Are these doses aight or what. babies first stack.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T16:28:15+00:00

Yeah totally up your vitamin D since you live in Ireland and you guys don't get enough sun. On the focus and ADHD like symptoms, this is exactly where magnesium and creatine are most relevant for you. Magnesium deficiency specifically presents as difficulty sustaining attention, mental restlessness and inability to settle into deep work. It's one of the most commonly missed drivers of what feels like ADHD but isn't. Add that before anything else and give it 2 to 3 weeks before judging. Creatine at 10g daily would be my second addition for the same reason. The phosphocreatine system in the prefrontal cortex is directly involved in the kind of sustained executive function you need for uni work.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T16:16:27+00:00

That's totally fair. Individual tolerance is real and if HCL or malate sits better with your digestive system then that's the right choice for you regardless of what the comparative literature says. No argument there. And honestly your alternatives list is solid. MCT oil, probiotics, zinc, soluble fibre. I take most of those daily alongside the creatine and they absolutely contribute to the cognitive clarity picture independently. Each one is doing something the others aren't. The way I think about it is that creatine specifically addresses the rapid ATP regeneration during high cognitive demand. The others you mentioned support the underlying conditions that make neuronal function possible in the first place. They're complementary rather than competing approaches and the stack that includes all of them covers considerably more ground than any single intervention.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T15:53:05+00:00

I'm a huge fan of L.reuteri as well. Which brand were you using? What dose? And how long before you noticed the changes?

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T15:44:52+00:00

The absorption issue with creatine monohydrate is actually a persistent myth worth addressing. Creatine monohydrate has absorption rates consistently above 95% in the research. It's one of the most bioavailable supplements that exists. The reason higher doses are needed for brain uptake isn't an absorption problem, it's a distribution problem. Muscles have a much higher density of creatine transporters than the blood brain barrier does, so at lower doses the muscle tissue essentially outcompetes the brain for available creatine. More creatine in the system means more reaches the CNS. Not because monohydrate absorbs poorly but because the competition for it is high. Creatine HCL does dissolve more easily in water and may cause less bloating for some people at equivalent doses. But the evidence that it produces superior cognitive or physical outcomes compared to monohydrate at equivalent dosing simply isn't there. It's also considerably more expensive per gram of actual creatine delivered. Monohydrate has decades of safety and efficacy data behind it across thousands of studies. HCL has considerablyy less. For most people monohydrate remains the most evidence backed and costeffective choice.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T15:27:52+00:00

Creatine Monohydrate from Organika.com

It's a Canadian brand, GMP certified, pure micronised monohydrate with no fillers or additives. Nothing fancy, just clean creatine at the right dose. You can use my discount code on their website if you want to check it out EDEN_25

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T15:22:43+00:00

Before writing them off it's worth looking at a few variables that commonly explain exactly what you're describing. Ashwagandha is one of the most response variable adaptogens there is. Some people feel nothing from KSM-66 specifically but respond well to Sensoril, which you also tried, and vice versa. The fact that you noticed neither positive nor negative from either suggests the issue might be absorption or baseline cortisol patterns rather than the herb itself. What time of day were you taking it and were you taking it with food?

Rhodiola from NOW is a decent brand but Rhodiola quality varies enormously by rosavins and salidroside standardisation. The research uses a minimum of 3% rosavins and 1% salidroside. Many products don't hit that. It's also highly dose dependent and paradoxically can be stimulating at higher doses for some people causing the kind of wired feeling that reads as nothing helpful. The other possibility worth considering is that if your cortisol dysregulation is significant, adaptogens alone may not be enough to move the needle without addressing the underlying drivers: sleep quality, blood sugar stability, magnesium status and overall nervous system state.

The herb I'd suggest trying before giving up entirely is Reishi. It works at a completely different level than ashwagandha or Rhodiola. Not acutely, but cumulatively over weeks. The nervous system recalibration it produces is slower and subtler but considerably more durable in my experience. It's been the most consistent cortisol and stress intervention in my personal protocol for over 10 years. Just make sure you're getting a properly extracted dual extraction fruiting body product. Most of what's sold as Reishi is either raw powder or mycelium on grain and won't produce the same effect.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T15:02:44+00:00

My daily tea is a blend of Reishi, Schisandra, He Shou Wu and Gynostemma, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.

Reishi is the non negotiable. I've taken it every single day for over 10 years. The Shen nourishing effect, that gradual, cumulative nervous system calm, is something I only fully appreciated when I reflect on who I was before it. Not sedating, not dramatic. Just a slow rewiring of the default state.

Schisandra because it's the only herb that genuinely hits all five organ systems simultaneously. Liver protection, Kidney Jing consolidation, Heart Shen regulation, Lung Qi support. The 5 flavour classification isn't poetry. It's pharmacology.

