Calm & Focus Powder
Calm & Focus™ Powder · Unflavored · 60 Servings
You don't need more stimulation.
You need better regulation.
Most people reach for another coffee when what they actually need is a nervous system that stops overshooting. Calm & Focus is an unflavored daily powder built around four inputs that support the body's own calming signaling — no caffeine, no sedation, no sweeteners, and nothing in the scoop that isn't on the panel.
2,650 mg Named Actives
0 mg Caffeine
0 Other Ingredients
TRAACS Chelated Magnesium
60 Servings
The Problem With "Focus" Products
Stimulants borrow focus. They don't build it.
Caffeine works by blocking the signal that tells you you're tired. It doesn't make you calmer, sharper, or more regulated — it makes you louder. And when the effect wears off, you're back where you started, usually with a little more debt on the account.
The kind of focus most people are actually chasing is not arousal. It's the ability to sit with a hard task and not have the nervous system throwing static across the top of it. That state has a physiology: inhibitory tone. When the body's braking signals are working, the noise drops and attention gets easier to hold. When they aren't, you can be wired and useless at the same time.
We formulated Calm & Focus for that side of the equation. Myo-inositol as a second-messenger substrate, taurine and L-theanine as amino acids with real inhibitory activity, GABA at the dose used in the alpha-wave EEG work, and TRAACS chelated magnesium as the cofactor that a lot of those pathways quietly depend on. Then we stopped. No flavor system, no sweetener, no filler.
I take it in the evening most days, and on days when I've got a long block of writing or patient charting ahead of me I'll take it in the morning instead. It is the one thing on my shelf that does not feel like it is pushing me.
The Difference
Two ways to build a calm-focus powder.
The industry standard
- Caffeine or a caffeine analog hidden under the word "focus"
- A proprietary blend that hides the amount of everything in it
- Magnesium oxide, because it is cheap and the label number looks the same
- Sucralose, natural flavors, silica, and colorant making up most of the scoop
- Study percentages quoted from doses the product doesn't actually contain
- A serving size engineered to make the cost per serving look better than it is
The IOH standard
- Zero caffeine and zero stimulants of any kind
- Every active disclosed by name and amount — no blend, no hiding
- TRAACS magnesium bisglycinate chelate, a fully reacted amino acid chelate
- Other Ingredients: None. The scoop is the formula
- Where an ingredient sits below the studied range, we print it on this page
- 3.5 g serving, 60 servings, 210 g net — the arithmetic closes
What It Supports
Four jobs. One scoop.
01
Calm without sedation
Supports the body's own inhibitory signaling so the volume comes down without the lights going out. Built to be usable at 10 a.m., not just at 10 p.m.
02
Sustained attention
L-theanine is studied for its association with alpha-wave activity, the EEG signature of relaxed alertness — the state where focus holds instead of flickering.
03
Stress-response tone
Supports a healthy, measured stress response and normal nervous system tone in people who spend a lot of their day with the throttle open.
04
Muscle and mineral support
Chelated magnesium supports normal muscle relaxation and hundreds of enzymatic reactions, including several inside the pathways above.
Signature Section · The Honest Version
Three routes to the same brake pedal.
Here is something most GABA products won't tell you: whether swallowed GABA meaningfully crosses the blood-brain barrier is still an open question in the literature. Researchers do not fully agree. So we didn't build this formula on that single assumption. We built it on three separate routes, only one of which depends on it.
Route 01
GABA, direct
Oral GABA has been studied for its association with alpha-wave activity on EEG, and there is a well-described population of GABA receptors in the enteric nervous system and on vagal afferents — the gut-to-brain line. Whether the effect is central, peripheral, or both is genuinely unsettled.
100 mg · the dose used in the alpha-wave work
Route 02
Taurine, upstream
Taurine does have its own transport into the brain, and it interacts with GABA-A and glycine receptors in its own right. It is not a GABA precursor in the way it is often marketed — it is a separate inhibitory amino acid that happens to work on overlapping hardware.
500 mg · below the common research range
Route 03
Theanine, sideways
L-theanine crosses the blood-brain barrier via the large neutral amino acid transporter — this part is not in dispute. It is structurally close to glutamate and is studied for modulating glutamatergic signaling and alpha-wave activity, which is a different lever than the GABA one.
