100: Healing PTSD from the pandemic with Nootropics, with David Tomen

Healing PTSD from the pandemic with nootropics is one area of expertise of today’s Awesome Health podcast guest, David Tomen. David specializes in treating PTSD and avoiding age-related memory loss, brain fog and fatigue through nootropic supplementation.

David’s journey with nootropic supplements began when he was diagnosed with Adult ADD. After years of dealing with an inability to focus, even suffering depression because of it, Ritalin helped turn around his career and his life. But a few short years later David was in the ER with a laundry list of symptoms from complete memory loss, chronic fatigue, depression and even an inability to focus again. Neurologists tested him for early onset Alzheimer’s which came back negative. No one had answers for him so he turned to nootropics.

Since then, David has written two books on the subject and foundeded Nootropics Expert web site where he helps others find their optimal path to brain health.

We waste no time at the start of this episode and dive into the deep end: David explains what PTSD is and why he thinks so many people are now experiencing it. PTSD stands for post-traumatic stress disorder and is a mental health diagnosis. David describes it as a traumatic event or catastrophic stressor outside of the range of typical human experiences.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been such an event for many people. David goes on to tell us what some of the symptoms of PTSD are as well as how chronic stress changes the brain. Chronic stress changes neural networks and cortisol levels, which creates a domino effect that hardwires pathways between the hippocampus and the amygdala. This rewiring from chronic stress can become permanent and actually change your long-term memory, and can even lead to a reduction in grey matter (ie dying or dead brain cells). That reduction in grey matter can mean increased brain fog and slower processing times/mental acuity.

David also tells how to tell if we might be experiencing PTSD and what we can do about it through the use of nootropics. This article (link here) has a list of symptoms of PTSD so you can check it out for yourself, you can also read about it on David’s web site or get a diagnosis from a therapist of psychiatrist.

If you think you might have some of the symptoms or if you know someone who does, there are supplements that can help. Ashwaganda is one and it works by reducing the stress hormone cortisol, lowers blood sugar levels and improves lipid profiles. But in the brain it actually works to rebuild axons and dendrites and reconstruct synapses (where neurons talk to each other in the brain). In short, this means ashwaganda can help boost memory and rewire neural networks in the brain that were negatively impacted by stress.

On this episode of Awesome Health podcast, David tells us about a few other supplements that can help with PTSD symptoms including Rhodiola Rosea. We then talk about how stacking these supplements (or any other nootropics) makes a difference in their effectiveness and how to start off slowly while you build your own stack.

He also explains why stacking is a must when treating PTSD and so much else! Tune in to hear it all on episode 100 of Awesome Health podcast.

Episode Resources:

• David Tomen’s website: https://nootropicsexpert.com/
• David Tomen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nootropicsexpert
• David Tomen on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nootropicsexpert/
• David Tomen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidtomen
• Best Nootropics for PTSD by David Tomen
• Masszymes: https://bioptimizers.com/product/masszymes-250-caps/
• P3-OM: https://bioptimizers.com/product/p3om-120-caps/
• Awesome Health Course: https://bioptimizers.com/awesome-health-course/

Read the Episode Transcript:

Wade Lightheart: Good morning. Good evening. And good afternoon. It's Wade T Lightheart from BiOptimizers with another edition of the Awesome Health Podcast. And boy, Oh boy. We are excited today because we've got David Toman returning back to the podcast. We're going to be talking about biohacking, neuro hacking, avoiding age-related memory loss, brain fog, and fatigue.
 

 Wade Lightheart: And we're going to dive deep. We just were talking before this about treating PTSD with nootropic supplements. This is a big idea. We'll probably dive into a bunch of different areas. Maybe get into anxiety ADDH and depression. For those who don't know, David, his journey began with nootropic supplements when he was diagnosed with adult ADHD and after years of buying self-help books, even suffering from depression over his inability to Ritalin helped turn his life and career around. But a few short years later, David found himself in the ER with a laundry list of symptoms. Neurologist tested him for early onset Alzheimer's, which came back negative, thankfully, but not only was Dave struggling with focus gain, but he was suffering from complete memory loss, chronic fatigue, depression, and his business and marriage were in deep trouble. David, again, turned to nootropics. He's written a book on it. He was on the podcast before episode 58. He founded nootropics expert.com. You want to head over there and get all the good stuff over there. And he wrote two books, secrets of the optimized brain and head first, the complete guide to healing and optimizing your brain with nootropic supplements. We will put the links in the show notes for this. David, welcome back to the show.
 

 David Tomen: Audi. Thank you for having me back. All right.
 

 Wade Lightheart: So let's just go right at it. We were just touched on this and I had to stop you before we got the podcast going. Cause I was like, this is so good. We got to go into, let's talk about, you were suggesting in our previous conversations that you think almost everybody is suffering from some form of PTSD. Can you explain what that is for people and why you think that people are suffering? What's the cause what's what happens? How does this work? And more importantly, how does it impact their brain? And then again, how do you overcome this? If, if you do have this situation,
 

 David Tomen:  I think that more people are suffering from PTSD than realize because of this epidemic or pandemic that's going on.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Okay. So you're what you're saying is like the lockdowns or the, the competing points of information or are causing or the, is it the, is it the loss of work? Is it the loss of trust? Is it information sources? What is it that's causing that?
 

