My Go-To Nootropics for Thinking Faster & Sharper (PART I) | Oz Garcia & Jim Kwik

You want to have a good neuroplastic brain so that you can take your skill teaching tools and then amplify that capacity.

When you give your brain and your body what it needs, it could do extraordinary things.

The most used, quote unquote, nootropic in the world is anything that's caffeinated. So whether it's coffee, whether it's high amounts of caffeine, there's a price to pay.

Oz is a nutritionist.

Recognized as a leading authority on age reversal and healthy aging. Industry pioneer with 40 years in practice and a relentless quest He's an expert speaker.

He's an expert on longevity.

He's a biohacker, one of the OGs, and he's a New York City-based celebrity nutritionist.

New York Times bestselling author.

He's also known as the nutritionist to the stars. 5 measurable hours of productivity as opposed to 3 hours of coffee.

How important is nutrition to our overall health, especially our brain?

You're gonna actually have a relaxed brain overall while it's also maximizing your brainpower.

So, I'm gonna ask you a question.

Your brain is staying productive, clear, focused.

The statements of Dr. Oz Garcia in this podcast are his own opinions based upon personal and professional anecdotal experience and supported Dr. Oz's own research of clinical studies. None of the ingredients contained in the Kwik Mind product are claimed to treat any disease or health condition. Consult your own physician before commencing a nootropic regimen to ensure that this product is appropriate for you. This is the most important topic that we've covered on the podcast. I've waited 30-plus years. This is the most important topic. This is the most requested question that we get in our community. And that is, what supplements do you take for greater focus, a better memory, a better mood, more mental vitality and energy? Everyone wants to know the secret and the research behind nootropics. And they say in some form, I get questions like, Jim, what do you take to level up your brain to help you to focus, to help you perform at your best before you go on stage or you're writing a book or you're doing your consulting? And we all want That mental edge. And we know the key to having a better memory and a better brain performing at its best is 2 things: novelty and nutrition. Just like when you want to build your body, you give it novelty, you give it some kind of exercise and stimulus, and then you have to feed that machine with the proper nutrition to build those muscles. Well, same thing for your mental muscles. So in this episode, we are going to talk about My favorite nootropics, brain supplements to enhance your performance mentally, your focus, your memory, your mood, your mental energy and vitality, and so much more. Now, welcome. If we're new to each other, my name is Jim Kwik. I am your host and your brain coach. And I am the bestselling author of a book called Limitless. And in Limitless, we highlight some of the neuro nutrition to enhance and enrich your brain health and your brain performance. And we have a very special guest, a dear, dear friend, more like family. We met in 2016 speaking at an anti-aging longevity event in Sardinia, which some of you know is one of the Blue Zones. He, for the past, what, 40 years, is an acclaimed nutritionist and he's my go-to person. So part of the podcast is me introducing you to my coaches, my advisors, my mentors. I know a lot of people And he's the one I choose to be able to work with. And he puts together my wellness protocols, my sleep protocols, and also my cognitive protocols. And so we're going to talk about ingredients to enhance your brain. And in this episode, we're going to talk about 2 of my favorites. And this will be part 1 of a 2-part series. And thank you for being on the show.

Jim, I'm beyond delighted. Thanks for having me.

First of all, thank you for taking care of me and my family and our clients. I want to talk about some of these ingredients that we're talking about. And if you're watching this on YouTube, you see a display here. One of the announcements I want to make and that I'm very excited about is we've never in 3 decades, in over 30 years, promoted a supplement, never. And for the first time, Because people have the— they're always asking and they want to make it simple and easy, something that they could trust, something that's affordable. We created our own product with the help of Oz Garcia and other scientists and formulators. So we're going to talk about a couple of ingredients that we put in here and then we'll talk more in part 2. But how important is nutrition to our overall health, especially our brain?