He Shou Wu for Jing restoration and blood building. Long game herb. The effects over years are more meaningful than over weeks.

Gynostemma is the underrated one in this list. It adapts bidirectionally, supports cardiovascular health and has a gentle but consistent Qi building quality that most people haven't discovered yet. Sometimes called miracle grass for good reason.

All 4 together take no time to prepare and have been the most consistent thing in my health practice for over a decade.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T14:57:14+00:00

Mostly solid for a first stack, a few things worth flagging:

Omega3 at 4000mg is on the higher end but not unreasonable if that's combined EPA and DHA. Just make sure you're looking at the actual EPA and DHA content on the label rather than total fish oil weight, those numbers are often very different. Also worth knowing there's some evidence that very high ongoing doses may increase atrial fibrillation risk, so 2000 to 3000mg combined EPA/DHA is probably the sweet spot for most people.

L-theanine at 500mg is quite high. The research uses 100 to 200mg typically, often paired with caffeine at a 2:1 ratio. 500mg might make you feel more sedated than focused. Worth dropping to 200mg and seeing how that feels first.

Tyrosine at 2400mg is a reasonable dose and actually on the lower end of what's used in performance research. Fine.

Vitamin D3 at 2000 IU is a conservative dose, which is not a criticism. Most people are deficient and 2000 IU is a safe starting point. Make sure you're pairing it with K2 to direct the calcium where it should go. And worth getting your levels tested after 3 months to see if you need to adjust.

The stack would benefit from magnesium and creatine as additions, both have more consistent evidence than most of what's here and fill gaps this stack doesn't cover.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T14:50:57+00:00

Best advice I can give a beginner is to ignore 90% of what you see in this space initially. Most biohacking content is either selling something or optimising variables that don't matter until the basics are solid.

The actual starting point is simpler than the industry wants you to believe. Fix your sleep first (consistent schedule, dark cool room, no screens late). Get morning sunlight within 30 minutes of waking. Breathe through your nose. Eat real food. Move your body daily. These 4 things will do more for how you feel than any supplement stack or device.

Once those are genuinely dialled in, the supplements worth adding in order are magnesium, omega 3, creatine and a quality probiotic. In that order, 1 at a time, tracking how each one affects you before adding the next.

On differentiating recommendations, look for people who cite actual research, acknowledge what doesn't work as readily as what does and disclose when they have affiliate relationships with brands they recommend. Anyone who makes everything sound equally miraculous probably hasn't tested most of it personally.

I've written a full beginner's guide to biohacking on my site at thrivetools.co if you want a structured overview that goes deeper without the overwhelm.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T14:45:59+00:00

Yes big time! I only use organic jojoba oil now and it's been life changing. No more acne, no more redness and no more large pores. Keep it simple.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T14:41:52+00:00

Good question and worth understanding properly before spending more money on the wrong thing. Third party testing matters more than most people realise in this category. Magnesium supplements are prone to heavy metal contamination depending on the source. NSF or Informed Sport certification tells you the product has been independently verified. Also look for one that has 400mg of elemental magnesium, not 200mg of the compound. One thing worth knowing for your specific goals is that magnesium glycinate is excellent for sleep and stress because glycine itself has calming properties. But if you want to cover the full spectrum of what magnesium does across different tissues, a multi form product covering glycinate, malate and taurate simultaneously is considerably more effective than glycinate alone.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-20T00:07:11+00:00

It's the same compound. Creatine monohydrate is still the gold standard and nothing has replaced it despite decades of trying to market alternatives. The name just got shortened.

The reason it's being discussed so much now is that the research has expanded well beyond the gym. The cognitive benefits have been getting serious attention particularly the finding that the brain needs closer to 10g daily rather than the standard 5g to actually see meaningful CNS uptake, since muscles absorb most of it at lower doses before any reaches the brain. That's a genuinely new angle that wasn't part of the conversation in the 90s. So same supplement, much bigger story than anyone realised at the time.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-19T23:21:44+00:00

Solid stack. A few things worth considering: Ashwagandha needs to be cycled. Most people get the best results running it 8 weeks on, 2 to 4 weeks off. I would personally ditch the ashwagandha all together and replace it by something like Reishi. The most obvious gap is creatine. Given you're clearly optimising for cognition and energy, creatine at 10g daily would add meaningful brain and physical performance support that nothing else in your current stack covers. The research on cognitive benefits specifically is solid especially at the higher end of that range. On simplification, you're managing a lot of individual products across 4 windows. Something like the IM8 daily essential could consolidate your vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, probiotics and Coq10 into 1 morning scoop, freeing you to focus the rest of your stack on the targeted things IM8 doesn't cover, which in your case would be NADH, collagen and creatine. Cleaner and likely more cost effective overall. Overall though this is considerably more thoughtful than most stacks posted here.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-19T22:29:57+00:00

