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Creatine improves physical function and body composition in older adults

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: Creatine improves physical function and body composition in older adults

#71

Post by memen »

oarfish wrote: post #60
diob wrote: post #32

I've worked out my whole life (since around age 14, now over 35) and had periods where I did a lot of supplements like creatine or pre-workout. I no longer bother with them, although creatine is one of the more well researched / "real" supplements, so you're better off with that than lots of others. To me though they've never really done anything (besides cost money). In my opinion the best bang for your buck is drin…

You are not alone in finding no benefit, and apparently about 1/3 of people are actually non responders.

Interesting! Do you have sources/studies that show this?

Re: Creatine improves physical function and body composition in older adults

#72

Post by hansvm »

diob wrote: post #32

I've worked out my whole life (since around age 14, now over 35) and had periods where I did a lot of supplements like creatine or pre-workout. I no longer bother with them, although creatine is one of the more well researched / "real" supplements, so you're better off with that than lots of others. To me though they've never really done anything (besides cost money). In my opinion the best bang for your buck is drin…

That's a somewhat expected result (in the sense that averaged over the whole population I'd expect results like yours more than half the time, and averaged over the subset prone to taking pre-workout supplements I'd still expect a 20+% rate of creatine doing almost nothing). Creatine has a gender bias, doesn't work for everyone, has effects that overlap non-cumulatively with extra red meat consumption (lessening the relative effect size), and is most helpful when taken 1-2 times daily rather than just pre-workout.

If it doesn't work for you, by all means don't waste your time and money.

Other people reading might still want to give it a shot. Proper size experimental design is a bit hard, especially if you start taking creatine as you also start working out more, so keep that in mind when evaluating results.

Re: Creatine improves physical function and body composition in older adults

#73

Post by ekanes »

DidYaWipe wrote: post #63
burritosnob wrote: post #56

I'm rapidly approaching 50 and in the gym 7 days a week 2+ hours a day for heavy lifting and cardio. Creatine is one of the few supplements that I can say has noticeable immediate difference on or off. Without it, my recoveries take longer and I have to back down workouts to 4-5 days a week. 5mg a day... time doesn't seem to make a difference but I take pre workout. No hair loss or other side effects.

Is hair loss alleged to be a creatine side-effect?

I've experienced this hair loss, and if you read the comments underneath most posts/videos about creatine, you'll find a lot of people chiming in with the same experience. If you don't have male pattern baldness though, seems you're fine.

Re: Creatine improves physical function and body composition in older adults

#74

Post by sauwan »

oarfish wrote: post #61
burritosnob wrote: post #56

I'm rapidly approaching 50 and in the gym 7 days a week 2+ hours a day for heavy lifting and cardio. Creatine is one of the few supplements that I can say has noticeable immediate difference on or off. Without it, my recoveries take longer and I have to back down workouts to 4-5 days a week. 5mg a day... time doesn't seem to make a difference but I take pre workout. No hair loss or other side effects.

I am assuming mg is a typo? 5mg would be a dose you'd almost need lab equipment to correctly measure ^^

Yeah, recommended daily doses appear to be closer to 5-20g per day.

Re: Creatine improves physical function and body composition in older adults

#75

Post by grecy »

stemlord wrote: post #50
grecy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind every body is different, and responds differently to inputs. Creatine may not have done much for your body, but that absolutely does not mean it won't be very beneficial for others. FWIW, coffee destroys me - I get the sweats, by heartbeat goes jittery and later in the day I crash HARD. It makes my stomach churn and grumble too. So for me, coffee is terrible advice.

Try tea instead of coffee, sounds like you're just taking too much caffeine

I get the same results from regular black tea, now I'm on decaf.

Even decaf coffee messes with me.

Re: Creatine improves physical function and body composition in older adults

#76

Post by grecy »

atmanactive wrote: post #69
grecy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind every body is different, and responds differently to inputs. Creatine may not have done much for your body, but that absolutely does not mean it won't be very beneficial for others. FWIW, coffee destroys me - I get the sweats, by heartbeat goes jittery and later in the day I crash HARD. It makes my stomach churn and grumble too. So for me, coffee is terrible advice.

