r/Biohackers

Not theory. Not 10 tips for mental clarity.

These are the interventions that produced measurable changes in my cognition when I tested them one at a time with a 2 week baseline between each.

I used Cambridge Brain Sciences daily at 7am to track working memory, reasoning, and verbal ability. Same time, same conditions, fasted. Here is what actually did something.

Tier 1: The stuff that worked immediately and obviously

1. CO2 management. Bought a $40 CO2 monitor. My bedroom was hitting 1,800ppm by 5am with the door closed. A Harvard study showed cognitive scores drop roughly 50% at 1,400ppm compared to 550ppm baseline. I cracked the window 2 inches. Never exceeded 700ppm again. Morning grogginess I had blamed on sleep quality for years was largely gone within 3 days. Cost: $40 once.
2. Morning electrolytes before caffeine. 500ml water with 1/4 tsp salt and a squeeze of lemon within 20 minutes of waking. Before coffee. Before anything. Research shows 1 to 2% dehydration impairs working memory and you will not feel thirsty at that level. After 8 hours of sleeping you are dehydrated. Most people's first move is coffee which is a mild diuretic. You are draining an already dry system. This took 3 days to notice. Working memory scores up about 15% on testing mornings where I did this versus did not.
3. Phone in another room during deep work. Ward et al. 2017 in JACR showed the mere presence of a smartphone on your desk reduces available cognitive capacity even face down and on silent. I tested this for 2 weeks phone on desk versus 2 weeks phone in kitchen. The difference in sustained focus was not subtle. Verbal fluency scores were consistently higher on phone-away days.

Tier 2: The stuff that took 2 to 4 weeks but the effect was real

1. Ferritin optimization. Mine was 22. Doctor said normal. It is not normal for brain function. Soppi 2018 showed cognitive symptoms at ferritin 15 to 30 that resolved above 50. I took iron bisglycinate 25mg every other day. Not daily. Research shows alternate day dosing has better fractional absorption because hepcidin peaks 24 hours after a dose and blocks absorption of the next one. At week 6 my ferritin was 58. Processing speed on cognitive testing improved noticeably around week 4.
2. Vitamin D loading. Mine was 19 ng/mL in February. Supplemented 5,000 IU daily for 8 weeks then dropped to 3,000 IU maintenance. Retested at 52 ng/mL. The fog improvement was gradual. Not a single moment where it kicked in. More like I looked back at my scores after 6 weeks and realized the bad days had stopped. If you live above 35° latitude and have not tested your D levels you are probably deficient October through March.
3. Magnesium glycinate 400mg before bed. Slutsky et al. published in Neuron 2010 showing magnesium enhances learning and memory. Serum magnesium is a garbage test because it only drops when you are severely depleted. Most people in western countries are sub clinically deficient. The sleep improvement was the first thing I noticed. Deeper sleep within 3 nights. The cognitive effect followed the better sleep by about a week. Do not use magnesium oxide. Bioavailability is terrible. Glycinate or threonate.

Tier 3: The stuff people do not want to hear

1. Caffeine elimination. I tapered from 400mg per day to zero over 8 weeks. Days 1 through 3 at each step down were rough. By week 10 at zero caffeine my baseline cognitive scores were higher than my best caffeinated scores. Caffeine does not add energy. It blocks adenosine receptors. Your brain compensates by building more receptors. Now you need caffeine to reach the baseline you would have had without it. I was borrowing from tomorrow every single day for 12 years.
2. 30 minutes of cardio. Not negotiable. Not replaceable with supplements. A single session increases BDNF by 200 to 300%. One session. BDNF is the protein that drives neuroplasticity and repair. A year of regular walking increased hippocampal volume by 2% in clinical trials. That is 1 to 2 years of age related brain shrinkage reversed. Nothing in a capsule does this. Nothing.
3. Cutting alcohol entirely. Not reducing. Cutting. A 2017 BMJ longitudinal study followed 550 people for 30 years. Even "moderate" drinkers at 14 to 21 units per week had significantly increased hippocampal atrophy. Ebrahim et al. showed alcohol destroys deep sleep architecture at any dose. I wore a sleep tracker. Zero deep sleep on drinking nights versus 80 to 90 minutes without. That was enough data. I stopped.