50 mg · below the common research range
Redundancy is the point. If one route turns out to matter less than the field currently thinks, the formula does not fall over.
Inside The Formula
Five actives. Every dose printed.
Myo-Inositol2,000 mg
Second-messenger substrate · mood and metabolic signaling
Inositol is not a vitamin and not a stimulant. It is a structural component of the phosphatidylinositol signaling system — the intracellular relay that several neurotransmitter receptors, including serotonergic ones, use to convert a signal at the cell surface into a response inside the cell. When people talk about inositol supporting mood, this is the mechanism they are pointing at.
It has also been studied for its role in insulin signaling, which is why it shows up in metabolic and hormonal-support contexts. We chose the myo- form specifically, and we say so on the label rather than writing the generic word "inositol" and leaving you to guess.
L-Taurine500 mg
Conditionally essential amino acid · inhibitory signaling
Taurine is one of the most abundant free amino acids in the brain, heart, and skeletal muscle, and it does not follow the usual amino acid rules — it isn't built into protein. It supports cellular osmotic balance and calcium handling, and it has direct activity at GABA-A and glycine receptors, which are the two main inhibitory receptor families in the central nervous system.
It is also worth knowing that taurine is the amino acid many people are already getting from energy drinks, alongside 200 mg of caffeine. Here it is on its own, doing the job it actually does.
GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid)100 mg
Primary inhibitory neurotransmitter · alpha-wave research dose
GABA is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human nervous system — the counterweight to glutamate, and the reason an excited nervous system eventually settles. Supplemental GABA has been studied at 100 mg for its association with alpha-wave activity on EEG, and that is the amount we put in the scoop. We did not round it up, and we did not go past the studied number to make the label look stronger.
The honest caveat is in the section above: the degree to which oral GABA reaches the brain directly is still debated. We think naming that is more useful to you than pretending it is settled.
L-Theanine50 mg
Green tea amino acid · relaxed alertness
L-theanine is the reason a cup of green tea feels different from a cup of coffee with the same caffeine in it. It crosses into the brain through the large neutral amino acid transporter and is studied for supporting a state of calm alertness rather than sedation.
Straight talk on this one: most of the acute attention and alpha-wave research on theanine uses 100 to 200 mg. This formula carries 50 mg. That is a real gap and it is disclosed in the ledger below, along with what to do about it if theanine is the ingredient you came for.
Magnesium (as TRAACS Magnesium Bisglycinate Chelate)75 mg
18% Daily Value · enzymatic cofactor
Magnesium is a required cofactor for hundreds of enzymatic reactions, including several inside the signaling pathways this formula is built around, and it supports normal muscle relaxation. The form matters more than most labels admit — magnesium oxide is inexpensive and poorly absorbed, and it will still let a brand print a big milligram number.
We used TRAACS magnesium bisglycinate chelate from Albion, a fully reacted amino acid chelate that is generally better tolerated in the gut. At 75 mg it delivers 18% of the Daily Value. This is a cofactor contribution inside a nervous system formula, not a full magnesium dose — see the ledger and the stack section for how we'd handle that.
| Active | In this scoop | Common research range | Where we land |
|---|---|---|---|
| GABA | 100 mg | 100 mg in the alpha-wave EEG work | At the studied dose |
| Myo-Inositol | 2,000 mg | 2,000 mg is a common single increment; metabolic and mood protocols frequently use 4,000 mg daily and some psychiatric research has gone far higher | One increment, not the full daily total |
| L-Taurine | 500 mg | 1,000–3,000 mg daily is typical | Below the common range |
| L-Theanine | 50 mg | 100–200 mg in most acute studies | Below the common range |
| Magnesium (elemental) | 75 mg | Adult Daily Value is 420 mg from all sources | Cofactor dose, not a full mineral dose |
Research ranges above describe the published literature on each isolated ingredient. They are not claims about what this specific product does, and the studies referenced did not test this formula.
Straight talk on why we published that table.
Two of the five actives in this formula sit below the doses most commonly used in research, and a third is one increment of a total that many protocols double. We could have left that out. Every competitor does.
