What's your current "stack"?

[Puppeteer]

Thought it might be interesting to share all the things we're taking currently in one place.

 

Multi

B Complex

5ml concentrated fish oil (~2g EPA, 1g DHA)

Vitamin D3, 1000IU

Zinc

Creatine, ~5g

Lions Mane, ~1g BID

Tianeptine ~20mg TID
 

Not too sure how well tianeptine's going; I've felt a little odd of late, possibly a little more lost for words. I think I'll probably give it a break and see if it changes. Probably a good idea in light of my upcoming uridine trial anyhow. Still waiting on NSI-189!

 

 

[BigPapaChakra]

Hey man, how's it going? Thanks for posting this, I was just coming to check and see if there were any updates from anyone in things that have helped them. I have been looking into some things to try because HPPD has been almost debilitating for me lately.

 

If I were you, I'd continue using the Tianeptine for awhile; a lot of the effects accrue after a period of weeks and months. I'd check the Longecity topics on Tianeptine. One user noted that he felt really odd at times while on it for the first 10 days, yet overall he felt better (a brighter mood, and although he was more irritable, he was also capable of inhibiting certain things and becoming mindful of them) and he continued taking the substance for months I believe and then stopped, noticing that it made him feel generally better and after stopping he didn't have a drastic and instant reduction in his increased mood/cognition due to how it affects the various parts of your brain as opposed to SSRIs (syntaptic plasticity and perhaps maintenance of dendrites in various regions of the brain by lowering ACTH).

 

How has Lion's Mane worked for you, and what source are you using?

 

I've been doing some research on Lion's Mane, Ginkgo Biloba, and Bacopa, and the main confounding variable for the research and for peoples experiences (in my opinion) is the source and formulation. For instance, some forms of Ginkgo have been shown to do relatively nothing to the acetylcholinesterase enzyme, yet a standardized formulation EGb-761 did, and it did so more potently than Bacopa. There are tons of forms of Ginkgo, too: EGb-761 (AKA GBE-761), Kaveri, GINKOCER, Geriaforce, and many more. They all have different amounts of certain compounds such as bilobalides and ginkgolides and ginkgolic acids. 

 

Personally, I've currently been experimenting with Intranasal Infrared Light, pulsed at 10hz, 25mins per day. I've completed a 10 day experiment with it, am stopping for 3 days, then doing another 10 days. Not sure on the effects just yet. Hasn't done much for HPPD but at the same time I feel as though my memory recall, especially with words, is enhanced, and my skin definitely looks better. A lot of the effects take at the minimum of 10 days, though, hence why the experiment has really just started. My upcoming "stack" is going to look like this:

 

1. LiftMode brand L-theanine as needed

2. 5g Creatine (starting this Monday), though I might increase this to 10g

3. Cycles of Intranasal Infrared Light (810nm, pulsed at 10hz) - depends upon my findings in the literature, but I may continue doing 10-day cycles with intermittent breaks, or 30-days followed by a week off, etc. I also might start doing it for more than 25mins at a time (some studies utilize up to 1hr at a time)

4. Cycles of Intrasal Red light (633nm, not pulsed) - same as above

5. Weekly and/or every other day transcranial infrared light after shaving my head - primarily the prefrontal cortex and occipital lobes

6. Red Laser Acupuncture (630nm): depends on the literature, maybe daily, weekly, or "as needed"

7. Orange Juice, Salt, and baking soda: Starting to read a lot of Hans Selye's hormone physiology textbooks and am hoping this can aid in my thyroid health while lowering corticosterone and ACTH; baking soda will be used at ~2tsp/day along with ~1lb in a bath when I take them.

 

Other considerations:

1. Some form of Ginkgo Biloba - have to do a lot more research, but some formulations enhance acetylcholine levels in the prefrontal medial cortex (I believe) and hippocampus while regulate acetylcholinesterase

2. Magnesium Carbonate, Bicarbonate, Glycinate, Chloride: the carbonate form is effective at lowering phosphorous levels; more research needed

3. Glycine: More research needed, but high doses are definitely tolerable 

4. Aspirin: low doses are safe and effective for reducing risk of various cancers; higher doses can lead to enhanced oxidative phosphorylation (free heat production) and can probably aid in thyroid health

5. PC Ecklonia Cava: Affects MANY neurotransmitters and brain peptides; enhances blood flow in the brain; a very potent brain anti-inflammatory, etc. Primarily interested in its ability to drastically raise acetylcholine and modulate acetylcholinesterase. It's just quite expensive.

 

Any input?

[BigPapaChakra]

Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I'll be seeing my General Practitioner this upcoming Tuesday, and plan on discussing Low Dose Naltrexone and the Fischer Wallace CES unit (you need a prescription for that). LDN has some potential for anti-aging purposes as well. Sorry about the long post up there^^ 

[Puppeteer]

Hey. Thanks so much for the thorough response! I love reading your posts but I feel very poorly equipped to respond to them effectively, haha.