 David Tomen:  Yes. Yes. Because all PTSD is it's a stress-related disorder, right? Yeah. It was first put in put into the there's a thing called the diagnosed at night diagnostic and statistical manual of psychiatric disorders, the third edition for the American psychiatric association in 1980. And they described what the full syndrome of post-traumatic stress disorder, how it was defined. And they define it as a traumatic event that was conceptualized as a catastrophic stressor that was outside the range of human human experience.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Oh, that makes total sense. This is
 

 David Tomen: What they had, what they had in mind were things like war torture, rape the Holocaust, atomic bombing, bombings, natural and man-made disasters. But you know, they didn't talk about hurricanes. They didn't talk about COVID-19 and, but those would fall under the same kind of stressors. Yeah.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Okay. So if I heard you correctly, what we're suggesting is is, is I I'm a student of neuro-linguistic programming and things like that. And I know that one of the things that inside of that as the imprint in memory and behavior modification often requires some sort of deep emotional charge. And that can be a deeply positive charge or a deeply negative charge. And, you know, Tony Robbins is famous for taking people through those, to rewrite rewiring in the brain. But what you're suggesting here is this whole response to the, the, the COVID and the situation is an, is an unprecedented global event, which is going to have, and is having to finish traumatic effects on the human brain moving forward. And maybe could, you could, if, if you could kind of break that down, what is the impact at maybe the different ages of society? Because if you're obviously, if you're a child and this is a formative point, would that be different than someone who is say in the middle of their career that got wiped out or someone who might be a senior who now can't see their family anymore?
 

 David Tomen:  Sure. their symptoms that for symptoms to be considered PTSD, you've got to have experienced some of these symptoms within the last month to actually be diagnosed. So, and for adults, it's divided into one, two, three, four, five categories, re-experiencing symptoms like flashbacks, reliving the memory over and over nightmares, frightening thoughts. And there's avoidance sent to symptoms like avoiding places, events, or objects and reminders of the experience, avoiding thoughts or feelings related to the traumatic event, or feeling detached or unable to connect with loved ones. And then there's arousal or react habit, reactivity symptoms, hypersensitivity, or easily startled. I was dealing with that. Hyper-V hypervigilance feeling tense or on edge, difficulty, sleeping, insomnia irritability, or angry outbursts. I mean, we see that stuff in the news these days.
 

 Wade Lightheart: We see it all the time. I see it. I see it when I go to the grocery store.
 

 David Tomen:  Yeah, there you go. And call the cognition and mood cyst symptoms include brain fog, trouble, concentrating loss of memory, depression, hopelessness, trouble, remembering key features of the traumatic event, feelings of guilt or blame like when it comes to COVID-19. If a person got it, for instance, they could feel guilty because they passed it on to a family member who died a loss of interest in enjoyable activities and headaches. Now children with PTSD, their symptoms are wetting the bed after learning how to use the toilet, forgetting, forgetting how or unable talk, acting out the scary event during playtime and being unusually clingy with a parent or another adult.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Wow. That's interesting that, that that's, I think there's a lot of that going on right now from my observations. You're right now. What about someone in the middle-age kind of category?
 

 David Tomen:  What would be reason? Every, every adult, it would be it, you, I mean, you wouldn't experience all of the symptoms that I, I, the laundry list that I rhymed off here, but you had experienced some of them because I was diagnosed with the day that the psychiatrist diagnosed me, adult ADHD diagnosed with PTSD as well. And I recognize some of these symptoms like avoiding certain thoughts or feelings feeling detached or unable to connect hypersensitivity, easily startled. He picked up on this. I didn't, and it wasn't until 10 or 12 years later that I was researching this article. And when I wrote it because of hurricane survivors, I realized where I think that my PTSD came from, and that was from a category five hurricane when I was living in Antiga. Correct.
 

 Wade Lightheart: So, so, so, so for breaking that down, you're saying that you believe that a lot of the add things that happen in are initiated through some sort of traumatic event, it can be,
 

 David Tomen:  It can be right now. What is PTSD? PTSD is a stress disorder. And the neuroscientist at the university of California, Berkeley found that chronic stress triggers long-term changes in brain structure and function. Chronic stress changes, neural networks, cortisol creates a domino effect that hardwires pathways between the hippocampus and the amygdala. I remember the amygdala is your lizard brain, right? Whereas the area responsible for your fight or flight response, this hardwiring is caused by stress that's caused by stress is not the way your brain was designed, but chronic ongoing stress tricks your brain into building circuits and hunkering down for the long haul. Yeah. And this rewiring appears to be permanent. Wow. It regrows that the long-term potentiation does use to form a long-term memory. The same thing is happening, connecting your amygdala to your hippocampus. So
 

 Wade Lightheart: To give me consideration of that is I can remember my grandparents on both sides who had experienced the depression in, in and rations on that they all like had just massive amounts of canned food in their house that had expired like sometimes a decade before. That was just all there in case of something happened. Cause they had that, would that be a kind of a reactive kind of performance? And I think there's a lot of people that can relate with their grandparents that had that, right. That was a pretty traumatic event.
 

 David Tomen:  Yes, yes, yes. I mean, there, there are so many people suffering from PTSD and they have no idea that it actually is that wow. And all of the things that all the psychiatric symptoms that hang off of it now what actually physically happens in your brain. Other than that hardwiring of, you've made a lot of your hippocampus, chronic stress coats, neurons, and myelin, which is not supposed to happen right mile in his coats or coats, your axons. So it protects your axons, like electrical tape around an electrical wire. So the action potential can go up and axon unimpeded and it just boosts the signal. It coats the whole neuron instead, and it reduces the number of neurons in gray matter. And it, it, it reduces the number of neurons in gray matter, in a decrease, would they decrease while white matter increases. Now, gray matter in your brain is primarily neurons in white matter in your brain. When you see on images of the human brain, that white matter is actually axons, axons, and synapses connecting the neurons. That's how your brain is wired. Right? And so now under conditions of chronic stress and excess cortisol, your brains neurons are coded or shaved in this myelin, which is like I was mentioning is, is not the way it's supposed to happen. And that's what we're dealing with. What's the one,
 

 Wade Lightheart: The consequences of that, I guess, I guess that's the question that comes up. What happens when you're, myelinating the entire neuron, as opposed to just the Axiom
 

 David Tomen:  Probably neuron death, really.
 

