Focus Factor Review

About Focus Factor

• Focus Factor is self-quoted as “America’s #1 Brain Health Supplement,” a statement potentially made true by this product’s familiarity and wide distribution.
• 40 ingredients fill Focus Factor’s 4-tablet formula. Here are two more F words you can slap on this bottle: frivolous and fraudulent.
• Focus Factor found itself in hot water with the FDA & FTC over deceptive marketing & advertising charges. Say no more.

Serving Size: 4 tablets
Servings Per Container: 15
Other Ingredients: Dicalcium phosphate, microcrystalline cellulose, croscarmellose sodium, stearic acid, pharmaceutical glaze, silica, and magnesium stearate. Contains: Fish (Docosahexaenoic Acid [DHA]) and soy (phosphatidyl serine)
Suggested Use: As a dietary supplement, take 4 tablets per day with food. To accommodate body weight, activity level, stress level, and/or inadequate tablets per day.

Normally, I give a brief synopsis of each ingredient in these product reviews. For FOCUSfactor, the Nootropic Geek is tapping out. Instead, I’m splitting up the formula into two sections here: (1) Vitamins & Minerals and (2) Synergistic and Proprietary Formulation.

Focus Factor Review: Ingredients

(1) The Vitamins & Minerals

I won’t cover every single vitamin & mineral (I REFUSE), but I’ll briefly glance over the important items as well as the general quality & quantity of Focus Factor’s ingredients.

Essentially, what you’re getting here is a massive slew of decent quality, well-dosed vitamins & minerals, ranging from the nootropic vitamin B6 (as P-5-P) & vitamin B12 (as ion-exchange resin… what?) to the antioxidant vitamin C, which works as a decent neuroprotector. Zinc & Magnesium also make an appearance, fulfilling the sports nutritional ZMA angle here.

I am suspicious of the amount of ingredient forms allocated to a single ingredient — e.g. magnesium citrate, malate, and taurate for magnesium. It’s almost as if Focus Factor’s manufacturers mixed together the residual remains of other products hot dog-style, a sloppy approach to multivitamin formulation.

All-in-all, I wouldn’t pin this concoction down as a bona fide cognitive enhancer, unless you’re severely lacking in these nutrients.

(2) Synergistic and Proprietary Formulation

Again, I’m not covering every ingredient. Here’s a guesstimated summary instead:

There are 17 ingredients in this 692 mg dosed proprietary blend. That allows a potential average of 40.7 mg per ingredient, although the higher priority ingredients — DMAE, bacopa, phosphatidylserine — are sure to soak up most of blend’s dosage. I’m fine with that, with exception to DMAE, which isn’t the best nootropic. However, it’s doubtful that even these nootropics are receiving enough milligrams to significantly affect cognition given the overall low dosage.

The quality of these ingredients isn’t bad and actually impresses in certain areas (e.g. bacopa’s patented Bacopin®). But the poor design of this blend nullifies any potential benefits of these nootropics.

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Focus Factor Review: Do NOT Buy This

Focus Factor attempts to pack everything into its tablets, in effect accomplishing nothing. There simply isn’t enough space, even in a hefty 4-tablet serving, to sufficiently cover every ingredient in this formula. At least for nootropic enhancement.

At best, Focus Factor seems to function as a passable multivitamin supplement, although I’d argue that there are even too many vitamins & minerals here than what are necessary. Which was puzzling with older Focus Factor bottles, given the former claim on their products’ label: “Clinically Shown to Improve Memory, Concentration, and Focus.”

The only clinical study I’ve found that mentions Focus Factor actually warns against such products for their unsubstantiated marketing claims & contradictory “evidence of treatment.” In fact, Focus Factor was fined $1 million by the FTC in 2004 for false & deceptive marketing. (It seems not a whole lot has changed for the company over the past decade.)

Additionally, there are a number of customer reviews complaining of unauthorized charges from the company when bought directly from the manufacturers.

If I had to make a guess, I’d say that Focus Factor crafted together cheap, ineffective pills to sell to (prey upon) the elderly through massive, big-chain retailers for big, BIG money. And, unfortunately, the scheme seemed to work.

That’s just the nature of the biz.

Focus Factor is neither capable of beneficial effects, let alone any side effects. I recommend passing on this one — as well as passing on any online info source that praises or recommends this stack.

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The Pros

• Focus Factor may pass as a multivitamin supplement, supplying decent quality vitamins & minerals that may support general health to a degree.

The Cons

• The 40-ingredient formula design is inherently broken: There isn’t enough space in these cheap-o tablets to adequately cover 40 ingredients.
• Focus Factor has a history of trouble with the FDA & FTC, earned by the company’s blatant marketing & advertising falsehoods.
• Customer reviews suggest of scammy behavior on behalf of the company as well. Be cautious with your credit card information!

Pricing

• $39.99 for 90 tablets, a 22.5-day supply
• $1.78 per serving

Who Takes Focus Factor?

Focus Factor achieved its popularity through aggressive advertising and marketing, selling it’s product through all of the major retailers: Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Amazon, etc. It seems that a lot of people are supplementing Focus Factor, particularly the elderly.

Where to Get It

You can buy Focus Factor directly through their website (the most expensive option), or through a number of retailers, including Amazon, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Vitamin Shoppe, and so on.

Conclusion: Does Focus Factor Work?

To be fair, Focus Factor carries a number of bona fide, high quality nootropic ingredients. If another company condensed the Focus Factor formula to a fourth of the original roster, honing in on the nootropics that actually work, while foregoing all of the vitamins & minerals, then I’d be very interested  in checking out that product.

Yet, what we’ve been given is a sloppy, stuffed, inefficient product, half hidden by a proprietary blend, falsely marketed by a questionable company, that racks in more money than it deserves.

C’est la vie.

Do I give this product my recommendation? No. Not even as a multivitamin.

Final Rating

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