Nutrition's central. Right? As is sleep, as is exercise. So we have to have a foundation on which we're going to be able to use these particular products. But the ones that we're talking about today in particular, we would refer to, Jim, as nootropics. Nootropics are particular agents, not unlike a vitamin, a mineral, an essential fatty acid, a peptide, and so on. And they have qualities that maximize brain performance overall. I would say that they're efficiency maximizers and specifically for the brain. So if you want to get the best results using the nootropics in your product, then you have to have your nutrition completely in order, right? And then on top of that, you're stacking everything else that you're going to be using. So you want to make sure that you've got the intelligence, the capacity to understand the role of these different practices, protocols, and habits so you get the maximum effect of using the nootropics in your product, for instance.

With nutrition, this is something that you don't want to take lightly. You just don't want to just go to the local health food store or Amazon and just randomly pick supplements because there's a lot of supplements, could be rather confusing. Now, you've had me on 5 ingredients for the past 8 years going on, 8 years.

At least, yeah.

That really puts me in that state where I feel like I feel unstoppable. I feel like it's nutrition for a limitless brain, if you will, because you could do learn how to speed read and remember names and languages and all that. That's the processes, but people also want to know the pill. They want something they could trust. I love these 5 ingredients when we consulted with you in formulating it because there are human studies on every single ingredient, which is so important because I value research above all and efficacy. Let's cover 2 of the ingredients in this episode.

Sure.

And then in the following episode, So let's move on to the other 3. And these again are nootropics and nootropics. People pronounce it different ways. Where do you want to start?

Well, why don't we start with bacopa? All right. There's so much info. Yeah, absolutely one of my favorites too, for a multitude of reasons. First of all, it's important to know what bacopa is. It is plant-based. It's sourced from a certain kind of medicine, Ayurvedic medicine. Bacopa is a plant-based nutrient Really quite remarkable in deep scientific studies in terms of its effectiveness on the human brain. So let's say that among the things that it does is it normalizes brain function. And by that, I mean that you're going to get a steady stream of serotonin, dopamine, GABA, and so on, specifically GABA within the brain. Now, that means that you're going to actually have a relaxed brain overall, While it's also maximizing efficiency. And by that, I mean that it's coming through and increasing your ability to think with great clarity. So if you're discharging executive function, certainly out of your cerebral cortex, you need to think really well. Bacopa is, bottom line, critical in terms of achieving your thinking goals. And then at the same time, it's doing it in a very relaxed fashion. You and I both know that The most used, quote unquote, nootropic in the world is anything that's caffeinated. So whether it's coffee, whether it's high amounts of caffeine, there's a price to pay. You're not really getting the kind of improvement overall that you're going to get from something like bacopa. And in the form that you have, which is called Sensoril, that means that it's very deep and rich in certain nutrients that are called bacosides. One is bacoside A, one is bacoside B. What does that mean? Well, these are nutrients that when you put them together actually do exactly what I said at the beginning. They maximize how well the brain works overall. In the nutrient base that we're using, you're finding that each one of the products that's in Kwik Mind actually increases the production of an enzyme, a protein called BDNF, right? Some more so than others, but copa does that too.

And BDNF is brain-derived nootropic factors?

That's correct. It's an enzyme, it's a protein. Does 2 really interesting things. One is the volume of neurons that are being produced and healthy neurons overall. As we're getting older, we're producing less BDNF. So you want to get BDNF from wherever you can, right? And then it also improves neuroplasticity. That's the ability of the brain to actually be fluid as it's getting older. And not necessarily then, even for a college student, you want to have a good neuroplastic brain so that you can take Your skill of teaching tools, right, in Limitless and all the work that you do, and then amplify that capacity. So you're neuroplastic, you're absorbing information with much greater, I'd say, grace, the ability to retain information in a much better manner, simply because the brain itself is that much more plastic, right? Well, there were 2 particular studies that I liked a lot out of More than than a dozen that you worked on and and the staff worked on to actually validate why why is it that bacopa reduces stress number one and and let me let me just elaborate on that a moment because that in in putting that study together they brought together a particular group of people so that they were using bacopa with caffeine let's say or coffee. And bacopa on its own, right? And so what you're going to get when you're drinking something that's highly caffeinated is an increased also in cortisol. You and I both know that cortisol is a stress hormone. Certain amounts you need it, but in high amounts, it's going to kick off an unpleasant effect within the brain. You're going to get higher amounts of norepinephrine. These are neurotransmitters that you and I can also elaborate on, but that kills neurons, right? So what bacopa does is it actually gets you there. It dings that part of the brain where you can think better. Without any of the cortisol there driving you. And so the fact that it just controls cortisol alone in terms of the study, this particular study, is really quite remarkable, right? You also find that with bacopa, which is really fascinating, is that in another study where bacopa was being used to actually improve its nootropic effects on the human brain, you were also thinking better. And by that I mean spatially, you were able to deal with certain concepts a lot better, with data a lot better. And you're getting the ability to discharge brain capacity in a way that very few nutrients actually do. And I think, and I think those are the 2 big gifts that you're getting from bacopa. One is the ability to regulate stress hormones that cause damage and will actually skew your brain. And the other one is the fact that it has nootropic capabilities so that you're thinking a hell of a lot better overall.

