CILTEP and the Science of Cognitive Enhancement: A Deep Dive with Ryan Munsey
The supplement industry is littered with proprietary blends that hide their ingredients behind fancy marketing. But occasionally, you encounter something different—a product built on transparent science and actual mechanisms. That's exactly what happened when I sat down with Ryan Munsey, Chief Optimizer at Natural Stacks, to discuss CILTEP and the broader world of cognitive biohacking.
The Problem with Most "Smart Pills"
Most nootropics are snake oil. They promise cognitive enhancement but deliver nothing more than expensive placebo effects. The industry thrives on proprietary blends—secret formulas where you have no idea what you're actually putting in your body or how much of each ingredient you're getting.
This opacity isn't just annoying; it's scientifically useless. Without knowing exact dosages, you can't replicate results, adjust for individual differences, or understand why something works (or doesn't work). It's the antithesis of evidence-based optimization.
Natural Stacks took a different approach with CILTEP. They published every ingredient and dosage—what they call "open source" formulation. This transparency immediately caught my attention because it suggests they're confident in their science.
The CILTEP Mechanism: Camp and Long-Term Potentiation
CILTEP stands for Chemically Induced Long-Term Potentiation. The name tells you exactly what it's designed to do: artificially trigger the cellular mechanism underlying memory formation and learning.
Here's how it works at the molecular level:
The Camp Pathway The core mechanism revolves around cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), a crucial cellular messenger. CILTEP uses a two-pronged approach to elevate cAMP levels:
- Direct activation via forskolin (4mg)
- Indirect preservation via artichoke extract (900mg) containing luteolin, a PDE4 inhibitor
Phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) is the enzyme that breaks down cAMP. By inhibiting PDE4 while simultaneously activating adenylyl cyclase (forskolin's target), you create a sustained elevation in cellular cAMP.
From cAMP to Memory Elevated cAMP activates protein kinase A, which phosphorylates CREB (cAMP response element-binding protein). Phosphorylated CREB acts as a transcription factor, upregulating genes involved in synaptic plasticity and long-term memory formation.
This isn't speculation—this is the well-established molecular cascade underlying long-term potentiation (LTP), first described by Bliss and Lømo (1973) and refined through decades of research (Abel & Nguyen, 2008).
The Supporting Cast: Why the Other Ingredients Matter
CILTEP isn't just forskolin and artichoke extract. The formula includes three additional components that address practical limitations:
Acetyl-L-Carnitine (750mg): Prevents the cognitive fatigue that early users experienced. Without this addition, people were crashing by noon—great memory formation, terrible sustainability.
L-Phenylalanine (300mg): Provides dopamine pathway support for motivation. Memory enhancement without drive to use that memory isn't particularly useful.
Vitamin B6 (5mg): Ensures you're not hitting a rate-limiting factor in neurotransmitter synthesis.
This isn't random ingredient stacking—it's addressing specific physiological bottlenecks identified through user feedback and mechanistic understanding.
The Peak Performance Obsession
What struck me most about Ryan's approach is his systematic pursuit of peak human performance. This wasn't some casual interest in "life hacking"—it was a methodical investigation into the mechanics of excellence.
His background illustrates this perfectly: food science degree, competitive athletics, personal training, then eventually becoming a "human guinea pig" for Natural Stacks. He's constantly experimenting—EEG monitoring, heart rate variability tracking, testing every new biohacking tool.
This obsessive attention to detail matters because optimization isn't intuitive. What works for elite athletes might not work for busy executives. What enhances memory might interfere with sleep. Individual variation is enormous, and you need systematic approaches to navigate it.
The Caffeine Connection
One interesting mechanistic detail: both caffeine and CILTEP work through phosphodiesterase inhibition, but target different subtypes. Caffeine primarily inhibits adenosine receptors (though it also affects phosphodiesterases), while CILTEP specifically targets PDE4.
The practical result? They're synergistic without being redundant. Dave Asprey apparently loves combining CILTEP with his Bulletproof Coffee protocol, and the mechanism supports this combination.
Evidence and Limitations
The mechanistic story for CILTEP is solid, but we need to be honest about the evidence base. The core cAMP→LTP pathway is well-established neuroscience. The specific dosages and combinations? That's based on smaller tests and user reports rather than large randomized controlled trials.
Natural Stacks has tested with memory champions and seen improvements, but these aren't peer-reviewed studies with control groups. This doesn't make CILTEP worthless—it makes it an informed experiment rather than proven medicine.
The Broader Biohacking Context
Ryan's work at Natural Stacks represents something important in the biohacking world: the marriage of mechanistic understanding with practical application. Too much of the supplement industry operates on marketing rather than science. Too much of academic neuroscience operates in isolation from real-world application.
The sweet spot is products designed by people who understand both the cellular mechanisms and the practical constraints of human optimization. Ryan works with Olympic athletes, Hollywood celebrities, and endurance racers—people whose performance demands are extreme and whose results are measurable.
Practical Implementation
If you're considering CILTEP, approach it systematically:
- Establish baseline metrics: Memory tests, cognitive assessments, subjective energy/focus ratings
- Control variables: Don't change multiple things simultaneously
- Track consistently: Daily logs of dose, timing, effects, sleep quality
- Cycle strategically: Chronic cAMP elevation might lead to receptor downregulation
Remember that no supplement works in isolation. CILTEP enhances the encoding of whatever you're learning—but you still need to be learning something worthwhile.
The Future of Cognitive Enhancement
What excites me about companies like Natural Stacks isn't just their current products—it's their approach. Open-source formulations, mechanistic thinking, systematic testing. This is how you advance the field rather than just profiting from it.
The brain is incredibly complex, but it follows biological rules. Understanding those rules—from molecular mechanisms to network dynamics—gives us rational approaches to enhancement rather than random supplementation.
CILTEP represents one small piece of that larger puzzle. It's not a magic pill, but it's a scientifically informed tool for people serious about cognitive optimization.
For more insights on brain optimization and neurofeedback, visit Peak Brain Institute or check out my other articles on evidence-based cognitive enhancement.