 Wade Lightheart: So you're literally losing that brain cells.
 

 David Tomen:  Well, they're talking about reductions in, in gray matter. Yeah.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Okay. So this, let me ask you a question, cause I want to take this into an experiential reality. So I go out into the world and you can have a discussion about someone let's say let's, let's use something that's common right now. There's an incredible division politically. And what I find interesting is depending on who I'm talking to, and if I bring up countering points to whatever that narrative is for the other person. So for example, if you're on the left side and you bring up right points, if you're on the right side and you bring up lifetimes, I oftentimes see people have what I know as a physiologist, as a, as a nervous system, shut down. They just go like they lose all capacity to have a conversation or a rational communication. And I, and I look at that and I go, well, as a physiologist, I'm actually seeing an overload, a nervous system, the very simple same way that I would see an athlete that has trained their nervous system to fatigue either through physical exercise or for running or in a combat sport or whatever, I'm actually seeing them with a person with just a mere suggestion of something that's counter to their beliefs.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Is, is it, would that be, is that, would that be an indication?
 

 David Tomen:  Think about it. Have you, have you ever tried to change a person's like, that's mind you virtually impossible possible. So we go back to hard wiring wiring sections of your brain. And when you hardwire sections of your brain, what you're doing is you're growing new neural pathways. That's how you form memories. And so when you're, and these are permanent, unless you step in and do something to intervene and reverse this process. Wow. Right. So the very similar thing is happening in that case.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Wow. That's huge. What you're, what you're suggesting here is not just America we're talking the entire world could be an experiencing a radical departure from normal neurological functioning because of this event.
 

 David Tomen:  Yeah. And I've been getting emails and questions on the YouTube channel and questions in the comments section on nootropics expert from long haulers. What's a long hauler. That's what I thought. I thought it was truck drivers. Right. It turns out a long holler as somebody who's had COVID and survived and is now suffering the side effects like months later,
 

 Wade Lightheart: Right. Some of the respiratory issues and things like that, that's happening neurological problems. Right. So do you think it's actually the physiological components of the virus or do you think it's actually an associated trauma with having it and the potential? So it's a combination of, yeah.
 

 David Tomen: Yeah. It's a combination of both because of one, the little bit, I haven't started Risa. I finally committed to a guy in the comment section this morning that I was going to restart researching this because there's been enough research now in a COVID-19 post after a person has it too. We know a little bit about what's going on. We know that there's a huge amount of inflammation that goes on throughout the body. And logically at go happens in the brain too. And when you get inflammation in the brain, it kills neurons. Yeah. And so, and when you kill neurons, you disrupt neural circuits. And so you can't think as quickly, I mean depression sets in, you're dealing with anxiety. So, and they think that inflammation is happening via mitochondrial dysfunction. So this is just little bits that I've read here and there, I've got to take a deep dive into the research now and write something on this, but yeah, the entire world, man.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Ooh, that's a, that's a, that's a heavy thing to lay down for people. So the people that you're in contact that may be suffering from PTSD and are at, and have the capacity to recognize that something's going on and what things did, how do you identify it? Number two, or where do you go to identify and number three, how do you address that potential issue?
 

 David Tomen: Yeah, that's a great question. Those are great questions. Well, you identify it either through self-diagnosis by coming to a place like nootropics expert and reading this article and reading through the list of symptoms as described in the psychiatric Association's manual and or, and so Diane put a link to that by the way, folks, or go to your psychiatrist and your psychiatrist declares that your PTSD. Wow. I think there I've, over the years, I've had a number of people come to me that came back from the war, for example, that were diagnosed PTSD, but other people as well, that came from abusive relationships, for example, that weren't necessarily professionally diagnosed with it, but did enough reading including on, on my website to recognize that yeah, what I'm dealing with PTSD now, what do I do, right. Yeah. So
 

 Speaker 4: This is so poignant and important that people do this right now or get this information to their family members.
 

 David Tomen: I, it is. And you know, there's only so much you can do with family members though, if they're willing to help themselves. Yes. You know, first you got to help yourself. Yes. And if you're dealing with PTSD, these are the kinds of things that you can use. And what I'm going to do right now is just give you a list of supplements that we know works. Some of them have been tested specifically for PTSD and other ones have been tested clinically tested for the things that happen in PTSD, but not specifically for PTSD. Yeah. Okay.
 

 Speaker 4: No, no. Just as a quick side bar, before we get into those, now these nutritional supplements, do they prevent the myelination or do they just exist in neuro connection? Like what are, what are we trying to do here in this situation?
 

 David Tomen: We're w we're we're trying to do a number of things we're trying to tamp down the inflammation and we're trying to rebuild the neural networks so that they're more normal. And so that we can start thinking more clearly again. Right. that's primarily the big ones there. Ashwagandha for example is one great example, ashwagandha. It's an Ayurvedic herb that's been used for thousands of years. And we know it's proven been proven to reduce anxiety and depression because for a number of things, it reduces the stress home cortisol, which is important. Did my camera just shut off? No, you're good. Okay. it, it camps down the hormone cortisol at Lowes lowers blood sugar levels, and it improves lipid profiles, but in your brain it helps regenerate axons and dendrites, and it helps reconstruct synapses, beautiful, the same junctions where in neurons communicate with other neurons, so that you're boosting your memory.
 

 David Tomen: And you're rewiring neural networks that were affected by severe stress like PTSD. Beautiful. Right. Because money Aerie is another one. This is a perennial herb that comes from Southeast Asia. It's often referred to as a Brahmi. It was named after the serene Supreme calmed God Brahma. And it has been used for thousands of years as well. It's got two active components, backsides a and B, and they improve the signaling of electrical impulses between neurons in your brain. And it also helps rebuild damaged neurons, the same neurons that are damaged by chronic stress for like in PTSD. And I've got clinical studies to back that up, but Copa also reduces stress and anxiety. So research at Banaras Hindu university in India showed that Bacopa was as effective for anxiety as the benzo drugs lorazepam.
 

