Nootropics.

Nootropics are an up-and-coming thing at the moment. Specific compounds that are thought to have a significant impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of how one’s brain works. It is currently somewhere in the grey area between pseudoscience and actual science.

Here at Queal we’ve taken a hard look at the research into all manner of nootropic compounds and tried to sort the wheat from the chaff.

What we found was that there are several (non-essential) nutrients that have been proven to have several very noticeable cognitive enhancing effects! We’ve taken the best-of-the-best and compiled them into one serving: The Queal Flow. It’s a more realistic and real-world version of the Limitless pill from that movie with Bradley Cooper (or the, sadly, short-lived TV show on CBS).

What does it do?

Mix one scoop of the powder with your morning Queal meal, and you can expect to experience an increase in focus and a drastic reduction in reaction time. You’ll have an easier time quickly switching between different mental tasks, and will experience an increase in general cognitive ability. The Queal Flow also improves cognition and motivation, by means of reducing anxiety and stress. If you’re using Flow regularly for a longer period of time, it’s also very likely to improve your mental health in the long term (reducing cognitive decline), and might even improve your memory.

We know those are some far-out claims! To take a look at all the research behind it, please scroll down for our resources and a more in-depth explanation on the studies behind this.

So what's in it?

A selection of nootropic and neuroprotective compounds and a superfood. To be precise:

• Guarana: a fruit from a South American tree, dried and powdered.
• L-Theanine: an amino acid found mostly in green tea.
• CDP-Choline: a naturally occurring compound that the body breaks down into useful bio-neurological building blocks.
• Ashwagandha: An adaptogenic herb, often used in traditional Indian medicine.

Click on the various components to learn more about them and the benefits they provide!

For Flow's label and composition, click here.

Flow's effects.

Maintain a Calm Focus and High Mental Energy - The Queal Flow contains a fair bit of caffeine. This stimulant creates a sense of amped-up focus and mental energy.By combining the caffeine (from Guarana) with L-Theanine you achieve a relaxed calm focus, allowing a very peaceful sense of staying on-task.

It’s hard to describe without trying it for yourself. You’ll know it when it hits you.

Improve Reaction Time - This combination of Guarana and L-Theanine in Flow has also been shown to significantly decrease reaction time in all sorts of tasks, and the capability to more quickly switch between different mental tasks.

Improve Learning and Memory both Short- and Long-Term - Aside from achieving a more productive mindset, Flow also provides you with various nutrients that have been shown to be highly useful in improving learning and memory. CDP-Choline, for example, breaks down in the body to Choline and Uridine, both of which are known for their neuroprotective capabilities. There is also some early research suggesting some enhanced learning effects, though the efficacy of these claims are as of yet untested.

A study into the aforementioned Guarana also suggests that there may be a cognitive enhancing aspect of Guarana that is independent of the caffeine content (rat study only).

Reduce Anxiety/Stress and Improve Motivation (as a result) - The addition of Ashwagandha in the Queal Flow provides several bio-neurological compounds that have been shown to reduce cortisol levels, the most well-established marker for stress and anxiety.Ashwagandha was also shown to improve motivation, though this appears to be an effect of the lowered anxiety and not a result of Ashwagandha supplementation per se.

Lastly, there’s a lot of anecdotal evidence of Ashwagandha improving sleep quality, an important aspect of a productive day. Though this mostly concerns rat-studies, as well as a human study that was not blinded.

Reduce Cognitive Decline - There’s ample research showing that the various compounds in the Queal Flow can have a significant neuroprotective effect, helping to reduce cognitive decline. The idea here is that starting early with long-term supplementation of these nutrients can push back the effects of ageing on our memory.

Written by our CEO Floris Wolswijk.

Nootropics.

When the idea of a nootropic product first came up in our product development meetings, I was highly skeptical. I’d heard of nootropics; the brain boosters, the “Limitless-pills”. It sounded like absolute bullshit. I didn’t really think we should meddle with such pseudo-science.

So, of course, I was tasked with diving into the research and finding out the truth about these things.

And what I found… was that it was indeed, for the most part, absolute hooey. Or to be more precise; Most of the claims for these so-called nootropic compounds were based on very limited research. Usually one study, usually on rats, not humans, and surprisingly often it wasn’t even a controlled study.

However, I also found some interesting nutrients/compounds that had actual science backing it up…

Evidence-based nutrition.

Our requirements for an ascribed cognitive effect to be actually ascertained was very simple and very strict: Multiple independent studies, double-blind and placebo-controlled, on actual human beings (e.g. no rat-studies). We also checked the studies weren’t funded by organisations with a clear economic incentive for a particular outcome.

In other words, each compound we put in the Queal Flow has been researched:

• Multiple times, by multiple different people and organisations
• On humans, not other animals
• The studies were performed with a double-blind and placebo-controlled methodology
• The outcome had a statistically significant positive cognitive effect
• There were no major downsides or negative effects noted

The sources:

• "Methylxanthines and sleep" by Porkka-Heiskanen (2011).
• "The role of adenosine in the regulation of sleep" by Huang, Urade and Hayaishi (2011).
• "Improved cognitive performance in human volunteers following administration of guarana (Paullinia cupana) extract: comparison and interaction with Panax ginseng" by Kennedy, Haskell, Wesnes and Scholey (2004).
• "A double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-dose evaluation of the acute behavioural effects of guaraná in humans." by Haskell, Kennedy, Wesnes, Milne and Scholey (2007).
• "Improved cognitive performance and mental fatigue following a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement with added guaraná (Paullinia cupana)" by Kennedy, Haskell, Robertson, Reay, Brewster-Maund, Luedemann, Maggini, Ruf, Zangara and Scholey (2008).
• "Improved Attentional Performance Following Citicoline Administration in Healthy Adult Women" by McGlade, Locatelli, Hardy, Kamiya, Morita, Morishita, Sugimura and Yurgelun-Todd (2012).
• "The combined effects of L-theanine and caffeine on cognitive performance and mood" by Owen, Parnell, de Bruin and Rycroft (2013).
• "A prospective, randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled study of safety and efficacy of a high-concentration full-spectrum extract of ashwagandha root in reducing stress and anxiety in adults" by Chandrasekhar, Kapoor and Anishetty (2012).
• "A double-blind, placebo-controlled evaluation of the anxiolytic efficacy ff an ethanolic extract of withania somnifera" by Andrade, Ashwath, Chaturvedi, Srinivasa and Raguram (2000).
• "Naturopathic care for anxiety: a randomized controlled trial ISRCTN78958974" by Cooley, Szczurko, Perri, Mills, Bernhardt, Zhou and Seely (2009).
• "Withania somnifera Improves Semen Quality in Stress-Related Male Fertility" by Mahdi, Shukla, Ahmad, Rajender, Shankhwar, Singh and Dalela (2009).
• "Trophic actions of extracellular nucleotides and nucleosides on glial and neuronal cells" by Neary, Rathbone, Cattabeni, Abbracchio and Burnstock (1996).
• "Efficacy of Souvenaid in Mild Alzheimer’s Disease: Results from a Randomized, Controlled Trial" by Scheltens, Twisk, Blesa, Scarpini, von Arnim, Bongers, Harrison, Swinkels, Stam, de Waal, Wurtman, Wieggers, Vellas and Kamphuis (2012).
• "The combined effects of L-theanine and caffeine on cognitive performance and mood" by Owen, Parnell, de Bruin and Rucroft (2013).
• "Exploratory study to evaluate tolerability, safety, and activity of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) in healthy volunteers." by Raut, Rege, Tadvi, Solanki, Kene, Shirolkar, Pandey, Vaidya and Vaidya (2012).