Technically referred to as “nootropics” brain boosters come in various forms and supplements, ranging from all-natural herbal extracts to synthetic “smart drug” stimulants.

Though the term “nootropic” has become somewhat misshapen and sensationalized by its association with risky, prescription-based stimulants, or smart drugs, the substances that follow the actual definition of “nootropic” are actually quite safe and healthy.

Originally coined by Dr. Corneliu E. Giurgea, the concept of nootropics encompassed a range of brain boosting substances that improve mental performance without the usual side effects associated with pharmacological drugs.

In other words, for a nootropic to be a true nootropic, it mustn’t possess the harmful risks and side effects commonly observed in the use of so-called “smart drugs” that are often mistakenly classified as nootropics.

And so, with that in mind, approaching the question “What are the best brain boosters?” requires us to also answer the question “What even are brain boosters?”

After reading this article, you’ll not only have a better gauge of what constitutes a genuine brain booster but also of what distinguishes a good brain booster from the best brain booster.

Ultimately, we’ll offer our Top 5 Highly Recommended Brain Supplements in 2020 with full analyses of what makes these nootropic supplements tick. But before we end there, let’s first start here:

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Top 5 Brain Supplements in the Market 

1. Mind Lab Pro
2. Performance Lab Mind
3. BrainPill
4. Noocube
5. Genbrain

Continue reading for our deep, detailed reviews of all the top brain boosters of 2020 currently available on the nootropic market. Enjoy!

1. Mind Lab Pro Review

A hugely popular daily nootropic stack, Mind Lab Pro is the best brain supplement for daily mental performance enhancement and long-term cognitive support.

With a simple, yet synergistic formula, Mind Lab Pro has set the standard for brain booster supplements in 2020. While many pre-made nootropics selling themselves as the “ultimate, comprehensive brain stack” are packing their capsules with every ingredient under the sun, thereby risking weak dosages and negative ingredient interactions, Mind Lab Pro only focuses on the nootropics that matter.

By pinpointing the key brain bio-pathways, this stim-free brain booster stack optimizes all aspects of cognitive performance with efficient, laser-focused precision.

If you can do more with less, always do less. Anything more than what’s necessary only inflates cost and potentially worsens the likelihood of each ingredient working, given that they may compete with each other for absorption in the gut.

But exactly does Mind Lab Pro’s ingredients do? How do they each boost brain performance, and what makes this particular arrangement of these ingredients qualify as the best brain booster of 2020?

Let’s check out the ingredients:

• Citicoline (Cognizin®): a choline + cytidine combo that promotes cholinergic memory and learning while boosting synaptic plasticity;
• Bacopa Monnieri Extract: an Ayurvedic herb that significantly improves memory, learning, and stress resistance when taken daily and consistently;
• Lion’s Mane Mushroom: a unique neuroregenerative nootropic mushroom that seems to work by increasing nerve growth factor (NGF) activity;
• Phosphatidylserine (Sharp-PS® Green): involved in the cell membrane bilayer, phosphatidylserine facilitates cell-to-cell communication;
• N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine (NALT): a catecholaminergic mood, motivation, and focus sharpener that helps reduce the side effects of stress and fatigue;
• L-Theanine (Suntheanine®): an anxiolytic amino acid sourced from green tea that promotes calm, meditative thinking without sedating the mind;
• Rhodiola Rosea Extract: the ultimate adaptogen herb that directly acts upon the stress response system to help regulate and control stress hormone activity;
• Maritime Pine Bark Extract: an antioxidant-rich tree bark that improves cerebral circulation and combats harmful free radical levels;
• B Vitamin Complex: B6, B9, B12—a smart trio of nature-identical B vitamins that assist with neurotransmitter synthesis, energy metabolism, and circulation.

The B vitamins co-facilitate L-tyrosine’s conversion into catecholamine neurotransmitters (e.g., dopamine, norepinephrine), citicoline’s choline donor supply pairs well with Bacopa monnieri’s cholinergic sharpening effects. Individually, these ingredients are great, but together they synergize, complement, and multiply each other’s effects.

Not to mention that Mind Lab Pro’s encases its all-natural nootropic ingredients in all-natural, vegan-friendly capsules constructed out of fermented tapioca (pullulan). No synthetic ingredients, cheap stimulants, or junky additives.

Altogether, Mind Lab Pro’s bio-benefits combine for 100% Brainpower for everyone, genuinely earning the title of Universal Nootropic.

