Ask HN: Do you use creatine as a brain supplement?

It is supposed to have added functions of supplementing brain functions, do you have any personal experience with it?

earlier discussion (2010): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1198116

AFAIK, there's nothing conclusive about supplementing brain functions. Examine.com has a good write up on creatine [1].

I've used creatine with the goal of increasing performance in strength training. I guess I'm a non-responder, 'cause there was no noticeable gains in performance for me.

[1] https://examine.com/supplements/creatine/

Just a tip: if you are specifically searching for papers, you can use https://scholar.google.com. this way you will find more than just American studies. Sci-hub helps with getting the papers if there isn't a source already.

I do not. Nor any other "brain supplement."

On a related note I'd like to say that you should in general be very wary of any substance that people claim to be a "nootropic" or to otherwise improve cognitive functions. A lot of the studies that these claims are based on are 1) funded by groups that would see benefit from the claims (supplement industry), 2) not reproducible / are one off studies / show statistically insignificant results given the sample size, or 3) simply based on shitty science.

For example, in the article found at the link, note that they only examined 45 people, all of whom were vegetarians (who are much more likely to be creatine deficient due to their diets). Although the subjects were consuming more creatine than the vast majority of meat eaters would consume naturally, since the authors didn't experiment with other doses (e.g. 1-2g a day, more accurately mirroring the diet of those that consistently eat meat) there's no telling whether consuming extra creatine will actually benefit your cognitive abilities if you are already regularly eating meat.