Yuan Zhi Experiences

[BigKrabbe]

I am very intrigued with polygamy tenuifila (yuan Zhi). I browsed the examine.com information on it, and read many anecdotal experiences. Nootropics and adaptogens are very interesting to me. I currently take ashwagandha, rhodiola, and have widely experimented with racetams/choline sources. I would love to hear people's personal experiences from the board if they have any with yuan Zhi. I'm also curious about potential interactions dopamine and serotonin wise if it is taken with racetams. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[kisaj]

I know about it but have not tried it. It's fairly obscure, so not sure there will be much feedback.

 

[JohnP.]

Subbed.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15256744
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12391609

 

[BigKrabbe]

I should be receiving my order tomorrow or Monday. I plan on playing around with dosage as well as frequency. My plan is to start at 100mg every other day. I was able to get a pretty concentrated extract which I feel is about as close as I'll get to what has even studied (BT-1 extract).

I will be rotating fasoracetam, aniracetam, piracetam depending on how I respond to the faso and aniracetam. I have taken many racetams, but not those two.

Daily I also take ashwagandha, rhodiola, curcumin, agmatine, and several other staples.

What am I hoping to get out of taking Yuan Zhi? I am interested in its mood and motivation boosting effects. I'm also hoping it will have a synergistic effect with the nootropics I will be rotating.

I will be updating at least weekly on the following thingd:
-mood
-motivation
-memory
-anything else that stands out noticeably

 

[muscleupcrohn]

I've read one or two recent studies on it, it has a promising historical use, and also some positive user feedback on Reddit. I picked up some extract powder that's as close as I could find to the one used in the studies too, but I haven't used it enough to draw any valuable conclusions on it, but I do think it has potential, and plan on giving it a more thorough try sometime.

 

[BigKrabbe]

Today was day one taking the polygala extract. I woke up at 7am and took 5 microspoons of it which equates to ~50mg. I know this is a lower dose than most take, but with me taking other nootropics I lean to the side of caution when I introduce new compounds.

I took the polygala mixed with my normal caffeine/theanine mix. Following I sat down for my morning meditation. About 15 minutes in I definitely noticed a wave of euphoria that felt amazing. I continued to meditate for another 30 minutes. When I opened my eyes I felt excellent as I always do when I finish meditating.

With it being such a low dose I didn't expect too much. I did feel 'good' but not necessarily better than normal. Following meditation I studied some biology related material to prepare myself for my upcoming microbiology course. My focus was good and I felt more compelled to study than I normally do. I am an OCD studier when it comes to school related material, but I did seem to be more motivated than normal.

About 2pm I took 300mg aniracetam and 10mg noopept. I didn't notice anything too substantial good or bad, definitely clear headed and focused.

Next quarter all of my classes are in the morning. I'm thinking something along the lines of this for my daily brain stack:
7am:
Polygala - 50mg
Alpha-GPC - 300mg
Bacopa - 300mg
Piracetam - 1200mg
Oxiracetam - 800mg
Aniracetam - 600mg

Any input or opinions on this would be very welcomed!

I am excited for this stack. I have had moderate success with piracetam and noopept, and have taken focus xt on and off for years.

Brain chemistry wise I am diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety. I think I am pretty introspective and self-aware when it comes to my thoughts, perceptions, and supplement effects on my cognitive abilities/psyche. I think this might be a good place to further evaluate how my brain and memory respond to polygala in conjunction with other racetams/nootropics. I have spent some time searching for this as a precaution to avoid any possible interactions and have found very little.

One interaction I am slightly concerned with is how aniracetam and polygala will interact since they both have an anxiolytic effect. I do have anxiety though, and don't take prescription medicine for my anxiety or ptsd. With the low dose of both I don't see it being an issue, but we will see.

 

[BigKrabbe]

I will also be tracking my baseline cognitive performance parameters with the cambridge brain sciences website, I think it will be a cool way to show measurable cognitive enhancement or lack thereof.

 

[BigKrabbe]

Day two of polygala stack. I woke up this morning at 6 AM, and drank my mix of
-50 mg polygala extract
- 800 mg aniracetam
-1.4 g of piracetam
-100 mg of Theanine
-120 mg caffeine
-10mg noopept.

I started my day in the usual fashion with a morning meditation. No noticeable euphoric feeling today, however I was able to reach a calm mind while meditating very quickly.

I then did the Cambridge mental test, I performed slightly better than my baseline that I took last night.

*As a sidenote, during my baseline last night there were many distractions (television was on, my infant son was crying, my wife was talking to me, and it had been over 12 hours since I took any new tropics).
**Therefore I will be treating this morning's parameters from the Cambridge tests as my true baseline.**

Currently I am walking my dogs. I feel motivated, and have a very calm/organized mind. I am waiting for my bacopa and my alpha GPC to arrive.

My classes start back up on Monday, I am excited to see how much I can retain compared to normal. I'm definitely an obsessive compulsive studier, and spend several hours a day outside of class studying. I by no means have struggled in school, last quarter I got a 4.0. This quarter I take my last two prerequisites for the program I am trying to get into. My goal is to get another 4.0, which I absolutely think I can do. I'm hoping the polygala will give me more intrinsic motivation for studying, sometimes I'm just not feeling it!!

I have also decided to not even mess with adrafanil at all. I honestly don't get much learning/memory wise out of it, and it definitely makes me anxious.

