Onnit Flow Blend 650mg
L-Tyrosine
Tyrosine is a non essential amino acid that the body makes from another amino acid, phenylalanine. It's essential for neurotransmitter production, including epinephrine, norepinephrine and the more commonly known dopamine. These three work together to create improved memory, motivation and focus overall. The issue here is that we're left wondering if the dosage is correct, as what we'd want to see is around 500mg of L-Tyrosine. It seems unlikely that they would only leave 150mg for the other three ingredients present, so we're going to say this is likely an under dosed and ineffective inclusion.
L-Theanine
L-Theanine is an amino acid that is actually naturally occurring and can be found in tea. Tea is known for having anti-stress properties and it's L-Theanine that you can thank for that. It essentially increases levels of serotonin, GABA and dopamine in the body, that provides raised alertness alongside helping you to maintain a calm and relaxed demeanour. It's best we don't repeat ourselves too much but once again attention needs to be brought onto the dosage, as we'd really like to see around 200mg of the stuff. It seems a common issue here is that the right ingredients are being used, just not enough of them.
Oat Straw Extract
We found a study showing the effectiveness of this ingredient being potentially quite strong, with a reasonably high increase in working memory against a placebo. We won't waste your time too much, the dosage within the tests started at 430mg, there's simply not enough room for it to be able to be dosed effectively, leaving it in uncharted territory. On top of this, we really did find one study, so it's clear further research needs to be done before we can conclusively say definitively say that Oat Straw Extract is effective, as until these results are replicated there's just not enough data.
Phosphatidylserine
Interestingly Phosphatidylserine is a fatty substance which covers and helps to protect brain cells and carries messages between them, and research suggests this declines with age. There's several clinical trials that suggest in may boost cognitive functions, as people who supplemented reportedly scoring higher on short term memory, mood and concentration tests. We'd be wanting about 100mg of the stuff, so it's somewhat likely this has been properly dosed. It certainly seems more logical to properly dose what you can whilst leaving the others lesser, though this is of course just speculation.
Just to put things into perspective, for everything in this blend to be properly dosed the combined mass would have to be 1,230mg. When compared to the 650mg we get, it's just less than half of what it'd take to get a proper thumbs up from us. Seems their knowledge is there, and they perhaps opted for lower doses as a way to save money, then attempted to cover it up with their proprietary blend.
Onnit Focus Blend 240mg
Alpha GPC 139.6mg
Alpha GPC has been found to increase motivation in a group of 40 volunteers. The study had the volunteers record their emotions following the KOKORO scale and found an increase of motivation in those supplemented with 200mg of Alpha GPC. This is impressive, though unfortunately leaves us under dosed here as thankfully we can determine the dosage used thanks to Alpha Brain divulging the doses of the other two ingredients present.
Bacopa Extract 100mg
Bacopa may very well be the most widely used ingredient in any modern nootropic supplement, and there's a very good reason for this. If you've researched cognitive enhancers before you'll have come across this one for sure, as it's quite well known for it's ability better balance mood, slow cognitive decline and improve cognitive function overall. This is thanks in large part due to an abundance of bacosides A and B present. Clinical research conducted on the effects of bacopa extract on cognitive performance typically started doses at around 300mg, and again it seems we are doomed to repeat ourselves.
Toothed Clubmoss 0.4mg
The clubmoss Huperzia Serrata has been used for centuries in Chinese folk medicine, and it's uses in the modern day have extended to treat alzheimer's disease, though further research is needed to determine its effectiveness here. The active ingredient, huperzine A, helps to prevent the build up of plaques on the brain that develop with age, helping to retain more youthful brain function.
Onnit Fuel Blend 60mg
L-Leucine
This one has left us scratching our heads a bit, as its presence within the fuel blend might leave you to believe it will provide you with some form of energy, but we could only find clinical trails for L-Leucines ability to help stimulate muscle growth. We're not particularly convinced it's inclusion here will help optimise nervous system communication, as suggested by Onnit on the Alpha Brain product page.
Pterostilbene
Pterostilbene is a naturally occurring compound primarily found in blueberries. Structurally similar to the better known resveratrol (thanks to is presence in red wine) leading to comparable properties, though animal studies suggest that pterostilbene has an impressive 80% bioavailability to resveratrols 20%, leading some to believe it's more effective. A fine inclusion, doesn't really help improve cognitive performance but its anti-oxidant effects are welcome nonetheless.
Vitamin B6 10mg
The thing with vitamins and most dietary supplements is that their inclusion is kind of like adding a drop of milk to combat a really spicy dish when you've already developed a strong heat tolerance; you're not going to be able to tell it's there. For a few of us that might not be the case, but unless you're not getting enough vitamin b6 in your diet already then you will not see a benefit for its inclusion. See when our bodies are presented with these vitamins and minerals it will absorb what it needs and simply waste the rest through urine, rendering supplementation often completely useless.
Cat's Claw Extract 350mg
This is kind of the stand out ingredient for alpha brain, not commonly seen so let's see how it fairs. Its use in medicine dates back at least 2,000 years as the indigenous people of South and Central America would use it to ward off disease. Now there have been very few clinical trials on the effectiveness of Cats Claw extract and those that have been done have not tested it's ability to boost brain performance and in fact, cat's claw extract isn't really thought to have an effect in this area. Onnit claims its use in Alpha Brain is to support the flow blend with its ability to promote cellular integrity, but we don't really see how it can do that.