It is an imperative of both morality and self-preservation to improve our circumstances. British philosopher David Pearce’s 1995 work The Hedonistic Imperative speaks to this outrageous scope of suffering not so much being a condition of modernity, but more so a condition of being human.

Qualia nootropics were designed to promote a sustained improvement across the whole pallet of objective capacities and subjective states that contribute to optimized, creative, productive flow states. This goal required factoring many creative-productive capacities simultaneously. 

This article goes into great detail about the design and formulation process of our product Qualia Mind which was designed to promote a sustained improvement across the whole pallet of objective capacities and subjective states that contribute to optimized, creative, productive flow states. In this article, we want to share how individual ingredients stack together toward supporting those goals.

Neurohacker Collective's Mission: Advancing Human Sovereignty

Sovereignty relates to the capacity for and demonstration of good (omni-positive) choice-making.

We define sovereignty more formally as the product of sentience, intelligence, and agency.

Whereas biohacking concentrates on the body, and consciousness hacking explores the inner experience, neurohacking is somewhere in the middle, focusing on the mind-brain interface - the intersection of neurology and consciousness. Specifically, neurohacking involves applying science and technology to influence the brain and body in order to optimize subjective experience.

The main role of vitamin B3 is to make NAD molecules. This is important because the NAD molecule sits at the crossroads of mitochondrial energy production (i.e., ATP), cellular repair and signaling, and cellular defenses. Unfortunately, NAD+ levels decrease with age. This is the bad news. The good news is that there are strategies that can be used to make more NAD+. One of these is vitamin B3.

Choosing the optimal dose for a given ingredient in our formulations is a critical and nuanced topic, so we want to share a bit about the principles that help guide our decisions at Neurohacker. Our principles derive from complexity science—the science of complex adaptive systems—and guide how we factor research and approach formulation and dosing. They take into consideration scientific evidence on the change in effect caused by differing levels of exposure (i.e., the dose-response relationship), but they do this in a way that honors complexity.

BioVin® is a premium quality grape extract made from the juice, seeds, and skins of red grapes grown in France. It's rich in both trans-resveratrol and grape polyphenols.

Ashwagandha is an Ayurvedic herb often referred to as “Indian ginseng.” Within this system of it was classified as a general tonic and strength promoting. Its uses included infusing energy and vigor in circumstances characterized by exhaustion or a lack of physical energy. 

Kaempferia parviflora is found in the upper northeastern regions of Thailand. It is commonly called black ginger, because of the intense purple-black color and similar shape of the roots to ginger. The traditional use has been as a health tonic and energy enhancer leading to it sometimes being called “Thai ginseng.” The novel active constituents are polymethoxyflavonoids polyphenols. 

Theobroma cacao can be translated as chocolate, food of the gods. This tree is native to the tropical regions of the Americas. The beans are the source of the cocoa used to make chocolate. But this extract is more than simply a pleasure for our tastebuds. Over the past decade chocolate has had a blossoming reputation as being heart healthy. As it turns out, it might also be good for our mitochondrial structure and function.

Strawberries are a good source of polyphenols. The seeds are an even better source. We made sure to source an extract standardized for at least 2% polyphenols. Studies of this extract suggest it might support healthy skin, weight, metabolism, and other functions needed for healthy aging.* Strawberry polyphenols would also be expected to support antioxidant defenses and overall cellular health.* But the main reason we included the strawberry seed extract is because it is a source of a specific flavonoid called tiliroside.

We all age. But, we don’t all age at the same rate. From a bottom-up point of view, we are a complex colony of tens of trillions of individual cells. We care about what healthier cells allows the body to do better. Eternus is our solution to cell support for better aging. 

Dietary polyphenols are a family of plant compounds found in common foods including fruits, vegetables, nuts, chocolate, coffee, and tea. These compounds play important roles in the plant kingdom, protecting plants from infections, pests, UV irradiation from the sun, oxidative stress, and toxic metals and chemicals.

