Nootropic and performance supplement company Natural Stacks produces a range of brain-enhancing products, from beginner-friendly nootropic blends to the innovative BioCreatine and rest-promoting MagTech. Two of their most famous supplements, though, are CILTEP and Smart Caffeine, and the company encourages users to try both as a focus and memory-boosting stack.
We’ve had positive experiences with MagTech (our favorite brain magnesium supplement), BioCreatine, and Smart Caffeine, though our testers had very mixed reviews on CILTEP. Developed by a popular biohacking forum contributor and subsequently produced by Natural Stacks, the theory behind CILTEP is that its ingredients, when taken in conjunction, boost Long Term Potentiation (LTP), basically a consistent strengthening of synapses in the brain. Read our CILTEP review here.
While one of our testers reported less brain fog while on CILTEP, the science behind the stack and whether or not the ingredients can make it past the digestive system is inconclusive. Overall, it’s a stack we don’t recommend for beginners, and the mechanisms and theory are definitely more suited toward the experienced biohacker who’s interested in learning about high-level synapse mechanisms. (And whether or not it truly works is still up in the air.)
When stacking CILTEP and Smart Caffeine, we only (reliably) experienced the effects of Smart Caffeine, which is basically a smoother, no-jitters caffeine boost complimented by the supplement’s l-theanine content. (Read our Smart Caffeine review here.)
We recommend anyone be careful when taking caffeine-containing supplements, starting off slow to assess personal tolerance. As far as stacking Smart Caffeine with CILTEP, we felt no difference when compared to taking Smart Caffeine on its own.