Avantera Elevate Review

As of 2025, the global nootropics market is valued at $5.71 billion USD, and it’s expected to reach nearly $20 billion by 2034.1 Part of this market growth could be linked to a number of causes, such as increases in brain fog due to long COVID cases,2 an aging population,3 and even higher levels of reported stress.4

No matter the root cause, the nootropics market is expanding at a rapid rate, and this means that there are more and more options to choose from. One such product is Avantera Elevate, a nootropic that’s available in both capsule and gummy form. It’s intended to help with energy, focus, mood, and more. But does the science back it up?

In this review, I’ll detail my experience testing Avantera Elevate and how it compares to the dozens of other nootropics I’ve tried. Though my personal reasons for taking nootropics — ADHD and cognitive difficulties due to myalgic encephalomyelitis (more commonly known as ME/CFS) — may differ from yours, I’ll be couching my findings in research on Elevate’s ingredients, dosing, safety, and other factors to help you determine if it’s right for you.

Avantera Elevate is two different nootropic formulas (one gummy and one capsule). The capsule version is the stronger of the two and a better value. While both contain promising ingredients, their doses, more often than not, are lower than what has been used in successful research. Because of this, Avantera Elevate may be somewhat safer than competing products, but its effects are mild and might not suit the needs of many nootropic buyers. The prices are pretty average for a nootropic, with a 23% discount on subscriptions. This pricing feels reasonable for the more robust capsule formula, while the gummies have a much smaller ingredient set that, in our opinion, calls for a lower price.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions involving staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

For this review of Avantera Elevate, I personally tried both the gummy and capsule versions of the product, keeping detailed notes of my experience. In total, I dedicated over 80 hours to researching and testing the two Elevate formulas. I also utilized the hundreds of hours of knowledge I’ve gained from researching and testing dozens of nootropic, adaptogenic, and functional mushroom supplements over the past few years. This experience enabled me to more effectively evaluate how Avantera’s offerings may (or may not) be suitable for a wide range of users.

Along with my hands-on testing and research, I also contacted Avantera’s customer service on multiple occasions. This allowed me to learn more about the products and better assess the customer experience, so that I could pass on firsthand information that’s not readily available elsewhere online.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

As with our evaluations of other supplements, including various nootropics, the criteria I used to judge Avantera Elevate are qualities that customers typically care about most when deciding whether or not to make a purchase: a product’s safety, effectiveness, cost, and convenience.

With Elevate, it’s important to point out that it isn’t just a single product; it’s two different products — a gummy and a capsule — with distinct formulas. Though some ingredients overlap, the formulas are fairly different. In the following sections, I’ll clarify whether a pro or con concerns both products or only one.

Safety

Avantera Elevate should be generally safe for most healthy adults who aren’t pregnant or breastfeeding. Though it’s a bittersweet detail, this is partly because of its lower-than-ideal ingredient dosing. That is, since the doses are often lower than what’s used in research, including some safety research, the potential for adverse effects could be lower.

The gummies, however, contain an ingredient called huperzine A that could be risky if taken without regular breaks (a practice called “cycling”). Huperzine A can inhibit the breakdown of acetylcholine in the body, raising the risk of a rare but serious — potentially deadly — outcome known as a cholinergic crisis.5 6 In order to reduce this risk, it’s important to regularly go off any supplement containing the ingredient. This could mean a routine of not taking Elevate gummies on the weekend or limiting your intake to only a few days per week.

Fortunately, the Elevate capsules do not contain huperzine A, so cycling shouldn’t be a concern with them. It may still benefit you to take an occasional break in order to prevent potential tolerance building, but it’s not a safety issue with the capsules.

In terms of operational safety measures, Avantera goes to commendable lengths to be safe and transparent. The company produces its supplements in GMP-certified facilities, and each batch of product is third-party tested for safety and potency by ISO-certified labs. Avantera also publishes the testing results on its website for customers to read.

I’ll go into more detail on the safety of Avantera Elevate under the “Is Avantera Elevate safe?” section of this review.

Effectiveness

Both the gummy and the capsule formulas of Avantera Elevate suffer from low ingredient doses. The ingredients used are indeed promising, but the doses regularly don’t hit the mark. While I experienced some positive effects from Avantera Elevate — most notably better ADHD-related task-switching ability — they were mild enough that I suspect the most seasoned nootropics users wouldn't see it as a worthwhile addition to their regimen. For some people, however, Elevate might be enough to give them that little extra push they need.

