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Does creatine make you smarter?

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Re: Does creatine make you smarter?

#21

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

faangguyindia wrote: post #17

Sometimes I stay up until 1–3 a.m. because I'm working on a problem that's so interesting I can't stop until I make progress. If I know I'm only going to get a few hours of sleep, I'll take 5–10 g of creatine, drink plenty of water, and go to bed. The next morning, I usually don't wake up with a headache. If I skip the creatine under the same conditions, I'm much more likely to wake up with a headache after a short n…

> If I know I'm only going to get a few hours of sleep, I'll ... drink plenty of water

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21517-dehydra...

Re: Does creatine make you smarter?

#23

Post by jrm4 »

olooney wrote: post #11

Good discussion, but this conclusion: > I don’t know. Maybe a little. is not the right way to interpret the null result (insufficient evidence to reject null hypothesis that it has no effect) because the prior for supplements that people are trying to sell you is so low. In the absence of clear, strong evidence, you should assume the the whole thing is just an example of motivated reasoning. People want nootropics to…

Okay, but it kind of sounds like you want to nanny-state the writer's language.

Their conclusion seems like an absolutely fair interpretation of what they saw, and it also strikes me as dangerous -- perhaps more dangerous -- to suggest "writer genuinely believes, or doesn't believe, a thing, but they should say it differently from their own interpretation because..people are dumb?" Something like that.

Re: Does creatine make you smarter?

#25

Post by Retr0id »

olooney wrote: post #11

Good discussion, but this conclusion: > I don’t know. Maybe a little. is not the right way to interpret the null result (insufficient evidence to reject null hypothesis that it has no effect) because the prior for supplements that people are trying to sell you is so low. In the absence of clear, strong evidence, you should assume the the whole thing is just an example of motivated reasoning. People want nootropics to…

If you're being academically rigorous about it, sure, but I think it's fine as an informal conclusion.

Re: Does creatine make you smarter?

#26

Post by johnthedebs »

faangguyindia wrote: post #17

Sometimes I stay up until 1–3 a.m. because I'm working on a problem that's so interesting I can't stop until I make progress. If I know I'm only going to get a few hours of sleep, I'll take 5–10 g of creatine, drink plenty of water, and go to bed. The next morning, I usually don't wake up with a headache. If I skip the creatine under the same conditions, I'm much more likely to wake up with a headache after a short n…

Do you still drink water when you skip creatine? Being dehydrated causes headaches, so it may be the extra water intake that's helping and not the creatine.

Re: Does creatine make you smarter?

#27

Post by krick »

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #3

I remember learning about Creatine as a weightlifting teen I never ended up doing it because you had to cycle it, and it was just one more thing to track Is it the same case in 2026? Is there a simple pill I can take?

Yes, they did, and many still do write it on the package, but it is, and always was a myth born God knows when out of precaution, because nobody really knows anything about how all this stuff really works now, and they did know even less than that 30 years ago. There never really was any evidence that you have to cycle it, and nobody (aside from the manufacturers) ever says it anymore. It makes about as much sense as cycling protein powder.

As for pills, yes, there is about every form of creatine supplement now, even chewing gum, but this is just dumb, how much of creatine do you think you can consume this way in a day?

Re: Does creatine make you smarter?

#29

Post by windward »

domhudson wrote: post #6
brcmthrowaway wrote: post #3

I remember learning about Creatine as a weightlifting teen I never ended up doing it because you had to cycle it, and it was just one more thing to track Is it the same case in 2026? Is there a simple pill I can take?

You don't have to cycle it. You also don't need to load it (a marketing ploy to get you to buy more). You can just take 3-5g daily.

Cycling is also a marketing ploy, since it makes it sound more like a PED and less like a compound found naturally in meat. It's the same reason people say they 'take' whey, when Miss Muffet simply ate it.
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