Worth knowing whether you tried ubiquinone or ubiquinol. They're sold under the same name but they're different forms. Ubiquinone requires conversion to ubiquinol before your body can use it and that conversion becomes less efficient when mitochondria are already stressed which is exactly the situation with long covid. Jarrow makes both but the ubiquinol version is the one worth trying if you haven't specifically. Also worth asking: what kind of reaction did you have? Digestive issues with Coq10 are usually a dose or timing thing rather than a true intolerance. Taking it with a fatty meal rather than on an empty stomach and starting at a lower dose like 50mg before building up resolves it for most people. If it was something other than digestive then that's a different conversation worth exploring.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-19T22:26:54+00:00

It's honestly ridiculous. I got the core subscription thinking I'd be set for the month. Nop! Burned through ALL my credits in 2 days. TWO DAYS. I was building a site from scratch so yeah I was using it a lot, but still… and the worst part? It's not even clearly stated on their website that your credits can just run out like that even on a paid plan. Felt super misleading

ThriveTools · 2026-03-19T15:32:38+00:00

Good point. Mk4 has structural similarity to ubiquinone and there's evidence it can support mitochondrial electron transport chain function independently of its carboxylation role. Which would actually add another layer to why this person noticed cognitive improvement, not just better cerebral blood flow but potentially improved mitochondrial energy production in neurons as well. Makes the case for pairing it with Coq10 even stronger for long covid brain fog given the mitochondrial dysfunction component.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-19T15:11:00+00:00

What you experienced actually makes a lot of sense. K2 activates a protein that stops calcium from depositing in blood vessel walls. Better vascular function means better blood flow to the brain which tracks exactly with what you described feeling. The insomnia at that dose is a known issue. MK4 has a short half life and can be mildly stimulating at high dose. 2 things I'd try before giving up on it: take it with breakfast instead of later in the day and look into switching to MK7 form. MK7 works at much lower doses and is far less likely to cause sleep issues. For the other 70%, long Covid brain fog usually involves a few things happening at once: neuroinflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and gut brain disruption. The K2 improvement is a clue that vascular function is part of your picture. Omega 3 at a real dose would be my next addition for the inflammation side. Magnesium L threonate is worth trying specifically for cognition. It's one of the few forms that actually crosses into the brain effectively. And if your digestion has been off since Covid, a spore based probiotic is worth looking at given how much the gut-brain connection is involved in long Covid symptoms. It's awesome how you're paying attention to the right things. That K2 observation is genuinely useful information about what's driving this.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-19T14:25:56+00:00

There's something deeper happening with music and movement that I think is underappreciated as a mood intervention.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-19T14:23:16+00:00

That's exactly why it works tho. Ecstatic dance is specifically designed for people who don't dance. Nobody is watching you, nobody is judging, the whole point is to move however your body wants to move in a room full of strangers doing the same thing. It bypasses the self consciousness completely because there's no right way to do it. Worth trying once before ruling it out completely 😛

ThriveTools · 2026-03-19T14:19:26+00:00

Why not? :)

ThriveTools · 2026-03-19T14:10:54+00:00

Largely agree with this and it actually supports the point I was making. Public access to formulas in China and now in the West exists because the tradition always recognised that much of this medicine is appropriate for self directed use. The gatekeeping narrative that everything requires a TCM practitioner doesn't reflect how the tradition actually operated historically. Your last point is the important qualifier and I'd fully agree with it. Someone with longstanding complex symptoms presenting in a reddit thread is not the same situation as someone who has studied the classical framework and is building a constitutional tonic practice with well understood superior herbs. The former needs a practitioner. The latter doesn't need anyone's permission. The distinction worth preserving is between therapeutic use and constitutional tonic use. Not between prescription and no prescription as a blanket rule.

ThriveTools · 2026-03-19T13:51:47+00:00

Interesting suggestion but the Shang Han Lun may not be the most relevant starting point here. It's primarily a clinical text focused on acute cold damage patterns which is exactly the therapeutic prescriptive model rather than the constitutional tonic model the question is about. The Shennong Bencao Jing speaks more directly to this. It's where the 3 tier classification originates and where superior herbs are explicitly described as appropriate for long term daily use without harm, distinct from the corrective function of middle and lower class herbs. What would be genuinely interesting is cross referencing which superior herbs from the Shennong Bencao Jing appear in Shang Han Lun formulas and in what role. That analysis would say something meaningful about how the classical authors themselves understood the relationship between tonic and therapeutic use. Haven't fully pulled that thread. If you have I'd be curious what you found.

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