Alpha Brain Instant Review

To say that your brain is important would be a huge understatement.

It governs all of your bodily functions, your thoughts, and your mood.

It makes sense that you’ll want your brain in tip-top condition as much as possible.

Proper nutrition, good sleep, and regular physical activity are the three cornerstones for keeping your brain – and body – in a good shape.

However, with the rising demands of today’s world, adding proven supplements such as nootropics can give your mind the edge to think sharper, remember more, and feel better. A good nootropic should be safe and effective when it comes to improving your concentration & executive functions.

A nootropic we’ll be reviewing today is called Alpha Brain Instant, which is powdered drink. It comes as an alternative to already popular Alpha Brain capsules from the same brand – Onnit.

We’ll see if Alpha Brain Instant can really help improve your focus, information processing, mood, and overall cognitive function as it claims in the sections below. Starting with a brief summary to get an idea about what you can expect.

Onnit Alpha Brain Instant Summarized

PROS

  • Contains a few well-studied ingredients such as Alpha GPC and L-Theanine
  • May help to increase your concentration and memory slightly
  • Low-stim

CONS

  • Needs to be taken a break from every few weeks due to Huperzine A
  • Other ingredients in the formula (e.g. Bacopa Monnieri) need to be taken consistently to work
  • Missing some core ingredients like Phosphatidylserine and Pine Bark Extract
  • Proprietary blends prevent us from seeing the amounts of some ingredients

SUMMARY:

We’ve found Alpha Brain Instant to be an amazingly marketed nootropic supplement, but not much more. It contains a few good ingredients that you’ll find in much cheaper nootropic supplements. However, the majority of the formula is comprised of ineffective or unproven compounds. Alpha Brain Instant’s lack of transparency with proprietary blends also suggests that some ingredients may not be dosed properly, instead, the formula may be bulked p with cheap fillers. For the price of $41.96, it is far from the best nootropic we’ve seen.

What do we recommend?

-Click to See the Current Top 3 Nootropic Supplements-

About Onnit Alpha Brain Instant

Alpha Brain Instant is a powdered nootropic drink designed to improve your brain function with its natural ingredients.

It comes in 8 all-natural flavors including:

  • Peach
  • Meyer Lemon
  • Blackberry lemonade
  • Coconut Lime
  • Pineapple Punch
  • Ruby Grapefruit
  • Variety

Unlike Onnit Alpha Brain’s capsules, the Alpha Brain Instant version is taken in scoops so you are getting bigger doses of its ingredients.

But does more mean better in this case? How will Alpha Brain Instant work for you?

I share my thoughts in-depth below.

🙂Benefits:Aids mental processing, helps with the flow state, promotes focus,…
💊Ingredients:Alpha GPC, L-Theanine, Oat Straw, Toothed Clubmoss,…
🏢Manufacturer:Onnit
☑️Availability:Official Website, Amazon
💵Pricing:$41.91/tub (30 servings)

Dosage Instructions

Directions for taking Alpha Brain Instant: you should take 1 scoop of Alpha Brain Instant with at least 8oz of water in the morning or early afternoon. Avoid taking it too close to bedtime it may cause insomnia.

Ingredients – What’s Inside Alpha Brain Instant?

Alpha Brain Instant Ingredients

Here are the ingredients in Alpha Brain Instant in case that image didn’t load for you:

  • Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine HCI) – 10mg
  • Onnit Flow Blend – 1150mg
    • L-Tyrosine (dose unknown)
    • L-Theanine (dose unknown)
    • Oat Straw Extract (dose unknown)
  • Cat’s Claw Bark Extract – 350mg
  • Onnit Focus Blend – 225mg
    • Alpha GPC (dose unknown)
    • Bacopa Monnieri (100mg)
    • Toothed Clubmoss (1% Huperzine A, 200mcg)
  • Onnit Fuel Blend (65mg)
    • L-Leucine (dose unknown)
    • Black Pepper Extract (dose unknown)
    • Pterostilbene (dose unknown)

We can see some improvements in Onnit Alpha Instant over the original Alpha Brain. Namely, this is the higher dosage of the proprietary “Onnit Flow Blend”. It weighs 1150mg compared to the original Alpha Brain’s 650mg. We also like that Onnit Alpha Brain Instant is 100% natural with its ingredients – including flavoring and sweeteners.

