Brain supplements (nootropics) are a great alternative to Adderall and other pharmaceutical drugs today. They have natural ingredients that are well-studied and shown to promote brain health from different angles.
But like with any supplement, there are so many nootropics that are questionable or downright scam products that do more harm than good.
How do you tell a good nootropic from a bad one? Today, we’ll be comparing two such products to see which one is the safer and more effective of the two.
Neuriva vs Focus Factor SUMMARY:
While neither is among the best brain supplements on the market, Focus Factor is the clear winner between the two. It contains far more ingredients, and the ingredients themselves are more effective at doing what Focus Factor’s maker claims – boosting your focus, mental energy, and memory function. Neuriva only contains 2 ingredients, one of which is not even proven by research to work.
What do we recommend?
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Neuriva vs Focus Factor: Ingredients
Neuriva’s Ingredients
Neuriva only contains two ingredients: coffee fruit extract (100mg) and phosphatidylserine (100mg).
Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a great choice. PS is a naturally occurring fatty molecule that is found inside the cell membranes of your neurons. It helps govern their fluidity as well as communication between brain cells.
Supplementing Phosphatidylserine might not give you any noticeable effects. At least, not immediately. However, over time, it can lead to improvement in mental clarity (reduction of brain fog) and reduced emotional stress. The dosage of 100mg is a bit on the lower end, though. Studies seem to point to 300mg as the optimally effective dose.
That leaves us with only one other ingredient; coffee fruit extract. Neuriva’s manufacturers say coffee fruit extract can help improve BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), and they cite a study that supports this. However, what they don’t say is that the study the cited used a whole-fruit coffee fruit powder, and Neuriva uses extract. Extract of what? Anything can be extracted from coffee fruit; vitamins, fiber, water, caffeine…
Let’s just assume for a moment that coffee fruit extract in Neuriva is indeed the same as the one used in the study. Even then, we’re talking about a single study. There is a lot more human evidence lacking to prove that this ingredient can do anything at all.
There are so many well-studied nootropics that could’ve been added to Neuriva to make it effective for not just memory, but also focus, mood, motivation, and mental energy. As it stands right now, Neuriva looks like a fairly underwhelming formula.
You might just as well just buy a standalone Phosphatidylserine supplement – it should give you the same result, perhaps even better if you find a product with 300mg of phosphatidylserine per serving, which is the optimal dosage (unlike Neuriva’s 100mg).
Okay, so Neuriva Original brain supplement is a bit of a letdown as a whole. But what about other versions of Neuriva, such as Neuriva Plus?
Neuriva Plus’ ingredients look very similar, they only have added B vitamins and a higher dose of coffee fruit.
Essentially, Neuriva Plus is the same formula as Neuriva, just with some added B vitamins, and a higher dose of coffee fruit extract. The added B-vitamins can have some degree of benefit if your diet lacks them, but that only happens if you’re a strict vegan. Animal foods all have plenty of B vitamins. Consuming extra nutrients through a supplement doesn’t lead to stronger effects.
Focus Factor’s Ingredients
Focus Factor looks like a far more comprehensive formula than that of Neuriva, right off the bat.
From the essential vitamins and minerals, to herbal extracts such as Ginkgo Biloba, Focus Factor contains quite a few solid ingredients as far as brain health goes.
Vitamin D is a nutrient over 1 billion people might be deficient in. Symptoms of deficiency can include depression, restless thoughts, insomnia, hormone issues, and many others. Vitamin D is essential for pretty much every single function of your body, including brain health, so supplementation is a good idea, especially if you don’t go in the sun that often.
Aside from vitamin D, we also have the B-complex vitamins, vitamin A, and vitamin C, all of which play their role in brain health. Supplementation can benefit your mental performance if your diet is deficient.
Other than these nutrients that you’d typically find in a multivitamin, Focus Factor, as we mentioned, also has a blend of herbs and other brain health nutrients. These include bacopa monnieri, phosphatidylserine, fish oil DHA, and Huperzine A among others.
Some of these ingredients are effective at improving memory, focus, and other aspects of cognition, but there is just one small issue – they are all in a proprietary blend. The blend only shows you the combined dose of all ingredients, but not the dose of each ingredient. This makes it extremely difficult to tell if the ingredients in Focus Factor are optimally dosed.
If we had to guess, we’d say that many of the key nootropics in Focus Factor are underdosed because the whole blend weighs over 798mg, whereas ingredients like DHA alone should be dosed close to that amount. It looks like Focus Factor has included a little bit of everything to make it look like it works.
We’ll say this, though; compared to Neuriva, Focus Factor looks by far like a more capable nootropic to deliver you better focus, sharper memory, and increased mental energy, among others.
Want to see what we rate as the best? Check our current best-rated brain health supplements guide.
Neuriva vs Focus Factor: Side Effects
Both products contain safe and commonly used ingredients in brain supplements, so the risk in both cases is low; more so with Neuriva.
Focus Factor definitely lags behind Neuriva in this area because some ingredient dosages are undisclosed, which means it could lead to side effects in certain people. If you have any sort of illness or take medication, talk with your doctor before taking Focus Factor.
Neuriva vs Focus Factor: Customer Reviews
Neuriva and Focus Factor both have plenty of reviews online. That said, Neuriva has the edge in this department as it is the more popular supplement overall, with reviews not just on Amazon but also comments on websites like Reddit.
Pricing & Availability
A 30-ct bottle of Neuriva costs $32.99 on its official website. Focus Factor is available in different versions, including the Original and Extra Strength. Most people will go for Extra Strength as it is the more effective one – it costs $39.99 per bottle.
Final Verdict
Between the two, Focus Factor is the clear winner. It has more ingredients than Neuriva, and the ingredients themselves are more likely better-dosed (although we can’t tell for sure for some of them due to a proprietary blend). I
Focus Factor does cost a little bit more if opting for the Extra Strength version, but in our opinion, it’s worth it more than its competitor; even though it’s not the best nootropic we’ve seen. Neuriva is a rip-off with only 2 ingredients, one of which is not even proven to work!
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