We print it because the alternative is you buying this expecting a 200 mg theanine effect out of 50 mg and concluding that theanine doesn't work. That is worse for you and worse for us. Calm & Focus is built as a broad, gentle, daily-use nervous system formula with five overlapping inputs — not as a single-ingredient clinical dose. If you want a single-ingredient clinical dose, buy the single ingredient, and I will tell you that in the office too.
Supplement Facts
The panel, in full.
Supplement Facts
Serving Size: 3.5 grams (approximately 1 rounded scoop or tsp)
Servings Per Container: 60
Servings Per Container: 60
| Amount per Serving | % DV | |
|---|---|---|
| Magnesium (as Magnesium Bisglycinate Chelate) (TRAACS) | 75 mg | 18% |
| Inositol (as myo-Inositol) | 2000 mg | * |
| L-Taurine | 500 mg | * |
| GABA (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid) | 100 mg | * |
| L-Theanine | 50 mg | * |
* Daily Value (DV) not established.
Other Ingredients: None.
TRAACS is a trademark of Albion Laboratories, Inc.
Other Ingredients: None.
TRAACS is a trademark of Albion Laboratories, Inc.
Transcribed from the printed label, which is also shown in the product images above. Magnesium %DV calculated against the 420 mg adult Daily Value.
What It Is
An unflavored, unsweetened daily powder — 3.5 g per scoop, 60 servings — combining myo-inositol, taurine, GABA, L-theanine, and TRAACS chelated magnesium. No caffeine, no sweetener, no flavor system, no filler.
What It Does
Supports the body's own calming and inhibitory signaling, a healthy stress response, normal nervous system tone, and normal muscle relaxation — without sedation or stimulation.
Who It's For
Adults who run hot: long workdays, heavy training loads, high decision volume. People who want mental composure without another stimulant, and people who have found that caffeine is now costing more than it returns.
How To Take It
One rounded scoop (3.5 g) in 8 to 12 oz of water or the beverage of your choice, once daily. Some people prefer it in the evening; some prefer it before a long block of focused work. Do not exceed two scoops in 24 hours without talking to your physician.
Honest Expectations
What the first 90 days actually look like.
No promised timelines, and no chart with an arrow going up and to the right. Individual response varies, and some people notice very little from a formula like this. Here is the honest shape of it.
Week 1 to 2
Establish the habit
This is a daily-use formula, not an acute one. Pick a fixed time and keep it. If you are taking it in place of an afternoon coffee, expect the caffeine withdrawal to be louder than anything this product is doing for the first several days. That is the caffeine leaving, not the powder failing.
Week 3 to 6
Look for the absence of things
Nervous system support rarely announces itself. What people tend to report is subtraction — less mental static in the evening, less of a jaw-clenched quality to a stressful afternoon, an easier time putting a task down. Track it in a note on your phone rather than trying to remember.
Week 7 to 12
Decide honestly
By this point you have enough data to make a real call. If it is doing nothing for you, stop taking it. If it is helping but you want more from the theanine or magnesium side, that is a stacking question, not a reason to double the scoop.
Taste and mixability, since there is no flavor system.
Other Ingredients: None means exactly that. There is no sweetener, no natural flavor, no anti-caking agent, and no acid to mask anything. What you taste is the actives themselves — myo-inositol makes up the bulk of the scoop and carries a mild natural sweetness, with a faint amino-acid edge underneath from the taurine and GABA.
It dissolves readily in room-temperature water and disappears almost completely into a smoothie, coffee, or tea. If you want it more pleasant, put it in something with flavor already in it. We would rather you do that than have us sell you 300 mg of sucralose per scoop.