 Speaker 4: Wow. That's huge. And of course one of my one of my favorite YouTube celebrities dr. Jordan Peterson, who was the psychologist for the Toronto, it had recently almost died from, he was prescribed benzos and suffered physiological withdrawal symptoms from it when he tried to come off it and people don't understand that it's a very highly prescribed drug out there. And the consequences of trying to get off this are horrific or they're brutal. Yeah. I don't even know how they can, I don't even know how they can legitimately prescribed this particular drug because the side effects I think, and trying to get off it are just absolutely unbelievable. And someone as intelligent as him had a horrible time of it. So obviously if you can use some nootropics tablets, even in a preventative way, that would be, would make sense.
 

 David Tomen: Yeah. I mean, anyway, that's a whole other conversation. Yes, yes. Yes. Keep going, sorry. Sorry to interrupt. We can dive down that rabbit hole and talk for another two hours, but exactly. Let's keep going. Let's let's not go there. We just know that we're, there are supplements that are readily available at whole foods or at your local vitamin shop that you can buy that work as well as benzos. Wow. You just don't want to take them when you're taking benzos. Correct. NADH NADH is a co-active enzyme of vitamin B3 or niacin, and it's found in and is critical for the health of every single cell in your body and your brain. It's a primary carrier electrons from glucose in, in in acetate for ATP synthesis. ATP is the fuel source that's made in your mitochondria that powers your brain cells, and it powers the rest of your body too. So you need NAD age to help convert the energy from the food you eat into the type of energy that your body can use. Research has shown that supplementing with NAD H regenerate STEM cells in your brain. Wow. It decreases anxiety and it reduces the symptoms of chronic fatigue.
 

 Speaker 4: I know it's one of the when you go to a neurofeedback training at 40 years of Zen, the neuropsychologist or the neuroscientist that runs the program suggests using NADH extensively along with fasting, for BDNF to improve the results of the training. Yep.
 

 David Tomen: Yeah. There's lots of clubs and sorry, across the United States and in other countries where NADH is used as a therapy for treating addiction, anxiety, depression, chronic stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
 

 Speaker 4: Yeah. I've used it. I think it's great. And I think it's fun a phenomenal product to, to be used.
 

 David Tomen: So another one is lithium orotate lithium is just, it's a soft silvery, white alkali metal and trace element that's considered essential for human health. And the therapeutic value of lithium goes back to the ancient Greek and Roman times when people were soaking in alkali Springs. Yep. For the physical first,
 

 Speaker 4: Well, the Lithia Springs, right. Lithium Springs. Right. Because there's a great place in Oregon. I go to, and when I drive down from British Columbia, there's an in Ashland where you go to these Springs, you sit in those, that hot water with the lithium and it's you just feel amazing.
 

 David Tomen: My wife wants to move to Ashland.
 

 Speaker 4: It’s a great, great.
 

 David Tomen: Yeah. So today lithium is, has got an undeserved reputation because it's used in like mega doses to treat bipolar disorder and mania. But the clinical research for the neuroprotective benefits of lithium was so overwhelming that scientists are starting to ask why isn't everybody using it? Yeah. and so here, we're talking about microdosing lithium with lithium orotate for treating symptoms of PTSD. And we use it because it's been shown to prevent apoptosis. It reduces glucose, glutamate toxicity. It that are mediated by NMD receptors. It promotes BDNF or brain derived neurotropic factor for improving synaptic plasticity for learning and memory. And it stimulates neuronal STEM cells. Beautiful supplementing with lithium orotate has been shown to improve mood and prevent depression and even suicide. Wow. And lithium helps to put a stop to outbursts of rage and reduces anxiety, anxiety. So for people that are dealing with PTSD in the aftermath of something like COVID-19 or a hurricane or whatever using lithium could, it could mean feeling excited about life again for the first time in a long time, you know? Wow. That's exciting. And social anxiety no longer have to be a problem. Life is simply more fun and enjoyable. We're talking about five milligrams of lithium. Wow. It's so small that, have you ever seen a five milligram pill?
 

 Speaker 4: Well, it was, yeah. I think I used to, used to call these call it like microdots
 

 David Tomen: Well, just a little bit bigger, a little bigger than a microdot, but they put it in erratic acid, which is so that's like 135 milligram capsules. Yes. That's what the rest of it. It's just a Radic acid, which helps across the blood-brain barrier. But yeah, micro-dosing lithium is fantastic. My wife keeps them in her purse so that when we're out in the car and I'm driving and I lose it in traffic, she doesn't say anything anymore. She just hands me a couple of lithium orotate tablets in a bottle of water. And within five minutes, I've settled down
 

 Speaker 4: For everyone who grew up in and around the eighties, they used to say, Hey man, take a tab. That was a way to chill out. Say, take a tab. So,
 

 David Tomen: Oh man lithium her you know, healthy and eating healthy and eating is a non dietary amino acid that you get from green tea is very similar in structure to the neurotransmitters, glutamate and glutamine. L-Theanine is quite an incredible supplement cause it does a whole bunch of different things at boost, alpha brainwaves, which promotes an alert relaxation in theta brainwaves, which are associated with creativity and relief from trauma. It increases GABA, serotonin and dopamine levels in your brain, as well as increasing brain derived neurotropic factor and nerve growth factor, which provides a calming effect and improves cognition and memory. And Elfie Annie is an antagonist of MDA receptors, which inhibits the synaptic release of glutamate, which protects your brain from the stimulation caused by glutamate and possible glutamate toxicity. Okay.
 

