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Creatine Found to Boost Brainpower

Posted by michael on from the eat-red-meat dept.

Eric Ass Raymond writes "According to this BBC article, researchers from the University of Sydney and Macquarie University in Australia have found that the dietary supplement creatine - a natural compound found in muscle tissue - can improve not only your athletic performance, but also your intelligence and memory. One of the side effects, however, is an unpleasant body odour."

9 of 531 comments (clear)

  1. Sensationalism by Fungii · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is just another in the long series of sensationalist stories about studies that show *** increases ***, or doing X makes you better at Y.

    What annoys me about these stories is that they are always based on small (eg 45) groups and they basically amount to pseudoscience and they give a bad view of the scientific community in general.

    For example, how many times have you read stories about either possible cures or causes of cancer? Journalists should stop coming out with this crap and cover real scientific stories.

    1. Re:Sensationalism by nanojath · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Thank you. Keep in mind also that 45 is the full test group - comprising both those receiving the active agent and those receiving placebo. So basically you've got these results on the basis of a couple dozen people.


      There are other issues. Because Creatine occurs naturally in meat, they used only vegetarians in the study. While I understand their motive to reduce unknown variables in the active agent, it still boils down to using a non-typical population for the sample. Is there an impact? Who knows, unless you go the full distance, using a general population and finding some way to meter and account for their meat intake. Suffice to say, a lot of preliminary studies run afoul of the sample population they use - claims for particular foods made on the basis of a genetically discrete population's traditional diet is the classic example. Is it the diet or their genes creating the particular effect? You don't know until you test a general population.


      This isn't to say this is bad science. It's just very preliminary. Unfortunately, the media judges the newsworthiness of science by how interesting, not how significant or reliable, they think the results are.

      --

      It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries

  2. Oh, great.... by BWJones · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just what we need. Another fairly simple study looking at a supplement that has not been tested adequately. Anyone remember the problems folks had when they were rushing out to purchase tryptophan? What about all the people dropping melatonin like there is no tomorrow? (most melatonin is derived from bovine pineal glands.....ever hear of spongeoform encephalitis?)

    Look, the food supplements industry is not well regulated and thus the ingredients or amounts of active compounds in each of these supplements is not always known.

    --
    Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
  3. Re:Kids these days by Eric+Ass+Raymond · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I for one welcome all methods, biomechanical and biochemical alike, that help me to improve myself with the least amount of effort. Why? Because then I can put effort into improving myself in areas where artificial means are not (yet) available.

    What you're saying is similar to dismissing cars, trains and bicycles because" they're for the sick and injured not for the lazy and impatient - just walk to work like the God intended."

    --
    BOO! TERRO
  4. Re:That reminds me. by Anoraknid+the+Sartor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So ask the men "this pill shrinks your penis by an inch, but makes you way smarter - would you take it?"

    --
    Find Japanese addresses in English on Google Maps Japan: http://diddlefinger.com/
  5. Re:body odor? by DoraLives · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The article mentions that creatine is a natural component of meat. So, that begs the question. Do most of us geeky smart asses ingest a higher proportion of meat in our diets than the average dummy? Is that why we stink and think? Inquiring minds want to know.

    --
    Is it fascism yet?
  6. Re:Heh by szo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We really need a moderation option "-1 not funny"

    Szo

    --
    Red Leader Standing By!
  7. Re:Kids these days by KingJoshi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You worked your ass off in school but didn't learn that some are NATURALLY smarter than others? All the time with the books but didn't pay attention to others to notice some are more adept at logic, music, art, athletics, etc.*? That it can take someone hours more to grasp the same concepts as someone else? Maybe some people are tired of being genetically disadvantaged in academics or arts?

    You also need to learn that hard work without spending the time correctly slows progress. What's the problem with boosting intelligence so the effort is put to better use?

    Life is also about a lot of luck. And if some are luckier than others, what's wrong with trying to spread the wealth? But I'm still quite skeptical of their claims...

    *These are still broad categories. There are many aspects to intelligence and this is a simplification.

    --
    In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these. - Paul Harvey
  8. Re:body odor? by RoLi · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Do most of us geeky smart asses ingest a higher proportion of meat in our diets than the average dummy?

    I don't want to insult anyone, but for me it's far more likely that lack of creatine (= vegetarian diet) is causing redused brain abilities than Creatine boosting brain power.

    Seems more logical to me. They should have had test-groups various levels of Creatin doses, I would bet that only the lowest levels have a reduced intelligence while the rest is average.