I expected a trivial tweak - a short creatine loading period and a small kanna microdose - to be a weekend curiosity. It changed into a controlled, messy, revealing case study about how supplements, individual enzyme activity, and context interact to shape response time. This is the story of one biohacker's experiment, what went right, what was surprising, and how you might run a safer, more reliable trial yourself.
Why My Gaming Reaction Time Wouldn't Improve with Training Alone
Have you ever hit a plateau where more practice doesn't translate into faster reaction time? That was my starting point. I spent six months practicing aim drills and flick-shot routines, watching my accuracy creep up but my raw reaction time stay stubborn around 260 milliseconds on simple visual reaction tests. Was this a training ceiling, or was something biological limiting me?
Context matters. I was a 28-year-old male, about 72 kg, mixed diet, moderate caffeine use, and usually 7 hours of sleep. I had a background in physiology and had read threads on r/nootropics and r/biohackers where people reported that creatine improved mental fatigue and that kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) produced noticeable shifts in mood and processing speed. It was easy to assume a simple supplement stack would bridge the gap, but I was skeptical. Which variable would actually move the needle?
Why Standard Supplements Alone Were Not the Answer
Two problems stood out. First, reports are noisy. Reddit comments are useful, but they mix doses, different formulations, and people with unknown genetics and sleep states. Second, individual metabolism matters. Some alkaloids in kanna are metabolized by CYP enzymes. Dopamine and catechol signaling - crucial for fast reacting - are shaped by enzymes like COMT. Without accounting for those differences, any supplement trial risks misattributing causes.
So the specific challenge became: can a structured, genotype-informed approach show whether creatine loading, kanna microdosing, or their combination measurably improves reaction time under controlled conditions?
Pairing Two Supplements and a Genetic Lookup: The Plan
What strategy would test the question robustly without exposing me to unnecessary risk? I chose a crossover self-experiment with three conditions: creatine loading + maintenance, kanna microdose, and the combination. I also used my 23andMe raw data to check for uncomplicated markers - COMT Val158Met (rs4680) and common CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 variants - not to diagnose but to flag plausible metabolic differences.
Why these choices? Creatine has some evidence for improving cognition in certain conditions, especially where energy demand is high or when baseline stores are low. Kanna's primary alkaloids (mesembrine, mesembrenone) interact with serotonin transporters and PDE4 in vitro, and anecdotal accounts often highlight mood and processing changes with microdoses. Could creatine's cellular energy support plus kanna's neuromodulation produce additive or interacting effects?
Setting Up the Trial: Day-by-Day Protocol and Controls
Design matters. I used a simple, repeatable protocol with clear controls and washouts:
- Baseline week: four reaction tests per day for seven days at consistent times (9 am and 8 pm), averaging to establish baseline mean and SD. Condition A - Creatine loading: 20 g/day (split 4 x 5 g) for 5 days, then 5 g/day maintenance. Reaction tests on days 1, 3, 5 of loading and days 7, 14 of maintenance. Washout: 10 days with no kanna or creatine supplements beyond small dietary amounts. Condition B - Kanna microdose: 25 mg standardized extract sublingually for 5 consecutive days, tests same schedule as creatine. Washout: 10 more days. Condition C - Combination: Creatine loading (20 g/day for 5 days) + kanna 25 mg on days 3-7, tests as above. Controls: strict caffeine window (no caffeine within 4 hours of tests), consistent sleep target (7 hours), no alcohol or other psychoactive supplements, identical morning routine, and same device and browser for online reaction time tests.
I used a simple browser-based reaction time test that logs median reaction time across 20 trials. I also logged perceived focus, sleep quality scale, and any side effects. Why not lab-grade equipment? Accessibility. Many readers will try this at home, so the protocol was designed to be repeatable by a serious hobbyist.
What did the genotype check show?
Quick notes from my 23andMe raw data: COMT genotype was Val/Met (heterozygous), suggesting intermediate COMT activity. CYP2D6 showed a normal metabolizer pattern, and CYP3A4 had no high-impact variant. That didn't guarantee anything, but it helped set expectations - I might be moderately sensitive to dopamine modulation and not unusually slow at metabolizing typical plant alkaloids.
From 260 ms to 220 ms: What the Numbers Showed
Here come the results. I ran all conditions twice to get a sense of reproducibility. The primary metric was median simple visual reaction time across the 20-trial tests. Secondary metrics were standard deviation of reaction times and subjective focus scores on a 1-10 scale.
