Neuriva is one of the most popular brain supplements in the world today. Made by Schiff Vitamins, who themselves are owned by Reckitt Benckiser, Neuriva has become a leading nootropic in just a few short years. The product – properly called Neuriva Brain Performance – has now expanded into a range of brain supplements and gummies.
So how has Neuriva become so popular?
According to Neuriva’s fans, the products success is down to its fantastic ingredients. Most positive reviews of Neuriva focus on the nootropic’s ingredients and their solid clinical backing. Of course, if you’ve read our detailed review of Neuriva, then you’ll know we aren’t convinced!
Are Neuriva’s ingredients any good? What is actually in this popular nootropic? Are the ingredients worth the money?
Let’s take a closer look at the ingredients in Neuriva Brain Performance and try to answer these questions.
What is Neuriva?
Neuriva Brain Performance is a nootropic supplement from Schiff Vitamins. This brand make some of the most popular nutritional supplements in the world. Their omega 3 supplement – MegaRed – is a market leader, and their range of vitamins, probiotics and joint supplements are widely consumed throughout the US and Canada.
Neuriva Brain Performance, as the name suggests, is a nootropic supplement designed to enhance brain function and promote long-term brain health.
Specifically, Neuriva promises to support what Schiff call the 5 key indicators of mental performance:
- Focus
- Memory
- Learning
- Accuracy
- Concentration
More importantly, Neuriva states that it delivers these benefits using 100% naturally sourced, safe, clinical proven ingredients. This is extremely important. Synthetic nootropic drugs can definitely iprove focus and learning, but they often come with major downsides and severe side effects. Natural nootropics that can do what synthetic brain drugs do without side effects are what we’re looking for!
So what are these natural ingredients that Neuriva claims will deliver improved focus, memory and learning?
Let’s take a close look at the ingredients in Neuriva.
What ingredients are in Neuriva?
What are the active ingredients in Neuriva? Are the ingredients capable of delivering the benefits promised by Schiff Vitamins?
Here is the Neuriva ingredients list as it looks on the label:
As you can see, Neuriva Brain Performance – now also known as Neuriva Original – contains just two ingredients.
That’s right; TWO active ingredients.
We don’t need to tell most of you that two ingredients is an extremely small number for a nootroopic stack, especially a natural one that claims to enhance every aspect of cognitive function like Neuriva does. Most comprehensive brain supplements which claim to boost focus, memory, processing speeds and brain health tend to use up to a dozen different natural ingredients. This is because there are few natural substances which enhance more than one aspect of brain function.
So for a stack like Neuriva to contain just two ingredients, each dosed at a miniscule 100mg, is really surprising. Surprising, and disappointing.
The ingredients Neuriva uses must therefore be extremely potent if this brain supplement is even going to come close to delivering all its promised benefits.
Well, are they?
We will now take you through both of Neuriva’s ingredients individually. For each ingredient, we’ll tell you what Schiff Vitamins say it does, what the scientific evidence hs to say, and what we think of its use in a nootropic brain performance supplement like Neuriva. If you ahve any questions about Neuriva’s ingredients or doses, please post them in the comments section at the end.
Coffee Fruit Extract – 100mg
According to the Schiff Vitamins, Neuriva uses NeuroFactor coffee fruit extract. This is a branded ingredient used in several other nootropics and brain health supplements today. The Neuriva website states that Neurofactor is a “naturally sourced whole fruit extract from the Coffea arabica plant, clinically proven to increase levels of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)”. BDNF is a neurotrophic factor which controls the rate of growth of your neurons. More BDNF means greater neuron density and btter neuron maintenance over time, which means enhanced overall cognitive performance.
This sounds great, and intuitively it makes sense, since coffee consumption has been liked with higher BDNF levels, which in turn correlates to signiciantly improved cognitive function. Unfortunately though, there is no hard scientific evidence to back up these claims. The only “studies” showing large increases in BDNF aftr the consumption of NeuroFactor were either carried out or largely funded by manufacturers of the ingredient. We’ve never seen an independent, robust clinical trial showing this Neuriva ingredient working as advertised.
Phosphatidylserine – 100mg
Phosphatidylserine is a fantastic nootropic and it is great to see it used as a Neuriva ingredient. We think this should be an ingredient in every nootropic designed to support memory and focus over the long-term.
