By Broc Trammell, Co-Founder and CEO of Thumos | Former Navy SWCC | Wharton MBA
I want to tell you something I have never been particularly proud to admit.
I barely graduated high school. Not because I lacked drive or ambition, but because I genuinely could not focus. I would sit down to read a chapter, drift halfway through the first paragraph, and find myself ten minutes later staring at the ceiling with no memory of what I had just read. I In elementary school, I still remember being placed in the special reading class, except this type of special was for about 10 of us who couldn’t read as well as the others. The inability to concentrate, retain information, and sustain cognitive function through even basic tasks had caused me to fall behind.
Years later, as a Navy SWCC operator at Special Boat Team TWELVE, I would again find myself in a different type of obstacle to conqueror, brain injury. Multiple traumatic brain injuries from the kind of work that does not exactly come with a safety manual. Sitting in a Wharton MBA classroom today, surrounded by some of the sharpest minds in business, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the brain is not static. It is not fixed at birth and left to slowly wind down. It is a biological system that can be experience recovery and growth, not decline.
That conviction is why Thumos exists. Not as a product. As a mission rooted in brain health, cognitive longevity, and the science of preventing cognitive decline before it takes hold.
The Mission: Fight Brain Decay Before It Fights You
Thumos was built around one belief: brain decay is not inevitable, but it is accelerating – and most people have no idea it has already begun.
The data is not subtle. The 2026 Alzheimer's Association Facts and Figures report found that 7.4 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer's disease, and deaths from the disease have increased by 134 percent since 2000. Up to 45 percent of dementia cases are attributable to modifiable lifestyle and environmental factors. That means nearly half of all cases of cognitive decline could potentially be prevented through daily habits and choices made years before any symptoms appear.
My co-founder and I did not build Thumos after reading a market research report. We built it after watching the cognitive health cost of high-stress, high-impact military service accumulate in real time, in our own bodies and in the people around us. We asked one question: what does the science actually say about protecting brain health long term? Eight nootropic ingredients and years of research later, Thumos Daily Brain + Gut Support is our answer. A science-backed brain health supplement built for people who refuse to let their mind fall behind their ambition.
Brain Rot Is Real. And Social Media Is the Accelerant.
Before I get into what Thumos does for cognitive function, I want to talk about the force actively working against your brain health right now. Because you are probably holding the device delivering it.
Brain rot was Oxford University Press's Word of the Year in 2024, and it is not just a meme. A 2025 peer-reviewed study published in Brain Sciences defined brain rot as "the cognitive decline and mental exhaustion experienced by adolescents and young adults due to excessive exposure to low-quality online materials, especially on social media." The authors found that doomscrolling, zombie scrolling, and compulsive social media use impair executive functions including memory, planning, and decision-making, three of the most foundational pillars of cognitive performance.
The ABCD study, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development project tracking more than 11,500 U.S. teens since 2016, published findings in 2025 directly linking increased social media use to lower cognitive performance across multiple domains. A 2025 study published in Translational Psychiatry found that more screen use was associated with reduced cortical thickness in areas of the brain responsible for memory, higher-level thinking, and decision-making. Cortical thinning is one of the earliest structural markers of cognitive decline and long-term brain health deterioration.
And here is the number that should make every person reading this on their phone pause: 63 percent of U.S. adults ages 18 to 29 report being online almost constantly. A 2025 American Psychological Association study found that overconsumption of short-form videos is linked to a gradual decline in cognitive endurance, with researchers noting that overexposure to rapid social media stimulation leads to desensitization to "slower, more effortful" cognitive tasks. After using TikTok specifically, participants' prospective memory accuracy dropped so sharply they performed only slightly better than random guessing. Just writing that scares me, geeze.
To put this in the starkest terms I know: the change in sustained attention ability caused by heavy social media use is approximately the same magnitude as ten years of age-related cognitive decline. We are aging our brains in real time, on our phones, for free.
This is not an argument to delete every app and move off the grid. It is an argument to take your brain health as seriously as you take your physical health. Because the same way you would not eat junk food for every meal and expect to perform at an elite level physically, you cannot feed your brain a constant stream of low-quality digital stimulation and expect sharp cognitive function, mental clarity, and sustained focus to remain intact.
Why Starting Citicoline Early in Life Changes Everything
One of the nootropic ingredients in Thumos that I feel most strongly about is Cognizin ® Citicoline. Not because it sounds impressive on a label, but because the research on it genuinely changed how I think about the timeline of brain health protection and cognitive longevity.
Most people assume brain health supplements and nootropics are for older people experiencing memory problems. That assumption is costing them decades of potential neuroprotection.
Citicoline is a naturally occurring compound in the brain and a direct precursor to phosphatidylcholine, one of the primary structural components of neuronal cell membranes. When taken as a nootropic supplement, it supports membrane integrity, increases acetylcholine synthesis, and supports brain energy metabolism. A 2023 review confirmed that citicoline improves memory and cognitive function, with the compound demonstrating neuroprotective effects by helping protect and repair the structural integrity of your nervous system.
A Cochrane meta-analysis examining clinical trials across multiple decades found meaningful positive effects of citicoline on memory measures, with an effect size of 0.19 and an odds ratio of 8.89 for positive Global Clinical Impression compared to placebo. In plain English, when researchers combined the results of many studies, people who took citicoline tended to perform slightly better on memory tests than people who took a placebo. They were also much more likely to be rated as having an overall improvement in their cognitive condition. A 2026 real-world cohort study tracking 100 patients with prodromal dementia receiving a combined oral citicoline preparation versus 50 age-matched healthy controls found meaningful improvements across cognitive, functional, and emotional outcomes over six to nine months of follow-up, with researchers calling early intervention in the prodromal stages of cognitive decline a primary focus of contemporary brain health research.