 Speaker 4: This isn't really cool thing because I, I made an observation a number of years ago for most people don't know, but I have a little small confession to make is that I'm a major tea drinker and have been my whole life. I love tea. I love too, but I always
 

 Wade Lightheart: Say what's interesting. I, I would go to a really great tea shop and I drink tea every day. I go to this tea shop in Vancouver called Oh five tea. And they have this vast array of teas at like, you know, ones that enhance Gabba, one that enhance Saratoga. Like it's just an cornucopia tea. It's the ultimate tea experience. And I would sit there with friends and bring friends and it would be nothing for us to sit for three, four, five hours over tea, different kinds of tea and drinking tea and having this really nice connection. And I said, that's the difference between coffee and tea? You, you have a business or relations of coffee. You get the stimulation, you get out, you get the contract signed, you do the deal, you get out the door, you're done in 30 minutes. When you have tea, you're going to have an event. And it was like this whole experience. And so I've been I've been an advocate of tea drinking and for those reasons, and there is neurochemical reasons what that supports that information, which is beautiful.
 

 David Tomen: Yeah. I love green tea. My favorite is these days. It changes from time to time right now. My favorite is Tazo chai. Okay. That I can get from the local supermarket here, you can get organic Taz, a chai tastes fantastic.
 

 Wade Lighthear: It has a Chinese. Very, very lovely. And I like it. I, I'm a big fan of polarities. I'm more of a show for the, our ProAir listeners. I'm a show poor guy, and sometimes I'll go into the shanks and, but it's, you get really deep into the neurocognitive effects of the different teas. They're quite market and significant when you get into like these kind of rare elite teas. So I know Tim Ferriss is in that program too. He gets it too. So yeah, we're, we're gone. So on the, on the player to you, it's a whole other world,
 

 David Tomen: There you go. There is one it's not considered a supplement and the FDA has tried Abandit so I'm not going to talk much about it here because it's, I'm a fan of it. It's an analog of GABA. It was developed in st. Petersburg in 1963. And it's used in Russia as a pharmaceutical to treat PTSD. The FDA is trying to ban it here in the States and it's very, very difficult to get in. It's something that is extremely hard to use. And if you're an addict or you deal with addiction, you want to stay away from it, but it is an option. You mean?
 

 Wade Lightheart: So, so is that a GaN hydroxy, Dietrich acid?
 

 David Tomen: You know what, I don't remember what the chemical, yeah, that was,
 

 Wade Lightheart: Well, that combination was used extensively in the bodybuilding world back in the eighties. And that's when it started getting into band because it also, yeah, it also also used to cause these pretty impressive spikes in growth
 

 Speaker 4: Hormone. And so bodybuilders were using it. And of course the founder of VAs bill Phillips had talked about it. And of course then they, people were getting of course bodybuilders if a little bit good a lot. And they were getting smashed and having all these problems and then it became a party drug. And then it got outlined as a, as a banned substance in a lot of places and, and their results sorts of horrific derivatives. Yeah. So I'm, I'm, I'm way down those rabbit holes. So they saw, I love chatting about this. I've a lot of people don't know about these things, so it's great to have you on here.
 

 David Tomen: I know one place in the United States right now that sells it and I'm not going to divulge it in this course. Yes. Rhodiola Rosea is an ancient remedy that is, has got remarkable stress relieving and anxiety anti-anxiety properties. And it stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the most potent drugs to treat depression and anxiety. It helps with neurogenesis by repairing and growing new neurons. And it activates the synthesis and resynthesis of ATP adenosine. Triphosphate your brain and body your cells main energy source. It helps reduce inflammatory C reactive protein, which some professionals are considering using as a diagnostic tool for PTSD. In other words, if you have elevated C reactive protein and you've got PTSD symptoms, that could be one of the indicators. Oh wow. That's really cool. Yeah. And it's really easy to use. That's just a standard blood test.
 

 David Tomen: I mean, your doctor, the, probably the, one of the last times you got labs done, it included C-reactive protein and the program pro-inflammatory cytokines. Yup. So selector side, which it comes from is one of the compounds found in Rhodiola. Rosea is one it protects the neurons from oxidative stress and do cell death. And there's reports from the tropics community and data from clinical trials too, that shows that Rhodiola Rosea encouraging encourages a balanced mood. My Rhodiola has been shown to improve mental performance under stress. Clinical studies show that it increases the number of neurons in the Apple campus to normal levels, the same neurons that are lost as a result of PTSD. There was one study published in phyto medicine, evaluate that evaluated the effectiveness of using, using Rhodiola compared to Rhodiola Rosea. Now there's different Rhodiola, Rhodiola Rosea compared to the antidepressant sertraline, or it's also called Solof the brand name.
 

 David Tomen: The research team concluded that even though Rhodiola was slightly less antidepressant benefits, it possessed a more favorable risk to benefit ratio for those with mild to moderate depression. Wow. now Rhodiola is one of these that you have to be careful about the supplement that you abide because it's, there's a real problem with adulteration in the dietary supplement market, especially with something like Rhodiola, as it's grown in popularity, the best Rhodiola comes from places like Siberia. Okay. And when manufacturers can't get their hands on the original stuff, they start using other forms of Rhodiola and putting it in the capsule and you don't get the same benefits from that. So be careful who you buy your Rhodiola from and make sure that they've got certificates of analysis, proving that what's in there on the label is in the capsule. That's great. Sam E Sammy is a naturally occurring amino acid methionine. And it's bound to an ATP molecule and is found in nearly every single cell in your body. And it helps produce and break down. It breaks down the neurotransmitters, a set of Coleen, dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, and melatonin in your brain studies show that Sammy is very effective in treating depression without the side effects of prescription and depressants.
 

