Nootropics, also known as smart drugs and cognitive enhancers, are drugs, supplements, and other substances that improve cognitive function, particularly executive functions, memory, creativity, or motivation, in healthy individuals. The international sales of cognition-enhancing supplements exceeded US$1 billion in 2015 and the global demand for these compounds is still growing rapidly.They are used by students, brainworker such as in Wall Street, older people with degenerative brain function,etc.Of course,using nootropic you will be not enhanced like the movie “Lucy”,there always be helpful if you lack of some brain functions.
The use of cognition-enhancing drugs by healthy individuals in the absence of a medical indication is one of the most debated topics among neuroscientists, psychiatrists, and physicians which spans a number of issues, including the ethics and fairness of their use, concerns over adverse effects, and the diversion of prescription drugs for nonmedical uses, among others.
The first nootropic drug was found in the 1960s and utilized first as a tool to help people with motion sickness. After that episode, the drug was tested for memory enhancement. In 1971 the first studies were done on piracetam as a nootropic drug that could improve memory. With the advent of this drug, the term “nootropics” was actually coined by a Romanian doctor named Dr. Corneliu Giurgea. With his tests on piracetam, he decided to use a Greek combination of “nous” meaning “mind” and “trepein” meaning “to bend”. Literally, the drugs were able to help bend the mind. The word nootropic was coined in 1972 by a Romanian psychologist and chemist, Corneliu E. Giurgea, from the Greek words νοῦς (nous), or “mind”, and τρέπειν (trepein), meaning to bend or turn.
Since then, the studies of piracetam have been done all around the world to focus on specific aspects. Understanding whether racetams can help to improve memory with choline, testing neuro protective benefits with Alzheimer’s patients, and much more. The tests expanded to other analogues of piracetam, such as aniracetam and oxiracetam, where studies remained equally upbeat.
Actually There are only a few drugs that are known to improve some aspect of cognition. Many more are in different stages of development.The most commonly used class of drug is stimulants, such as caffeine.These drugs are purportedly used primarily to treat cognitive or motor function difficulties attributable to disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and ADHD.[citation needed] Some researchers, however, report more widespread use despite concern for further research. Nevertheless, intense marketing may not correlate with efficacy. While scientific studies support the beneficial effects of some compounds, manufacturer’s marketing claims for dietary supplements are usually not formally tested and verified by independent entities.
Branded supplement company manily focus on dietary supplement which are thinking of no side effective than prescription drug,so let’s will talk about which nootropics belong to dietary supplement.