But here is the insight most people miss: citicoline is not a rescue compound. It is a daily brain health maintenance ingredient. The greatest value of citicoline is not in treating a brain already in decline. It is in building the neurological reserve that prevents cognitive decline from starting.
Neuroplasticity and neuronal membrane health are established and maintained over decades. The brain's ability to synthesize acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter foundational to memory and learning, responds to consistent daily nootropic support, not emergency intervention. The research on citicoline's protective effects against vascular cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease is most compelling precisely because the compound works through ongoing neuroprotection rather than acute correction.
Starting citicoline in your 20s, 30s, or 40s is the cognitive equivalent of investing in a retirement account early. The compounding is the point. You do not feel the return immediately. You feel it at 65, 70, and 80, when your peers are experiencing the cognitive decline you quietly prevented. Every day you delay brain health supplementation is a day of potential neuroprotection you cannot get back.
Thumos includes 200mg of Cognizin® Citicoline per serving. That is a clinical dose of the most bioavailable, most studied form of this nootropic available, not a trace amount included for label credibility.
The Full Formula: Eight Nootropic Ingredients. One Daily Brain Health Ritual.
Citicoline is the anchor, but Thumos was built as a complete daily system for brain and gut health that addresses the full biological picture most brain health supplements ignore entirely.
L-Glutamine (1,000mg) and Inulin from Agave (1,000mg) address the gut-brain axis, the bidirectional communication highway between your microbiome and your brain that determines neurotransmitter production, inflammatory signaling, and cognitive performance at a foundational level. Roughly 90 percent of the body's serotonin is produced in the gut. A compromised gut microbiome drives neuroinflammation, brain fog, and cognitive fatigue from the inside out. Supporting gut integrity is not a side benefit of Thumos. It is the biological foundation that makes every other nootropic ingredient in the formula more effective.
L-Tyrosine (500mg) fuels the production of dopamine and norepinephrine, the neurotransmitters that drive sustained focus, motivation, and cognitive resilience under stress. L-Theanine (200mg) promotes the calm, alert alpha brainwave state that defines peak cognitive performance without the jitters or overstimulation that deplete the nervous system over time.
Coenzyme Q10, Nano-Emulsified (100mg) powers the mitochondria inside every brain cell, delivering cellular energy where brain health support is needed most. The nano-emulsified form provides significantly superior bioavailability compared to standard CoQ10, meaning the cognitive health benefit actually reaches the cells it is intended for. Taurine (500mg) provides neuroprotection and cellular hydration, shielding brain cells from the oxidative stress that accumulates across decades of cognitive demand.
And Natural Caffeine from Green Tea (50mg) delivers clean, sustained mental energy without the spike and crash cycle that stresses the adrenal system and contributes to long-term cognitive fatigue.
Every dosage is clinical. Every ingredient has published research supporting its role in brain health and cognitive function. Every choice was made because my co-founder and I were not willing to build the kind of brain supplementthat looked impressive and delivered nothing. We had seen enough of that in the nootropics market.
What Fighting Brain Decay Actually Looks Like
I sit in Wharton classrooms now and absorb material at a level I never believed possible for someone who barely graduated high school. I am not telling you that to be impressive. I am telling you that because I know exactly what changed, and a daily brain health protocol that includes clinical-dose nootropic supplementation is a meaningful part of it.
The mission of Thumos is not to sell a brain health supplement. It is to fight brain decay. To give people the same fighting chance my co-founder and I gave ourselves. To build something clean, honest, and grounded in science for the people who refuse to let their cognitive performance fall behind their ambition.
Brain decay is accelerating. Social media is amplifying it. The science on preventing cognitive decline has never been clearer. And the best time to start protecting your cognitive health, your brain longevity, and your mental clarity is the same as it has always been.
Now.
Start your daily brain health routine at livethumos.com.
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Works Cited
Alzheimer's Association. 2026 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures: Brain Health in America. Alzheimer's Association, 2026. www.alz.org/news/2026/facts-figures-report-brain-health.
Cheng, Yang, et al. "Effects of Three Aerobic Exercise Modalities on Circulating Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis." Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, vol. 17, 25 Sept. 2025. doi:10.3389/fnagi.2025.1673786.
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Fioravanti, M., and A. E. Buckley. "Citicoline (Cognizin) in the Treatment of Cognitive Impairment." Clinical Interventions in Aging, vol. 1, no. 3, 2006, pp. 247-251. Cochrane meta-analysis cited in Drugs.com review, updated Oct. 2025. www.drugs.com/npp/citicoline.html.
Healthline. "Citicoline: Uses, Benefits, Dosage, and Side Effects." Healthline, 8 Nov. 2023. www.healthline.com/health/citicoline.
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Valverde Salazar, G., et al. "Long-Term Treatment with Citicoline Prevents Cognitive Decline and Predicts a Better Quality of Life After a First Ischemic Stroke." International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 17, no. 3, 2016. doi:10.3390/ijms17030390.
Vlontzou, M. E., et al. "Demystifying the New Dilemma of Brain Rot in the Digital Era: A Review." Brain Sciences, 2025. PMC11939997. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11939997.
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