 David Tomen: And while some pharmaceuticals can take from six to eight weeks to just even start working, Sammy can work almost right away. Scientists at the us department of health and human services conducted an analysis of 102 individual studies in 25 databases on Sam II and depression in 2002. And in the report, the research has concluded that treatment with Sam, he was equivalent to standard therapy for depression, which is pretty amazing. Now you've got to Sammy is very unstable, so you have to get it in and tariff coated tablets or capsules, take it on an empty stomach either an hour before or two hours after meals. And one big word of caution. If you're going to try Sammy, you need to use vitamins, B6 and B12 and full light for it to work properly, or Sam, he will elevate your homocysteine levels. Got it. And high homocysteine can cause heart attacks, V6
 

 Wade Lightheart: And B12 tend to accentuate the transport of a lot of different things at CG as well. Yeah.
 

 David Tomen: And there are, co-factors in the synthesis of all the major neuro-transmitters. Yeah. The last one on my list for PTSD is st. John's war. And it's a potent antidepressant and it's been used to treat a variety of internal and external animals that the illness is danger dating back to the ancient Greeks st. John's wart inhibits the uptake of serotonin dopamine, GABA, glutamate, norepinephrine. When you inhibit the neuronal uptake of these neurotransmitters, that cause it has a profound effect on depression and mood. In most people st. John's wart extract decreases oxidative stress. It prevents neurotoxicity and brain inflammation, and it helps maintain mitochondria electric in brain cells st. John Wal-Mart moderates, the genes that control the function of your HPA axis, which is directly related to symptoms of anxiety and stress.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Wow. This is interesting work. My question, I guess, would be if we got a few more or we gets a list for so, so, so my next question is, okay, so we've identified some things that can be helpful in kind of maintaining a good cognitive capacity and assisting in preventing, or certainly maybe even changing the myelination of the neuron as opposed to the myelination of the Axion. How does someone go about addressing these things? Why should they do that? And, and, and, and where can they get all this stuff?
 

 David Tomen: Well, because
 

 Wade Lightheart: Randomly shot gunning. All these things is one thing, but actually getting a systematized way to go about it. What do you do? How do you do this?
 

 David Tomen: If I w well, I've got a little stack at the end of this article that says you can start with a combination of, and you can get all of these most of these I don't lithium orotate might not be available at your local vitamin shop. You'll have to check, but just put together a small stack of either ashwagandha or Bacopa monnieri one or the other. Don't have to use book lithium, RJ, NADH Sammy with a high quality B-complex and Rhodiola Rosea. Now, if somebody was going to put together the stack and start it, and you've never tried any one of these supplements before I wouldn't take the, I wouldn't buy all of these stub loans and start taking them right away, I would buy all of these supplements, but I would try ashwagandha first for a couple of days. Right. You know, if nothing bad happens, then add lithium RJ, and then nothing bad happens, add NADH. And then if nothing bad, hap if you take everything all at once and something bad happens, you don't know where the culprit is.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Correct. So, so you do a similar process that I do. When I test new products, products, I test them singularly in the, in themselves. And then, you know, it's like, okay, I try that. I try that. I try that. And then, and then you start working in combination, I guess. So just to go through that again. So let's say that you try one of the products like Bacopa or whatever. So you try that. How long would you take that product or ashwagandha to determine, okay. That seems to be working for me, or it's not working for me or in, and determine, can you illustrate what bad means something bad
 

 David Tomen: And illustrate what bad means with ashwagandha? Because I can't use it. Okay. because ashwagandha influences the thyroid thyroid hormones and I'm severely hyperthyroid. And so when I take, I show gone to, I started getting my hypo symptoms back. Okay. And I feel like crap. Okay. so I know that I can't use ashwagandha, but I can use book hope and money airy. And so for the person that's watching this, if you're going to try to figure out which one should you try first, if you've got a thyroid problem, forget about ashwagandha. But if your thyroid hormones are okay, try ashwagandha and see if it works. If you have a negative reaction to it, then try Bacopa monnieri they do similar things and they provide similar benefits. So you can use one or the other, you just have to find out which one is, it feels better for you. Now, one, one thing is that one of these supplements is not going to solve PTSD. Yeah. I mean, this is going to take a combination. It's going to take a stack of supplements, and it's probably going to take months for your brain to start rebuilding itself so that you're not experiencing those symptoms. I do no longer experience the symptoms of PTSD. I don't know when I stopped experiencing that, but it was sometimes in the last seven years. And I just wasn't paying attention because of my nootropic stack contains a lot of these supplements that eventually the symptoms just went away.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Now, do you take these supplements singularly in the day with food or multiple times throughout the day?
 

 David Tomen: Bacopa monnieri is in a stack called mind lab pro that I use first thing in the morning. Well, it's two capsules. So I use a capsule in the morning, a capsule at noon lithium orotate I dose three or four times a day, but lithium orotate is the kind of thing you can dose as needed as well. You don't have to do it three or four times a day. NADH is the kind of thing that you can dose it a couple of times a day, same thing with Sam E like if you're going to use 200 milligrams, try to find a hundred milligram capsule or tablet and dose it twice, once in the morning, and once in the afternoon
 

 Wade Lightheart: Both the NAD. What about injections of NAD, which is becoming quite common.
 

 David Tomen: Yeah. If you can afford it and you can go to a clinic to get it done. Absolutely. Because otherwise you have to rely on your digestive system to make sure that enough of it is delivered to your brain and you get it directly injected into your system. It can bypass your digestive system and goes directly to your brain and is going to work faster.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Yeah. A lot of clinics that you can go to they'll, they'll put these cocktails together intravenously or through kind of a fast injection, and I've done both and both are profoundly remarkable in their impact and effects. It's it's quite sudden. And NADH, so you gotta really, you gotta really monitor cause you kind of go up and there's almost like an uncomfortable feeling for a little while and you kind of sit with it
 

 Speaker 4: And then it kind of your body climate, Tazzie kind of take it up again. That's where you need a really good a N D or whatever, to kind of monitor what's going on. Cause you can certainly hurt yourself if you take too much of that, that can be very dangerous.
 