 

[ELROCK]

Subbed.

 

[celc5]

Subbed

 

[BigKrabbe]

Weekly update! First week of classes went GREAT! I have been following my same morning dosing protocol. Wake up, and have just started putting the polygala under my tongue, then starting my morning meditation. I noticed I have been able to reach my "quiet mind" state much easier, but that of course has many variables.

My mood has been amazing. While I did feel some stress with the first week of school, and was worried about a quiz I was much less effected by stress or anxiety as I normally am.

I seem to be cruising through the day being able to focus on the positives, and am able to get over any bad or stressful happenings pretty quickly. Again this has many factors and variables, but I do find it interesting that I am noticing it substantially once starting polygala.

No bad interactions noticed between poly and any nootropics I have been taking. I plan on keeping poly under 100mg regardless, as I like to take the lowest therapeutic dose possible to get an effect.

My daily protocol m-f was:
5am-50mg poly
730am-
800 mg aniracetam
750 mg oxiracetam
250 mg alpha gpc
120mg theanine
120mg caffeine

I actually removed piracetam from the stack, and feel better cognitively and attention wise since doing so.

 

[celc5]

Sounds interesting so far!
Are u still experiencing euphoria?

 

[kisaj]

Not surprising that you are feeling better after removing the piracetam.

I find that Aniracetam and Oxi are very synergistic and work well for mental sharpness with the great anxiolytic effects to balance everything out. Great social stack.

 

[BigKrabbe]

Sounds interesting so far!
Are u still experiencing euphoria?

I haven't noticed any euphoria after the first dose! Very peculiar, could have just been a placebo effect. I have read other logs where people have experienced the same, only getting the euphoric rush the first time. What do you think?

 

[BigKrabbe]

Not surprising that you are feeling better after removing the piracetam.

I find that Aniracetam and Oxi are very synergistic and work well for mental sharpness with the great anxiolytic effects to balance everything out. Great social stack.

Agreed! I have tried piracetam many times, with just about every dosing protocol without achieving a desired effect.

On the other hand I have absolutely gotten a noticeable and desired effect from the ani/oxi stack! I'm loving it!

 

[celc5]

I haven't noticed any euphoria after the first dose! Very peculiar, could have just been a placebo effect. I have read other logs where people have experienced the same, only getting the euphoric rush the first time. What do you think?

I have no idea LOL I'm Just following your log to learn. One thing I can add is that I'm not the placebo police. I've learned to feel/experience euphoria and all sorts of unexpected things just dabbling with self hypnosis and trance on YouTube. So if u felt it, u felt it bro!

 

[BigKrabbe]

I have been surprised at the things that have made me experience euphoria since making an effort to be more self-aware/introspective.



I did a few floats in a sensory deprivation tank. I can't say it was a life changing experience, but it along with other practices/techniques have enabled me to begin to observe and analyze my thoughts/experiences/perceptions.

Hopefully this log of polygala extract will benefit someone in someway. It's helpful for me to sort out how I feel with the addition or subtraction of a supplement.

Tomorrow will be a reset day for me nootropic wise (I will still be taking poly however). From what I've read like many other SSRI's it really starts to shine after 3 or so weeks.

One quick observation I wanted to note:

I'm trying to think of a good way to describe this...basically I have been thinking a lot more about positive and negative impacts of various things in my life. Occasional Kratom use, social media, relationships with others, how I spend my time, etc. like I said I legitimately try to be introspective and aware of my thoughts and actions, since beginning Poly I seem to be much more...motivated to drop non-beneficial things from my life. This includes simple things like not using my phone more than an hour a day. More to come on this..

 

[BigKrabbe]

Sunday update:
I decided to not have a reset day from noots as I have a lot to study today for an upcoming exam. I instead titrated my dose of everything lower (with the exception of caffeine).

Ran a bunch of errands today, I mentally prepared myself to run errands on a Sunday afternoon. Turns out it wasn't bad at all! I seem to be caring less about things that don't matter and more about the things that do.

I would like to note that I am a regular meditator, and was meditating quite some time before beginning poly. Very interesting that they use it in TCM, I find myself being able to meditate much easier and for longer periods.

 

[horizons]

Anyone taken this solo?

 

[ELROCK]

I ordered it two days ago. I won't start it for another month though. I will also throw up my experience with it once I have tried it.

 

[BigKrabbe]

Weekly update:
Breezed through last week feeling good. Moderately stressful day on Wednesday, had two exams. Got a 98% on one (class high) and unknown on the other still. With it being a moderately stressful week I seemed to stay pretty calm and collected.

It hasn't quite been three weeks yet, but I can now say I am definitely noticing an effect mood wise. Like mentioned before, I just seem to care less about things that don't matter and more about things that do. Polygala + meditating every morning is an excellent combination for dealing with the everyday life stressors imo.

I will continue to update, but I can say I give poly a 10/10 so far. Plus it tastes like graham crackers!

 

[horizons]

Any more updates? Got a bottle coming

 

[ELROCK]

I purchased two bottles of this. I ran through a bottles without any noticeable effects.

 

[horizons]

Yeah weird effects. Needs to be taken on a regular basis

 

[rhoadx]

Should polygala be taken empty stomach or with food?

 

[ELROCK]

Should polygala be taken empty stomach or with food?

I took it both ways, but I didn't notice much of anything from it so not sure the better way.