Oat straw or Avena Sativa is the soothing nootropic with natural brain-boosting properties. It is a product of oats plant. The raw, green leaves and stem holder plant is used to get straw.
Traditionally, it is a nerve tonic and aphrodisiac product. It is helpful in some health conditions but most of the modern day uses of oat straw are to boost the brain activities.
The best reasons to try oat straw for nootropic assistance are as follows.
- It improves cognition. The natural ingredients of oat straw positively affect mental performance in students, professionals and older adults.
- It reduces anxiety. An unusual effect of oat straw is to improve the mood. In this way, it relaxes the nerves and makes the user feel better.
- It helps with smoking cessation. Interestingly, oat straw has benefits for people, which face nicotine withdrawal. It makes the process easy for them.
Historical overview of the medicinal uses of Oat Straw
For centuries, oats are famous as a nervine herb. The therapeutic benefits of oats made it a choice for folk wellness practices.
The historical evidence shows that this plant was a part of conventional cultivation in 2,000 BC. Believe it or not, it is one of the earliest crops of human civilization.
With time, the use of oats was increased as seed and bran. These two are used in culinary, livestock feed and traditional remedies for digestion, cardiovascular health, and nootropic boost.
The name oat is the term used to differentiate the plant from the rest. Straw is the part of the plant, which is used as the product oat straw.
It is the grassy part, which is dried, threshed and separated from other plant parts. This straw has the highest amount of essential ingredients that offer improved cognitive abilities.
The most famous cause to use oat straw, other than the dietary benefit is the aphrodisiac property.
It improves the sexual health, stamina, and strength. The famous quote “sow one’s wild oats,” relates to this condition.
Middle ages were the high time for oat straw. The usage of oat straw for cognitive boost was at a peak.
The particular reasons for anyone to try oat straw were related to stress, mood swings, anxiety, and depression. Additionally, it improves sleep and regulates sleeping cycle.
Today, oat straw is still popular as a mood-enhancing herb, which offers multiple cognitive benefits.
Many of the ingredients identified inside oat straw, i.e., silicic acid, arginine and triterpenoid saponins called avenocosides are responsible for the nootropic potential of oat straw.
What is a Nootropic stack?
A nootropic stack is two or more nootropic supplements in a mixture, which formulates a more powerful effect. It can be natural or synthetic or a combination of both, depending upon the choice of nootropics.
Combining the products with potential benefits for the brain affects memory, learning, focus, motivation and what not.
These stacks are a supplementation technique, which many users try and get benefit from it. There are two ways to get started with nootropic stacks.
1. Pre-formulated nootropic stacks
The more comfortable option is to search and buy a pre-formulated stack from a reputed manufacturer.
These manufacturers are responsible for combining useful nootropic agents and combining them in the best concentration. For the users, it is available in a capsule form.
Most of these nootropics guarantee to work, and they show a good effect too. However, this effect is limited therefore a user can’t get enough out of it.
The downside of using a pre-formulated nootropic stack is that you can’t experiment with the choice of ingredients and dosage to find the best dosage.
However, these pre-formulated stacks are the best when someone is looking for a convenient and ready to type brain boost.
You can buy it from any leading health store; there is no need to get a prescription to buy it. Just make sure that a trustworthy manufacturer manufactures your selection of pre-packed nootropic pill.
2. Customized Nootropic Stacks
The second option in nootropic stacking is to make a customized stack all by yourself. Creating your stack is easy, flexible and gives you so many choices to try.
Also, it is a lot more economical, so the user doesn’t have to spend so much on a brand name.
The ingredients of a nootropic stack are common nootropics either herbal or synthetic. They are readily available in the market.
As there is no manufacturing and marketing cost included, you will be able to find nootropic products at a discounted price. The only harm in trying a self-made nootropic stack is that for new users, it is a risk.
The single negative point of using a customized stack is that new users may not know, which nootropic ingredients to combine, how to stack, what to take and how much to consume.
The good thing about customized nootropic stacks is that one can play with the ingredients. Dosage adjustment seems like a real deal when you can adjust it yourself. Try form a moderate dose and gradually increase or decrease it as per your need.
Know these tips before you make your own Nootropic Stack
If you are a new user who is experimenting with nootropic stacks, there are a few things that you need to understand.
More isn’t better, especially when you are using potent nootropic boosters, using them more won’t always help more.
Start from a low dose to see how it works for you. Most of the ingredients work best at low dosage.
If your self-made nootropic stack doesn’t seem to be working, you can increase the dose. Understand how your body responds to nootropic stacking at a low, moderate and high dose.
Natural nootropics like oat straw are considered safe but there some questions that readers will like to know like;
- What can I get from using this stack?
- How much should I spend on it?
- How much should I consume it?
- How often should I use this stack?
- How long would it take to show effects?
- Is it safe for everyone?
- Are there any side effects?
- How to deal with side effects?
Know the answers to these questions before you make up your mind on nootropic stack using. The best is to select the ingredients and evaluate them for possible effects carefully.
Herbal Nootropic Stacks- Are they any good?
There are a lot of medicinal herbs, which make the perfect ingredient for herbal nootropic stack.
For example, oat straw, Bacopa, Gingko and lion’s mane. Combining these with each other or with other components ensure you 100% results.
Oat Straw’s potential for a Nootropic stack’s ingredient
There are numerous reasons to suggest oat straw as one of the best natural nootropic stacks. Some of them are as follows:
It Supports Alpha Brainwave State
The modern research highlights the oat straw’s direct link with an increase in alpha-2 brainwaves.