In addition to my opinions on Elevate, the research consistently points to higher doses being necessary. For example, the CDP-choline (citicoline) used in the Elevate capsules is 200mg, but positive trials have used anywhere from 500mg to 2,000mg per day.7 On top of lower-than-ideal doses, some of the ingredients in Elevate are either extracts that aren’t standardized to have consistent amounts of active compounds, or they aren’t extracts at all.

Not everything needs to be an extract, of course, but the offending ingredient in this case is lion’s mane (100mg). Lion’s mane is one of those ingredients where you need to have either 1-2g of whole mushroom or — even better — a potent extract that’s equivalent to 1-2g of whole mushroom. The extract bypasses any potential absorption issues presented by the whole mushroom’s tough cell walls.56

To be fair to Avantera, some of the ingredients are well-dosed, such as the L-theanine (200mg) and bacopa (300mg). The caffeine dose (95mg) is decent, too, since it’s what you’d get from an 8oz cup of coffee, and the caffeine-to-theanine ratio is about the same as what’s been successful in studies (a 2:1 ratio of L-theanine to caffeine).55 Still, it’d be better to have more than three well-dosed ingredients in this nootropic.

I’ll share more details on Elevate’s ingredients and the research behind them under the section “Does Avantera Elevate work?” later on.

Cost

For what you get from either form of Avantera Elevate, it can be fairly pricey. Nootropic supplements are — more often than not — on the expensive side, but a higher price can be more understandable if the product is a good value.

As a comparison, the budget pick in our guide to the best nootropics, Revive Brain+, may have a higher subscription price than Avantera Elevate, but it has only a couple of underdosed ingredients, while Elevate has several. The chart below breaks down the details:

Elevate’s price for the capsules is passable, especially if you subscribe. But the pricing of the gummies — both ways — seems quite high for how little you really get out of them. When compared to Revive Brain+, Avantera Elevate’s overall value feels lower. Hopefully, the company will reevaluate its formula and dosing in the future to improve this.

You can learn more about the pricing of Avantera Elevate under the “Avantera Elevate pricing, subscription deals, and refunds” section.

Convenience

Avantera Elevate is a decently convenient nootropic. You can subscribe to receive regular deliveries so you don’t run out, and your subscription plan can be modified or canceled at any time. These are pretty standard measures, but a surprising number of companies make subscription management difficult, so it’s always nice when a company keeps it simple and straightforward.

Customer service is also easy to get in touch with. You can send an email, give them a call, contact them on social media, or even mail them a letter. The one form of contact that’s missing is a chat feature on the Avantera website. Nonetheless, customer service responded to my email inquiries in a timely manner — after about one or two days — when I sent a few questions at different times, which I appreciated.

The supplements are simple to use, too. Each capsule-based dose is only two (moderately sized) pills, and the gummies are soft and easy to chew. The only convenience drawback with them is that the capsules only come with a 28-day supply, meaning you might have to reorder earlier than you would with the 30-day supply of gummies.

At the time of this writing, Avantera Elevate refers to two different nootropic supplements: one formula is available in a capsule, and the other formula is a gummy. Both bear the same name but have different nootropic ingredients. The company’s choice to give both products the same name could certainly cause confusion; it may lead some customers to assume they share the same ingredients and choose one form over the other purely for personal convenience, only to end up disappointed.

Worsening the potential for consumer confusion, the Elevate gummies page has a (frankly, misleading) chart comparing the two products. The only highlighted differences are the supplement forms and the fact that the gummies don’t contain any caffeine.

It’s unclear why the formulas are different. At first, you might assume that certain ingredients can’t be properly “gummied,” but that doesn’t appear to be the case with Elevate. There’s research examining gummy forms of many of the capsules’ ingredients, and some gummy supplements currently on the market contain those ingredients.

For example, a 2024 study found that gummies containing curcumin (the active component of turmeric) had “favorable physicochemical properties and nutritional parameters,” including confirmation of the presence of curcumin and “notably high levels of total flavonoid content.” Though the study was about creating functional food gummies and not supplements, this — plus the fact that turmeric gummies exist on the market — still demonstrates the fact that turmeric or curcumin can be successfully added to a gummy supplement.8

Ultimately, the differing Avantera Elevate formulas feel like a confusing business decision that isn’t very customer-friendly. Because of this, I hope the company will consider modifying the products’ names (and the aforementioned chart) to help consumers differentiate them from the outset.

