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Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 11, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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A lot of it comes down to just experimenting and tracking your results. Change 1 variable at a time and measure vitals and how you feel.

Even if you have the science right there are still many variables between people and confounding interactions that won’t be explained. Some people will respond to a nootropic very well because they are deficient in something, some will need a higher dose, some will have no effect, some will get an atypical reaction due to genetics or something in their diet.

You can use the science and anecdotes to find a good hypothesis to test, but the only way to know for sure how something will impact you is to try it while holding other nutrition variables consistent. Try making 1 change at a time while keeping diet/exercise/supplements the same so you can isolate the effect of each change.

Also, if you’re dealing with supplements make note of what deficiency symptoms or excess symptoms are typical to give you potential indicators that you have too little/much of something. For instance, I sometimes get restless legs after long workouts and I found out that might be caused by a magnesium deficiency. I also know that excess magnesium has a laxative effect. So I started taking a magnesium supplement after workouts and I stopped getting restless legs. I also know I wasn’t taking too much magnesium because I didn’t get the typical symptoms associated with too much magnesium.

IIRC some forms of magnesium are less laxative