β-Hydroxy-β-Methylbutyrate (HMB) is a metabolite of l-leucine (an essential amino acid). As we get older, muscle size, strength, and performance decline. This can occur even if we continue to exercise. HMB has been used as an ergogenic substance (i.e., something that supports improved sports performance) for more than 20 years, with most of the research focused on supporting muscle performance and helping muscles age better. 

Rutin is a type of polyphenol called a flavonoid glycoside. It’s composed of quercetin and the disaccharide rutinose. It’s also called rutoside, quercetin-3-O-rutinoside and sophorin. While it’s found in a wide variety of plants, including citrus, foods with the highest concentrations of rutin include capers, black olives, buckwheat, and asparagus. The most common use of rutin has been for supporting healthy veins. But it does much more.

ElevATP® is a proprietary, clinically researched combination of a water extract of “ancient peat” (fossilized plants) and apple extract. The ancient peat contains 70 elements and is especially rich in carbon, magnesium, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. ElevATP® is a clinically tested product with human studies for sports performance, body composition, and elevating ATP.

Cinnamon is one of the world's oldest spices. Along with pepper and ginger, it was a big part of the spice trade between Asia and Europe. Cinnamon trees are native to India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Burma. What we think of as cinnamon comes from the inner bark of several different tree species from the genus Cinnamomum. 

The salvage pathway is used to produce NAD⁺ from nicotinamide molecules. Whether the source of the nicotinamide is vitamin B3 (as niacinamide), newer nicotinamides (e.g., nicotinamide riboside [NR], nicotinamide mononucleotide [NMN]), or molecules in food that get broken down during digestion into nicotinamide, the salvage pathway turns them into NAD⁺ in our tissues.

L-tryptophan is an essential amino acid. This means the body cannot synthesize it: it must be obtained from the diet. It’s been known for decades that L-tryptophan has niacin equivalent activity in the body (i.e., we can make NAD⁺ molecules from it). L-tryptophan is unique because it’s the only way to build NAD⁺ that doesn’t start from vitamin B3. It does this by a de novo synthesis pathway, which creates a niacin molecule through a series of biological reactions. So, L-tryptophan’s inclusion would seem to be a natural fit in a formulation that wants to support boosting NAD⁺. 

Vitamin K is a family of structurally similar, fat-soluble vitamins. The two main members of the family are vitamin K1 and K2. Our interest in vitamin K was prompted when looking for compounds that might be able to rescue mitochondrial performance. This led us to source vitamin K2, ultimately as MK-7. 

Citrus × sinensis is the group of oranges that includes the commonly eaten navel orange and the blood orange. The peels and fruit are a rich source of citrus bioflavonoids. But our interest went beyond just including a generic citrus bioflavonoid mixture. What we were really interested in is a specific polymethoxylated flavone called nobiletin. Nobiletin has been identified as clock-enhancing small molecule, so is a key nutrient to support body clock functions.

In 1958, Jack Preiss and Philip Handler published a scientific paper describing how NAD+ was made from niacin in three steps.(1) This pathway was later named the Preiss-Handler pathway after the co-discoverers. It describes the enzyme steps needed to convert niacin into the NAD+ molecule.

Rosemary is a member of the mint family. Its common name derives from Latin and translates as “dew of the sea,” because it thrives close to the coast in dryer areas throughout the Mediterranean. It was used as a spice and folk medicine by Egyptians, Greeks, and Latin cultures. While rosemary contains a range of health-supporting polyphenols, including carnosol, carnosic acid, and rosmarinic acid, our main interest was in a triterpene in rosemary called ursolic acid, which supports muscle performance.

Gynostemma pentaphyllum (Southern Ginseng) is an herb attributed with having ginseng status. Until fairly recently Gynostemma pentaphyllum was used primarily in mountainous regions of southern China and northern Vietnam. It’s been described as the "immortality herb,” because people within Guizhou Province, where herbal teas made from the plant are consumed regularly, are said to have a history of unusual longevity.