 David Tomen: Matt and Sammy, I get reports all the time from people that were tried Sammy and it backfired on them. So one of the things that was not in that stack was L-theanine just drink three or four cups of green tea during the day.
 

 Speaker 4: And if you want to go out there, go grab some pool where tea from Oh five, they ship around the world. I'd tell you, you can get some great stuff. They also have a really nice Gabba blend. It's a GABAA tea that just it's it's it's divine. I haven't seen anything quite like it. So
 

 David Tomen: Do it. So it's possible to get PT, get rid of your PTSD symptoms. I know because I did, I'm a Testament to that. You just have to work at it and it takes a while for that to happen and you have to be willing to experiment. You have to have an open mind to this thing. And you have to have a willingness to follow in the risk instructions, you know, follow the recommended dosages just taking these things, Willy nilly, just indiscriminately, you know, every second or third day, or just try one here and try when there is not going to do the job. Correct.
 

 Speaker 4: That's very important for people. One of the things that Matt, my business partner is extraordinary, good at. He, he actually creates spreadsheets and we recommend doing that for you can kind of just get your feedback on what's happening in, in testing each of these products, because we're deep in the nootropic conversation. I for myself use a journal and I, I like to journal and see what's going on inside my body from I'm pretty tuned into data and my own biofeedback cause I've been doing it for so long. So I can kind of feel that that didn't work for me or that was awesome.
 

 David Tomen: Yeah. I don't, I'm, I'm horrible at journaling. Well, I guess because I just write all day long. Anyway, the last thing I want to do is keep a journal. But I've, I've got my stacks that I've been using for years and it's like the exact same stack in the morning at noon four o'clock in the afternoon, before I go to bed, it doesn't change unless I can come across something that is new or that I haven't tried before. And I, I researched and found good reports and then I, I try it. That's the only time I'll ever add something to my stack, but you just get used to using you find something that works and then you just keep on people, ask, you know, how long can I use this until for the rest of your life?
 

 Speaker 4: Well, and I think that's, that's, that's an, a very interesting point. And I think people need to understand of where we are in the modern world. As far as the accessibility of high quality nutrition, it's virtually impossible regardless of whatever dietary practice that you're on or does
 

 Wade Lightheart: Best for you, that you will be able to optimize your brain without nutritional supplementation. It's not going to happen. And I think why, and we're now seeing because of the unintended consequences of technology, there's an increased cognitive load relative to the proliferation of information. So how do I sort ignore and focus on the things that I need to focus on? And a lot of that is related to how well the neurochemistry is working in your brain in order for you to do this. And that is why the new Tropic industry is starting to explode virtually every high performer. I know people who are out there that you're seeing online and that have millions of followers, and they're all using nootropics to quote, with, to cope with technological innovation. Would you say that this field is going to explode over the next 24 to 36 months?
 

 David Tomen: Well, it is, it is when I started neutral, I started in tropics expert five years ago. I founded it. I'm coming across stuff that I wrote in 2016 or late 2015. That's how long I've been doing this back then? Nobody else was doing it. Yeah, there was no books on it. There weren't any websites on it. I had to figure all this stuff out on my own. I've seen it start to gain traction year by year by year until the last year, the last year playful like Gaia Herb's have got a new Tropic supplement stack. Correct.
 

 Wade Lightheart: And so there's, it brings up another thing and this is a pet peeve of mine
 

 David Tomen: And they call it that too.
 

 Wade Lightheart: This has been a pet peeve of mine for so many years in the supplement industry. And I call it the me too problem. So there was a me too movement before the me too movement and has been proliferated in the supplement industry is that I new product or a new study comes out that demonstrates the efficacy of an or maybe one or two people take it or manufacturing. It's really good. And then the next thing, you know, there's this wave of me too low quality ineffective dosage levels of poorly manufactured products that proliferate the in the market. And then people go, well, geez, Dave, I took this, I took, I took the Bacopa and I got nothing. And then you go, well, what was it? And you look at there, you look at the actual container and it's got 50 different elements that don't make any sense at all, or really toxic for you. It's got a poor capsulation it's, it's got not in a significant dosage or whatever. How do you sort through product quality
 

 David Tomen: I’ve written articles on exactly that. And I just published a YouTube video on that. Beautiful. I think the very last video that I uploaded to my YouTube channel was seven tips for salon selecting the quality dairy, the highest quality dietary supplement or something like that. We're going to put some links to that in this interview. And I just walk people through these seven steps that you can follow as a, and so at the very end of the video, this is your checklist. These are the seven things you need to do before you buy something, do this and this in this, in this, in this, in this, before you buy it, love it. And once you find that thing that is, has been addressed by all seven of those categories, you know, it's the real thing, you know, that what's on the label is actually in the capsule.
 

 David Tomen: And you know that the dosage is similar to what's on something like nootropics expert or in one of my books, or you can take enough of it to get the proper recommended dose. Once you find that supplement always buy that supplement, right. And assume that it's not going to be the cheapest one out there assume that it's going to be one of the more expensive ones on the market. Yes, because it costs a lot of money to get the stuff from the wild or off of farms from the other side of the world, into your house,
 

 Speaker 4: Not to mention the quality control around the extraction process of a lot of these elements is a big factor in, in the development of it. And then when it comes to sourcing it, did they get the GMP stamp? Did they get the certification certificate of analysis with that company? Another thing to be mindful of is when your favorite brand gets bought out by a large company, oftentimes you'll see the product quality, just get cut to ribbons. And I've seen that decade after decade. So you need to be also mindful of that when you do find a product and suddenly it doesn't work nine times out of 10, that company has been bought and they've changed the sources of where they're getting their product.
 

