Triacetyluridine for Mood and Focus - Neuropedia

Triacetyluridine for Mood and Focus

Triacetyluridine is a popular nootropic that improves your mood and promotes a sense of well-being.

Triacetyluridine works by increasing dopamine— a brain chemical that affects your motivation, pleasure, and mood. It’s a popular nootropic, and if you want to feel happier and more positive throughout the day, it may be worth giving triacetyluridine a try.

Here’s a closer look at how triacetyluridine works, as well as its possible benefits, side effects, and dosage.

What Is Triacetyluridine?

Uridine is a chemical that your brain uses to improve connections between your brain cells. It encourages communication between different parts of your brain, especially when it comes to dopamine, your brain’s main pleasure and motivation chemical.[1]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/019701868990082X?via%3Dihub

Triacetyluridine is a special form of uridine that’s especially easy for you to absorb. It’s the best way to increase your brain’s uridine levels—triacetyluridine delivers 4-6 times more uridine to your brain than you get from taking a uridine supplement alone.[2]https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1310/hpj5106-484

3 Benefits of Triacetyluridine

Because it influences your brain’s dopamine systems, uridine is a good nootropic for balancing your mood and increasing happiness and motivation.

Here’s what the research says about uridine as a nootropic.

Take this quiz to see if triacetyluridine is part of your ideal supplement blend.

More Positive Mood

Uridine may help improve and stabilize your mood.

In a 2011 study, researchers gave uridine to young people with depression. Those who took uridine saw a significant decrease in their depressive symptoms and reported better mood and quality of life.[3]https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/cap.2010.0054

A 2014 study found similar results. Researchers gave uridine to bipolar people in a depressive phase; those who took uridine saw rapid improvement in their mood,[4]https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1517/14728222.2014.940893 possibly because uridine optimized their dopamine levels.[5]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/019701868990082X?via%3Dihub

Faster Learning

Uridine may also help you learn faster.

A 2008 study found that pairing uridine with DHA, a type of omega-3 fatty acid found in fish and fish oil supplements, significantly improved learning and memory. [6]https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18606862/

There may be something special about the combination of uridine and DHA, because the two of them together make up a large part of the layer that insulates brain pathways and speeds up transmission between brain regions.[7]https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12603-009-0056-3

Long-Term Brain Function

Uridine may also keep your brain working well as you age. Research in humans is sparse, but several animal studies have found that uridine protects against age-related mental decline.

A 2005 study found that uridine slowed symptom progression and memory loss in three groups of mice with either Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or Huntington’s disease.[8]https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1016/j.jalz.2005.06.247

A 2009 study found that combining uridine with DHA increased the formation of synapses—the communication pathways between brain cells.[9]https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12603-009-0056-3 Synapses often collapse in dementia and neurodegenerative diseases, driving symptoms like memory loss and loss of muscle control, and the study’s researchers concluded that uridine plus DHA is a promising way to decrease the risk of age-related mental decline.

Other research has also found a link between uridine levels and decreased risk of neurodegenerative disease.[10]https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0197458004807164?via%3Dihub

However, it’s worth keeping in mind that research on uridine and long-term brain function is still young and is mostly in animals.

Triacetyluridine Side Effects and Dosage

Your body makes uridine naturally, and it’s a common component in breast milk, as well as broccoli, beer, tomatoes, organ meats, and other common foods.

As such, side effects of uridine are rare at normal dosages. One 2016 study gave patients extremely high doses of uridine to treat a rare type of poisoning.[11]https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.30321 Those patients experienced nausea and diarrhea. However, they were taking many times the normal recommended dose of uridine in the context of an emergency situation.

If you want nootropic benefits, a standard dose for triacetyluridine is 25 mg, taken once or twice daily. You can take it with or without food—research shows that you absorb it well either way.[12]https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1310/hpj5106-484

Triacetyluridine may be a powerful way to boost your mood and overall sense of well-being, and to speed up your learning. You may also want to consider stacking triacetyluridine with DHA for additional benefits.[13]https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12603-009-0056-3 And for an even more effective stack, try a nootropics quiz. You’ll get a personalized recommendation for which nootropics to use together, based on your unique brain and goals.

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