Stacking various combinations is not uncommon amongst nootropic users. When you stack two or more nootropics, you typically increase the overall benefits. One of the best stacks for both beginners and more advanced users, is caffeine and L-Theanine. This combination is already naturally found in green tea.
Since caffeine is associated with jitters and an energy crash, L-Theanine helps balance out these effects. The benefits experienced from taking L-Theanine, is now being incorporated into caffeine stacks. This enhances desirable effects, while counteracting potential side-effects.
If you’re looking to enhance mental energy and your ability to focus, then this stack is a great choice. It’s a great way to become more familiar with the nootropic community. After you are comfortable with this stack, you can explore other options.
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What Exactly Is L-Theanine?
L-Theanine is an amino acid that is found in tea leaves and various mushrooms. It can effectively cross the blood-brain barrier, creating positive effects on the brain. Once in the brain, it helps stimulate the production of certain neurotransmitters, such as L-Glutamine.
It also increases GABA production, which helps decrease stress levels, creating a more calm sense of self. At lower doses, L-Theanine can help improve your ability to focus. When taken in larger doses, it can help you increase calming effects. This is why L-Theanine is of great interest to individuals that suffer from anxiety and depression.
Users typically like L-Theanine, becomes it’s a more natural supplement. It helps boost levels of serotonin and dopamine as well. Not only is used for cognitive purposes, but it also benefits one’s immune system. Due to it’s overall effects on one’s health, it is a great addition to many stacks.
How Does L-Theanine Benefit the Effects of Caffeine?
When L-Theanine and caffeine are taken together, they increase the benefits of one another. Many of the undesirable effects of caffeine, are counteracted by L-Theanine’s inhibitory properties. When taken together, users are able to rest, maintain their attention span, reduce jitters, and control hyperactive energy.
This stack helps improve one’s visual acuity, mental focus, alertness, muscle dexterity, reaction times, memory recall, and more. These amplified benefits are due to this effective stack. When taken together, they provide twice as many positive results.
Are There Any Safety Concerns?
When caffeine is consumed in large doses, it does create some undesirable effects. Too much caffeine can disrupt sleeping patterns, while increasing your risk of cardiac arrhythmias. You can also experience feelings of nausea and diarrhea. Although these effects tend to dissipate after a few hours, they’re not desirable.
When L-Theanine is introduced to the mix, it helps eliminate these effects. L-Theanine itself does not have any major side-effects. When combined with caffeine, it decreases the severity of caffeine’s side-effects. Since L-Theanine is water soluble, the body simply eliminates whatever it doesn’t need. This means that no toxicity will occur.
Whenever you begin taking a new nootropic, it’s important to start with low doses. You’ll want to see how your body reacts. Once you’re familiar with your body’s reaction, you can increase the dosage. Start with a 1:1 ratio of caffeine and L-Theanine. Then, gradually increase the amount of L-Theanine.
What’s the Best Possible Dosage?
On average, the most common dose for this stack is a 2:1 ratio. Consume two parts L-Theanine and one part caffeine. Some users have experienced great success at a 4:1 ratio. These users consume 400 mg of L-Theanine and 100 milligrams of caffeine. One cup of coffee generally has about 100 mg of caffeine.
As mentioned above, it’s important to get familiar with the way your body personally reacts. If you drink coffee on a regular basis, you may have already developed a tolerance. It’s important that you keep your caffeine doses below 400 mg in one day.
Aim between 50 mg and 400 g daily, when taken with L-Theanine. If you take more, you increase your risk of complications. You could affect you heartbeat and interfere with your regular sleeping patterns. Getting enough sleep is essential for your overall health.
If you’re already a coffee drinker, try reducing your intake over the course of two weeks. Then when you introduce L-Theanine, you will experience the best effects. As always, speak with your healthcare provider if you have any concerns.
What Other Stacks Are Effective?
You’re not just limited to caffeine and L-Theanine in terms of beneficial stacks. As mentioned, caffeine and L-Theanine are great for beginners. If you’re looking for something more advanced, then you can try one of the following stacks:
Piracetam, Oxiracetam, and Aniracetam
This stack is known as PAO, as it incorporates three nootropics from the racetams family. All of the options increase your mental performance, however they each provide a unique benefit. Piracetam improves learning and memory; Aniracetam boosts mood; and Oxiracetam increases your processing power.
Most of the time, users only take one of these options. Taking all three can increase the benefits that are experienced. To counteract potential side-effects (such as headaches), add a choline supplement to this stack. This will help increase acetylcholine levels.
Noopept and Citicoline
This stack is great in terms of value. The effects experienced, are provided at a low cost. Purchasing Noopept may seem more expensive, but it’s very cheap in terms of a single dose. This is because Noopept is approximately 1000 times stronger than Piracetam. Adding Citicoline to this stack, helps boost acetylcholine levels as discussed above.