Other than the Elevate capsules and gummies, Avantera also sells a supplement for better sleep (Unwind) and one for promoting longevity through improved brain and heart health (Ageless). If you're interested in multiple Avantera offerings, you can also bundle products to save some money. However, in this review, we’re keeping the focus on Elevate.

Avantera company reviews

Avantera has thousands of positive customer reviews for its products and featuring many on its website. Chatter on Reddit is also generally positive, though some Redditors have regarded posts with suspicion due to patterns in the substance of the posts. For the record, I don't doubt that a great many reviewers have had positive experiences, and I also think approaching the online customer review landscape with a bit of suspicion is healthy. (These days, some reviews are likely either fake or motivated by something other than a desire to share personal experience.)

At the time of this writing, Avantera Health is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Currently, the company has a BBB rating of A+ based on a single review. Besides that one review, there have been five total complaints within the last three years, all of which have been closed in the past 12 months. Avantera responded to each complaint the exact same way: “We here at Avantera Health take consumer concerns very seriously. We will reach out to this consumer ASAP to try to remedy this situation. We apologize for any inconvienece [sic] this may have caused.”

Since even the spelling error of “inconvenience” is the same, this is apparently a copy-and-paste response instead of a personalized one. There are also no follow-up responses from the customers, so it’s unclear if Avantera actually remedied their issues.

Avantera’s Trustpilot page has a similar lack of information. There are currently only six reviews culminating in a 4.2, or “Great,” rating. Interestingly, or perhaps suspiciously, three of the reviews have quite a bit in common:

• Their names are in all caps.
• Their location is Hong Kong.
• They’ve only ever posted one review.
• The reviews are only two words.
• They were all posted on October 26 or 28 of 2024.

In my opinion, these seem like potentially fake reviews, potentially posted by bots, especially considering one of them says that Avantera is “Best lotion.” But this is all presumed.

Nonetheless, neither page is great for learning much about the Avantera customer experience. My personal experience with the company was fairly good, and I have no major complaints about the business side of my time with Avantera, but some customers have complained about shipping, subscription issues, and energy crashes while using the product. All of these complaints are not unique to Avantera but are relatively common for nootropic supplements.

Avantera Elevate could be for adults who aren’t pregnant or breastfeeding and want to try the supplement. Normally, I would mention here that these products are best suited for generally healthy individuals. However, while that is true, it would be wrong not to acknowledge the fact that many of those who are investigating nootropic supplements aren’t “generally healthy” and may be having problems with their cognition due to factors like health issues or medication side effects. But whether or not you’re experiencing health- or medication-related cognitive concerns, it’s always best to speak with your doctor before trying a new supplement.

That being said, those who could possibly benefit the most from Avantera Elevate are:

• People who are new to nootropics
• Those who are sensitive to supplements
• Individuals who are experiencing minor cognitive concerns
• People who want to try a milder nootropic

Who should look elsewhere?

As with many other supplements, there are some myths about Avantera Elevate and its potential uses. These include but aren’t limited to the following:

• Weight loss: Perhaps it’s because Avantera mentions “gut health” on the Elevate product page, but there are questions online regarding this nootropic and weight loss. Though some ingredients, like caffeine, might be able to promote weight loss and body fat reduction, Elevate isn’t designed with that in mind.9
• Better intelligence/higher IQ: One misconception about nootropics is that they can make you smarter. Despite the nickname “smart drugs,” nootropics can’t actually do this. They might help you focus better to improve your studying efficiency or work performance, but your intelligence itself won’t change.
• Replacing medication: Nootropics aren’t a replacement or substitute for prescription medications, no matter how well they may work. However, they may — with approval from your doctor — be able to work alongside certain medications (similar to how I use nootropics alongside my ADHD medication).

Avantera Elevate should be generally safe when taken by healthy adults who aren’t pregnant or breastfeeding. The company’s offerings are manufactured in GMP-certified facilities in the U.S., and all product batches are third-party tested by ISO-certified labs for purity and potency. You can find the testing results on the official website’s “Quality” page, under the “Third Party Validation” header. This commitment to safety and transparency is commendable, and it’s similar to the measures taken by the manufacturers in our guide to the best nootropics, such as Innerbody Labs, Thesis, and Revive.