Tier 4: The testing that found the actual root cause

1. Full panel bloodwork. Not a CBC. Not a basic metabolic. This is what I asked for specifically: ferritin (not just hemoglobin), B12, folate, 25-OH vitamin D, RBC magnesium, TSH plus free T4 plus TPO antibodies, fasting insulin, HbA1c, CRP. Two things came back off that my DR never would have caught. The ferritin at 22 and the vitamin D at 19. Both technically in range. Both functionally impairing my brain.

What did not work:

Lion's mane. Took it for 8 weeks. No measurable change on cognitive testing. Maybe it works for some people. Did nothing for me.

Alpha GPC. Same. 8 weeks. Nothing on testing.

Noopept. Slight subjective feeling of clarity. Nothing on objective testing. Stopped.

Modafinil. Worked acutely. Tolerance built within 2 weeks. Sleep quality tanked. Net negative after a month.

The takeaway nobody wants to accept:

The boring stuff works. The exciting stuff mostly does not. Fixing your air, water, iron, vitamin D, magnesium, sleep, movement, and removing alcohol and excess caffeine will do more for your cognition than every nootropic stack on this sub combined. I know because I tested both. One at a time. With a cognitive testing baseline.

The supplements are a rounding error on top of the fundamentals. Fix the fundamentals first or you are optimizing a system that is broken at the foundation.

Studies referenced:

• Allen JG et al. CO2 and cognitive function scores. Environ Health Perspect. 2016. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1510037
• Armstrong LE et al. Mild dehydration affects mood in healthy young women. J Nutr. 2012. DOI: 10.3945/jn.111.142000
• Ward AF et al. Brain Drain: smartphone presence reduces cognitive capacity. JACR. 2017. DOI: 10.1086/691462
• - Soppi ET. Iron deficiency without anemia — a clinical challenge. Clin Case Rep. 2018;6(6):1082-1086. DOI: 10.1002/ccr3.1529
• Slutsky I et al. Enhancement of learning and memory by elevating brain magnesium. Neuron. 2010. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2009.12.026
• Topiwala A et al. Moderate alcohol consumption as risk factor for adverse brain outcomes. BMJ. 2017. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.j2353
• Ebrahim IO et al. Alcohol and sleep. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2013. DOI: 10.1111/acer.12006

Feel free to follow on r/whatisbrainfog where I will be releasing a free website dedicated to my findings over the last 10 years.

1. Does your body build tolerance to Cialis/Tadalafil?

2. Your present age and since how long have you been taking it and what strength?

3. Does Cialis side effects subside with time?

4 Your overall opinion on Cialis/Tadalafil?

so sad to see they closed down. as a frequent tester their prices were honestly unbeatable compared to so many other places.

for those of you who used them, where are you guys going now to get your labs and testing done? looking for somewhere with reasonable self pay prices.

would really appreciate genuine recommendations. im sure a lot of us are trying to figure out an alternative now rip.

>This company hired 10 people to masturbate using AI companions as part of a monthlong “wellness” study.

>The results revealed that 61% masturbate at least once a week. 75% do it specifically to relieve stress or anxiety. Masturbation ranks third among every way adults unwind - ahead of alcohol, ahead of sex, at double the rate of meditation.

>Across 134 sessions, masturbation relieved stress by 25%.

Just got bloodwork back and my total testosterone came back at 6.9 nmol/L, which I gather is low (normal range is usually something like 8-30 nmol/L depending on the lab). I'm currently overweight sitting at 122kg with an obese BMI.

I know weight and low T are linked but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed about where to start. A few questions for anyone who's been through this:

• Is weight loss alone likely to move the needle much?
• Did your doctor want to investigate why your T is low (pituitary, thyroid, etc.) before just treating the number?
• What were the actual "low hanging fruit" changes you made first — sleep, alcohol, diet, resistance training?