Pros of Mind Lab Pro

• Smart, synergistic formula design
• Simple, yet comprehensive brain enhancement
• Increased memory, learning, and high-order thinking
• Improved mood and motivation
• Neuroprotection and neuroregeneration
• Reduced stress and anxiety
• Exceptional ingredient quality and dosages
• Safe for daily, long-term use

Cons

• Mind Lab Pro only sells through their online store; no Amazon or GNC listings

Where to Buy

Mind Lab Pro is exclusively sold online through their website: mindlabpro.com

When you buy Mind Lab Pro, the pricing varies as follows:

• 1 Bottle: $65 for 60 capsules
• 2 Bottles: $130 (+ free shipping) for 120 capsules
• 3 Bottles + 1 Free: $195 (+ free shipping) for 240 capsules

If you’re planning on taking this supplement daily for long-term use, buying in bulk is your most effective option. Essentially, the price reduces from $2.17 per serving to a deal of $1.63 per serving + free shipping. Not too shabby.

Summary:

For both short- and long-term brain support, Mind Lab Pro supplies an impressive, unique mix of high-quality nootropics that has no comparable competition in the 2020 nootropic market. Whether you’re an academic or athlete, or both, Mind Lab Pro has what your brain needs.

2. Performance Lab Mind Review

As the brain health support stack of the comprehensively diverse Performance Lab product line, Performance Lab Mind is a simple, yet powerful daily brain booster.

Performance Lab Mind is a surprisingly powerful and potent cognitive enhancer that covers a wide spectrum of brain health benefits with only a few, select nootropics.

Leaving the synthetic stuff by the wayside, Performance Lab Mind takes an all-natural approach to boosting brain performance with the following natural ingredients: Citicoline (Cognizin®), Phosphatidylserine (Sharp-PS® Green), N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and Maritime Pine Bark Extract (min. std. 95% proanthocyanidins).

Taken daily, these four ingredients work together to improve:

• Brain Energy Metabolism
• Synaptic Plasticity
• Neurotransmitter Activity
• Neurogenesis, or the creation of new neurons
• Nitric Oxide-Enhanced Circulation

And more. Really, with an emphasis on improving the basic structural blocks underlying cognition, Performance Lab Mind works best as a foundational brain booster to serve as the base of your total nootropic supplement stack.

The simplicity of Performance Lab Mind’s formula makes this brain booster very easy and safe to stack with other performance health supplements.

Not only that but Performance Lab Mind is the only supplement that supplies this exact ingredient profile at such a high, yet affordable measure of quality. For on-the-spot, competitive composure and down-the-road, cognitive support, Performance Lab Mind has your back …er, brain.

Pros of Performance Lab Mind

• Straightforward, purposeful ingredient choices
• Rock-solid, daily, foundational support and enhancement
• Mood, motivation, memory, learning, and more
• Stacks easily and safely with other brain boosters
• Exceptional quality and potency
• Highly bioavailable and well-researched ingredients
• Clean, green, vegan-friendly, eco-friendly ingredients and capsules

Cons

• Only sells through the Performance Lab online store; no Amazon or GNC listings

Where to Buy

Performance Lab Mind is exclusively sold through the Performance Lab website: performancelab.com.

Depending on how many bottles you add per order, the pricing for Performance Lab Mind works like this:

• 1 Bottle: $50 for 30 capsules
• 2 Bottles: $95 for 60 capsules (5% saving)
• 3 Bottles: $135 for 90 capsules (10% saving)

Similar to Mind Lab Pro, the more Performance Lab Mind bottles you add per order, the lower the “price per serving” goes. So, again, bulking up here is the way to go, if you plan on taking this bad boy daily for a long time.

Summary:

Performance Lab Mind is a potent, powerful brain booster that strategically stacks four highly bioavailable nootropics for daily, foundational brain health and performance support—a great stack for any and all types of thinkers.

3. BRAINPILL Review

A product by Leading Edge Health which has formulated bodybuilding male enhancement supplements in the past.

Brainpill is the cognitive enhancer which is mostly used by the students worldwide. According to their statistical analysis they have sold about 14 million bottles ever since they launched.

The brain supplement gives you striking performance leverage that affects your IQ level quite greatly.

It is composed of the natural ingredients which fight the anxiety attacks and provide relaxation time to the brain.

Certain hormonal disturbances happen in our body on a daily basis, which causes mood swings, disturbed focus and other mental related condition.

Brainpill allows your brain to get a maximum number of nutritious value which keeps it from being fragile and prone to depression.

Brainpill claims to repair the damaged neuron which contributes to better mental health and striking signs of productivity.

Pros of BrainPill

• Great memory power
• Enhanced cognitive skills
• Limit stress and anxiety
• Improve concentration
• Mood elevation
• Makes you an intimidating person

Cons

• Cannot be taken at night
• Although the ingredients are natural, some people reported alarming side effects

Summary:

Taking the side effects into the consideration, the manufacture of Brainpill calls the side effects rather temporary. Otherwise, BrainPill remains a popular brain booster among students.

