PP 584: Optimize Your Brain with Nootropics with David Tomen

“If you’ve got a problem and you think that is associated with your brain somehow, do not give up because it’s possible to fix it. Really don’t give up…ask the question. There’s no question that’s too dumb for this.” ­–David Tomen

David Tomen was on top of his game when he was diagnosed with Adult ADD and PTSD. Although he was successful at work and found himself in many executive level type roles, he was always receiving feedback on his annual performance reviews that he seemed “out of focus.” With research and perseverance, he found the answer to his problem. The effect on him was so profound that he authored NootropicsExpert to help others find their own answers, as well.

Nootropics are gaining popularity all over the world! But what are they? Join Kim and David as they talk about keeping your brain at its optimum level of functionality. Subscribe & listen today!

HIGHLIGHTS

03:18 What is Nootropics and Are You Taking One?
11:56 Why You Have to Sleep
13:07 The Birth of Nootropics Expert
20:55 Thyroid Health
24:55 Nootropic Stacks
26:50 The Big Pharma and Food Supplements Company Clash
33:21 The Brain Miracle
36:19 How to Buy the Legitimate Substance

Is your brain optimized? Learn how to take care of your brain with @thekimsutton and @DavidTomen using #Nootropics #memory #legitimatedrugs #safe #naturalClick To Tweet

Resources:

Books:

Secrets of the Optimized Brain by David Tomen (Free Download)

Head First- The Complete Guide to Healing & Optimizing Your Brain with Nootropic Supplements by David Tomen

Articles:

13 Minerals Essential for the Optimized Brain by David Tomen

13 Vitamins Essential for the Optimized Brain by David Tomen

Inspirational Quotes:

“Sleep is very, very important to brain health.” –David Tomen

“The wrong thing to do is to try something and if it doesn’t work to quit because that’s not fair. You’re not being fair to yourself. You’re not being fair to the things that can work.” –David Tomen

“Your brain is a miracle. It’s an absolute miracle about how it works.” –David Tomen

“Your brain has got this amazing ability to heal itself.” –David Tomen

“If you’ve got a problem and you think that is associated with your brain somehow do not give up because it’s possible to fix it.” –David Tomen

“Ask the question. There’s no question that’s too dumb for this … I just want to help people the way I was helped.” –David Tomen

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

PP 584 DAVID TOMEN

“If you’ve got a problem and you think that it’s associated with your brain, do not give up because it’s possible to fix it. I mean really don’t give up. Go to nootropicsexpert.com and use the search function on it. Just search for whatever it is that’s bothering you.” ~DAVID TOMEN

KIM: Welcome back to the Positive Productivity Podcast! This is your host Kim Sutton and today I am so excited about the conversation that we’re about to have with our guest David Tomen. David, I didn’t even ask you before because I was just on a roll – is Tomen and even the right way to pronounce your last name?

DAVID TOMEN: Tomen.

KIM: Okay. Listeners, you’ve heard me mess up last names before. You’ve heard me mess up my own name. So David is an author and a nootropics, right? Nootropoics, I know what nootropics are but it’s one of those words that you look at it. Have you ever looked at the word the David and wondered if you were actually spelling it properly?

DAVID TOMEN: I haven’t, but I have this question all the time. But how do you pronounce nootropics? And some people pronounce it no tropics, like Noah in the Ark and other people pronounce it Noah tropics and I pronounce it nootropics and I’m the ootropics expert, so I say it’s new tropics, so let’s take with me.

KIM: Yeah, that works for me. But the double o’s, but it could be confusing because with new you would expect and you, but then you –

DAVID TOMEN: It’s a made up name. It’s a, it’s a made up name, but I can tell you the history of the name of your life.

KIM: Well, I would love that, but first I would love if you would introduce yourself to our awesome listeners –

DAVID TOMEN: –Okay.

KIM: -and tell them who you are and how you got to where you are today.

DAVID TOMEN: My Name is David Tomen. I’m the author of Nootropics Expert.com and I help people fix their brain.

KIM: Right away. That’s like intrigued. I gotta tell you listeners, –

DAVID TOMEN: — I’ve got a couple of books.

KIM: Awesome.

DAVID TOMEN: And a YouTube channel and that’s what I do.

KIM: Fix your brain. I was sharing with David in our pre-chat, which is why I knew I just had to jump in and that’s why I forgot to ask proper pronunciation of his last name. I was telling him that I switched my show up from the daily show about seven months ago to a twice a week show, but when I was doing the daily show, every other episode was so low and I burnt my brain now with all those episodes and David says, I can help you with that. Can we just jump into that? I want to know how you can help me with that and what nootropics like dive in, enlighten those of us who aren’t fully aware of what it is. Please.

DAVID TOMEN: Nootropics is simply a class of substances that improve brain function and there also referred to [inaudible] neural enhancers and they can be natural or synthetic but experience bio hackers make as strict distinction between nootropics and smart drugs. I think that nootropics and smart drugs are two totally different things nootropics or natural substances, there’s a few of them that can be synthetic, smart drugs or things like that you need a prescription for like Ritalin , Adderall and Modafinil and those kinds of things. And I generally don’t talk about those unless I’ve referencing them, if people are using them and how they can support about nootropics. So people use nootropics to improve focus and promotivation for memory and mood and cognition and trapeze can help people with PTSD and OCD and traumatic brain injury and ADHD is a big one. I’ve had some people ask me about autism and people that want to avoid things like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and the tropics can help them all that stuff. Now, the original word nootropic is relatively new. There was a guy named Dr.  [inaudible] who was from Mania, he’s a psychologist and chemist.