When it comes to the two nootropic formulas themselves, Avantera Elevate’s ingredients are vegan-friendly and do not contain soy, dairy, nuts, gluten, GMOs, or added sugar. Neither formula appears to contain any fish, shellfish, wheat, or sesame ingredients, either, but since Avantera doesn’t explicitly state its products are free from these ingredients, individuals with allergies to them are probably better off avoiding Elevate — just to be safe.

Of course, it’s best to speak with your doctor before adding Avantera Elevate or any other new supplement to your routine.

Huperzine A risks and cycling

Avantera notes in its FAQ that Elevate “is intended to be taken every day” for optimal effectiveness. Though this should be fine for those who take the capsule formula, the gummies may be another story. While the capsules contain CDP-choline (citicoline), the gummies use a cholinesterase inhibitor called huperzine A instead.5

Most often, cholinesterase inhibitors refer to a group of drugs used in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease. Simply put, cholinesterase inhibitors can decrease the breakdown of acetylcholine in your central and peripheral nervous system.6 Because of this, both formulas of Avantera Elevate are likely unsafe for those on a prescription cholinesterase inhibitor (adding additional choline and further preventing its breakdown are both risky). But the huperzine A in the gummies could also increase the risk of a dangerous acetylcholine buildup in healthy people who aren’t taking that type of medication, particularly if the supplement isn’t cycled.

In the context of supplements, cycling is when you take regular time off from dosing in order to prevent tolerance or reduce the chance of adverse health effects. This isn’t necessary for all supplements, but it can be important — or at least helpful — in some cases. With huperzine A, reducing your chance of adverse health effects is the goal when you cycle supplements containing it. Huperzine A has a decently long half-life of 10-14 hours, which means its effects will generally last up to around 2-3 days after it enters your body.10

If the natural breakdown of acetylcholine is inhibited for too long, the risk of parasympathetic nervous system overstimulation increases. This can lead to symptoms including but not limited to:6

• Hypermotility (a GI tract that moves too fast, reducing nutrient absorption)
• Hypersecretion (excess secretion of one or more hormones in the body)
• Bradycardia (a slow heart rate, defined as below 60 beats per minute)
• Miosis (constricted pupils)
• Hypotension (low blood pressure)
• Digestive upset or diarrhea

In severe cases, cholinesterase inhibitors may rarely lead to a cholinergic crisis or SLUDGE syndrome. SLUDGE is a mnemonic that stands for its symptoms:6

• Salivation
• Lacrimation (secretion of tears)
• Urination
• Diaphoresis (sweating)
• Gastrointestinal upset
• Emesis (vomiting)

Other symptoms of a cholinergic crisis may include muscle twitching, trouble breathing, lightheadedness, and decreased consciousness.12

Given all of this, it should make more sense why cycling huperzine A is important. There aren’t any agreed-upon best practices for cycling this nootropic ingredient, but some common routines are:

• Daily intake for 2-4 weeks, followed by 1-2 weeks off
• Limiting intake to only 2-3 days per week
• Taking daily (or almost daily) for two weeks, followed by a break of four days

Generally, limiting your intake would be the safest, but — since we’re talking about a formula with more than just huperzine A in it — this could lead to Elevate gummies not being as effective for you as they could be, as nootropics often have to “build up” in effectiveness with frequent use over a period of time.

So, to balance these concerns, it may be best to create your own sort of “hybrid” cycling schedule with the assistance of your doctor. Just for example, if you’re looking to take Elevate gummies to improve your focus at work or school, then you might take them Monday through Friday, followed by a consistent weekend break, with the occasional longer break regularly thrown in (e.g., Thursday through Sunday once a month).

During my testing, I took the Elevate gummies Monday through Thursday, then took Friday and the weekend off. This seemed to keep the mild benefits I experienced “active” without resulting in any negative side effects (that I noticed, anyway).

