Brain Elevate Review Summary
NOW Foods are a very successful, popular supplement company. However, after conducting a thorough Brain Elevate review, we are forced to conclude that this is a pretty mediocre nootropic.
Brain Elevate contains some safe and effective natural brain boosters, yet they are dosed far too low to really realize their potential. You are not going to get the same results from using Brain Elevate than you would using a more potent stack containing the same ingredients. At least one potentially great ingredient is low-dosed into futility. It also contains some ingredients that are totally useless regardless of dosage.
If you’re looking for a safe, reliable, but most importantly, effective supplement to help enhance your brain power, then check out our current top rated supplement table. NOW Foods Brain Elevate is not a scam supplement and it is not terrible, but it is nowhere near up to the quality level we are used to.
Where To Buy Brain Elevate
NOW Foods have a dedicated online store on their website. Their products are also all available on Amazon. We do always recommend buying directly from the manufacturer; it usually means getting a multi-buy discount and a greater degree of accountability.
Full NOW Brain Elevate Review
NOW Foods are an extremely successful supplement company. If you have ever spent time in a health food or natural supplement store, then you will probably recognize their simultaneously distinctive yet generic branding.
While these guys offer an extremely wide range of single-ingredient supplements, from herbal extracts to fish oil capsules, they do have specialist sports products and supplement stacks as well.
Brain Elevate is their dedicated nootropic supplement. Since these guys are such a prominent manufacturer, it just seemed wrong that we didn’t have a thorough NOW Brain Elevate review published.
So what is this product all about?
According to NOW, Brain Elevate is “scientifically formulated to support healthy cerebral functions.”
It claims to provide a potent dose of anti-oxidants which are said to be known for their “free radical-scavenging properties”. This presumably means that Brain Elevate works to promote long-term brain function by prveenting oxidative damage.
It also claims to provide “critical brain nutrients” in the form of Phosphatidyl Serine, L-Glutamine, and Choline.
We are told that all of these things together deliver “optimal results”.
All of this sounds fantastic.
The question is; is it true?
Can Brain Elevate really do any of this?
Is Brain Elevate able to prevent oxidative damage and improve cognitive function simultaneously?
Will it bring about significant improvements, or is it over-hyped?
Is it safe? What are the side effect risks?
Are there more potent nootropics on the market today?
We’ll answer all of these questions in the course of our detailed and impartial NOW Foods Brain Elevate review. If you don’t have time to read the whole thing, feel free to skip to the summary at the end.
Please read our review carefully, and if you wish to bring anything to our attention, or if you have any lingering questions about this product, let us know in the comments section at the end.
Brain Elevate Formula
Before we start talking about the Brain Elevate formula, you need to be able to see it yourself. Here is how it is displayed on the NOW Foods official website:
Right from the off, we can tell you that this is not a particularly impressive formula.
All we see here are the same ingredients you will find in most generic, poor-quality, low-value nootropic stacks.
In fact, this formula is not enormously different from the scammy white label supplements currently being sold on Amazon. Brain Elevate isn’t one of these mass-produced, off the rack supplements of course, but the formula is not drastically different, and that speaks volumes.
We’ll try to explain the various problems with this stack independently of one another, although they all exacerbate one another.
Under-dosing
The most important ingredients in Brain Elevate are all seriously under-dosed.
The ingredients with the most robust scientific backing are those which should get the most attention in any stack. But here they are dosed so low as to make their inclusion pretty much pointless.
For exmaple, Brain Elevate provides 60mg of Ginkgo Biloba per serving.
That is less than you will find in most generic, single-ingredient Ginkgo biloba capsules. While that isn’t a big deal in a comprehensive stack (because we’re attacking many angles), for a main ingredient it is still a let down. Ginkgo biloba really is the work-horse of this stack and it is left under-powered.
The same is true of Glutamine.
Glutamine can have apositive effect on cognitive function by influencing dopamine synthesis. Basically, it promotes dopamine availability, thereby improving motivation, mood, and performance under stress.