KIM: that five times fast.

DAVID TOMEN: [inaudible]. I’m in 1963 and I think he was in Saint Petersburg, Russia at the time when he did that. I forget what he was looking to do with parasitism, but they found out that it helped improve brain function. So in 1972 he coined the term nootropic and it’s derived from the Greek Noo for mind and Tropin to Bend. So to bend the mind.

KIM: Okay David, you have me already filled with questions.

DAVID TOMEN: –Okay.

KIM: My brain function needs to be fixed already cause that was not proper grammar. But I have a bottle here on my desk of CBD oil –

DAVID TOMEN: –Hmm.

KIM: -and then I’m thinking about how my kids, when they go to the gas station or the convenience store, they love to pick up energy drinks, which I might otherwise, you know, not allow them to. There could be people who could argue that those increased brain function. So I would love to know, do these fall underneath or CBD oil and listeners, if you haven’t heard me discuss it before, CBD oil has been awesome for my anxiety. So I just want to bring that in because when my anxiety is bad, I would have to say that my brain function is diminished.

DAVID TOMEN: I classify CBD oil has a nootropic.

KIM: –Okay.

DAVID TOMEN: And energy drinks, there are things in the energy drinks that are classified as nootropics, like caffeine and Taurine are two examples. But CBD oil is particularly interesting. I did a full review on that. On nootropics expert, it’s been shown in the lab and through practical user experience to provide anti-anxiety and antidepressant effects. Right? And it does that by enhancing serotonin included mate signaling via the five ht one a receptor in your brain. It also provides anti-psychotic effects and they’re related to its effects on increasing levels of anandamide in your brain. And it acts on CB two receptors to provide anti-inflammatory responses in your brain cells. So there’s a number of different ways that it helps and it helps in answering Gaba, which is the reason why it helps prevent seizures for some people.

KIM: You said Kalpa?

DAVID TOMEN: Gaba.

KIM: Okay, I am so sorry David. But when you said that, all I could think is my little’s watch a show called, Hey Gabba Gabba, that is so, which does not do anything for your brain function. Let me just tell you that it’s just get stuck in your head all day and makes you go a little loopy. I don’t know what year it was, maybe 2016 ,2015 I was struggling with anxiety really bad and I was approaching suicidal, you know thoughts and somebody suggested CBD oil and I went and got some and immediately I just felt a rush. But there are other people who medicate with marijuana and I hold no judgment. I just want listeners to know. I do not judge and I’ve seen amazing, I mean there’s videos on youtube of people with Parkinson’s who, you know, eat or smoke or whatever their form of ingestion is of marijuana and it just takes, this gentleman shakes away. It’s quite an amazing video and I cannot smoke pot. I would have to say that I’m allergic to it because it makes me even more anxious. Yeah.

DAVID TOMEN: I can’t either. But the thing about CBD is it helps prevent the psychotic like effects that are –

KIM: –Yeah.

DAVID TOMEN: -in high doses of THC, which is what’s in the other thing that’s included in marijuana.

KIM: Can you repeat that one more time? Psychotic effects of THC.

DAVID TOMEN: High doses of THC can produce psychotic-like effects in some people.

KIM: Wow!Okay, so I just always thought it was a fluke with me because you know there’s, there’s all those movies and shows of, for lack of a better way, words, stoners, you know, sitting there being totally –

DAVID TOMEN: –Yeah.

KIM:  -mellow and that is not the effect that I ever got. Listeners, I am fully admitting to smoking pot illegally because even here in Ohio it is not legal. What are some other nootropics that people may be surprised about or may not even be aware of that are natural, are and are not prescribed?

DAVID TOMEN: Caffeine, is another classic one, people think that caffeine gives you boost of energy and that’s not really how caffeine works. Caffeine is Adenosine Antagonism. Adenosine is part of Adenosine Triphosphate which is ATP, which is a fuel for your mitochondria in each one of your cells, pick your brain cells and as Adenosine builds up during the day, it makes you sleepy that’s how you get sleepy. As you get more and more fatigued.

KIM:  Huh?

DAVID TOMEN: Caffeine is an antagonist of that Adenosine.

KIM:  Okay.

DAVID TOMEN: Influence a set of [inaudible] of brain and Serotonin and it boosts the use of dope [inaudible] brain so well. So it doesn’t actually direct that give you energy but antagonistic effect on Adenosine . It helps boost all of these other neurotransmitters. And it boosts the gene expression of brain derived noorotropic factor, which has been called the miracle grow for the brain is a protein in your brain that um, helps your brain regenerate new neurons.

KIM:  Huh?

DAVID TOMEN: And synapses and [inaudible] ,axons so caffeine helps you all that and a lot of people do they just think of caffeine as a cup of coffee.