 4. NOOCUBE Review

Noocube has been in the market for months and its popularity has grown to the maximum.

The formula for Noocube was specifically designed for enhanced focus, memory, and mental speed.

There are plenty of ingredients in Noocube and every one of them has a vivid clinical study background, making them safer for use.

Like Nootromin, the primary ingredient is Noocube is Alpha GPC which works as the agonist for acetylcholine secretion which is good for brain functions.

In addition, the ingredients in Noocube stops the production of acetylcholinesterase, which breaks down acetylcholine and causes mental aging.

Customer reviews for NooCube are available in a large number and most of them are positive.

Pros of NooCube

• Clinically tested and approved ingredients
• Improve the generation of neurotransmitters at a faster rate
• Inhibits the neuron degeneration process
• Contains essential amino acid required for better brain functions
• Soothes your mind and body at the same time
• No side effects reported

Cons

• NooCube is not available at the stores nearby
• Available only at the official webpage of the company

Summary:

Though not the most unique brain booster supplement on the market, NooCube does supply a smart selection of ingredients that work particularly well at improving acetylcholine function.

5. GENBRAIN Review

Genbrain according to some people is a premium grade Nootropic that is made to increase cognitive vitality.

The company is located in the USA and made these products in a match with the FDA standards.

The core concept is to provide the brain with basic nutrients that help in cognitive functioning.

The idea of increasing the energy level of the brain is unique because that’s how you gain mental attentiveness and vigorous concentration and speaking power.

Your brain focus and clarity will be highly improved upon maximum energy supply and you will look quite motivated at office or college.

Pros of Genbrain

• Sharpens mental focus and clarity
• Makes you professionally creative and personally focused
• Toughen up the neurons
• Provide an efficient amount of energy to the brain cells
• Improve mental well-being
• Offers 14-days free trial

Cons

• You will only see the results upon 2-3 months of use
• Some ingredients in Genbrain causes allergic reactions in hypersensitive individuals

Summary:

Genbrain may be a powerful brain supplement but most of its users are college grade students who only use it for memory retaining tasks.

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How Do Brain Supplements Work?

Ever since the 2011 movie Limitless, there’s been a stubborn, pervasive notion that there truly exists a standalone pill that can improve all areas of cognitive performance immediately resulting in genius levels of computer-like mental processing and productivity.

A complete shift in personality and motivation.

The quest for such a substance perhaps even predates Limitless, originating in the early alchemists’ search for the philosopher’s stone and fountain of youth. But, as we know, brain supplements don’t actually work that way.

Instead of allowing your brain to transcend itself, brain boosters work by optimizing your natural brain structures to their highest potential, ensuring that everything’s in cohesive working order. Emphasis on natural here, which is counter to the synthetic pathways taken by, say, stimulant cognitive enhancers.

Whereas stimulants synthetically increase brain performance to an unnatural level, resulting in potential long-term issues, natural nootropics improve cognition in a way that supports long-term brain health.

And these natural nootropics work by specifically targeting the following brain bio-pathways:

Brain Energy Metabolism

Contrary to stimulants, which flush the brain with artificial energy, nootropics help optimize natural brain energy metabolism, essentially promoting the brain’s ability to create energy for itself. By promoting and protecting brain mitochondria, the organelles that convert food fuel into cellular ATP energy, natural brain boosters help maintain a higher energy baseline for greater overall brainpower.

Neurotransmitters

By supplying raw neurochemical precursors and co-facilitating the syntheses of neurotransmitters, nootropic brain boosters help optimize a healthy brain chemical balance for virtually all neurochemical pathways—e.g., dopamine, acetylcholine, serotonin, and so on. Given the interplay between these pathways, it’s important to ensure that they’re all up to speed, lest one weak link breaks the chain.

Cerebral Circulation

The brain needs oxygen and nutrients for nourishment. When cerebral circulation, or blood flow to the brain, is blocked, the brain enters a state of malnourishment due to low levels of oxygen and energy fuel. Nootropics that improve nitric oxide levels and protect blood vessels may help keep cerebral circulation flowing and the brain well-nourished.

Brainwaves

It’s wild to think that body carries and electric charge, but it’s true. In the brain, this charge manifests as brainwaves, which we can measure with an electroencephalogram (EEG). Certain brainwave states associate with certain cognitive patterns, and so brain boosters that influence brainwaves, such as the amino L-theanine’s promotion of alpha brainwaves, may affect mood state and mental performance.

Neuroprotection

Antioxidant nootropics, in particular, possess neuroprotection advantages by way of reducing the negative impact of oxidative stress. Other nootropics may protect neurons through other bio-mechanisms, such as regulating inflammation, reducing amyloid plaque buildup, combatting homocysteine damages, and so on.

