003 What is Sulbutiamine and why is it one of the most sought after nootropics
Note content In this Episode of MO LIFE radio, we explore one of the most sought after nootropics on earth. Yes you may be sleeping under a rock if you are in the nootropics game and haven’t heard about this one. If you have a bit of experience with nootropics, I’m sure you’ve heard of things like piracetam, aniracetam, and modafinil, but there is a lesser known nootropic that I love called Sulbutiamine, which we will be discussing in this episode of MO LIFE RADIO. Invented in the mid 1930’s in Japan. Japanese sailors at the time lived on a diet of mainly rice and little meat or vegetables. Because of this, the sailors would eventually become really weak muscularly, particularly in the lower legs and exhibit things like tingling or loss of feeling in the feet and hands Bodily pain mental confusion difficulty speaking vomiting Nystagmus - involuntary eye movement Paralysis After some research they attributed these symptoms to the sailor’s diet which was deficient in Thiamine, an essential vitamin produced by fungi and plants we call Vitamin B1 in the U.S. A diet which lacks Thiamine can lead to a host of central nervous system diseases like Korasakoff’s Syndrome (which involves severe memory loss), optic neuropathy (damage to the optic nerve which can cause blindness), and in the Japanese Sailors’ case - BeriBeri. There are several different types of BeriBeri - Infantile, Wet, and Dry. All are associated with a lack of Vitamin B1. As the name suggests, infantile BeriBeri affects children. Wet BeriBeri affects heart and cardiovascular system causing shortness of breath, increased heart rate and edema, and Dry BeriBeri, which is what the sailors complained of, which affects the peripheral nervous system (the nervous system in your body that doesn’t include the brain and spinal cord So how was all this treated? Doctor’s couldn’t just give people who suffered from BeriBeri a Thiamine supplement because in its stable form, Thiamine is a salt which is processed out of your body fairly quickly by the kidneys. So this wasn't the most efficient treatment option. In order to find a more bioavailable form of Thiamine, Japanese Scientists worked for years and eventually discovered that if they modified the Thiamine molecule to become fat soluble and non-polar it would be able to pass through the blood brain barrier and be able to stay within the body longer. The end product of their efforts was SULBUTIAMINE. Besides treating BeriBeri, sulbutiamine is used in some countries to treat asthenia which is chronic mental fatigue. However, the reason we are talking about sulbutiamine today is because of it’s popular off-label use as a nootropic. As a nootropic, sulbutiamine is known toenhance memory, improve mood and motivation, and some even proport that it reduces social anxiety. Study that uses sulbutimaine to treat patients with aesthenia (2003): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.g14710977ov/pubmed/ In this study 350 doctors in india gave their pool of 1772 patients with various diseases that presented symptoms of asthenia Sulbutiamine along with their other medications that was treating their current condition. Study in rats that showed improved object recognition, working, and episodic (2005) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15951087 This French study in 2000 showed that 600mg per dose daily for 8 weeks helped depressed patients improve their professional and family relationships faster than those on the placebo.[Article in French] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10858919 Side Effects: Sulbutiamine Side Effects. People using sulbutiamine may experience side effects such as mild agitation or an allergic skin rash (Trialx, 2015). This is generally a result of taking an abnormally high dose. There have been some reports of depression, nausea, and headaches. 600 mg a day seems to be the limit, people online have reported negative side effects above this dosage. Dosage: 200 mg is the baseline and good to start with. However, i didn't feel anything at this dose. The 400mg dose worked for me and provided me with an uplifted mood, slight focus, and I did feel a bit more social. At 400 mg, the effects are subtle, nothing amazingly drastic, but this is good because you don’t a huge change in your mental state because a huge jolt or change in your mental state is usually accompanied by a rebound of the opposite effect. Our bodies are always trying to regain and remain in homeostasis, so this is something to keep in mind when experimenting with nootropics. Sometimes a small boost is all you need to get an edge in your day. TANGENT: “So with all this talk about Vitamin B1 deficiency, you might be thinking, what foods should I eat to get more Vit B1? Sources of Thiamine: Yeast and Pork contain high amounts of B1. Some other foods naturally rich in thiamine are oatmeal, flax, and sunflower seeds, brown rice, whole grain rye, asparagus, kale, cauliflower, potatoes, oranges, liver (beef, pork, and chicken), and eggs [wiki] You would think to yourself, “hey, if yeast has high amounts of b1 in it, bread must be good to eat. However, there’s a bit more going on behind the scenes. Most of the bread produced in the U.S. is highly processed, so anything naturally occuring in the yeast is stipped of it's nutritents. Therefore, In the US, processed flour must be enriched with thiamine mononitrate (along with niacin, ferrous iron, riboflavin, and folic acid) [wiki] Which is great because the majority of people eat bread, and infusing bread with these vitamins can prevent things like BeriBeri. I don't know about you, but the process is a bit disturbing to me. It doesn't feel right that we have to add nutrients back into something that is stripped of it in the first place. Personally, I dont eat bread because it is a highly processed carbohydrate which spikes your blood sugar shortly after eating it which can lead to Type 2 diabetes in the long run. Not to mention it has a ton of gluten which has been known to cause damage to your gut and immune system. But now i’m just ranting, I’m sure we can get into this in more detail if it’s something the listeners are interested in. So send us an email if you guys want to hear more about this interesting side note. Thanks to the Japanese we have sushi, Godzilla, and Sulbutiamine. Take 200-600mgs a day for benefits like: improved mood and enhanced memory, but dont take too much or else negative side effects might come on. Other than that, this little known derivative of B1 seems to be a great addition to your nootropic stack. We hope you enjoyed this episode, please note if you want to find out more about what we recommend and further informant on the topics we have discussed today, head over and visit us at www.myoptimized.life We look forward to helping you awaken your life. Disclaimer: As always, we are not doctors, we are just two guys trying to give you an introduction to the world of nootropics, please consult a medical professional to before starting any there are not any drug interactions with what you’re currently taking. Do your research and experiment wisely!