However, glutamine is everywhere in our diets. When taking glutamine for the purposes of enhancement above baseline, you really need to take at least 500mg per day. Doses of 2g are sometimes used for improving cognitive and physical performance.
Brain Elevate provides less than 150mg; hardly enough to make a dent.
-Check Out Our Nootropic Ingredient Guide-
Useless Ingredients
One of the main problems with this supplement is that a sizable portion of its formula is dedicated to totally useless ingredients.
We have no idea why rosemary extract is in a nootropic supplement.
We have never seen any evidence to support the idea that rosemary has nootropic benefits. In fact, we’ve never even heard any claim that it does.
It also contains Gotu Kola.
We are coming across this rather obscure ingredient more and more, and we don’t like it.
We have examine the evidence that is usually trotted out to support the use of this substance a couple of times now, so we wont labor the point here. Suffices to say, we aren’t convinced that gotu kola does anything notable in terms of cognitive enhancement.
Missing Components
We can immediately see what is missing from this stack too.
For instance, it is missing any dedicated memory booster. In professional comprehensive nootropic stacks, we expect to see bacopa monnieri or a substance of comparable quality. Bacopa monnieri is the best natural memory booster available in our opinion, so a nootropic stack that lacks this key component is really missing something integral.
Bacopa monnieri benefits memory function directly; substances like Ginkgo biloba improve memory secondarily to improving overall brain health and performance.
It is missing some key anti-oxidants like resveratrol, it is missing NGF-promoting substances like Lion’s Mane Mushroom, and it is missing a serious cholinergic like CDP-Choline. These are not trivial absences; they are notable absences.
-What Is Lion’s Mane Mushroom?-
Brain Elevate Side Effects
There doesn’t seem to be anything about this formula which gives us serious cause for concern with regards to side effects.
There are, of course, some ingredients that do pose potential side effect risks if used incorrectly. The main culprit here is Huperzine A.
As we explained at great length in this article, Huperzine A basically “switches off” the brain’s acetylcholine regulating system. When looking to enhance cognition, we do generally want to increase actylcholine availability.
However, we don’t want to over-load the brain with acetylcholine in the long-term. It is therefore vital that people cycle Huperzine A regularly. Using Huperzine A continuously for a long time will invariably result in side effects.
The 25mcg in Brain Elevate is not a particularly large dose, so this isn’t a major concern. Yet you do still need to take a break of about a week every 4 weeks as a minimum.
The Brain Elevate bottle comes with some very explicit safety instructions:
Generally speaking though, side effects are unlikely for the vast majority of users. The main issue with Brain Elevate is low dosing, so while major benefits are unlikely, so are major side effects.
Brain Elevate Review Conclusion
NOW Brain Elevate is not a terrible nootropic by any means. It’s obvious that NOW Foods have made a seriouseffort at creating a nootropic stack aimed at boosting focus and supporting long-term brain health.
Yet if you’ve read our full Brain Elevate review, you’ll know that the end result is an unquestionably middle-of-the-road, unremarkable nootropic.
Brain Elevate is simply too weak to deliver the kind of results we expect from today’s leading nootropic supplements.
It is lacking in several key areas that we associate with truly comprehensive stacks.
Most of the key ingredients in Brain Elevate are dosed too low to make a meaningful difference to your cognitive function.
Some of the ingredients are practically useless at boosting brain function, improving mood, or even at promoting long-term brain health.
We have come across worse stacks, no doubt about it. But we are far from impressed by Brain Elevate.
It seems fitting that NOW Foods usually make single-ingredient, fairly generic supplements. Brain Elevate is a mediocre, uninspiring, bland nootropic stack.
If you want to really make a significant impact on your day-to-day cognitive function, then you will need to utilize a more powerful, comprehensive, professionally-designed nootropic stack. Check out our current leader board and see if any of those supplements seem right for you.
We have reviewed hundreds of nootropics and this supplement is still the most impressive. Our review team used this product for months and all experienced:
- Heightened focus
- Enhanced memory function
- More mental energy
- Better mental performance under stress
Read our full review to find out if this is the nootropic you have been looking for.
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