Other ingredient safety information

Besides huperzine A, the other ingredients in Avantera’s Elevate formulas should be generally safe for adults who aren’t pregnant or breastfeeding. The main point to keep in mind is that many nootropic ingredients haven’t been studied for long-term safety. For example, experts say that rhodiola is “possibly safe” for up to 12 weeks (three months) of use, while turmeric is “likely safe” for 2-3 months.13 14

Additionally, it’s important to speak with your doctor before taking Elevate in case of interactions with prescription drugs or medical conditions. For instance, some research suggests that bacopa may interact poorly with hyperthyroidism, certain antidepressants, and thyroid disease treatments.15 Similarly, lion’s mane may interact with blood thinners due to its potential to inhibit platelet aggregation.16

Even just sending a message to your doctor to ask for their opinion can make a big difference and lead to better safety outcomes. In my case, I take several different prescription medications for ADHD and ME/CFS, so I wanted to make sure nothing would interact. After sending her a quick message, my doctor informed me that ginger could negatively interact with rizatriptan (an as-needed migraine abortive).58 Since ginger may act as a vasodilator and rizatriptan is a vasoconstrictor, these could certainly clash.59 60 So, with that in mind, I didn’t use Elevate on the same days that I needed to use rizatriptan. This is one of many ways in which a doctor’s input can be extremely helpful before starting a new supplement.

Whether or not Avantera Elevate works ultimately depends on your unique experience with the nootropic. However, existing research mainly points to both of the formulas — capsule and gummy — having ingredient doses on the lower end of effective (or just below the effective range). In line with this, I felt that both formulas were mildly effective, but they didn’t pack as much of a cognition-boosting “punch” as other nootropics I’ve tried (e.g., our own Innerbody Labs Focus Support or Thesis’ discontinued Logic formula). Nonetheless, the ingredients used in Avantera Elevate’s two formulas are promising, and either product could possibly be just what you need to meet your goals.

Let’s break down some of the research behind these nootropics.

Avantera Elevate capsules

This product has the more “robust” formula of the two. Each two-capsule serving contains the following ingredients:

• Bacopa leaf extract (standardized): 300mg
• Rhodiola root extract: 300mg
• CDP-choline: 200mg
• L-Theanine: 200mg
• Turmeric root extract (standardized): 100mg
• Organic lion’s mane: 100mg
• Caffeine from green tea leaf: 95mg
• Ginger root extract: 30mg
• BioPerine: 5mg

Right away, a couple of not-so-great things stand out with this formula: the rhodiola root extract isn’t standardized, and the lion’s mane isn’t an extract at all.

Standardization of an extract typically means it contains a specific amount or percentage of active components. For many nootropic ingredients, it's that quantity of active components, not the ingredient itself, that's potentially beneficial. With the bacopa content in Elevate’s capsules, for example, it’s standardized to 50% bacosides — these are the bioactive phytochemical compounds that researchers suggest drive the nootropic potential of bacopa.17 So, the rhodiola extract not being standardized means it may or may not contain enough of its various active components to be helpful.

Pivoting to the lion’s mane, some may argue that adding the whole mushroom instead of an extract means that you’re getting everything it has to offer. However, whole ingredients like this are often not what’s used in studies, and the chemical makeup of a mushroom can be altered by a host of factors such as the substrate used to grow it (e.g., oats, corn, logs, etc.), its surrounding environment, the time of year it’s harvested, its “age” at harvest, and more.18

Additionally, whole mushrooms have tough cell walls that the human body struggles to break down — if it can at all. With extracts, your body doesn’t have to deal with that, meaning your system has an easier time absorbing and using the potentially beneficial compounds.56 Personally, in line with the research, I’ve almost always found supplements with extracts to be more effective than whole mushroom powders.

That being said, here’s a quick breakdown of some research behind Elevate’s capsule formula.

Now let’s take a look at the gummy formula.

Avantera Elevate gummies

The formula for the Elevate gummies is quite a bit different than that of the capsules. While they share the bacopa and rhodiola content, that’s all the two Elevate products have in common. This may have to do with the challenges of fitting a large amount of active ingredients into a gummy.

Each two-gummy serving of Elevate includes:

• Vitamin B6: 2mg
• Vitamin B12: 2.6mcg
• Coffee fruit extract: 100mg
• Bacopa extract: 300mg
• Rhodiola extract: 250mg
• Huperzine A: 100mcg

It’s worth pointing out that this formula’s bacopa extract is different from that of the capsule formula. The gummy’s Supplement Facts note that the bacopa extract is “10:1,” while the capsule label states the bacopa extract is standardized to “50% bacosides.” This means that the bacopa content in the gummy formula isn’t standardized; it’s just a higher concentration. The 10:1 ratio indicates that ten parts of the raw material were used to make one part of the extract. Or, to be exact: 3,000mg (3g) of raw bacopa was used to create the 300mg extract in the Elevate gummies.