What To Look For
Read the panel before you read the front of the bottle.
| What to check | Typical off-the-shelf calm-focus powder | Calm & Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Dose disclosure | Proprietary blend — total weight shown, individual amounts hidden | All five actives disclosed by amount |
| Magnesium form | Magnesium oxide or an unspecified "magnesium" | TRAACS bisglycinate chelate |
| Inositol form | "Inositol," form unstated | Myo-inositol, named |
| Stimulant content | Caffeine, caffeine anhydrous, or a botanical caffeine source | Zero |
| Non-active content | Sucralose, natural flavors, silica, colorant — often most of the scoop | Other Ingredients: None |
| Branded ingredient attribution | Trademark symbol used, owner never named | TRAACS attributed to Albion Laboratories |
| Dose honesty | Study percentages borrowed from doses the product doesn't contain | Below-range doses published on this page |
Comparisons describe common category practice. We do not name competitor brands, and we do not claim superiority over any specific product.
Proof, Not Promises
What we will actually put in writing.
- Five actives, five disclosed amounts, no proprietary blend anywhere on the panel
- 3.5 g × 60 servings = 210 g net — the serving math closes against the container
- Zero caffeine, zero added sweetener, zero flavor system, zero colorant
- Myo-inositol specified by form, not sold as generic "inositol"
- TRAACS magnesium bisglycinate chelate, attributed to its owner
- Every ingredient sitting below its common research range is named on this page
- Manufactured in a US FDA-registered facility under cGMP
Manufacturing & Standardization
How this one is made.
US FDA-registered facility
Produced in a United States facility registered with the FDA and operating under current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations for dietary supplements. Registration is a filing requirement, not an FDA endorsement of the product — we say it that way on purpose.
Identified raw materials
Magnesium is supplied as TRAACS magnesium bisglycinate chelate from Albion Laboratories, a fully reacted amino acid chelate with a defined manufacturing specification, rather than a generic magnesium salt.
In-process testing
Testing is performed at stages of production as part of the facility's cGMP program. We are not publishing a lot-specific certificate of analysis for this product, so we are not going to imply one exists.
Not a product claim. Composure is a trainable physiology.
From Dr. Andreas
The thing nobody tells you at 50.
I have raced motorcycles, finished Ironman, and stood on a physique stage in my fifties, and none of that required me to be amped up. It required the opposite. The people who blow up in the last third of a race are almost always the ones who never learned to settle.
I have watched thirty-three years of patients walk in describing a focus problem that turned out, on the intake, to be a regulation problem. They were not under-stimulated. They were never getting out of the on position. So we formulated this for the other side of the dial — and I use it myself, most often in the evening.
Dr. Andreas Boettcher, B.S., D.C., C.F.M.P.
Founder, It's Only Halftime
Ironman Triathlete / Master's Men's Physique Competitor
Medication-Free at 56 / 33 Years of Clinical Practice
Medication-Free at 56 / 33 Years of Clinical Practice
Stacks
What we pair this with, and why.
For the theanine gap
+ Daily Balance +
Daily Balance carries 200 mg of L-theanine. Run it alongside Calm & Focus and the daily theanine total lands at 250 mg — inside the 100 to 200 mg range used in most of the acute research, with room to spare. This is the direct answer to the gap we disclosed above.
View Daily Balance +For the mineral load
+ 5X Chelated Minerals
The 75 mg of magnesium here is a cofactor dose inside a nervous system formula, not a full mineral program. If magnesium status is the actual issue — cramping, poor sleep quality, heavy sweat losses — build the mineral base separately and let Calm & Focus do the neurological work.
View 5X Chelated MineralsFor the membrane
+ Omega 3 TS
Every receptor discussed on this page sits in a lipid membrane, and the fatty acid composition of that membrane is dietary. EPA and DHA support normal neuronal membrane structure, which is the substrate the rest of this formula is signaling across.
View Omega 3 TSI would rather sell you a formula with two honest gaps printed on the page than a perfect one you stop trusting the first time you check a number.
Stay Strong,
Dr. Andreas
Dr. Andreas Boettcher, B.S., D.C., C.F.M.P.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Will this make me drowsy or foggy?
It is not built to sedate, and there is no melatonin, valerian, kava, or antihistamine in it. That said, individual response varies and some people do find any nervous-system-supporting formula relaxing enough that they prefer it in the evening. Take your first serving on a day when you are not driving or operating machinery, and see how you respond before you build it into a workday.
Can I take more than one scoop a day?
