Why Should I Take Cognance?
Over the years, the concept of microdosing has really taken off; yet for the average person, it is quite an inaccessible concept to partake in (for now). Although the legislative environment is changing, wide spread microdosing accessibility is still a ways off. Luckily, we had the foresight many years ago to look towards one of the most famous natural nootropics, Bacopa monnieri. It contains the precursor for a fantastic molecule called ebelin lactone, which just so happens to be a positive allosteric modulator of one of the main receptor targets of microdosing: 5-HT2A! Through a patented extraction and processing method, we were able to, for the first time ever, concentrate massive amounts of ebelin lactone! This has never been done before, so you are among the first to try out this unique molecule! Ebelin lactone is perhaps one of the only high affinity natural 5-HT2A positive allosteric modulators. The effects you can expect from Cognance are a distinct mood boosting effect, backed up by increases in overall cognitive function, focus, and even creativity! This is, of course, not all down to 5-HT2A receptor activation. In fact, Cognance has another special trick up its sleeve. The ebelin lactone content of Cognance also acts as an M1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptor positive allosteric modulator. This is quite an important and seemingly elusive target for cognitive enhancement, and thus it is quite special to see it here alongside ebelin lactone’s 5-HT2A activity!
What is Cognance?
Cognance is an incredibly unique patented extract of Bacopa monnieri. First, we create a very potent bacoside extract, similar to our bacopa 24% bacosides product, but even more potent. We then put this extract through a two stage hydrolysis process, which mimics the natural metabolism of bacopa extracts in the human body. The first hydrolysis stage turns the various bacosides into two main compounds, jujubogenin and pseudojujubogenin. These compounds then undergo a second acid hydrolysis, which converts the jujubogenin into ebelin lactone and pseudojujubogenin into Bacogenin A1. By perfecting this process, we have been able to consistently obtain ebelin lactone concentrations in excess of 10%, which is a massive achievement.
Cognance Benefits & Uses
- Promotes cognitive function
- Enhances mood
- Promotes focus
For those who have experience with real microdosing (genuine sub-threshold effects), the effects will be recognizable, and subtle! Subtle is the name of the game here,. Cognance is not going to blow you away and send you on a spiritual journey. That is not the intent of microdosing, and it is not the intent of Cognance. However, what it will provide is a very unique sense of mental clarity, focus, and creativity paired with a very natural feeling lift in mood. These acute effects are perceptible by most when utilizing the standard 100 mg dose. However, if you want less subtle and more noticeable effects, you can bump up your dosage to 200 mg. What we are targeting here is predominantly the 5-HT2A receptors, so let’s talk about those a little more!
The 5-HT2A receptor is one of the 15 known serotonin receptors, and plays a major role in regulating the CNS, neuroplasticity, mood, creativity and focus. The 5-HT2A receptors are particularly densely distributed throughout regions of the brain that are heavily involved in cognition and mood. Thus, it is no surprise that 5-HT2A receptor dysfunction has been identified as a common thread amongst individuals with less than ideal cognitive function and mood. When 5-HT2A receptors are activated, highly complex signaling cascades occur that then end up influencing glutamatergic, cholinergic, GABAergic and even dopaminergic activity. It also forms receptor complexes (heterodimers & heteromers) with dopamine D2, cannabinoid CB1, glutamate mGluR2 and serotonin 5-HT1A. These complex reactions with other neurotransmitter systems certainly makes 5-HT2A a very important and far reaching neuromodulator, which has major implications for both cognition and mood. No wonder 5-HT2A has become such a legendary, although somewhat enigmatic, receptor target! This is why we were so excited to have found ebelin lactone, and even more excited when we figured out a clever method of producing production amounts of it! By taking Cognance, you can experience many of the beneficial effects of elevated 5-HT2A activity, such as elevated mental clarity, a lift in mood and deep calm focus!
However, while 5-HT2A is an incredibly exciting receptor target, M1 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors are just as fascinating. However, they are less talked about, and certainly underappreciated! Similar to 5-HT2A, M1 is also a G-protein coupled receptor, and both 5-HT2A and M1 use very similar signaling proteins. It is then perhaps not surprising that M1 and 5-HT2A receptors have many overlapping effects when it comes to cognitive function. A lot of research has started to point to M1 receptors being one of the main cholinergic receptors involved in cognitive function. Due to this, there has been a major effort to find selective M1 agonists; or even better, positive allosteric modulators. This effort has turned out to be incredibly hard, so it is quite spectacular that nature has given us a compound which just so happens to be a selective positive allosteric modulator of M1.
The M1 positive allosteric modulation effects, combined with the 5-HT2A positive allosteric modulation effects, gives Cognance an incredibly unique, yet very clean nootropic effect. We believe that this is a new chapter in the nootropic scene, and we hope that this process has illustrated that nature harnesses some of the most profound neuromodulators on the planet! Of course, sometimes requiring clever human intervention to liberate these fantastic molecules! We have achieved that with Cognance, and look forward to working alongside nature again to develop a full series of cutting edge herbal extracts.