KIM:  Right.

DAVID TOMEN: But it does so much more than that. Another one.

KIM: So can I interrupt you for a moment again?

DDAVID TOMENAVID: –Sure

KIM: So for people who are like for nutritionists who are recommending to lay off the caffeine, lay off the caffeine, it’s really not a bad thing to –

DAVID TOMEN: –Not at all.

KIM: -to be drinking caffeine, but we may just want to watch how late were drinking or do –

DAVID TOMEN: –Sure.

KIM: – like, do we really need to, in your opinion?

DAVID TOMEN: You do it later in the day because for most people, –

KIM: –Hmm.

DAVID TOMEN: -and if you take too much caffeine is gonna cost one of the classic and simplest nootropic stacks. I’ll let you ask that question what does a nootropic stack, but the simplest nootropic stack that’s out there that you can use is caffeine and L Theanine, because caffeine will give you the boost in energy that you’re looking for through this mechanism of action that I talked about and L Theanine, helps take away they’re jittery part of that.

KIM: Oh my gosh. I have a feeling that we had better keep this episode away from medical students and architecture students, because or I’ll see will never sleep. I’ll tell you that. When I was going through the interior architecture program, that’s what my degree was in. There would be weeks leading up to a critique where I would be up for three nights in a row –

DAVID TOMEN: -Mm.

KIM: -and I could feel my heart pounding out of my chest. My hands are shaking, which was no good when I was doing hand drafting and yeah, I had the jitters, but I was on nonstop caffeine.

DAVID TOMEN: Yeah, and you could had come that with L Theanine but the thing is about sleep issue, body actually needs sleep and you genuinely need between seven and nine hours of sleep –

KIM: –Hmm Mm.

DAVID TOMEN: -at night per number of things. One, is that how your body repairs itself the other one is that’s how you consolidate memories.

KIM: –Right.

DAVID TOMEN: Memory consolidation happens during one of the stages of sleep, and if you don’t get sleep, you don’t consolidate memories. And if you use things like Ambien to help you sleep, you don’t consolidate memories. So sleep is very, very important to bring hill.

KIM: I have never heard that about memories before.

DAVID TOMEN: –Hmm Mm.

KIM: That is so interesting.

DAVID TOMEN: That’s when long term memory is actually consolidated in your brain.

KIM: I also have to admit though that I was 37 before I realized just how important sleep was, and that was my second about of sleep deprivation. I mean, besides kids, five kids, I know a thing or two about sleep deprivation, but everybody was –

DAVID TOMEN: –Yeah.

KIM: -just saying, Oh you’ve got a newborn. That’s just normal, you know? But I didn’t realize that it was more than just being a new mom, you know?

DAVID TOMEN: Yeah. You really, really do need sleep.

KIM: How did you get into this?

DAVID TOMEN: That’s a good question. I kind of fell into it. I’ve lived in interesting life, I’ve traveled all over the world, I’ve visited 45 countries, a couple of episodes ago you talked to a guy who was a yacht broker, I think it was in California. [inaudible] I work to ErradaIe, I worked as a yacht broker for awhile at Erradale, I lived in Antigua for nine years and I helped build the first site or telephone company in the Caribbean. I lived in England for a while and I helped when McDonald’s was first getting started in England. I helped them build some stores in London at during my adult life at every performance review, my annual performance review, because I was always in executive positions one way or another, David you’re a fantastic manager, you’re really good at this and that, but you’ve got to learn how to focus. And I heard that literally every year. And so I bought the books on how to focus and I read courses and I just I thought it was a moral failing. And then 13 years ago I met this beautiful girl on the beach and we got married and not long after we got married, she saw what was going on and said, I want you to go and see this new psychiatrist that I met in Palm Beach. And this guy sat me down and within 10 minutes he said ‘your adult ADD and PTSD.’ Now the PTSD part, it took me 10 or 12 years to figure out where I think that came from. But the LDL was, he prescribed Ritalin and as soon as I started taking Ritalin, it was like somebody turned the lights on in my brain. But within a couple of years I started getting tolerance to realign and it wasn’t working as well. And when this happened, Kim, it was the first time I ever thought I’m on my is not something that normal people think about the health of their brain. But when the effect that Ritalin had on me was so profound in when it wasn’t working as well anymore, it scared me. And I decided I was going to find out how riddle and worked in my brain in what I could do if I could do anything. And I found out that Ritalin or methylphenidate is a dopemate re-uptake inhibitor, which means that it prevents dopamine transporters and receptors from attaching in your brain. So it, it provides your brain with more dopamine. But if the dopamine is not there, it can’t work. So I figured out, Huh, how do I provide more dopamine? So I looked it up and I found out that health Tyra’s scene is a precursor to dopamine and you can buy hell tie receipt, you can buy dopamine tyrosine. So I started supplementing with the tire is seen and Acetyl l carnitine to boost, set a calling in my brain and riddle and started working again. And that worked like a charm for five years. And then I got really, really, really sick and I ended up in the ER because my wife thought I was having a heart attack and it turns out that my heart was fine, but I was severely Hypothyroid. All of a sudden, nobody knows why and everything melted down. Like my life just melted down. I mean, my marriage is falling apart. We were broke because I lost all my business and we were getting further into debt and I lost my memory. Like, I mean really lost by memory. So much so that I went to a couple of neurologists who tested me for Alzheimer’s and they said, no, it’s not dementia, it’s not Alzheimer’s. We don’t know what’s wrong with you. And so my experience with Ritalin and l tyrasine, I knew that there must be some way to solve this problem and to fix my memories. So I started doing the research again and I found some things. I started taking them and I started getting my thyroid working gain with natural desiccated thyroid and I started getting my memory back and it took me about two and a half years before it got things working again. And then I restarted building my business and by that stage I was just running a marketing company. I decided that I was going to do one thing because it couldn’t handle a lot of things and I decided on copywriting. So I started writing copy for natural health companies and a guy in England is got a supplement company that produces a nootropic stack called mind lab pro. And I started writing advertorials for him and that was kind of like right up my alley because of the experience that I had with problems with my brain. And when I was researching all the ingredients in his product, he’s got 11 and found out that it was a very difficult to find information about this stuff and that never occurred to me before when I was doing the research just for my own use and I realized that there was a need for one central place in the world for people to go to if they’ve had a problem with their brain, and that was the birth of nootropics expert and that was about three years ago.