For me personally, coffee is true poison. I bless the day I decided to stop drinking it. It is a proper addictive substance messing with everything in your body. I'm sure studies will slowly but surely find correlation between coffee daily intake and a myriad of diseases plaguing humanity today.

100%. I had no idea I was living life through a fog, and it wasn't until a week or two after I got off coffee that the world got more vibrant. Almost like I'd been wearing dirty glasses and thick gloves and slight sound muffling headphones.

I find life is much more enjoyable now - that drug was really messing with me.

Re: Creatine improves physical function and body composition in older adults

#77

Post by Perceval »

DidYaWipe wrote: post #63
burritosnob wrote: post #56

I'm rapidly approaching 50 and in the gym 7 days a week 2+ hours a day for heavy lifting and cardio. Creatine is one of the few supplements that I can say has noticeable immediate difference on or off. Without it, my recoveries take longer and I have to back down workouts to 4-5 days a week. 5mg a day... time doesn't seem to make a difference but I take pre workout. No hair loss or other side effects.

Is hair loss alleged to be a creatine side-effect?

Creatine increases levels of DHT in the body: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19741313/

DHT appears to drive hair-loss in genetically-predisposed men: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK278957/

Propecia's mechanism of action to stop/reverse male pattern baldness is to block the conversion of testosterone into DHT: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513329/

There is not a proven pathway from creatine to hairloss, but if you are genetically predisposed to male pattern baldness then increasing the amount of DHT in your system via creatine supplementation may contribute to further hair loss insofar as DHT drives hair loss for certain men.

Re: Creatine improves physical function and body composition in older adults

#78

Post by viridian »

anigbrowl wrote: post #4

Conclusion: Creatine supplementation improves sit-to-stand performance, muscle function, and lean tissue mass. It is crucial to conduct high-quality prospective RCTs to confirm these hypotheses (PROSPERO number, CRD42023354929). 'Give us funding pls' I use creatine myself and think it helps build muscle, but this is a pretty weak result. I do think it's worth researching because it's a cheap supplement and could help…

I mean yeah, pretty much every meta-analysis says this, even when they produce high quality comprehensive evidence.

The reality is that labs employ people who have families to feed, and the PI's primary job is to keep money rolling in so people can keep being paid. We are now generations removed from scientists being largely upper-class hobbyists who seek to advance humanity or make a mark on the world.

Modern science is an industrial complex that produces research papers as a product.

Re: Creatine improves physical function and body composition in older adults

#79

Post by diob »

ricc wrote: post #70
diob wrote: post #32

I've worked out my whole life (since around age 14, now over 35) and had periods where I did a lot of supplements like creatine or pre-workout. I no longer bother with them, although creatine is one of the more well researched / "real" supplements, so you're better off with that than lots of others. To me though they've never really done anything (besides cost money). In my opinion the best bang for your buck is drin…

Maybe because you have been working out since 14, that's why the effect has been negligible or minimal?

Really could be, it's hard to know if my routines work because I have such a huge base, or if they're effective for everyone.

Re: Creatine improves physical function and body composition in older adults

#80

Post by diob »

grecy wrote: post #40
diob wrote: post #32

I've worked out my whole life (since around age 14, now over 35) and had periods where I did a lot of supplements like creatine or pre-workout. I no longer bother with them, although creatine is one of the more well researched / "real" supplements, so you're better off with that than lots of others. To me though they've never really done anything (besides cost money). In my opinion the best bang for your buck is drin…

Keep in mind every body is different, and responds differently to inputs. Creatine may not have done much for your body, but that absolutely does not mean it won't be very beneficial for others. FWIW, coffee destroys me - I get the sweats, by heartbeat goes jittery and later in the day I crash HARD. It makes my stomach churn and grumble too. So for me, coffee is terrible advice.

Yes, absolutely. I have the "processes caffeine fast" gene according to 23&me.

For those on the other end, they should avoid it at all costs.

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