Lately, there’s been a huge increase in interest about different substances that can enhance your mind. They’re called nootropics, and they started becoming more and more popular with the release of movies like Limitless, in which Bradley Cooper finds a pill that basically makes his mind superhuman.

Of course there’s been a large amount of supplements that are being sold to help with “cognitive enhancement.” It seems like more and more are being released lately.

Personally, I’ve never been too into the nootropics movement. As far as enhancing my own brain power, I’ve always been happy with what a strong cup of coffee could do.

As of late, though, nootropics supplements have been garnering more and more attention, so I decided to give one a try and share my review.

What is Alpha Brain?

One of the most popular and well-known nootropics is called Alpha Brain, made by Onnit Labs.

It’s gotten endorsements from a few celebrities including Joe Rogan, the UFC commentator and comedian. Other celebrities endorsing Alpha Brain include NFL players and UFC fighters.

Alpha Brain claims to enhance your cognitive function, mental clarity, and memory. It also promises to improve your mood while increasing concentration.

Additionally, it claims that it can help give you extra motivation and focus, so that you can do your best on whatever mental task you’re working on.

Alpha Brain was released in 2010 and it has received a lot of attention, probably owing a lot to the endorsements. Many other nootropics have been much more low profile, not pushing celebrity testimonials as much.

But what does this mean for Alpha Brain’s effectiveness? Does it live up to the hype of the advertising and high profile endorsements?

I decided to try it and find out.

What Ingredients are in Alpha Brain?

Right off the bat, I checked out the ingredients in Alpha Brain. It contains 11 all-natural ingredients that are claimed to enhance mental functioning. They include:

– Bacopa

– Vitamin B6

– Vinpocetene

– L-Tyrosine

– L-Theanine

– AC-11

– Huperzia Serrata

– Alpha GPC

– Phosphatidylserine

– Pterostilbene

Alpha GPC is a widely used ingredient in nootropics that promotes better cognitive function.

Phosphatidylserine and pterostilbene also improve memory and are supposed to prevent decreases in mental functioning that can occur when you get older.

I don’t want to spend too much time going over each ingredient here, because many of them are fairly common and they’re pretty easy to look up with a Google search.

Comparing Alpha Brain’s ingredient list to other nootropics, it seems like it’s nothing revolutionary. But that doesn’t really mean anything by itself, all that matters is if it works.

My Own Results From Alpha Brain

To test it out, I took 2 capsules of Alpha Brain a day as suggested. I took each dose in the morning, instead of my normal cup of coffee.

The Onnit website says that Alpha Brain can also support “an enhanced dream state” if you take it a few hours before bed. This sounded interesting, but I was more concerned with how well it would improve my ability to complete tasks during the day that required a lot of mental focus, like work tasks, reading, etc.

I didn’t get any of these “dream enhancing” effects, but I stuck to an early morning dosage, so I can’t be sure if that’s the reason.

To make sure that I gave a fair review, I stopped having my early morning cup of coffee about a week before I started this review. Since I have it every day, I didn’t want any caffeine withdraw to affect the way I felt when taking just Alpha Brain.

First week, I would take Alpha Brain with my usual light breakfast (steel cut oats and a banana), go for a quick run, and then get to work. I have to do a lot of reading and writing for my job, so my days are usually very mentally demanding in terms of focus and concentration.

After the first week, I honestly couldn’t feel much of an effect from the Alpha Brain.

Usually I’d be pretty focused when I started work in the morning, but it felt like it was just from my run and not anything beyond that. I actually felt a little less focused and energized than I usually do when I have my regular cup of coffee.

I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t working though, and I wanted to be sure to give Alpha Brain a fair review, so I continued for a second week.

Unfortunately, it was kind of the same thing.

I may have felt some effect, but nothing really noticeable. Again, I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just due to the post-workout focus and energy I normally get after my morning runs.

Comparison Test

As a comparison, I decided to stop the Alpha Brain after 2 weeks, and keep my routine exactly the same, replacing my morning dose with a 12 oz. cup of coffee instead.

During this time my runs stayed the same length and the nature of my work was fairly consistent with what I had been doing while on the Alpha Brain. I limited myself to just one cup in the morning with breakfast.

After 7 days, I felt that the coffee absolutely helped me perform better than the Alpha Brain. There was no comparison.

While taking Alpha Brain, I was at best feeling that I couldn’t be completely sure it wasn’t working.

But at the end of the day, this is not what I’m looking for from a performance-enhancing supplement.

I don’t want to be guessing if it works, I want to feel a clear difference.

In this regard, Alpha Brain doesn’t come close to even regular coffee.

Alpha Brain – Does It Work?

Overall, I have to say that I would not recommend buying Alpha Brain. For me, it had no clear benefits in terms of focus, energy, or mental performance.

I made every effort to give Alpha Brain a fair review, but at the end of the day it didn’t give me any noticeable mental boost or enhancement. I cannot recommend any product with such weak results.

For now, I’ll be sticking with my morning coffee.