster can lay claim to doing so.
Centrapeak stands out for going out of its way to formulate a product that directly addresses mental health goals.
Made by Peak Nutrition, Centrapeak boosts mind energy, calmness, relaxation, sleep quality, self-drive, libido, muscle growth and fat loss. It is manufactirered from more than a dozen ingredients such as ashwagandha, rhodiola rosea, luteolin, l-tyrosine and boron.Key Features
Pros and Cons
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Why Buy Centrapeak
Centrapeak is one of the few supplements that can lay claim to being as much a testosterone booster as it is a nootropic. It is formulated with both goals in mind unlike the average testosterone supplement where cognitive improvements are a secondary, almost unintentional benefit.
If you are trying to unlock both testosterone and brain performance, Centrapeak helps you do so via a single pill. It has no caffeine and is vegan-friendly.
About the Manufacturer
Peak Nutrition Limited is a consumer health and wellness business with its headquarters in the UK. Also trading as Digital Spectrum Marketing Limited, Kurapeak is currently the company’s only other product. Peak Nutrition Limited should not be confused with a prominent Arizona-based discount supplement store that shares the same name.
5. Thesis – Best for Personalized Blends
Product Description
The four products we have covered so far each have their own unique attributes. None can however lay claim to giving buyers the option to customize the product’s composition – except Thesis.
It allows you to pick the right mix of cognitive-enhancing agents depending on whether you are looking to improve your mood, memory, motivation, focus, energy, or any combination of these.
You start off by answering a series of questions on the website. Thesis uses that information to generate a set of four blends. Take these four for 30 days and document the impact on your cognitive performance. At the end of this test period, engage the Thesis-assigned coach and nootropic experts for free to further refine the blends as and where needed.
Thesis blends choose from dozens of clinically tested ingredients including phosphatidylserine, theobromine, artichoke, ashwagandha and panax ginseng.Key Features
Pros and Cons
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Cons
Why Buy Thesis
If you have shopped for any supplement before, you are likely familiar with the dilemma of finding a product that has some of the ingredients you want but also contains several you do not need.
Thesis’ competitive edge is the opportunity for buyers to customize the product’s formulation in line with their exact cognitive needs. More than half a million people have so far received formulation recommendations through Thesis.
About the Manufacturer
Thesis brand and trademark is owned by Outliers Inc, a US-based company. Not much is known about Outliers as the organization does seem keen on keeping its identity and ownership away from the limelight.
Conclusion
Nootropics are not a one-size-fits-all. What works for one person may not do so for another. If one of these five does not result in the outcomes you expected, you may want to try a different one in this list or outside it.
As with any supplement, there are no guarantees that a particular nootropic will necessarily work for you. Sometimes the cause of your brain fog, mental fatigue, forgetfulness, poor concentration and other cognitive challenges may be something else including an underlying, undiagnosed illness. That’s why it’s important that you talk to a healthcare professional before you start on any nootropic.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
They are designed to have a positive impact on the cognitive health of the majority of users. That said, actual results will vary from person to person depending on each nootropic’s ingredients and each person’s unique brain chemical composition. Results also depend on your adherence to a healthy lifestyle comprising a good diet, regular exercise and restful sleep.
They are made from extensively researched, widely used and clinically tested ingredients that are unlikely to cause harm in the overwhelming majority of users.
As with all supplements, contact your doctor before you get on a nootropic. Everyone should do that but it’s especially important if you are breastfeeding, pregnant, below 18 years, on medication or been diagnosed with a mental health condition.
Nootropics should by their very nature display short-term results much quicker than other categories of supplements. This however depends on each nootropic’s formulation.
Overall, a nootropic that claims to have some short-term impact on brain health should have a noticeable impact in anywhere from a couple of minutes or hours. For mid- to Longer-term results, you may have to monitor for changes over a couple of weeks or months.
None has a known side effect.
You shouldn’t. Each product’s safety has been tested only as far as how its ingredients interact with the human body. Interaction with another product would have unpredictable results. Using multiple nootropics at a go also makes it difficult to tell which one is effective and which one isn’t working.