KIM: So incredible. You have me thinking in so many different directions right now, David, I have what I call chronic idea disorder and I’m writing the book on it, but I have ideas all day, every day. You know, I can barely take a shower without coming up with more ideas and there have been times that it’s extremely hard to focus. I’ve also had hypothyroidism since birth, –

DAVID TOMEN: –Hmm Mm.

KIM: -but I want to back up a little bit in the conversation when you said when you started taking Ritalin, you said it was like a light came on in your brain. Now. I’m very intrigued by this because I had to tell you in 2008 I was sleep deprived. I hadn’t been taken care of my thyroid, and long story short, I wound up in the mental hospital and I’m not shy about sharing that. I was hallucinating and I was suicidal and they said that my thyroid function was like they were surprised that I was alive –

DAVID TOMEN: –Hmm Mm.

KIM: -because with the numbers that I was seeing, my organ been shutting down,

DAVID TOMEN: I get that. I almost died.

KIM:You had me when you were talking about that too, but what they did though was they had me talk to a psychiatrist who prescribed me Prozac Welbutrin and Ativan, which completely numbed me. When you said that a light came on in your brain, I was scared for a moment because what I saw in my brain was just white, like emptiness. There were no thoughts there anymore. So I’d love for you to share, is that similar to the light coming on in your brain or was it just more in the line of clarity?

DAVID TOMEN: For me was more in the line of clarity.

KIM: Okay.

DAVID TOMEN: That emptiness, that blankness that you’re talking about – A lot of people try to achieve that state through meditation.

KIM: Uh, not me.

DAVID TOMEN: And, but if it happens and you’re not expecting it, it can scare the hell out.

KIM: It did.

DAVID TOMEN: Yeah.

KIM: My psychiatrist ended up firing me because I removed myself. Which listeners, I do not recommend that you take yourself off your prescribed medications without a doctor’s plan to do so. But I had had enough.

DAVID TOMEN: Actually this comes up often. I get people that are on some medication and it’s helped them well and they want to get out of there for one reason or another. So the first question I asked them, did it help you? And the reason why I asked that question is because if we can find out if a prescription medication helped you and you don’t want to take it and you’ll want to replace it with the natural substance, if that medication helped you, what is the mechanism of action of that medication? And then we kind of like reverse engineer it and say, okay, it affected dopamine or norepinephrine or Serotonin in your brain, whatever it is. And then we find a natural substance that does the same thing, but you can use, but without the side effects of using the prescription medications. So that’s my most recent experience with prescription drugs in clients.

KIM: Yeah. So now you’ve got me curious then about thyroid medication –

DAVID TOMEN: –Mm.

KIM: -because I’ve heard that there’s natural, you know remedies and such, but that’s something that I don’t want to mess with again is my thyroid. I’m not talking about a natural alternative. I am so intrigued, but if it’s between trying something or winding up in the mental hospital, again, I think I know or you know what I’m trying to say. I won’t go down that road again.

DAVID TOMEN: Yeah. When it comes to the thyroid as whatever works.

KIM: –Yeah.

DAVID TOMEN: The thing about I’ve fired probably 600 chronologist because when I was first diagnosed hyperthyroid, they put me on levocetirizine, which is synthetic t four what happens is your body uses t-pre and theoretically the synthetic t four your body converts that into t three that your body can use. My body wasn’t doing that, so I was getting sicker and sicker and sicker and out of desperation I started doing research and I found out that before synthetic t four are low accidents. Irene people have been using natural desiccated thyroid, which is basically where you strike pink thyroid since the 1800’s with a lot of success. I managed to get my hands on some natural desiccated thyroid. The one that I started with was made in Canada and I’m now using one that’s made in, I think it’s made in Georgia here in the states.

DAVID TOMEN: Well that changed everything because natural desiccated thyroid provides the natural fibroid hormones. Just like human thyroid hormones in a solve my problem, but it took a couple of years from my body to heal.

