Sometime in 2024, I started getting ads in my Instagram feed from a supplement company called Thesis. The ads generally featured good-looking, fashionable people telling neat, 30-second stories about how the supplements had solved their chronic procrastination, indecision, or distractibility. Many of the evangelists were identified as high-achievers in their respective fields — a Ph.D. neuroscientist, a CEO, or a surgeon.
I’d be lying if I said that the ads weren’t compelling. As a digital journalist, my working life is constantly mediated by my computer screen. That same screen is a gateway to a functionally infinite amount of information, news, and entertainment. And, over the years, the internet has slowly harnessed more and more of my waking hours on and off the clock. It’s a reality that, at times, leaves me feeling overstimulated and paralyzed.
Many other people have had a similar experience. Over the past decade, young people have experienced an increasing amount of psychological distress, and people have been diagnosed with ADHD at higher and higher rates.
Nootropic supplement companies pitch an attractive solution. What if you could take a pill (or powder or gummy candy) that would make your brain function better in our technology-mediated world? Something that would help you focus on what is important, remember the right details and block out the noise. The nootropic industry is already worth more than $2 billion and is expected to double in size in the next decade, according to one report.
But, unlike prescription nootropics like Adderall or Ritalin, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t highly regulate nootropic supplements. In many cases, American consumers must rely on the companies they buy from for information.
Testing and Research on Nootropics
Most of the ingredients found in nootropics have been studied to some extent. Thesis, the company that popped up in my Instagram feed, includes caffeine and L-theanine in most of their products. Research has reported that these two compounds might quicken your reaction time and boost your ability to process visual information and remember numbers.
Another common nootropic ingredient, Ashwagandha root, was shown to improve cognitive flexibility, visual memory, and reaction time in a study on 43 healthy Americans.
Other nootropic components, though, have far less evidence to back up their efficacy. Alpha-GPC, a common nootropic ingredient, was shown to mitigate drug-induced amnesia in rats in a study from the 1990s. Yet, subsequent studies on the cognitive effects of the chemical on healthy people have yielded little to no positive results.
The evidence for the efficacy of most nootropic ingredients lies in a gray area somewhere between hearsay and the robust clinical trials used to approve pharmaceuticals. There’s almost always a reason to be hopeful. Yet, there’s almost never enough evidence to characterize the effects completely or with conviction.
Read More: Does Neuriva Work and Can It Really Help the Brain?
The Nootropic Company Thesis
By his own admission, Thesis founder Dan Freed always struggled with focus.
“I remember how painful it was. It’s seared into my memory,” Freed says.
Sitting in a classroom was so painful, that Freed dropped out of high school and embarked on a career in the service industry. According to Freed, he eventually worked his way up to a position as a station chef at a 3-star Michelin restaurant. But, after a decade in the industry, he was burnt out and decided to study business management. His attention problem hadn’t improved much over the years, and he was desperate to fix it.
According to Freed, this is when he started experimenting with Nootropics. He read everything he could find on the subject and developed his own proprietary blend of powders, mushrooms, and pills. He credits the supplements with earning him a high score on the GMAT and a spot in a master’s program with the Yale School of Management.
Thesis’ business model is built around Freed’s early experiments with nootropics. The company encourages users to test a number of its six proprietary blends before settling on the one that works best for them.
“We created this data-driven approach to essentially finding the right ingredients for each individual to unlock their potential,” Freed says.
Read More: Strange Side Effects From Supplements and What You Need to Know
A Quasi-Scientific Approach
According to Freed, each ingredient in Thesis products goes through an internal review process that takes months to complete.
First, the company does a literature review of peer-reviewed research on the compound. Second, Freed tries it himself (this step hasn’t changed since the early days of powders and pills). Third, willing employees, friends and family members give it a shot. Finally, Thesis conducts “beta testing,” a randomized test on around 50 to 200 people, which Freed says is designed to mimic a crossover design that might be conducted on a prospective pharmaceutical.
These four steps roughly mirror the first two phases of the clinical trials of pharmaceuticals seeking FDA approval. Of course, there are third and fourth phases to a full clinical trial. Thesis stops after two. The company is allowed to do this because, technically, it is selling dietary supplements, not drugs. You can find a statement like this at the bottom of practically any nootropic company selling to Americans:
“The products and information on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The information on this site is for educational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice…”
The FDA issues a few warning letters a year to nootropics companies that use overly prescriptive language or forget to include a disclaimer. Thesis has not received one.
Freed argues that the lower bar for supplements like the ones that Thesis sells is actually advantageous for consumers. The nootropics industry can find ingredients faster and with far less investment than the pharmaceutical industry.
“The question I get asked the most is essentially, ‘do nootropics work?’” Freed says. “The question I think most people should be asking is, ‘which nootropics work for me?’”
Freed has so much conviction in his products, that he says he is working to find researchers to take Thesis blends through full clinical trials. But, until that day, customers will have to decide for themselves if the evidence is enough to go on.
Even after reporting this story, I’m unsure how I feel about nootropics. On the one hand, none of the ingredients seem to be harmful (except to your wallet), and the idea of taking a pill to make my brain work better is still tantalizing. On the other hand, simple things like sleeping and eating well have even more evidence to back up their efficacy on cognitive health. For now, I think I’ll set up a Google Scholar Alert and keep following the news.
Read More: Memory-Boosting Supplements Could Lack Compounds and Contain Bacteria
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
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Psychological Medicine. Trends in self-reported psychological distress among college and university students from 2010 to 2018
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Missouri medicine. ADHD Diagnostic Trends: Increased Recognition or Overdiagnosis?
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Allied Market Research. Nootropics Supplement Market Size, Share, Competitive Landscape and Trend Analysis Report, by Type, by Product Type, by Distribution Channel : Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2023-2032
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Biological Psychology. The effects of l-theanine, caffeine and their combination on cognition and mood
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Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine. Efficacy of Withania somnifera supplementation on adult’s cognition and mood
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Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior. Effect of a new cognition enhancer, alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine, on scopolamine-induced amnesia and brain acetylcholine
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FDA.gov. Warning Letter
Gabe Allen is a Colorado-based freelance journalist focused on science and the environment. He is a 2023 reporting fellow with the Pulitzer Center and a current master’s student at the University of Colorado Center for Environmental Journalism. His byline has appeared in Discover Magazine, Astronomy Magazine, Planet Forward, The Colorado Sun, Wyofile and the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