However, some issues from the original Alpha Brain formula were not fixed with Alpha Brain Instant.

For one, Alpha Brain Instant still contains proprietary blends. Even though the dosage of proprietary blends in Alpha Brain Instant has been increased, that doesn’t fix the root problem. You can’t see the doses of most ingredients in the blend. You can only see the total dose of the blend.

Obviously, this makes it difficult to know how effective and safe some of the ingredients in these proprietary blends are.

Before we share our final thoughts about Alpha Brain Instant’s formula, we are going to dissect each ingredient in more detail to see if the studies agree with the claims made by the manufacturer.

See for yourself:

Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine HCI) – 10mg

Vitamin B6 is a water-soluble vitamin that plays an important role in metabolism. It helps with the production and function of over 100 enzymes in the body, which are needed for breaking down proteins and sugars, and making amino acids.

Vitamin B6 deficiency can lead to many health problems including seizures, mood swings, and confusion. And it has been shown to help with sleep too—in fact, a recent study found that those who had low levels of vitamin B6 slept an average of 4 hours less than others.

The best way to get your daily dose of vitamin B6 is by eating enough foods rich in it such as potatoes, bananas, and spinach. But if you want some extra protection against cognitive decline or other conditions like high blood sugar or insomnia—a supplement could be a better option for you.

Onnit Flow Blend – 1150mg

This blend contains the following ingredients:

  • L-Tyrosine (dose unknown)
  • L-Theanine (dose unknown)
  • Oat Straw Extract (dose unknown)
  • Cat’s Claw Bark Extract – 350mg

The ingredients in this Alpha Brain Instant Blend are intended to help calm your mind without making you drowsy. Instead, they are intended to promote a “relaxed focus,” keeping you productive but not causing jitters or other side effects.

Sounds good on paper, but how will these ingredients work for you?

Tyrosine is an excellent focus-enhancer. It works particularly well when you’re under stress and surrounded by distractions. The optimal Tyrosine dosage for improving concentration is 500-1000mg per serving. Unfortunately, its dose has not been shown in Alpha Brain Instant.

As you will notice, only the dosage of Cat’s Claw is shown in this particular blend. For all we know, the rest of the blend could be mostly Oat powder, which is really cheap to produce and fill the formula with. However, this ingredient has no proven effects on cognitive function, at least not to the extent where you will notice it. Otherwise, people eating oatmeal would be having their brains firing on all cylinders all the time!

The same thing applies to Cat’s Claw, which is not backed by studies to do much for brain health, despite the claims made by Onnit.

L-theanine is the only ingredient besides L-Tyrosine that is a good, well-studied nootropic. It can help to promote alpha brain waves which in turn promotes calm mental focus – exactly what this blend is trying to achieve. Whether it really does that or not, though, depends on its dosage.

Onnit Focus Blend – 225mg

The ingredients are:

  • Alpha GPC (dose unknown)
  • Bacopa Monnieri (100mg)
  • Toothed Clubmoss (1% Huperzine A, 200mcg)

In this one, we can see the dose of two out of three ingredients, so it automatically tells us the dosage of the third one as well.

Unfortunately, the dosages are not up to par in this one. Alpha GPC is an otherwise excellent nootropic – it reliably increases acetylcholine levels which leads to better memory, information processing, and overall executive function. The problem is, that the Alpha GPC dosage needs to be at least 250-500mg per serving to have a substantial effect.