KIM: –Hmm Mm.

DAVID TOMEN: But that work for me. If synthetic thyroid works or somebody’s fantastic. I say –

KIM: –Right.

DAVID TOMEN: -keep on doing it, but if –

KIM: –Right.

DAVID TOMEN: -it doesn’t, natural desiccated thyroid has been used for 150 years successfully, but endocrinologists don’t know anything about it. My TSH is almost negative, like it doesn’t even show up. It’s like .01 or something like that. And as soon as a regular endocrinologist looks at that, they go, you’re hyper, hyper thyroid. And I’m going, no, I’m not. I’m hypo thyroid. So personally in North Palm Beach I found a natural path that was willing to work with me and listens to my symptoms more than he reads –

KIM: –Yup.

DAVID TOMEN: -labs –

KIM: –Yups.

DAVID TOMEN: -and works with me and prescribed natural desiccated thyroid, which I’ve been on for I guess six years now. And it works fantastic.

KIM: I just want listeners to know and then we can move on from thyroid hypo active thyroid means underactive thyroid.

DAVID TOMEN: –Yup.

KIM: And for those of us who are experiencing it, we might see hair loss, brittle fingernails, pasty skin. I’m going to go see hair loss again just because that was really bad for me. Weight gain, lower metabolism ,lack of focus and that’s just the beginning. I mean there’s –

DAVID TOMEN: –Yeah, there’s two columns –

KIM: –Yeah.

DAVID TOMEN: –There’s two columns of symptoms that I had three couriers ago.

KIM: Wow. Yeah. So I mean it’s nothing to mess around with and especially when your body functions just start shutting down. It’s pretty darn scary and for me, I mean, I wasn’t hungry when my thyroid is out of whack. I’m not hungry so I’m not eating, but I’m still gaining weight and that you know.

DAVID TOMEN: Yeah the thing about thyroid hormones, you got thyroid receptors throughout your body –

KIM: –Hmm. Mm.

DAVID TOMEN: and it affects everything including the gene expression needed for the symphasis of neurotransmitters.

KIM: –Mm.

DAVID TOMEN: So that’s the reason why your brain shuts down. If your body’s not producing enough thyroid hormone.

KIM: You’re challenging the C I got in biology and chemistry in high school today. I’ve just, I just need to put that out there. I’m like, okay. I remember and I understand a lot of the expressions, but I’m like, okay, I’m going to have to look this one up. Can I bounce back a little bit further?

DAVID TOMEN: Yeah.

KIM:  What is a nootropic stack? You said I could ask that and I never did, but I’m really curious.

DAVID TOMEN: A nootropic stack is just a combination of the tropics that you put together and it takes all at ones, so you can get a pre formulated nootropic stack like [inaudible] lab pro or there’s a lot [inaudible] because the word nootropic is started to gain,people are starting to learn what it is and all the big companies. Now foods and Irwin naturals and doctors best and gyo herbs a couple of months ago came up with three of their version of nootropic stacks for three different issues, but it’s just a combination of supplements that work together in one stack to help you solve a problem, whether it’s anxiety or depression or memory or whatever it is. AHD As for the stacks, the first nootropic stack I ever bought was at GNC and it’s called focus factor and they still sell it actually it was the first one that I became aware of and it’s got a whole bunch of vitamins and minerals in it, in a bunch of stuff that I still use but in lower doses. But back 12 years ago, that was my first exposure to a nop, nootropic stack before I even knew what the word nootropic was. I’d never heard of it before.

KIM: David, for listeners in the states, I’m curious, does the FDA have regulations on new topics or new topics? Because I see a lot of benefits here, but then the FDA in general confuses me because –

DAVID TOMEN: –Hmm Mm.

KIM: -you know, they regulate food and drug administration –

DAVID TOMEN: –Yeah.

KIM: -and maybe if they were helping us eat, you know, maybe if there better policies on food and I know I’m like speaking a lot –

DAVID TOMEN: –This is a whole different conversation.

KIM: Yeah. But you know, I don’t think that it should be regulated. I’d rather see people using natural herbs and supplements then being prescribed more drugs and I know could probably get sued for that from, you know, Oprah got sued about beef. I don’t want to be sued by you know, some drug company, but.

DAVID TOMEN: No, there’s obviously a big fight between big farm in the United States and dietary supplement companies.

KIM: –Hmm Mm.

DAVID TOMEN: It’s really,  really hot because he dietary supplement industry is in the billions of dollars now, but dietary supplements fall under the category of food and the FDA takes care of drugs and so to get a drug approved a company spends billions of dollars on research and getting it through clinical trials and stuff. You don’t have to do that with dietary supplements. They’re considered food and the thing about the dietary supplement industry is maturing and back in, 19 can’t remember the date, 1994 I think it was a DSHGA, the dietary supplement act was passed by a couple of very wise congressmen to protect the dietary supplement industry so that people can keep on selling them without getting hassled by people like the FDA, but you still have to be very, very careful when you’re writing about this stuff and advertising it. If I’m talking about something like CDP calling, I can say that it cures this and that and this and that. But if it’s in a supplement that’s being sold, I can’t say that it cures anything, it’s illegal.

