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Creatine raises brain energy levels and slows cognitive decline: study

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Re: Creatine raises brain energy levels and slows cognitive decline: study

#231

Post by coreyburnsdev »

firefax wrote: post #220
WhitneyLand wrote: post #36

The article made up the claim it’s not from the paper itself. There was some improvement in cognitive scores, but no placebo group. Without a placebo group, there are a lot of explanations for the data.

Normally I wouldn't ask this, but having seen the effects of Alzheimer's I must ask: is there any evidence that taking creatine will harm my brain? Let's be real: I take a lot of edibles. I smoke sometimes on a hike. Every once in a while I get a Guiness and a gyro. My health is by no means perfect, and if I'm willing to take in literal poison (yes, alchohol is that dangerous that I say such things even about my prec…

if you're worried about Alzheimers why do you take Marijuana? that would be the first thing to do in prevention

Re: Creatine raises brain energy levels and slows cognitive decline: study

#232

Post by ramon156 »

I honestly have no idea if it works.

First time I took it was for working out. I was a lot sharper, mainly due to working out.

Then I took it when I wasn't working out. I had issues with muscles, brain fog, etc.

Now I don't use it and have signs of brain fog, I'm going to start taking again, this time without coffee. I do not expect much of a difference, and I expect the same muscle spazms to happen. I have a feeling that stress creates these spazms, and creatine pushes it further

Re: Creatine raises brain energy levels and slows cognitive decline: study

#233

Post by wtetzner »

avensec wrote: post #193
el_benhameen wrote: post #49

Curious if anyone has had hair issues while taking it. I’m aware that there’s no positive evidence for an effect, but there is an at least plausible mechanism. I’ve gone through two periods where I took it and liked the effects, but felt like I shed way more hair and stopped due to that.

n=1 here, I noticed considerable shedding and thinning when taking creatine. I've taken it alone for 3 months and noticed thinning and shedding. I took it with Minoxidil and Finasteride for six months and noticed reduced shedding. At one point I stopped Mino and Fin, but kept the creatine and the shedding increased rapidly. I am now on Minoxidil and Finasteride, with no creatine, and no longer have shedding.

TBH this sounds like it could be entirely unrelated to creatine. It just sounds like you have shedding and thinning without Minoxidil and Finasteride, and it stops when you start taking them again.

> At one point I stopped Mino and Fin, but kept the creatine and the shedding increased rapidly.

I think it's a common for shedding to accelerate after stopping Minoxidil.

Re: Creatine raises brain energy levels and slows cognitive decline: study

#234

Post by wtetzner »

jliptzin wrote: post #147
el_benhameen wrote: post #49

Curious if anyone has had hair issues while taking it. I’m aware that there’s no positive evidence for an effect, but there is an at least plausible mechanism. I’ve gone through two periods where I took it and liked the effects, but felt like I shed way more hair and stopped due to that.

No but every time I try to take creatine supplements I get heart palpitations. Everyone says I am crazy and that it’s impossible but I have proof from my Apple Watch, one time it was so bad it said I had atrial fibrillation. I went to a cardiologist and he acknowledged it is a possibility but he hasn’t seen it before.

Just out of curiosity, were those creatine supplements pure creatine? Or were they workout supplements that might have also included caffeine or other things?

Re: Creatine raises brain energy levels and slows cognitive decline: study

#235

Post by cj »

zug_zug wrote: post #61
gardnr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just in case anyone is thinking about trying it: 25g seems pretty high. It’s worth it to review what that means for the rest of your body before starting this regime. Kidneys are really useful organs to have working.

I can second this, do NOT start at 25g of creatine. If you're too lazy to read the literature a friendly AI tool will summarize it.

If your intention is to take creatine long term, skip the loading phase.

It might take longer to see full effects, but who cares if you’re intending to take it indefinitely.

Re: Creatine raises brain energy levels and slows cognitive decline: study

#236

Post by wtetzner »

vkazanov wrote: post #150
softwaredoug wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take 10 g a day and have maybe noticed muscles seem to bulk more after a hard strength workout. But other than that I feel about the same.

Creatine is known to give you some more energy. Like, 3%-5%. That's just an extra rep, hardly noticeable.

And extra rep seems like it could be a big deal when strength training.

Re: Creatine raises brain energy levels and slows cognitive decline: study

#237

Post by tacone »

merlindru wrote: post #145
tacone wrote: post #100

The first time I took creatine (6g IIRC), I actually felt the mental effect just 2 minutes later. A pleasurable sensation of augmented presence and (mental) relaxation. I paused taking that momentarily out of precaution while I wait some physical issue to normalize, but I plan to resume it in some weeks. Also it is considered a very safe supplement.

How can you be sure you weren't placebo'ing yourself into feeling it? To my knowledge creatine has no significant effects until your levels rise after, say, a week of taking daily

Well.. I can't, nobody can. Perhaps it was a placebo effect or perhaps I had low levels of creatine and felt the difference. I often felt better right after taking it though, not consistently but often.

Re: Creatine raises brain energy levels and slows cognitive decline: study

#238

Post by ChuckMcM »

rzz3 wrote: post #98
tgv wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

19 patients completed, according to the article. And List Sorting, Oral reading, and Flanker only? The first and last are part of global and fluid composites, so those have to be excluded from comparison. That leaves us with 3 improved scores out of 12 tests. So 9 did not improve, or got worse. Figure 3 (of the original article) shows that the changes aren't big. Just "significant". Since the participants were in the…

Sounds like something we should study more rather than dismiss.

Interesting that you are hearing "dismissal" in the antecedent response. I read it as the poster "studying more" the data, and finding a lot of flaws in both the experimental design and the data analysis.Typically things a reviewer would do when a publication was submitted (or in our case posted here). The author, then goes back and answers the questions raised to show that the effect they are suggesting is durable in face of the flaws. Or perhaps they run an additional experiment and augment their data. After a bunch of back and forths either the effect is sufficiently well expressed in the data or the paper is withdrawn for more work.

When I go through the process of reading the entire paper, analyzing the data myself, and the experimental design. That is the opposite of dismissing the claim. That is me, positing that the claim as stated is 'true,' and then asking the questions if the claim is supported by the provided evidence. If it isn't, then doing the work to express what evidence would be needed to support the claim is the feedback needed to help prove the science.

Re: Creatine raises brain energy levels and slows cognitive decline: study

#239

Post by wtetzner »

dev1ycan wrote: post #182
yesb wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elevated creatinine levels (in absence of supplementation) is a sign of kidney issues. There are many studies showing no reverse link i.e. supplementing creatine damaging kidneys https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s12882-025-045...

Okay but logically kidney issues leading to high creatine does suggest that creatine is not all that good for the body, no? else why would the kidney keep it under control?

No, elevated creatinine levels is only a sign of kidney disease if all else remains equal. Consuming more creatine will naturally increase production of creatinine because creatinine is a byproduct of the kidneys processing creatine.

In other words, it's not a very reliable signal for kidney disease. There is a more reliable blood test called a "Cystatin C" test.

Re: Creatine raises brain energy levels and slows cognitive decline: study

#240

Post by hilsdev »

ven0m wrote: post #181

Not something to worry for the general population, but persons with genetic likelihood of getting Parkinsons should be wary of taking both Creatine and Coffee together. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4573899/

Wow I have been mixing 5g of creatine in my morning for the past several months, this is terrifying.
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