One scoop daily is what we recommend, and two in 24 hours is the ceiling without physician guidance. The reason is the magnesium: the tolerable upper intake level for supplemental magnesium in adults is 350 mg per day, and while one or two scoops sit comfortably under that at 75 to 150 mg, repeated scoops stack quickly. Multiple scoops per day also pull the inositol into a range that commonly causes loose stools and abdominal discomfort. If you have seen a higher figure printed anywhere on this product's older copy, ignore it and follow this page.
Medications and safety — what do I need to know?
Talk to your physician or pharmacist before starting this if you take any of the following. Lithium: both inositol and taurine interact with pathways relevant to lithium therapy, and inositol supplementation in particular warrants medical supervision in anyone on lithium. Blood pressure medications: GABA, taurine, and magnesium have each been studied in relation to blood pressure, and stacking them onto antihypertensive therapy warrants monitoring. Tetracycline and fluoroquinolone antibiotics, bisphosphonates, and levothyroxine: magnesium can bind these in the gut and reduce absorption, so separate dosing by at least two to four hours. Sedatives, benzodiazepines, sleep medications, and alcohol: additive drowsiness is possible. Diuretics and any medication affecting kidney function: magnesium clearance changes.
Do not use if you are pregnant or nursing without your physician's approval. Anyone with kidney disease should not take supplemental magnesium without medical supervision, because impaired clearance is how magnesium becomes a real problem rather than a theoretical one.
How does it actually taste?
Mild and mostly neutral. There is no sweetener and no flavor system — the panel's Other Ingredients line reads None, and that is literal. Myo-inositol is the bulk of the scoop and carries a light natural sweetness of its own, with a faint amino-acid note behind it. Most people mix it into water without issue; if you want it more enjoyable, put it in coffee, tea, or a smoothie.
Why is the GABA only 100 mg?
Because 100 mg is the amount used in the alpha-wave EEG research most often cited for oral GABA. We could have printed 750 mg on the label to look more serious, but we would then be selling you a number with less support behind it than the smaller one. We put in the studied dose and left it there.
Can I take it with coffee?
Yes, and a lot of people do — theanine and caffeine together is one of the better-studied pairings in the nootropic literature. This product does not cancel caffeine and is not designed to. It is designed for people who want the calm side supported whether or not caffeine is in the picture.
Is there a certificate of analysis for this product?
We are not publishing a lot-specific COA for Calm & Focus at this time, so we are not going to claim one. What we can tell you is that it is produced in a US FDA-registered facility under cGMP with testing at stages of production. When a batch report is available for this SKU, it will appear in the product images and be referenced here — not before.
Who should not take this?
Anyone under 18, anyone pregnant or nursing without physician approval, anyone with kidney disease or impaired renal function, and anyone on the medication classes named above without clearing it first. If you have a diagnosed condition of any kind, this is a conversation to have with your physician rather than a decision to make from a product page.
The Close
The calm is the performance.
Everyone in your life is selling you more input. More caffeine, more notifications, more intensity, more grinding. Almost nobody is selling you the other half of the equation, and the other half is where the actual output lives — because a nervous system that never gets out of the on position does not think clearly, does not recover, and does not last.
Calm & Focus is five actives, every dose printed, nothing in the scoop that isn't on the panel, and two honest gaps published in plain sight because we would rather you trust the label than be impressed by it. That is the whole pitch. Sixty servings. One scoop a day. Start tonight.
TRAACS is a trademark of Albion Laboratories, Inc. Calm & Focus is a trademark of IOH Nutrition LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. IOH Nutrition is not affiliated with, and this product is not endorsed by, any trademark holder named on this page.
Manufactured in a United States FDA-registered facility in compliance with current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations for dietary supplements. FDA registration of a facility is a filing requirement and does not constitute FDA approval, evaluation, or endorsement of any product. Testing is performed at stages of production. All IOH Nutrition formulas are produced to meet or exceed cGMP quality standards.
Consult your physician before beginning any supplement, particularly if you are pregnant, nursing, have a diagnosed medical condition, have impaired kidney function, or take prescription medication. Not intended for anyone under 18 years of age. Discontinue use and consult your physician if any adverse reaction occurs. Keep out of reach of children. Store in a cool, dry place.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
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