 

Tianeptine definitely feels quite nice - distinct feelings of cosiness, warmth, being at-ease... Nothing groundbreaking, comedown kinda sucks but is easily avoidable... Really wish the worsening of aphasia symptoms weren't a thing, but it's subtle to the point that it's not a huge deal/possibly even just nocebo. I'm just afraid it might be contraindicated against uridine/CDP-choline, and I don't feel quite savvy enough to draw any conclusions from the reading I've been doing... Any insights? Ideally I'd like to experience the touted benefits of both - reversal of stress-induced hippocampal damage from tianeptine sounds pretty awesome, modulation and proliferation of dopamine receptors from uridine equally so - but I'm wary of the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to this stuff.

 

Lions Mane I really can't say much about... It's been a few months now and it's certainly not doing me any harm, but my inability to accurately perceive subtle changes in state of mind coupled with memory impairment makes it hard to say if it's doing much good. Someone on Longecity suggested that blending it with hot water dramatically increased its effects for him and a few others so I'm thinking of giving that a shot... I'd like to have ALCAR in there as well to maximise NGF production/sensitivity, but I'm probably going to be using CDP-choline for the uridine stack and I'm afraid that might be a little too much cholinergic activity. I bought bulk powder from here: http://www.mushroomharvest.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=39&products_id=154 . And yeah, it's stuff like that that makes me incredibly skeptical about herbal supplements - so much ambiguity in endeavouring to attain relatively subtle benefits. I'm thinking once I've run out of Lion's Mane - still a few months off - I'll just ditch it completely. NSI-189, 7,8-DHF, etc. seem far more promising in providing the improvements I was hoping for from Lion's Mane.

 

I'm hugely intrigued by the growing popularity of laser/infrared light treatments! Really does sound like the stuff of science fiction. Haven't really looked into it much though, but the results sound incredibly promising! I just don't know that i can trust myself with properly assembling and administering it.

 

Certainly can't provide much input because your grasp of this stuff goes way beyond mine, but please do keep me posted!

[BigPapaChakra]

So, how would you rate your experience with Tianeptine overall? Any information on dose, source, frequency of dosing, or how long you've been on it? Also (sorry), what specific effects does it have on you acutely and over the long haul? I'm just really interested in the compound.

 

I don't know a lot about tianeptine, but from my brief readings I don't think choline or uridine would alter its efficacy since they affect different neurotransmitters. I can be wrong, though. By "uridine stack", are you referring to the "Happy Stack"? I'm highly interested in it. Although I'm trying to become "deficient" in the "EFAs", I don't think the amount of DHA I'd need would do much harm. Thanks for putting it out there that blending the Lion's Mane in water might be beneficial, I may try that compound in the future, but there are so many others I'd like to try. In fact, I'd like to grow my own medicinal/nutritional mushrooms, thus, I'd know if they're high quality. There's a few authors with books on this topic arguing that proper mushroom cultivation can be really beneficial for the Earth and for our species. I could only imagine what would happen if I used magnesium chloride and red light on the fungi, haha.

 

You can just buy the lights on Ebay - the infrared LEDs I use are less than $50 and the current 630nm red laser pen I'm experimenting with is $4 I believe. You can also buy 130 volt high wattage incandescent bulbs for full spectrum red light (from red through infrared) and keep them nearby. Halogens/heat lamps, too. I found out about something called "water filtered infrared-a" which reminds me of the guy from heelspurs talking about someone who used halogen bulbs directed towards containers of water with red dye in it and used it before they slept. I'm thinking about using halogens/heat lamps with some form of a water barrier in front of it with red dye and having them on me ALL day.

 

I really hope others chime in because I'm interested in what's helping people. I'm also thinking about "CILTEP", if anyone has tried that I'd be highly interested in experiences. I'm a little worried about causing anxiety, irritability, etc. but it could give me the edge I need in my studies (which I can then apply to learning how to fix myself and others). Hope to hear back from you (and others) soon!

[ChrisAUHppD13yrs]

I think its great guys that you are trying to improve your situation I myself am trying lions mane and feel it has had little to no effect I am taking the supplement form of course for the reasons of NGF, I have been on a myriad of medications and I think I will just throw out a warning ill probably put up a post too I am an old school hppder used to be on the old hppd board and have had hppd for around 14 yrs now, I can tell you what works and some stuff that doesn't but I would like to warn you guys about this so called NSI-189 I am not wanting to dash any ones hopes but I believe these untested chemicals especially research chemicals to be some seriously dangerous stuff I may make as post and share my thought in more detail in another post.

all th3 best

 

chris.