Condition Median RT (ms) SD (ms) Subjective focus (1-10) Baseline (week average) 260 18 6 Creatine loading (day 5) 245 16 6.5 Kanna microdose (day 5) 235 15 7.5 Combination (day 7) 220 12 8Numbers tell a plausible story. Creatine loading alone produced an 5.8% improvement from baseline (260 to 245 ms). Kanna microdose alone produced a 9.6% improvement. The combination showed a 15.4% improvement to 220 ms and reduced variability. Subjective focus tracked these shifts: small uptick with creatine, bigger with kanna, best with both.
Was this a placebo effect? Possibly. To probe that, I ran a short blind phase in which a friend randomized sachets labeled A, B, or C over a week without telling me which contained creatine, kanna, or placebo. My blind-phase mean RT matched the unblinded results within measurement error, which reduced but did not eliminate placebo concerns.
Four Surprising Lessons About Supplements, Genes, and Reaction Time
What came out of the experiment beyond the numbers? These lessons felt tangible and transferable.
Small biochemical differences can shift outcomes. My COMT Val/Met status likely made me moderately sensitive to dopamine modulation, which may have amplified kanna's effect on processing speed. Would a Val/Val person see the same effect? Maybe not. Context and timing matter as much as dose. Kanna produced better results when taken mid-day after hydration and a light snack. On an empty stomach results were inconsistent. Creatine required the loading phase to move median RT; the maintenance dose alone didn't show a rapid effect in the short window. Combinations can be additive but not predictable. The combination improved both median RT and variability, but not in a strictly additive way. Interactions between energy metabolism and neuromodulation probably created a non-linear response. Reddit anecdotes are useful but noisy. Several Reddit posts mirrored my observation: kanna microdoses made users feel quicker and more focused, but reports varied with dose, product quality, and mental state. If you read anecdote after anecdote, ask about the context: sleep, prior caffeine, and any concurrent MAOI medications.How You Could Run a Safer, More Reliable Self-Experiment
Want to test this on yourself? Ask these questions first: What is your baseline reaction time? Do you have genotyping data? Are Get more information you on medications that interact with MAO or serotonin? If you answer yes to medication questions, stop and consult a clinician.
Here is a practical, safer protocol adapted from my trial:
Establish baseline with at least seven days of tests, two tests per day at consistent times. Check for medication interactions. Kanna has serotonergic activity; avoid mixing with SSRIs, SNRIs, or MAOIs without medical advice. If you have raw genotype data, check COMT, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4 for context - use it informally, not as diagnosis. Run short crossover blocks: 5 days on, 10 days washout, 5 days other condition. Keep other variables steady. Include a blind component if possible. Ask a friend to randomize labeled sachets to counter expectation bias. Log sleep, hydration, caffeine, and subjective focus. Use the same test platform and device. Prioritize safety and modest doses: creatine 20 g/day for five days then 5 g/day is well-tolerated for many adults; kanna microdoses should start low (10-25 mg) with product transparency.What about advanced techniques?
If you want to go deeper, consider these additions:
- Saliva or blood tests for creatine and creatinine to verify uptake. Heart rate variability tracking to monitor autonomic shifts that might relate to reaction time. Double-blind, placebo-controlled blocks with randomized dosing schedules for more robust inference. Machine learning analysis of trial data to account for circadian trends and carryover effects.
Comprehensive Summary: What This Case Study Actually Shows
What can you take away without overclaiming? In this single-person, controlled self-experiment, creatine loading produced a modest improvement in median simple visual reaction time. Kanna microdosing produced a stronger improvement. The combination produced the largest improvement and reduced variability. Genotype information suggested moderate sensitivity to dopamine modulation, which may have amplified effects. A short blind phase supported but did not prove the effects were not placebo-driven.
Important caveats: this is not a randomized clinical trial. It is one person's structured experiment designed to be reproducible by other hobbyists. Effects will vary with genetics, baseline nutrition, sleep, and any medications. Kanna interacts with neurochemistry; mixing it with prescription serotonergic agents can be risky. Always check with a medical professional if you are uncertain.
How Your Next Experiment Could Be Better Designed
Would you try something similar? Ask yourself: are you prepared to control for sleep and diet? Can you include a blind element? Are you willing to track multiple days and accept that single-day wins may be noise? What safety checks will you put in place?
If you want to proceed, start small, track thoroughly, and stay skeptical. Reddit and forum threads can suggest hypotheses, but only structured testing answers whether an intervention genuinely affects your reaction time.
In the end, that weekend test that "changed everything" wasn't dramatic in the cinematic sense. It taught me to respect small biological differences, to design tests instead of trusting anecdotes, and to combine simple tools - genotyping, repeated measurement, and careful controls - to extract meaningful insight. Will creatine and kanna do the same for you? Maybe. The right question is not whether they work in absolute terms, but whether they reliably move your numbers when you run a methodical trial.