It’s a similar situation with Bacopa Monnieri. This ingredient has been shown in clinical studies to increase the growth and proliferation of dendrites, which are the extensions of your brain cells. As a result, you will gain similar benefits as with Alpha GPC; sharper memory, quicker recall, and improved cognition overall. The optimal Bacopa dosage is 300mg per day. (source: examine.com/bacopa-monnieri)

But perhaps the biggest issue with this blend is the inclusion of Huperzine A. This ingredient raises acetylcholine levels (much like Alpha GPC), but it comes with a slew of side effects when taken everyday long-term. It needs to be cycled on and off every few weeks to avoid this.

But because other ingredients in Alpha Brain Instant need to be taken everyday long-term to work efficiently (Bacopa included), taking a break due to Huperzine A limits any benefits you may experience.

Onnit Fuel Blend (65mg)

This blend consists of:

  • L-Leucine (dose unknown)
  • Black Pepper Extract (dose unknown)
  • Pterostilbene (dose unknown)

L-Leucine is an ingredient better suited for bodybuilding formulas due to its role in muscle building. It is also needed in much higher amounts than 65mg, which is the size of the entire blend!

Pterostilbene is an underresearched compound. The evidence that we do have suggests it may be similar to resveratrol, which is an antioxidant that can help promote cardiovascular health. Doesn’t have any nootropic effects.

Black pepper extract is the only ingredient in Onnit’s Fuel blend that is truly helpful. It assists in the absorption of other compounds in the formula.

Our Commentary on Alpha Brain Instant’s Ingredients

Alpha Brain capsules had some major issues with the formula that made us hesitant to say it’s one of the better nootropics on the right now. Mainly, the usage of proprietary blends with undisclosed ingredient amounts along with the use of some completely unproven ingredients (although fancy-sounding marketing and easy to fall for, we’ll admit!).

Alpha Brain Instant is not a lot different than Alpha Brain (nor Alpha Brain Black Label for that matter), it only has a higher dosage of one of the proprietary blends. It is questionable how much this will improve the lackluster effects that the original Alpha Brain had.

By itself, we think Alpha Brain Instant has ways to go as a nootropic. It has omitted several important core ingredients such as Pine Bark Extract, Phosphatidylserine, and Lion’s Mane Mushroom. The few effective ingredients that Alpha Brain Instant does have – assuming they are dosed correctly – are not enough on their own to give you as potent of a cognitive enhancement as other leading nootropics today.

User Reviews

Alpha Brain Instant enjoys good reviews from users on Amazon. It has a high score out of over 2000 testimonials there. Occasionally, you will also see a negative review. Most of the time, it is about the lack of effectiveness or side effects such as nausea, headaches, and stomach discomfort.

It is important to take these “testimonials” with a grain of salt as pretty much anyone can write them nowadays – including competitors, as well as Onnit’s representatives.

Pricing & Other Things to Consider

On its official website, Alpha Brain Instant costs $41.96 per container (30 servings).

Do we think it is a good value? We think it could improve upon some things at this price point, a more transparent ingredient label would be a good start. This would allow us to at least know how many of the key ingredients we are getting exactly.

Side Effects

Alpha Brain Instant is low-stim, so the risk of side effects such as jitters and anxiety is low. Most of the risk comes from Toothed Clubmoss (aka, Huperzia Serrata), which can cause headaches and short-term memory loss (ironically) when taken for long periods of time. Because of this, it is important to take a break from Alpha Brain Instant every few weeks.

It’s best to avoid taking it before you chat with your doctor in case you have a condition and/or are taking meds.

Conclusion to Onnit Alpha Brain Instant REVIEW

Alpha Brain Instant is a great-tasting, all-natural nootropic drink. But that’s as good as it gets!

It contains a handful of effective ingredients for brain health such as Alpha GPC, Bacopa Monnieri, and L-Tyrosine. But the doses of many of these ingredients are not shown. It is hard to say how and if at all Alpha Brain Instant will work for you.

The positive reviews online are encouraging, but so are the reviews of many other completely unproven and ineffective supplements. Personal testimonials often don’t show the whole picture, mainly due to fake reviews being written by competitors or company representatives.

At the end of the day, we’ve found Alpha Brain Instant to be a sub-par brain supplement when compared to other options on the market, especially when you factor in the price that is being charged for it.

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