And you mentioned that we chose to make this product Caffeine-free.

That's correct.

And what are some of the benefits for that?

Well, let's say we're gonna probably talk in part 2 more about just that factor and which of the nutrients that we pick that displace caffeine overall. Caffeine causes a crash. And if we're using coffee in the amount of coffee that people typically drink, let's say if you're having a typical cup of coffee, it's 200 milligrams of caffeine.

Yeah.

Right, so you're gonna get a rush from it. You're gonna get your dopamine hit. And at some point you're gonna crash. So that's why people are yawning 3, 4, 5 hours in and they're looking for the next cup of coffee. When you're using the nutrients that are in this particular product, certainly bacopa, you're just getting an even lift throughout the day. There's no crash. And I think that that's a very important point.

Fantastic. Let's go to the second ingredient in this that we could cover. Which one would you like to cover here?

Sure. Why don't we talk about an extract of Pina Galanga? Right, which goes to the heart of what we're talking about caffeine. Alpenia is sourced from ginger and turmeric, ginger turmeric family, right? So it's also a food-based product and with with a remarkable history behind it. And also to what you said earlier, the facts and and the data and the science back up its use primarily one one form that I think is is really quite remarkable completely displaces. The use of coffee or caffeine. That's not to say that we may not enjoy our caffeine. We do, right? I like my matcha tea in the morning, but I'm not looking to blow my brain out with a cup of coffee and be a neurological mess the whole day. With an Xtra, what you're finding is a good lift in terms of thinking. In terms of the studies that we were looking at, you're talking about a good lift for about 5 hours. And it's actually doing everything that coffee or caffeine or matcha tea would do without any of the side effects whatever. When you're using coffee, what you're doing is you're stealing from the house and you're not actually getting the performance that you want that you're going to get with Alpenia or with an extra. With an extra, you're actually adding to the efficiency of how the brain is working. And that's an incomparable result when you're using these kinds of products. So when compared against, let's say, a cup of coffee and an equivalent amount of an extra, what you're getting is 5 hours steady ability to think very clearly with an equivalent rise in dopamine and no crash at all, which is what you're going to get with coffee or anything that's highly caffeinated. Certainly caffeinated energy drinks, which I think are just awful.

For supplements, this is— we formulated this for it to be easy so people don't have to take 5 bottles of brain supplements.

That's correct, yeah.

Also, the cost would be This is a fraction of the cost. They have human studies, and our objective is for them to work together synergistically.

That's correct.

Right, and so we wanted to, when we were formulating this, and people could find it at kwikmind.com, K-W-I-K mind.com, and we'll also have the research there as well, 'cause our owls, when we talk about brain types, you know, the cheetah, the owl, the dolphin, and the elephant, the owls like to see the research, obviously. Safe to take every single day?

Oh, very much so. These are, for the most part, food-derived nutrients, and that's important for people to know. So when you look at each one of the ingredients, these are actually derived from food sources, right? Plant sources. So we're not dealing with chemicals. We're dealing with nutrients that are found, for the most part, in nature. They're found in foods. And that's important for anybody who's interested in improving brain function to be aware of. It's like having a well-rounded meal. One of the ways that I talk about food, among the ways that I like to talk about food, is you want a certain kind of eating that seems to be amenable to just about everybody. So you and I would agree that the Mediterranean classical Greek way of eating, where if you and I put together a piece of seafood, complex carbohydrates, some yams, some squash, some legumes, some beans, roasted vegetables, olive oil, you're getting something that works synergistically remarkably well overall, right? And that's comparable in terms of the way that the products work together here. You kind of do that flip and you go, oh, okay, I get it. You know, each one flips over and makes the other nutrient work that much better. And that's what I thought was so remarkable about, you know, Kwik Mind.