 David Tomen: What one of those seven steps on that checklist is investigating the company. Yes. Find out who they are, find out who owns them, find out how long they've been around. We'll take a look at their website, find, look, they've got an about page. If they haven't got an about page, just write them off immediately and then find out where their, how they test their product. Beautiful. And if what I found for there is not everybody is doing this only a handful of companies are doing this now, but there are a handful of major dietary supplement companies that got a QR code on their label that you can scan with your phone so that you can download the certificate of analysis for that batch of supplements, which is ideal. So that's PTSD, man.
 

 Speaker 4: Wow. That's impressive. And whew, that's a lot of information. So let's just, just to summarize
 

 Wade Lightheart: This component just so people are walking away with some action steps. There's a high likelihood that if you've gone through COVID like many of us have, have you, you may be suffering from PTSD. What's, what's say that the action steps that they need to do in order to address that.
 

 David Tomen: Well, the first thing is just verify that what you've got is really PTSD. And if you haven't got a diagnosis from a doctor, go to this article and look at the symptoms of PTSD and I've got them, they're bullet points, step-by-step, it's in plain English. And just see if any of these apply to you. If you've got frightening thoughts, or if you got nightmares or flashbacks or you're avoiding people or places anyway, just verify that you've got PTSD. And if you're satisfied that yes, it's PTSD that you're dealing with, don't panic and put your head between your legs and shy away. Keep on reading down the rest of this and know that we know what it is, and we know what it, what happens in your brain and your body with PTSD, and you can fix it.
 

 Wade Lightheart: So step one, go read this article that we're going to put the links to it right here [email protected]. Number two, if you think you have that, maybe go get a diagnosis from a medical professional that you, that you can trust or find that can give that step three would be
 

 David Tomen: Take a look at the list of supplements here, and the list of supplements. All bud wine are easily available at any local vitamin shop or whole foods or your local health food store and spend the money on six different supplements and take them home and start testing them one by one and give it a couple of days, give them the first one, a couple of days and go to this article. And I've got a link through, to the full review, which is each one of my reviews for each one of these supplements is typically 12 to 15 pages long.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Can you, can you put that article? Can you tell us what that article is
 

 David Tomen: Treating? Actually I should be writing a separate one because this is kind of, it's called treating PTA, treating post-hurricane PTSD with nootropic supplements.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Okay. So we need to, we need to maybe alter that. So I have to get kids because obviously the COVID situations, of course you have to be careful if maybe they use pandemic, not COVID because you can run into things. Thank you for putting the link in here.
 

 David Tomen: I just want, I'm going to write a separate article and just say treating PTSD with nootropic supplements. Beautiful. I just, I haven't gotten her. I've been meaning to do that for the last two years and I haven't gotten around to doing it, but 
 

 Wade Lightheart: That was so we dove deep into that one. We never got to the other items on this. So we're going to have to bring you back again on the podcast, because I don't want to start opening up a can of worms before it, but before we go, where can people get access to you find this information and track you down? Because I think, you know, you're one of the OGs in nootropics, you've transformed your own life from it. And you're doing an incredible public service of helping people sort through this laundry list of nootropics.
 

 David Tomen: Well, just Google me, Google David Toman, or a Google nootropics expert or whatever your favorite search engine is. And it'll pop up right to the top or YouTube channel. If you start typing in nootropics that's N O O T R O P I C S some people call it nootropics. I call it nootropics. Just start typing that word in there. Nootropics X would, it'll pop up at the top, just click that. And there's, I dunno, 105 videos, I think, or 110 videos. If you go to the website and a tropics expert.com there's links throughout the website that where there's, you can get a free download of secrets of the optimized brain and secrets of the optimized brain is, is I think it's 90. Gosh, how many pages? 90 or it's around 85 or 90 pages for free all you just give me your email address and you can download a copy of the book and it's just, it's got, I think 75 or 80 different supplement, and it might have 82 supplements in it now. And I have the name of the supplement, what that supplement does for you and recommend a dosage in this little book 
 

 Wade Lightheart: What an incredible way for people to kind of start their journey, get the information that you've sorted out over all these years, and then get access to the video. So start yourselves with the books. Folks, watch some of the videos check out the article from David. And more importantly, recognize that taking control of your brain in these times is critically important. And investing in your cognitive function is something that we all need to do. A virtual, like I said earlier, virtually all of the high performers that I know are using nootropics, myself included as well as our team members. And David is providing an incredible resource of information to start accessing and cataloging and learn this field because it's fascinating. It's really, really
 

 David Tomen: t's. I am excited to wake up every day. That's the reason why I called my book head first, if you take care of your head first, everything else falls into place.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Words could not be any wiser and more important in these stressful times during the pandemic there, you, it folks. It's another edition with mr. David Toman, the nootropics expert he's back. Also, you can go back to our episode, number 58, where he was on here before, but more importantly, take care of your brain. Jump in head first, grab his books, check out his videos, and more importantly, take control of your own brain because essentially that's how you perceive the world. So optimizing it makes all the sense there is.
 

 Speaker 5: That's another edition of the awesome health podcast. I'm Wade T. Lightheart from BiOptimizers.
 

 Wade Lightheart: Thank you for joining. And we'll see you on the next episode, take care.
 

 Wade Lightheart: This might be the most important episode that you've listened to this year. We go into what we call pandemic PTSD with nootropic expert, David Toman. The importance of this episode cannot be over emphasize simply because we believe that virtually most of the population is suffering a traumatic brain event, and that event can have severe cognitive implications, both to you, your family moving forward for the rest of your life. But the good news is there are ways that you can offset that using nootropics, and also being able to identify if you potentially have pandemic P T S D for more information, just dive into this, please go and check out the whole podcast interview with David on this, because it just might change the course of your life. I might delight heart for BiOptimizers awesome health podcasts. I hope you enjoy this episode.