KIM: So you’re saying that by it-self, you can say that it does this, that and then the other thing that it supposedly does,

DAVID TOMEN: If it’s in a product, in a bottled with a product name on it and it’s on a shelf, you cannot put on that label or in the advertising that a curious, anything.

KIM: Wow. So for people who are listening in are like, and I’m not wrapping up now, but I can see a lot of people thinking, okay, I want increased brain function. Where can I go get this? Is there a right way and a wrong way to get –

DAVID TOMEN: –Yeah. –

KIM: started with nootro? Okay. You got to say it because I feel like I’m slaughtering the word everything.

DAVID TOMEN: Well, what I’ve found, I’ve been doing this long enough to realize that people, well first of all people are used to their conditioned to look for a one pill solution. So there is suffering with anxiety or depression or ADHD or something. They’re looking for one pill that will help them solve that problem and that’ just not the way life works. Because there’s usually a combination of things that are going on in your brain, in your body that’s causing whatever that problem is. So it’s gonna take more than one thing to solve the problem. But, what was your question again?

KIM: Is there a right way and a wrong way?

DAVID TOMEN: –Yeah.

KIM: If I can throw another question in there really fast, –

DAVID TOMEN: –Sure, go ahead.

KIM: -Like at least here in the states, you know we have health insurance so we can go get drugs, but these are not prescribed so it’s out of pocket. And this could be controversial. Should they be covered under health insurance?

DAVID TOMEN: Yeah I think absolutely should.

KIM: –Hmm Mm.

DAVID TOMEN: Absolutely should. The right way in the wrong way. The wrong thing to do is to try something and if it doesn’t work to quit.

KIM: –Yeah.

DAVID TOMEN: Because that’s not fair. You’re not being fair to yourself and you’re not being fair to the things that can work because in all likelihood there is something out there that will help you solve whatever it is that you’re trying to solve. You just have to have the motivation and be willing to look for it into experiment and that until you find something that does work and that’s one of the reasons why starting nootropics expert to help people figure this thing out. You can go to nootropicsexpert.com and if you’re dealing with learning and memory, for example, you’ve got a problem with that. You go to my post on best new tropics for learning and memory and I explained to you exactly how memory works in your brain, your hippocampus in memory, cleo cells and memory and rights and memory, axons and memory, and that. I go onto neuroplasticity and how meditation affects it fitness and exercise, DDHA, stimulants, and then I go into the molecular biology of number and there’s two reasons why. Well, there’s more than two reasons why I do this, but broadly speaking, the one reason I do this is I want people to understand why this stuff works. Let me guys is this is not just pie in the sky kind of stuff it’s not snake oil. We know now neurosciences advanced enough now to know, right [inaudible] to the molecular level. How memory works in your brain, for example. And once we know that, then we’ve got a basis to work from so that we can find supplements that support that particular thing. Right. But you’ve gotta be willing to do that.

KIM: You’ve got me so intrigued right now that was not proper grammar, but you had me so intrigued in my family, like my sister and I, we can remember the most obscure details. I remember the first phone number that my family ever had and we didn’t have that phone number after maybe the age of seven. I remember names and phone numbers of elementary school friends that I haven’t been friends with since I was 10 I mean that’s 30 years ago. Right. But my husband can’t remember my birthday or anniversary or the grocery list for that matter.

DAVID TOMEN: Well and the thing about memory is that there’s long term memory, which is what you’re talking about.

KIM: –Hmm Mm.

DAVID TOMEN: And there’s also short term memory and working memory. Yep. We sure are very different kinds of memory and they work differently than your brain. Very differently in your brain. So we know how they work and we know how we can support each one of those, how we can support working memory and short term memory and long term memory. My long term memory sucks even though I know so much about this stuff. I’m not sure why, but my working memory and short term memory is amazing. Now, I’ll give you an example. We’ve got one of those magnet things that you get from Walmart that you put on the side of the fridge so they have no papers so that you can write down your list, right? So –

KIM: –Right. `

DAVID TOMEN: -before we go to the grocery store, we tear that thing off and we got to listen to remember what we got. If I forget that and I go to the grocery store, I can remember what’s on that list when I get to the grocery store.

KIM: Amazing.

DAVID TOMEN: Five years ago, I could not do that, but now I can. I can’t tell you exactly why I can now because I’ve done so much work on my brain to heal it and to fix it. But I did. And it works. And I am a testament that this stuff genuinely works.

KIM: No, you just said something that I find really interesting. I thought you couldn’t heal your brain.

DAVID TOMEN: You absolutely can. Your brain is a miracle. It’s an absolute miracle about how it works. Probably about 20 years ago or so, we thought that the human brain lost neurons older. You’ve got, right?

KIM: Yeah.

DAVID TOMEN: And other thing is that you only use 10% of your brain.

KIM: –Right.

DAVID TOMEN: That’s not true. That headline came from some clinical study that was done about 20 or 30 years ago and I have to go back because I don’t even remember. Oh, I know what it is and this has to do with astrocytes cells and let me read you one paragraph here from her a one paragraph from the tropics expert I’m looking at the astrocytes cell discovery of memory prioritization published in the journal Neuron is a particularly significant because astrocytes are glial cells making up nearly 90% of your brain cells. Glial cells were once thought to simply provide support for neurons and this is where the idea that we only use 10% of our brain comes from. That’s where it comes from,

KIM: –Mm.