Since we’ve already discussed the potential benefits of bacopa and rhodiola in the previous section, the following research breakdown focuses on the ingredients that are unique to the gummies.

All of this being said, Avantera Elevate uses a collection of potentially beneficial ingredients in both of its formulas that are, unfortunately, often held back by low doses or a lack of standardization. This doesn’t mean that these products can’t possibly work for you, but the doses simply don’t meet expectations.

Personally, I felt a few benefits from the capsules and gummies, especially when it came to ADHD-related task-switching difficulties, but I wouldn’t choose them over other — far more effective — nootropics I’ve tried (more on that in the following section).

Before sharing my experience with Avantera Elevate, it’s important to highlight a few points. Firstly, as with any supplement, each person's response is different; what works — or doesn’t work — for me may very well do the complete opposite for you. Secondly, I’m not a healthcare professional, so my experience shouldn't be taken as medical advice. Lastly, on a similar note, it’s important to speak with your doctor before trying Elevate or any other new supplement (especially if you have a health condition or take any prescription medications).

Now, over the past five years or so, I’ve tried a lot of different nootropics, from single-ingredient options to complex formulas and nearly everything in between, so I have a wide array of experiences — both good and bad — to compare with Avantera Elevate. For reference, my personal favorite nootropic was Thesis’ Logic, which, unfortunately, was discontinued. Currently, the one I’ve been using in its place is our own Innerbody Focus Support, which contains several of the same well-dosed ingredients as Logic (i.e., phosphatidylserine, caffeine, and L-theanine), along with others.

I’ll go into more detail about my experience with Elevate in the next section, but to summarize:

• My experiences with the two Elevate formulas, both capsules and gummies, were generally positive, but neither was the best I’ve felt from a nootropic.
• The Elevate formulas were overall milder than other nootropics I’ve taken (and the gummies are even milder than the capsules).
• The biggest improvements I noticed were in ADHD-related task switching.
• I found the gummies alleviated some cognition-related orthostatic intolerance issues.
• Based on the research surrounding Elevate’s ingredients/doses and my personal experience, I’d say the formulas are likely best suited for nootropic supplement “beginners” or those who don’t need as much support as other options on the market may offer.

For those interested in learning more, I detail what I liked (and didn’t like) about Elevate below.

How well did Avantera Elevate work for me?

There are two major “problems” that I look for a nootropic to potentially help me with: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and myalgic encephalomyelitis (more commonly known as ME/CFS).

While I do take prescription medications for my ADHD, they’re not a cure, nor do they fully control the symptoms, but they can lay the essential groundwork to make executive functioning tasks easier. ME/CFS, on the other hand, has no actual treatment, and medications and supplements for symptom control can often make patients feel worse due to heightened sensitivities. The only thing doctors can truly recommend for ME/CFS is proper pacing and remaining within your “energy envelope.” So, typically, I’d like a nootropic to work in tandem with my ADHD medication and (at the very least) not worsen my ME/CFS.

That being said, the individual cognition-related issues I tend to struggle with include the following:

• Brain fog (ME/CFS): Short-term memory issues, word-finding difficulties, lower processing speed, etc., that are present in about 40-50% of ME patients or more.45
• Orthostatic intolerance (ME/CFS): This refers to experiencing an “excessive” drop in cerebral blood flow (CBF) after “assuming and maintaining upright posture” (e.g., standing or sitting without legs elevated) that can increase brain fog and fatigue and worsen memory issues, among other things.46 47
• Post-exertional malaise, or “PEM” (ME/CFS): Also called post-exertional symptom exacerbation (PESE) or post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion (PENE), PEM is defined as “a delayed worsening of symptoms that occurs after minimal physical or mental activity.” For me, it often results in flu-like symptoms, along with increased fatigue and brain fog.57
• Cognitive flexibility or task switching (ADHD): This is the ability to transition from one task to another, and difficulty doing so is often seen in children and adults with ADHD.48
• Motivation (ADHD): Despite the internal desire to start or complete a task, those with ADHD often get “stuck” and are unable to do so. This may appear to outsiders like laziness or procrastination, but in reality, the person with ADHD truly wants to be able to “do the thing.” Researchers believe this may be due to dopamine reward pathway dysfunction.49

Both formulas of Avantera Elevate provided me with some ADHD-related support, mainly when it came to task switching. I found it a bit easier to flow from task to task without my brain getting as “stuck” in the transition phase.