Yeah, one of the things is I went on a trip and ran out of the product for 3 days while I was away. And I felt the difference.

Sure, you would.

And that's the thing. When you give your brain and your body what it needs, It could do extraordinary things. And especially now where people feel overloaded, they feel distracted.

That's correct.

They feel forgetful.

That's right.

And if there was a simple, easy, convenient, affordable way for people to level up their learning and their life, they could explore that.

And by using these particular nutrients, right, even if you're so inclined to be a geek and an owl, right, you're going to go onto your favorite chat box, whatever it's going to be, or Google it all. You're just going to be amazed at the data.

Mm-hmm.

In the same way that all the information is downloaded about each one of these particular products and how they work. So what I want in my day, and I know that you want in your day, and, and as I, I, as I, uh, hang out with you and I study how it is that, that you go about being you, it's incredible how you're discharging your obligations all day long and, and the energy required to do that. So the energy required is already being driven by the products that are in KwikMind. You know, just talking about the NXIVM all over again, I'm amazed at how it is it maintains high dopamine levels so that you're in flow states and you're able to think really clearly and accomplish what it is that you're doing without the needless suffering, Jimmy, that you and I both know people are dealing with all day long. It's just shove another cup of coffee, some, you know, 5-hour whatever. I don't wanna call it, you know, name it. But that's not how it is that you wanna drive your brain overall. You wanna be able to hit your pillow at night, go straight to bed.

Yeah.

Right? And not because you're dealing with caffeine still in your body 12 hours later.

Absolutely.

Remember, the primary study that was done on why an extra works over coffee or caffeine is just the fact that it's going to give you 5 measurable hours of productivity as opposed to 3 hours of coffee, where it's just going to begin to drop off. But it isn't only that it drops off, Jimmy, it's that You're also crashing at that point. You're getting a blood sugar crash. An extra doesn't do that. An extra is driving you to stay focused. And then finally, if you want to, I don't know that you would, but you're good 5, 6 hours later in terms of using this particular product. And that's what the studies confirm. But people that are interested and they don't want to get off coffee and they don't want to get off caffeine, you can use both, right? So you can use Kwik Mind And maybe what I would do is reduce overall caffeine consumption in any case. You and I know that you're better off having black tea, you're better off having green tea. There are all sorts of reasons for that. There's a nutrient in tea called L-theanine, and L-theanine actually keeps you really steady. It's a powerful antioxidant. But one of the things that you're finding too with both Bacopa and Anextra is that they have antioxidant capacity too built into them. All the nutrients do, you know, some a little bit more than others. But what does it mean to have an antioxidant? So an antioxidant specific for brain function means that it's slowing down the damage to the brain that's going to occur just as a function of wear and tear, aging, lipofusion, which is where the brain is beginning to age in terms of different areas quicker than others. And you're going to get a reduction in all of that using these particular Nutrients, right? But copa seems to have that effect to a certain extent. We'll talk about the other ones and how they work to actually reduce lipofusion and damage to the aging brain.

And that's a concern. You know, I'm in my 50s. If I may say, you're in your 70s, which you look absolutely remarkable. Is this appropriate for college students?

Yeah, that's a good point. One of the problems that you and I know about, and we may have suffered through even going through college during the times that we did, is the fact that you need to actually stay so focused for so many hours, sometimes to the detriment of your peace of mind. You're not sleeping all that well. You're driving the body, you're driving your body energetically to actually stay locked into a certain level of productivity. And unfortunately, you and I know the abuse that winds up with, that students wind up with, energy drinks, caffeine, Mm-hmm. certain medications that actually are used to increase focus, just awful. So for a college student to actually do better and not hurt themselves and wake up in the morning feeling well, these are nutrients that are going to displace the use of certain medications, which I think are just absolutely abysmal in terms of staying focused. Whether you're dealing, and I want to be clear about this, when you do the homework on the products themselves, what you find is that as a student, as a college student, you're going to find your brain is staying productive, Clear, focused. And those are important things to point out about this, as opposed to the use of certain medications that are being used, the overuse and overconsumption of caffeinated beverages.

