Oct 8, 2026 · 29 min · 9 segments
What if taking better care of your brain could change the way you focus, work, and recover from life’s biggest challenges? In this episode of the South Florida Leaders Podcast, Brian Fay sits down…
David TomenGuestBrian FayHostAnd to kind of simplify things for myself and our listeners, I've heard the word nootropics, but if you could, what does that mean exactly?
He was working with Dr. Pavlov and he was a Romanian chemist and psychologist or something for get his exact background.
And they were looking for something to treat motion sickness with the cosmonauts.
And they came up with paracetam, which is just a cyclic derivative of GABA, which is a natural neurotransmitter that you produce in your gut.
And so they came up with paracetam, but it turned out it didn't help with motion sickness, but it helped improve learning and cognition in healthy men.
And once word got out in the medical community around the world, other companies started jumping on board and they started coming up with derivatives of paracetam.
So they came up with aniracetam, which is my favorite, oxiracetam, coloracetam, nepharacetam, phenylparacetam, which is banned by the World Damp Anti-Doping Agency.
And so Dr. Kourgeou saw what was happening here, and he said, I've got to, I want to name this class of drugs.
And he called them, okay, I'm not sure what's going on with this phone here, so I'll throw it in a drawer so
But Dr. Kourgeou decided that he was going to name this class of what he called drugs.
And it comes from the Greek, nu for mind and threpen to ben, so to ben the mind.
And he came up with six things that something had to adhere to for it to be considered a nootropic.
It had to be natural, etc., And unfortunately, the thing has kind of morphed over the years to now mean a nootropic is anything that helps the human brain.
Journalists have a problem with this because they call, you know, Adderall and Ritalin nootropics.
And to kind of simplify things for myself and our listeners, I've heard the word nootropics, but if you could, what does that mean exactly?
He was working with Dr. Pavlov and he was a Romanian chemist and psychologist or something for get his exact background.
And they were looking for something to treat motion sickness with the cosmonauts.
And they came up with paracetam, which is just a cyclic derivative of GABA, which is a natural neurotransmitter that you produce in your gut.
And so they came up with paracetam, but it turned out it didn't help with motion sickness, but it helped improve learning and cognition in healthy men.
And once word got out in the medical community around the world, other companies started jumping on board and they started coming up with derivatives of paracetam.
So they came up with aniracetam, which is my favorite, oxiracetam, coloracetam, nepharacetam, phenylparacetam, which is banned by the World Damp Anti-Doping Agency.
And so Dr. Kourgeou saw what was happening here, and he said, I've got to, I want to name this class of drugs.
And he called them, okay, I'm not sure what's going on with this phone here, so I'll throw it in a drawer so
But Dr. Kourgeou decided that he was going to name this class of what he called drugs.
And it comes from the Greek, nu for mind and threpen to ben, so to ben the mind.
And he came up with six things that something had to adhere to for it to be considered a nootropic.
It had to be natural, etc., And unfortunately, the thing has kind of morphed over the years to now mean a nootropic is anything that helps the human brain.
Journalists have a problem with this because they call, you know, Adderall and Ritalin nootropics.
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