It is a condition, which exhibits mental calmness, focus, careful observation and increased attention. The user feels more active and confident.
The alpha brainwave state is often coined with using green tea. L-Theanine is the compound inside green tea, which induces this wakefully active but relaxed state.
It is ideal for creative thinking, artistic ideas and defining an abstract thought. It regulates the general flow of ideas inside the brain.
It modulates the Internal Inflammation
Oat straw has a potential to modulate the inflammatory responses of the body. The anti-inflammatory properties also induce a vasodilative effect on the brain.
In response to this, the body promotes dilation of cerebral vessels and improves the blood pressure.
In this way, the blood supply to the brain and nutrient supply is upgraded. As a result of which, cognitive functions are enhanced.
Additionally, inflammation is the most common cause of brain degeneration. Using oat straw regularly suggests a healthy brain and reduced risk of degeneration.
It Supports the Circulation
Oat straw shows multiple health effects due to its unique composition. For example, it has a high amount of Arginine that is an amino acid.
Arginine synthesizes to nitric oxide synthase. It is an endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), which causes relaxation of the smooth muscle inside the blood vessels.
The cytokines present in artery walls are suppressed which cause an increase in nitric oxide. It affects the body by improving the blood flow to the brain and causes mental alertness.
Another ingredient of oat straw, avenanthramide that is a polyphenol naturally functions to enhance nitric oxide production.
It further helps to facilitate cellular communication, memory building and multitasking in user.
Scientific evidence on work efficiency of Oat Straw
The cognitive benefits of oat straw also depend on how and how much do you use it. The following research indicated that oat straw doesn’t help to enhance mental functions when you are already using supplementation.
In case anyone isn’t sure about the nootropic benefits of using oat straw, the following are a few research summaries on human subjects.
How does oat straw act as a Nootropic agent?
Oat straw helps to change the brainwave patterns in healthy adults. The researchers experimented with measuring the electric brain activity in human subjects using electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings.
The study was a double-blind, randomized, crossover trial which used a placebo control aimed at determining the effects of ingested oat straw in the form of Neuravena® in 1250 mg or 2500 mg dosing.
Quantitative brain mapping technology (CATEEM®) was one of the tools used to observe the effects in the left frontal, temporal lobe, which is responsible for all cognitive functions of the human body.
The subjects were monitored for 6 minutes of alertness, 4 minutes of rest. The cognitive tests were mainly an analysis of concentration and mental arithmetic of 5 minutes each.
The final results showed significantly noticeable differences in brain activity between resting and the concentration task.
It concluded that oat herb extract could be useful in healthy adults, improving their cognitive performance and resulting in an overall positive image.
The study is published in “Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine” and is available online to read.
How to use oat straw for cognitive boost?
Another study shows a preliminary evaluation of WGOE to understand the cognitive benefit of healthy subjects.
A total number of 37 healthy adults aged 67 participated in this plan. It was a 12-week lengthy trial that assessed cognitive benefits of oat straw by using the following.
- Stroop color-word test
- Letter cancellation
- Rule-shift task
- Computerized multi-tasking test
- Battery
- Trail-making task
The same experiment was repeated with a placebo supplement. The conclusion showed minimum cognitive benefit from chronic WGOE use in healthy older adults.
It suggested that cognitive benefits of WGOE supplementation do not match with chronic treatment.
However, the sustained effects of WGOE supplementation may be more prominent with mild cognitive impairment. The study results are available online, on the website of a peer review journal “Nutrients” journal.
How much oat straw helps to enhance cognitive activity?
Using only an optimum dose of oat straw is necessary. Anything lower to this may not give you essential benefits, and more quantity may overload effects.
A research study was performed on elderly volunteers in a before-and-after trial. It was to investigate the oat straw extract (Neuravena®) for its attention improvement, concentration and focus building through the Stroop Color-Word test.
The participants’ ingested single dosage of 0mg, 1600mg and 2400 mg respectively, in weekly intervals. The researchers measured the blood pressure (BP) before and after taking the oat straw.
The results showed that resting blood pressure is unaffected by oat straw supplementation. However, subjects that used 1600 mg dose completed the Stroop Color-Word test with minimum errors and mistakes. This result was even better than those who took a 2400mg dose of oat straw.
The conclusion of the study explains that taking only the 1600mg of oat straw supplement will help to improve attention, concentration and focus in older adults with different cognitive status. This review is published in “Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.”
Dosage notes for Nootropic Stack with Oat Straw
The best dosage for using a nootropic stack that has oat straw in it is determined by the half-life of all ingredients.
If your stack has components with a longer half-life, using only two standard doses in one day is recommended.
Ingredients with shorter half-life may need a higher dosage as the effects may wear off in a couple of hours.
In either way, it is better to take small dosages, three or four times a day to find the best dosage of your customized nootropic stack.
Always start with the low dose and increase it gradually until you reach to the best spectrum of effects. Do not overdose it.
If you are using a pre-packed nootropic stack having oat straw as one of the ingredients, read the instructions by the manufacturers.
The pre-determined recipes of nootropics always come with the recommended dosage. Follow it for the desired benefits.
If you are using oat straw supplements with no other ingredient, try 300-600 mg per serving and do not exceed than 1600mg in one day. The tincture form of oat straw has best effects in ½ to 1 teaspoon thrice a day.
There are no reported side effects of oat straw. There are no suspected risks or health damages known. There has been no controversy on oat straw, and it is safe for human use.