DAVID TOMEN: Right? And I’ve got a link to the clinical study that shows where that comes from, but we know that that’s simply not true. We use 100% of our brain and our brain has got this amazing ability to heal itself of brain derived. Neurotropic factor that I referred to earlier is considered by one scientist as a miracle grow for your brain. If you can boost brain derived neurotropic factor in your brain, you can heal your mood, you can heal anxiety, you can feel ADHD, you can heal, you can help prevent things like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and nerve growth factors and now they want it. There are certain nootropics that boost nerve growth factor in your brain as well, but each one of these things works differently and when you put them together in a stack, you can produce a miracle.

KIM: David, I was watching a training a couple of years ago and it struck me hard is the best word that I can use because the doctor who will remain nameless was talking about, we’ve already done a lot of damage to our brains. I mean the foods that we’ve been eating, the drinks that we’ve been drinking, we could be giving ourselves Alzheimer’s just from the diet choices that we are making.

DAVID TOMEN: –Yup.

KIM: And both sides of my family have Alzheimer’s, really bad Alzheimer’s and dementia. So are you saying that I could theoretically course correct it or am I –

DAVID TOMEN: Yes, you can.

KIM: Wow. Okay. I’m intrigued. Now I want to go back then to the earlier question for people who are curious and want to get started, what should we be looking for when we’re out doing research? I mean, clearly we need to go to your website, but when we’re about to start shopping, are there words or certifications or anything like that that we should be looking for to make sure that we’re buying legitimate substances?

DAVID TOMEN: I’m glad you asked that question. Uh, one of the problems that we have in the dietary supplement businesses, there’s a lot of shysters and because there’s so much money to be made, anybody can put something in a castle and sell up or something and claim that it does something. So I wrote a post, I think I wrote two post in this on how to choose the best dietary supplement and there are certain things to look for things like, remember the I couple of years ago, there was a headline in the New York attorney general accused people like target and GNC and Walmart and Walgreens from selling supplements that had wheat grass in them instead of what they claimed on the label.

KIM: I don’t recall that.

DAVID TOMEN: That’s a real problem. There are a handful of companies that we recognize as being legitimate that know what they’re doing and test their products. They test the raw materials as it comes into their plant. They tested during encapsulation and then they test it again after it’s been encapsulated in before they ship it out to retailers and we can prove it. If you asked for a certificate of analysis they’re willing to provide that certificate of analysis to show that what they is on the label in their product is genuinely on the label because it was tested by a third party testing post that said, yeah, what you’re saying is true.

KIM: Now, will the reputable companies post these on their websites too?

DAVID TOMEN: Some of them do.

KIM: –Okay.

DAVID TOMEN: Some of them do and some of them you have to ask for it, –

KIM:  –Hmm.

DAVID TOMEN: -but you can find this information every once in a while you were surprised, like nature’s way, for example, is an American company who tends to sell. They’re not discounted whether it prices lower than a lot of other companies out there, so you would assume that it’s a lower quality product. It turns out that nature’s way is got one of the most raw bust testing programs in the industry, and you’ll find that out by going to their website and they’ve got a part on their website, this devoted and shows you exactly what they do and how they test their products so that you know that when you’re buying a nature’s way product to Walmart, you’re getting the real thing.

KIM: –Wow.

DAVID TOMEN: The other thing that you want to look for is there are very few companies that produce products without any additives in them, and that’s one of the things that really hurts me. Because it’s possible to do, I know that this company that I was talking about in England that kind of like got me started on this down this path produces mind lab pro and performance lab that was in the capsule is exactly what’s in the capsule and they don’t have anything in the capsule. There’s no magnesium dioxide magnesium’s theory or all of these other chemical names that you don’t understand what they are and you can’t even pronounce them that you see on a, on a label for a supplement. They don’t have to be there. The reason why they’re there is to do things like improve color of the product to help the flow of the powder through machines so it doesn’t stick and to improve shelf life, –

KIM: –Hmm.

DAVID TOMEN: -but it’s not absolutely critical for it to be in there. You can produce a product and this company in England has proven that you can produce a product that’s pure with nothing else in there. So that’s another thing to look for is what kind of additives in there. Like a classic example is you go to any one of the big stores and you pick up something like Centrum, right?

KIM: Right.

DAVID TOMEN: A multivitamin for your kid,

KIM: –Right.

DAVID TOMEN: -the gummies, it’s all synthetic. It’s all chemicals, –

KIM:  –Wow.

DAVID TOMEN: -there’s nothing in there. It’s bad for your kid and it’s bad for you. But you have to know what to look for. I wrote articles on the 13 vitamins that are critical for brain health and 13 minerals that are critical for brain health and how to choose the best multivitamin or brain health. And the article’s explain exactly what to look for on how these vitamins and minerals need to be produced in as possible to produce some sort of that nature identical to food. Right?

KIM: Right.