Additionally, the gummies actually managed to somewhat reduce the severity of my orthostatic intolerance. Upon further research, I found that acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, particularly pyridostigmine (Mestinon), have been investigated as a “potential treatment alternative” for those with orthostatic intolerance, including orthostatic hypotension (i.e., a drop in blood pressure upon standing).50 More long-term research is needed, but this could explain why the Avantera Elevate gummies helped me a little with this, since huperzine A — found only in the gummies — also acts as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor.51

On the downside of these nootropic formulas, the capsules actually had a paradoxical effect on me a couple of times, in which they made me feel drowsy. This could be due to a number of factors, such as the potential for ingredients like L-theanine to reduce stress, or the fact that caffeine may occasionally make some people with ADHD feel tired instead of alert.52

Other than that, the biggest con was how mild the two Elevate formulas are. It could be because my symptoms “outweigh” the potential of the ingredient doses, or maybe I’m simply more accustomed to other nootropics, but I truly feel that Avantera is best suited for people who are just getting into trying nootropics or who don’t need as much support.

The pricing for Avantera Elevate is pretty straightforward; both the capsules and the gummies have the same total up-front costs:

• One-time purchase: $64.95
• Subscription (23% off): $49.95

The only difference between the pricing of the two products is their cost per serving. The Elevate capsules only come with 28 servings, while the gummies have 30, so the per-serving costs look like this:

• Gummy, one-time: $2.17 per serving
• Gummy, subscription: $1.67 per serving
• Capsule, one-time: $2.32 per serving
• Capsule, subscription: $1.78 per serving

Your first subscription of either product gets you a free travel pill case, which works great for bringing a few two-capsule doses of Elevate on a weekend trip or for keeping in your desk (the gummies don’t fit very well in the case, unfortunately). While the case is nice, I do wish that it were a bit bigger; it only holds three two-capsule doses, so it wouldn’t be ideal for longer trips or weekly supplement organization.

When it comes to returns, your first direct purchase of Elevate is covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. This policy covers only your first purchase, however, and it doesn’t apply to purchases made on other websites, such as Amazon. Outside of your first purchase, Avantera doesn’t appear to accept returns or offer refunds. If you run into any issues with your supplement purchase with subsequent orders, the company recommends reaching out to customer service.

As interest in nootropic supplements and other brain-boosting products has grown over the years, so too has the selection of alternatives to choose from. In the following sections, you can learn more about a few different options that are out there.

Other nootropic supplements

There are now hundreds, if not thousands, of nootropic options out there. Unfortunately, this also means that it can be difficult to determine which ones are worth your time (and money).

A lot of manufacturers use potentially risky ingredients, don’t conduct safety testing, or promise miraculous results while selling underdosed products. If things like these are keeping you from researching more about these brain supplements, our team breaks down all you need to know about nootropics, including the best options for different needs (e.g., studying, stress, brain health, etc.), in our comprehensive guide.

Mushroom coffee

If nootropics interest you but you’re not thrilled with the idea of adding another pill or gummy to your regimen, then mushroom coffee could be an option. These powdered drink mixes are intended to replace one or more cups of your daily coffee intake, and they include a wide range of potentially beneficial ingredients, from functional mushrooms and botanicals to nootropic ingredients, adaptogens, vitamins, minerals, and more.

They’re available in caffeinated or caffeine-free varieties, and some aren’t even actually coffee-based; you can also get hot chocolates, teas, and mix-ins to add to your base beverage of choice. To learn more about mushroom coffees, check out our guide to the best of 2025.

Speak with your doctor

If your cognition is bothering you more than a supplement seems able to help with, then it’s best to consult your doctor. They can run tests, refer you to a specialist (e.g., a neurologist), or possibly prescribe you a medication to suit your needs. For example, your trouble focusing may be due to depression or anxiety, so treatment with an antidepressant or talk therapy may be beneficial.53