BioTest’s Brain Candy is one of a few fitness-related supplements that we’ve been asked to review. Marketed for people at the gym, Brain Candy is a completely different tier of supplement from what we normally review. However, in a sense, it is still similar in that it offers quite a few brain enhancing effects that is similar to many other nootropics. This is why we’ve actually taken an interest into Brain Candy – a product that is a little bit brain-beneficial but also a little bit gym-oriented, as its large following base from bodybuilding.com suggests.
Nootropic Ingredients
Obviously, it wouldn’t be fair to judge a supplement on its nootropic and brain enhancing effects, without first taking a look at its ingredients.
Supplement Facts (Ingredients)
Vitamin B6 (as Pyridoxine HCL) 40mg
Vitamin B12 (as Methylcobalamin) 1mg
Base Formulation 4500mg
– Includes Acetyl-L-Carnitine, N-Acetly-L-Tyrosine,
CDP Choline, DMAE, L-Theanine
Caffeine Anhydrous 300mg
What most people will almost immediately notice is the large dosage of Brain Candy’s formula. Counting it all up, it’s almost 5000mg. How does that work, though? Typical pills are between 700-1200mg. Well, to disappoint, Brain Candy is actually comes in the form of an energy drink. It does contain quite a few ingredients that help in brain function – all of them included in their base formulation.
Normally, we’d be concerned about how well the individual ingredients perform under a proprietary blend, but in this case, looking at the sheer dose of those ingredients, it seems as if Brain Candy is doing something right, with its amazing potency.
However, one important thing to consider is the 300mg dosage of caffeine anhydrous that’s been included in the formula. Arguably, it might have even be a cause for concern, considering that coffee only contains 40mg of caffeine, while Red Bull, 80mg. That shows you just how much caffeine is in there – potentially dangerous.
Brain Enhancing Effects
We had quite a few people participate in our sponsored Brain Candy trial. The whole study spanned for 3 months, culminating in a cognitive test used to measure differences in brain abilities.
We found out that our participants reported two things during their period of testing.
- They weren’t able to complete the test
- Brain Candy did not help
Basically, the dose of caffeine was just too high, that even when some of our participants took a reduction in other caffeine sources: coffee, etc. that they were getting the jitters and other similar effects associated with excessive caffeine intake. To this, we had to cut our trial period short at only 3 weeks in.
Side Effects
We weren’t able to measure how many side effects there were associated to Brain Candy due to us cutting our trials after only 3 weeks. However, the majority of the complaints associated with Brain Candy were caffeine related, such as irritability, nervousness, and also extreme jitters. Our participants, after having taken one Brain Candy for 3 weeks, also reported that they experience severe caffeine related withdrawal symptoms after the end of the trial period. We believe that there might have been other side effects, but we just could not take the risk due to the dangerously high caffeine.
Readers’ Score
According to our readers, to which some of them were fitness experts, Brain Candy works best right before a workout. The extra amount of caffeine apparently is burnt up for an extra motivational boost during an intense gym session, and by the time of the workout ends, the only active ingredients that will still be working would be the actual nootropic ones.
However, those of our readers who weren’t exactly fitness-educated weren’t too fond of Brain Candy as they just weren’t able to be productive using it. Their reports were quite similar to us, and thus, we aren’t able to give them an overly good score.
Top10BrainPills.com Score for Brain Candy: 5.3 out of 10