DAVID TOMEN: And the same thing with minerals. You can grow the minerals just like kind of minerals that you get from food. Most of these companies take the cheap way and use ground up rock.

KIM: –Huh?

DAVID TOMEN: Your body can’t use the ground up rock.

KIM: –Right.

DAVID TOMEN: So this company that I was talking about, Optune nature, they make performance lab and vinyl pro other companies like garden of life and another one new chapter in a couple of other companies. Actually go above and beyond what most companies do and produce products that are absolutely natural.

KIM: Now, listeners I can hear you wondering where you can get these articles. David, I would love to know if you would send me the links to any of the articles that you’ve just sent so I can put them in the show notes and be sending people back to your website and by the way, listeners, if you’re driving, if you’re trying not to fall off the elliptical, if you’re trying not to burn dinner, you can find all the links were defined david@thekimsutton.com forward slash p p five eight four I do not want you crashing your car because you’re trying to write stuff down. Please. But yeah, would you mind sharing those links so I can make sure to put them in the showroom?

DAVID TOMEN: Absolutely. nootropics expert N O O tropics, like living in the tropics.

KIM: –Yeah.

DAVID TOMEN: Nootropicsexpert.com is the website. If you just Google nootropics expert or David Tomen, it shows up on the first page. If you go to the YouTube and you start typing in nootropics, it shows up at the top of the search results.

KIM: –Wow.

DAVID TOMEN: I’ve got 30,000 over 30,000 subscribers now and close to a hundred videos, so I’ve got a free book called secrets of the optimized brain. It’s 72 pages I think are 80 pages or something and this is a relatively small book that you can download for free. You just put in your email address and it has got about 75 or 80 of the most popular nootropics supplements that are used today and it just gives a very brief description of what it is, why would you would want to use it and how much you would use. And then I’ve got another book had first the complete guide to healing and optimizing your brain. We can tropic supplements, you can buy that on nootropics expert. It’s the first book like it has been published since 1992 and that book is nearly 600 pages 

KIM:  –Woah.

DAVID TOMEN: -and I haven’t got a hard copy yet. It’s a download for kindle or your nook or whatever you use to read on, but it’s a very, very calm, I’ve get lots of doctors and natural paths and nurses that are buying this book all over the world –

KIM: –Mm.

DAVID TOMEN: -and they use it as a manual in their practice to help patients that use it as a reference, but it’s written in plain English so that everything –

KIM: –Thank you.

DAVID TOMEN: -in each of the in headfirst and secrets of the optimized sprain and nootropics expert, everything is in plain English so that anybody can understand it. I’ve tried to keep my writing to the equivalent to a great pie of education so that it’s easy to understand and it’s all backed up by clinical studies. There’s links to thousands of clinical studies for each one of the things that I’ve written about.

KIM: David, I appreciate the fact that you did that so much. I mean, I can talk, I can’t talk. Clearly. Positive Productivity does not mean I’m speaking perfectly. I can talk about marketing, you know, the very high level and start talking about analytics and where you get this and that and that. And I have to remember sometimes, especially when even just trying to share a win with my husband that I need to take it down and I listeners, I am not trying to insult my husband, but then the same thing happens where he’s telling me about game mechanics and while I play games I still don’t understand what he is talking about. So I so appreciate that you brought it down or I even want to call it taking it up to a level where people who are not the experts can understand. Because if I wanted to hear doctor dragon, I would go to a doctor. But I don’t want to, I want to learn how to do this. And by the way, if you ever get that in hard copy, please let me know because I would be so fascinating. I’m already so fascinated.

DAVID TOMEN: I’m talking to an agent [inaudible]right now –

KIM: –Fabulous.

DAVID TOMEN: -about producing it. That’s the hard copy.

KIM: Fabulous. So could you share just one more time where listeners can find you online and connect?

DAVID TOMEN: Nootropicsexpert.com, N O O Tropics, N o o t r o p i c s expert Nootropicsexpert.com and-

KIM: –And YouTube?

DAVID TOMEN: Yeah, YouTube, which is nootropics expert a very popular channel there I’ve got a Facebook page for nootropics expert and I’m going to spend that much time on Twitter, but I tweet once or twice a week. Not that active on it, but I’m there is super easy to find me.

KIM: Fabulous. David, you’ve been totally enlightening. I just want to thank you so much for joining us today and I’m intrigued, so intrigued. I wish I actually didn’t have a call right after you because I would be digging into your website right now, but it will be on the list for tonight, but do you have a parting piece of advice or a golden nugget that you can share with listeners?

DAVID TOMEN: Yeah, if you’ve got a problem and you think that is associated with your brain, somehow do not give up because it’s possible to fix that. I mean, really don’t give up. Go to nootropicsexpert.com and use the search function on it and just search for whatever it is that’s bothering you. Or if you read something and you still don’t understand, you’ve got a question, ask the question. There’s no question that’s too dumb for this, because I’ve just, I genuinely had this stage now just want to help people the way I was helped.

KIM: Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Positive Productivity Podcast. When I’m not podcasting, I’m supporting six to seven figure business coaches with their marketing automation and entrepreneurs like you through my coaching and mastermind programs. I want to invite you to visit thekimsutton.com to learn how I can help you take your business to the next level.