A better alternative, clearly. So for people of college, regardless, as they move through any age or stage of life, you need to fortify your brain. You need to protect it. There are ingredients here that are neuroprotective.

That's correct.

And so, and you, well, Basically, even if they don't want to go deep into the science, they want the benefit, right? What would you say are the 3 biggest benefits of you taking this product yourself?

I think given who I am, right, and given who most people are that are interested in being productive and are ambitious and are driven to accomplish things in their life, the fact that you and I can control and mitigate stress Yeah. Right? The needless suffering that's coming off driving your adrenals, that's number one. I think the ability to regulate stress and stress hormones is critical. The second is to actually drive the neurotransmitters that allow you to think better and do that without any kind of artificial nutrients coming into your body or anti-nutrients. The third thing that I would say is the overall protective effect on the human brain.

Yeah.

So that you're getting a better brain as a consequence of using these products. And there's just no negotiation. You're not going to get a better brain by drinking the next, you know, energy drink at all. It may drive you in a particular manner, but it actually burns your brain cells out. Remember we talked about neuroplasticity. So we're adding one other element on top of the 3. The fact that these nutrients allow your brain to be that much more amenable to the environment, that it can be so much more adaptive to what's going on around it. And the requirement To actually absorb information and recall it better, I think that that's overall makes for a winning formula.

If somebody, you know, watching this or listening to this right now, I mean, they want to think better, they want to have better focus, they want to enhance their recall, their memory, and they want to protect their brain as we age. So we really want to make this a no-brainer for people, if you will.

Oh, it certainly is. And remember that people are concerned about energy, right? And the energy of the human brain too. And if you're driving it, you know, it's like, I don't want the coffee industry to come after me, but if what you're doing is driving the energy in your brain with coffee, you're cheating your brain overall, right? That there's a point where there are diminishing returns. We're talking about Alpenia galanga, which is an extract in there. And the most amazing thing is how that elevates the energy of the human brain, right? So that you're burning sugar with greater efficiency, you're burning brain fat with greater efficiency, and that makes for an overall winning formula.

So there you have it, my friends. For the last few decades, I never felt comfortable promoting the supplements that are out there. It's a confusing world. And if it was just about making money, we could easily have been promoting supplements decades. We wanted to make it— we were so protective of our community, and we wanted to offer something that has effectiveness, that is simple and convenient, that has efficacy, meaning it has studies to be able to back it up. This product I'm very proud of. This is something my family takes, our clients take, our team takes. It's something that I have a high responsibility So if you're interested, certainly you can go online and get these ingredients separately. We made it more affordable by putting it together for you in the right amounts and dosages. It's something that is highly effective and it's a clean product. It's non-GMO, it's a vegan product, it's gluten-free, all of the things that we talk about in our work. So if you want more information, And you'd like to be some of the first in our community to benefit from it, just go to kwikmind.com, K-W-I-K mind dot com. See the research there, and we could have FAQs and all the answer all your questions. I want you to feel like this is something that is can be meaningful to you, and I know the world right now is is is very difficult for a lot of people. There's high levels of stress, information. overload and distraction. People are forgetting simple things. And if this could give you an edge to have greater performance, greater productivity, maybe even profitability, because your brain is your number one wealth-building asset, and most of all, peace of mind for you and your family. So, Oz Garcia, thank you so much. And I look forward to— I appreciate your work. You're on a mission to help people. You know, a mission for nutrition amongst other things. And we'll continue this conversation in part 2 where we'll go through the other 3 ingredients.

Terrific.

People could go to the show notes as always at jimkwik.com/notes. Make sure you subscribe to this episode. Test this product for yourself and the results will speak for themselves. And so thank you and we're talking about right now nutrition for A more limitless brain. Until our next episode, be limitless.