MyPeptideHelper

Goal

Focus and cognition

Compounds9
With human trials3

The goal where the strongest matches and the weakest evidence line up worst.

Cognition here means working memory, focus, processing speed and mental stamina in someone without diagnosed impairment. That last clause is doing a lot of work: nearly all of the underlying research was conducted in impairment — stroke, vascular dementia, traumatic brain injury — and a drug that recovers function in damaged tissue is not the same as a drug that improves function in intact tissue.

Four compounds sit at 5/5 and they could hardly be more different. Cerebrolysin has by far the largest human record, with randomized trials and Cochrane reviews in acute stroke, vascular dementia and TBI, but the results are mixed, the stroke reviews found no convincing benefit on death or dependency, much of the trial base is manufacturer-sponsored, and it is an intramuscular course rather than something you take with breakfast. Semax is a registered medicine in Russia given intranasally, with a human evidence base that is Russian-language, from a small number of groups, and essentially absent from Western trials. P21 and dihexa have no published human trials at all — the entire case for both is rodent neurogenesis work. Below them, NAD+, oxytocin (social cognition rather than raw performance) and Selank, which is anxiolytic rather than stimulant.

Be specific about what you are trying to fix, because the right answer changes completely. Distraction driven by anxiety points toward Selank, not dihexa. Route is a real constraint here rather than a detail: Semax and Selank are nasal drugs where the nose-to-brain path is the entire point of the formulation, and cerebrolysin is a supervised intramuscular course. And of every page on this site, this is the one where the match column and the evidence column disagree most sharply — read them together or not at all.

How to read this

Match — how squarely it aims here

The weight the dataset gives this compound for this goal, 1 to 5. It describes intent and mechanism, not benefit, and not direction: a 5 means the compound acts hard on the system in question.

5/5Match strength 5 of 5primary use

Evidence — whether anyone has shown it

Read from the compound’s evidence note and handling grade, for the compound as a whole rather than for this goal alone. A 5/5 match on animal data is a hypothesis, not a result.

  • Human trialsRandomized or controlled human trials exist, or the compound holds a regulatory approval somewhere. Trials existing is not the same as trials succeeding — some of these were negative.
  • Some human dataPublished human work exists but is small, early-phase, acute, or from a single group that nobody has replicated.
  • Animal data onlyThe case rests on rodent and cell work. Doses shown are extrapolated, not established in people.
  • Anecdotal onlyNo published trial record of any kind. Every number comes from vendor packaging and community practice.

9 compounds, strongest match first

Ranked for focus and cognition

Match 5/5 · Primary use

4

Match 3/5 · Meaningful contributor

3

Match 2/5 · Marginal

1

Match 1/5 · Incidental

1

Named stacks

Protocols built around this goal

Semax + SelankPrimary goal4 weeksBeginnerTwo intranasal Russian-developed peptides run together as a short course: semax for focus, drive and BDNF signaling, selank as the anxiolytic counterweight that takes the edge off semax without sedation. Both are non-injectable, which is most of their appeal.Focus Nasal (Semax + Selank)Primary goal4 weeksBeginnerSemax and selank in a single pre-mixed nasal spray, run as a short course: semax for focus and drive, selank as the anxiolytic counterweight that takes the edge off it. This is the same two compounds as the Semax + Selank entry in this library - the difference is the delivery format, not the pharmacology. It is here because the nasal route is the point: these two are formulated intranasally on purpose, and it is the one stack in this library that involves no needles at all.Energy / Immunity (NAD+ + Glutathione + Methyl-B12)Also targets8 weeksBeginnerThe three things that end up in almost every "energy and immunity" product: NAD+ for mitochondrial redox, glutathione as the headline antioxidant, and methylcobalamin because B12 is what people associate with energy. They are combined because they are convenient to sell together, not because anyone has shown the three work better in combination than separately.

Not sure this is your goal

Most people arrive wanting two or three of these at once, and the honest answer is usually to pick one and run it properly. The quiz weighs your goals against your experience, the routes you will tolerate and your contraindications, then shows its reasoning rather than just a name.

Take the quiz

Other goals

Educational information only, not medical advice. Talk to a licensed clinician before starting, changing, or stopping anything.