Phosphatidylserine is a phospholipid. In simple terms, it is a type of fat with a long tail and a phosphate head. The structure of phosphatidylserine makes it ideal for the constuction of cell membranes; this is why phosphatidylserine is one of the main building blocks of all your brain cell membranes, and why it is found in such high concentrations in the human brain. Low levels of phosphatidylserine are associated with impaired cognitive function and memory loss in old ag, no doubt the result of ipaired brain cell formation.
Unfortunately, phosphatidylserine levels decline as we get older. But thankfully, supplementing with phosphatidylserine is extremely effective for preserving healthy levels of the phospholipid. This ensures proper brain cell membrane development and maintenance, which in turn supports good memory and focus into old age.
Clinical trials show supplementing with as little as 100mg of high quality phosphatidylserine per day significantly improves memory, focus, learning and processing speeds. The 100mg of SharpPS Green Phosphatidylserine in Neuriva is enough for you to see major improvements in cognitive performance in no time.
Does Neuriva have caffeine?
Some of you may have noticed that Neuriva uses whole coffee fruit extract as in ingredient. We often get questions from readers wondering whether the use of a whole coffee frit extract means Neuriva contains caffeine.
So, does neuriva contain any caffeine?
While the coffee fruit extract in Neuriva® goes through the decaffeination process, there may be trace amounts of caffeine in the end product. No decaffeinated coffee is 100% free of caffeine.
Neuriva Plus Ingredients
What are the ingredients in Neuriva Plus? How is are the ingredients different to Neuriva Original?
The simple answer to these questions is that Neuriva Plus Gummies contains some different ingredients to Neuriva Original Gummies.
Here is the Neuriva Plus ingredients list, which has recently been updated:
As you can see, Neuriva Plus differs from Neuriva Original in some key ways. The thing the two nootropic gummies have in common is the use of coffee fruit extract as a key ingredient. As explained above, this ingredient has not been proven in a robust clinical trial, and we don’t believe it increases BDNF to the extent that the manufacturers claim.
Apart from that, the Neuriva Plus ingredients are totally different to Neuriva Original.
Each serving of Neuriva Plus provides 200mg of L-Theanine and 10mg of French Melon Concentrate.
Theanine is a great nootropic. It reduces mental tension, promotes a calm, clear mind, and helps attenuate the side effects of caffeine. But the French Melon Concentrate strikes us as completely pointless. We aren’t aware of this ingredient having any nootropic effects whatsoever. On the whole, the Neuriva Plus ingredients make it a signficantly worse brain supplement than Neuriva Original, despite costing a lot more!
Are Neuriva Gummies Safe?
The ingredients in Neuriva Brain Performance Original, both in capsule and gummies form, are thought to be generally safe for every day use. Neither phosphatidylserine nor Neurofactor coffee fruit extract are thought to cause any serious side effects, even when taken long-term. You can therefore take Neuriva every day without worrying about side effects.
The only real side effect risk with Neuriva comes from the trace amounts of caffeine present in the coffee fruit extract. While Neuriva® goes through the decaffeination process, there may be trace amounts of caffeine in the supplement. This applies to Neuriva gummies as well as Neuriva capsules. If you are extremely sensitive to caffeine, or you already consume large quantities of caffeine every day, it may be best to avoid Neuriva.
Considering that there is no proven benefit to taking NeuroFactor coffee fruit extract, the side efect risks posed by this ingredient – however small – ae probably not worth it.
Apart from that, Neuriva’s ingredients look safe. The ingredients should not cause the vast majority of users any issues or side effects whatsoever. If you do experience any side effects while using Neuriva, stop using it immediately and seek medical attention. Do your own research. We are not doctors and this is not medical advice.
Neuriva gummies are generally safe and side effect free for the vast majority of users. It is rare for people to report any side effects at all while using Neuriva. Neuriva Plus, with its new formula and unusual ingredient, may be a different story. We will need to see more reserach on French Melon Extract and some user reviews of Neuriva Plus before we decide if Neuriva Plus is safe.
Is Neuriva FDA Approved?
Neuriva is not FDA approved. The ingredients in Neuriva have been tsted in clinical trials and are deemed safe. Neuria is made in an FDA-approved facility. But the FDA does not regulate nutritional supplements like Neuriva, so it does not need FDA approval for sale.
The only time Neuriva would need FDA approval would be if it were going to be used to treat specific medical conditions. In other words, Neuriva would only be FDA approved (or not approved more like) if Schiff Vitamins began selling it as a prescription drug for the treatment of dementia, Alzheimer’s, or cognitive impairment.
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