How Core compares
Judge us on the same questions we'd judge anyone.
We don't compare on outcome claims or headline percentages. We compare on the things you can actually check: whether every dose is disclosed, whether the actives are dosed to the research, and whether the formula is built to be licensed where it's sold.
Where this stands
Signal State Core is a pre-launch concept. The formula and doses are a working direction subject to regulatory and legal review, not final label or advertising copy. No Natural Product Number has been issued yet. Comparisons here are to common category patterns, not head-to-head outcome claims, and nothing on this page is medical advice.
Four questions
The checklist we expect to be held to.
These are the same four questions we teach on the buyer's guide. Hold any focus stack to them, Core included.
Is there human evidence, or only lab and animal data?
Every active is graded against published human research, with the citations on its ingredient page.
Does the label dose match the studied dose?
Each active's page lists the studied dose ranges and supporting research. Core's serving amounts are not yet finalized.
Is every dose disclosed, or hidden in a proprietary blend?
No proprietary blends, ever. Every active will be listed with its own amount on the label. Serving amounts aren't published yet because the formula isn't final.
What are the honest cautions?
Published per ingredient (interactions, side effects, and who should be careful) before anyone is asked to buy.
Category patterns
Four common focus-stack patterns, and where Core stands.
Rather than name and out-claim competitors, here are the recurring shapes the category takes, the honest catch in each, and how Core is built against it.
| The pattern | The catch | Where Core stands |
|---|---|---|
| The proprietary-blend stack | Lists a blend's total milligrams but hides each ingredient's dose, so you cannot tell whether any active is at a studied dose or a fairy-dusted trace. | No proprietary blends, ever. Every active will be listed with its own amount on the label. |
| The kitchen-sink stack | Twenty to thirty ingredients on the label reads as thorough, but the serving is spread thin and many actives land below the dose their own cited studies used. | A short list of actives, each chosen to sit at a dose the research actually studied: coverage of real roles, not a longer label. |
| The single-ingredient product | Honest and often well-made, but it fills one role, and you end up assembling and dosing the rest of the stack yourself. | One formula that covers calm attention, mental energy, and stress-related fatigue together, each part graded on its own page. |
| The imported stack | Buying a supplement from abroad for personal use does not, by itself, tell you whether that specific product is authorized in Canada. It may or may not be. The label is what settles it: look for an eight-digit NPN and verify it in Health Canada's Licensed Natural Health Products Database. | Every active, and its amount, is disclosed and graded on its own page. Where Core is first sold will decide the exact regulatory path, and we'll publish it. |
For a step-by-step example of checking a label's doses against the studies, see the cited-dose-versus-delivered-dose guide on The Signal.
The Core actives
What's in the formula, at the doses studies used.
Four stimulant-free cognitive actives, with no proprietary blend and no passenger ingredients. Each is shown at the dose range its research actually used, with our own conservative evidence grade. The number in the bottle is finalized under regulatory review before launch.
| Active | Studied dose | Evidence grade |
|---|---|---|
| Bacopa Monnieri | 300–600 mg daily of a standardized extract (commonly ~50% bacosides). | Evidence: Grade B |
| L-Theanine | 50–250 mg per serving across the trials cited here (Nobre 50 mg; Haskell 250 mg), most commonly 100–200 mg. | Evidence: Grade B |
| Citicoline | 250–500 mg daily in the branded-form trials; other trials used single 500–1000 mg doses in healthy volunteers, and 1–2 g daily in an older-adult memory trial. | Evidence: Grade C |
| Rhodiola Rosea | Early SHR-5 trials: 100–170 mg/day. Koozehchian 2025: 200 or 1500 mg/day of a different extract. Study doses are not use advice; the higher dose exceeds Canadian monograph limits. | Evidence: Grade C |
Why four actives
A short formula, held to one evidence bar.
An ingredient earns its place in Core by clearing the evidence bar at a dose that carries its own weight. Anything that falls short comes out, even if it would make the label look fuller.
That's why the formula is four actives rather than five. The reasoning behind cutting a below-bar active is on The Evidence Standard.