Appreciate any advice here. thank you!

I’ve been researching gallstones way more than I probably should, and I’m surprised by how few alternatives seem to be discussed.

I keep seeing the same answer: remove the gallbladder. But I’ve also found information about stone removal, gallbladder-preserving procedures and medications like Ursodiol.

I’m not saying these are automatically better or that surgery is unnecessary. I’m just curious whether anyone here has actually tried something other than removing the entire organ.

Has anyone successfully dealt with gallstones while keeping their gallbladder? If so, what did you try and what happened long-term?

I’m especially interested in real experiences rather than another “just get it removed” answer.

I'm an environmental engineer who dedicated his research into all things microplastics, from developing inexpensive fluorescence based methods to science education curriculum (Plastic Panic!). And I want to hear what you're genuinely curious about.

Is there something you've always wondered, but never found a clear answer to? Maybe it's about:

Drinking water

Human health

Food and seafood

Recycling and plastics

Clothing and laundry

Oceans and wildlife

Scientific studies you've seen in the news

Whether a claim you've heard is actually true

Leave your question in the comments. Over the next few weeks, I'll research the evidence, dig into the scientific literature, and answer as many questions as I can in future posts.

No question is too basic or too technical. If you're wondering about it, chances are someone else is too.

I took 250Mg of L theanine ( first time taking it)
I take this 4 in one magnesium pill from Nutorology
Magnesium Bisglycinate
• Magnesium Malate
• Magnesium L-Threonate
• Magnesium Taurate
• Plus Vitamin B6 and BioPerine
300mg total elemental magnesium.
I have a sleep mask also

But I genuinely can’t sleep. Have any tips so I can get proper sleep.

And have a good morning routine.

Hey everyone,
34M, currently around 80 kg. Looking for practical experiences and recommendations.
Main issues:
• Lifelong early waking (since childhood). I fall asleep fine but always wake up between 7–8 am no matter what time I go to bed, and can’t fall back asleep. Result: chronically under-recovered.
• Heavy, constant low energy / “everything feels heavy” feeling. Training motivation is there but the physical and mental energy often isn’t.
• Trying to go to the gym 3–5x per week and build muscle, but fatigue + stress keep pulling me out of consistency.
Current stack / situation:
• TRT: 2 sachets Androgel daily
• Mild iodine deficiency (working on fixing it)
• Just restarted tirzepatide at the lowest dose a week ago (mainly to cut alcohol and reduce overeating). Previously was on semaglutide and dropped calories so hard that I completely lost the ability to train.
• Goal is not extreme fat loss – I want to keep/build muscle and especially get more daily life energy and recovery capacity.
I’ve experimented a bit with BPC-157 and TB-500 in the past. Open to peptides, supplements, sleep/circadian approaches, training tweaks, or anything that has helped people in a similar spot (lifelong early waking + fatigue while on TRT).
What has actually moved the needle for you guys regarding:

1. Staying asleep longer / better sleep quality with a fixed early wake time
2. Real increases in daily energy and training drive
3. Building muscle while managing appetite (without going into the “can’t train” zone)
   Any similar experiences or protocols that worked long-term would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I found out my cortisol is very very high, I’m stressed and anxious all the time. I don’t want to go on meds if I don’t have to so hoping to find a good supplement, or lifestyle changes that’ll facilitate lowering my cortisol. Thanks

To have constant uninterrupted and deep sleep and not to wake up often during the night...

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Hey guys a quick summery about me I'm 34 year old make living in London and I recently got both of my mercury fillings taken out my mouth I've had in for 20 years. From when I was a teenager till recently I've had these spots I would pop that always came up around the back of my arms and sides consistently but, ever since taking my mercury fillings out a few weeks ago they have completely disappeared. Can someone explain why something like this might of occurred...I always wondered what the spots were and kinda enjoyed popping them but now I'm kinda sad I can't pop any but glad at the same time but wondering why they just disappeared. Can anyone help?