Neuroregeneration

Though we can’t grow entirely new brains, certain nootropics with neuroregenerative properties may help repair and rebuild damaged neurons and neuronal pathways. By increasing nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) activities, these brain boosters improve the brain’s natural capacity to self-regenerate.

Benefits of Brain Supplements to the Users

With the right brain supplement, you can improve both short-term and long-term measures of cognitive health and performance, including:

1. Focus and Concentration: Ever feel like, no matter how hard you try, you can’t help but get distracted, despite the importance and abundance of work right in front of you? By calming the mind and increasing awake-promoting neurochemicals, nootropics can help keep your mind fully engaged on the task at hand …regardless of that YouTube app icon on your phone beckoning for you to touch it.
2. Mood and Motivation: Low energy and poor mood are major determinants to work productivity and motivation. By elevating mood levels and energy production, nootropics may help you have more complete, fulfilling workdays.
3. Memory and Learning: Namely through the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, cholinergic nootropics may help bolster your memory and learning capacity for improved information storage, processing, and recall.
4. Stress Resistance: One of the biggest barriers to cognitive health and composure is stress. Adaptogenic nootropics in particular, that is to say cognitive enhancers that help your brain and body adapt to stress, may increase your natural, internal defense systems against a stress response run wild.
5. Neuroprotection: High levels of activity and thinking comes at a cost. Oxidative stress, measured by free radical levels, may impair virtually every aspect of your health. Antioxidant and inflammation-modulating nootropics help curtail the harmful effects of oxidative stress.
6. Neuroregeneration: Natural nootropics that improve natural growth factors, such as nerve growth factor (NGF) or brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), may help repair and regenerate damaged neurons.
7. Cognitive Longevity: Altogether, by improving the measures of cognitive health and performance mentioned above, nootropics may help lessen the impact of natural age-related cognitive decline.

Which Brain Supplement Should You Buy?

Are you looking for a comprehensive, one-and-done nootropic stack or a solid, nootropic base stack upon which to further add more brain boosters and cognitive-related health supplements?

If the former, you can do no better than Mind Lab Pro. Individually, each ingredient in this formula works really well at boosting a few aspects of brain health and performance.

Altogether, this highly synergistic formula optimizes all cognitive measures by directly targeting the six brainy “pressure point” bio-pathways:

1. Brain Energy
2. Brain Chemicals
3. Brain Blood Flow
4. Brain Waves
5. Brain Protection
6. Brain Repair and Regeneration

With all these wheels turning, the net result is 100% Brainpower across the board.

However, if you’re looking for a simpler nootropic stack that matches Mind Lab Pro’s potency and quality, yet one that allows for greater mix-and-match stack customization, Performance Lab Mind is the brain supplement you should buy.

Maintaining an all-natural, high-quality standard for all its supplements, Performance Lab truly delivers on the “health” promise implied by the term “health supplement.”

And as part of the Performance Lab product line, Performance Lab Mind not only works well with other Performance Lab health and fitness supplements, such as Performance Lab Energy and Performance Lab Sleep, but it was specifically formulated with the intent to safely stack with other health supplements.

Not that you have to stack Performance Lab Mind to unlock its total brain boosting potential. If anything, Performance Lab Mind helps unlock the potential of other supplements by giving them a sturdier foundation to build upon.

Either way, you can’t go wrong with either Mind Lab Pro or Performance Lab Mind, regardless of your particular mental performance goals.

Final Verdict

Though expertly crafted, you do not need to be a highly credentialed expert or rocket scientist or go-go-go professional to find immense value in the best brain supplements of 2020.

Having said that, if you do have high ambitions, professional or otherwise, these nootropics may significantly help unlock all the creative, genius potential waiting and brewing there in your brain. And these nootropics will unlock your potential naturally without resorting to harmful synthetics or stimulants.

Not all cognitive enhancers have to be quote-unquote “stimulating” to work.

Though stimulants do provide a reliable source of feel-good energy, they do not actually improve your cognitive health and performance with as much long-term, sustainable value as natural nootropics.

With consistent, daily supplementation, the long-term benefits of the best brain supplements of 2020 will extend well beyond 2020 into the years 2021, 2022, and beyond!

References:

https://www.outlookindia.com/outlook-spotlight/mind-lab-pro-reviews-2022-update-mind-lab-pro-results-before-and-after-120-days-news-215496
https://www.outlookindia.com/outlook-spotlight/noocube-reviews-is-noocube-brain-productivity-legit-nootropics-or-another-fake-nootropic-supplements-of-2022–news-223777
https://www.deccanherald.com/brandspot/pr-spot/noocube-review-2022-best-over-the-counter-adderall-alternative-on-the-market-1146432.html