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Creatine Found to Boost Brainpower
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."
...dope testing for SAT's and other qualifying exams was announced today.
Vegetarians were used for the tests, mainly because meat in the diet is in itself a source of creatine, and it would be difficult to gauge exactly how much an individual had consumed.
Does anyone have any evidence proving this assertion? I would also like to know what the effects are, ie. If I eat a burger at lunch will I be more productive and smarter after lunch? Also any ideas about the creatine found in different types of meat? (fish, pork, etc) I have read many places that fish is good brain food, maybe this is why.
--- I'll have a Bloody Mary, a Steak Sandwich and a uh Steak Sandwich.
That was on the Man show, i think that it may have been skewed, first, also, most woman are happy and confident in their intelligence. why make yourself more ugly for something that you don't really need.
... women have an obsession with the size of their rear-ends which borders on the paranoid delusional. They're all under the impression that wide hips and a generous backside are somehow UNattractive, which fascinates me since these things are caused by the same feminization hormones that brought us such lovely things as breasts and the female leg shape.
I can't understand how they all fell under this "MUST HAVE TINY ASS" spell. Is it just massive amounts of bizarre social conditioning? Do the vast majority of women suffer from some kind of targeted body dysmorphic disorder? What?
+++ATH0
I have had a lot of experience with creatine I assure you that do not believe that body odour suggestion at all - it sounds like complete and utter nonsence.
If you want the true disadvantages of it then I will give you a few to think about:
- When you use it after a while off it - you might be in the bathroom a fair bit. My stomach doesn't always agree with it.
- It does not taste very nice, mixed it is fine but its always there because it does not dissolve very well. Liquid with sand.. mmm.
- It will make you put on several kgs of water.. this can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing.. in the average builders sense this is good of course until he needs to shed the water for a contest.
- Some people are stimulated too much by it so they cannot take it late at night. Personally I have never experienced this though.
- This brain power concept, whilst it sounds cool you will not notice it much, this prediction I am making now, you might be more focussed but it will not be like taking a drug and walls start bending or something as vivid as that.
Its interesting that this should finally find its way of slashdot. For those of you who don't know creatine is naturally found in muscle, is naturally produced by the body and can be gained from most meats (at very small quantities though, not worth trying to eat more for creatine). Creatine was considered to be "too good to be true" for years upon years and has received more than its fair share of bad press and questionable research.
Only now are the public being given the truth that it is quite safe. Funny how often new things find their way through ridicule before being accepted.
Creatine is good to use but it is best cycled, your body will stop synthesising it after a while of supplementation. Stopping taking it for a while will reactivate this process.
Hope this was useful.. I tried to not say anything contraversial because I don't want to debate with people about this stuff. In case you didn't know the physical fitness industry is full of arrogant people who think they know their method works best. Most of the time their method is either crap or in the case of most supplements nothing but smoke and mirrors. The most important thing is listening to the right people and taking note how your own body responds to different stimulus.
Everything I say here is purely experience related, if you want the lowdown on these topics go to http://www.t-mag.com - these guys tell the truth, its refreshing. They had talked about this evidence many many months (maybe years) before.
Now THERE is a bright idea!
:) It's certainly been a great help in my own exercising. Not only did it help me gain faster in exercising, but, more importantly, exercising didn't hurt any more. There was that problem with gas, though...
Let's take a group that has a great likelyhood of lacking proper nutrition, give them a supplement, and assume the results would work on a broader scale.
Sure, feeding oranges to someone with scurvy might help them gain strength and improve mood, but it doesn't mean it would do it in a normal case.
That said, I hope it really is applicable in normal cases
Fortunately, there are creatine supplements which are less likely to cause the problems of gas, bloating, and water retention.
When I worked out (stopped when I went back to school to finish up my degree) i ate a bunch of these. I cant say if i had any noticably change, since i was'nt paying attention to it. But, funnily enough this was the period i decided to go back to school.
I am reading the threads above and I find it really amusing that everyone I have read so far mentions a bad experience (or a geek-BO joke). It seems many people believe creatine will just make you bigger. I am just as much as a geek as everyone here, but I grew up very athletic and all of my childhood friends have grown up to become Physical Therapists, Physical Trainers, etc. And, since I finished college (where I was captain of the wrestling team [which makes it hard for people to believe I am a geek]), I have been keeping in decent shape so that I can get the ladies.
/W
Creatine does not provide strength the way steroids do, if you are looking for that kind of work out, I would suggest Andro supplements. IIRC, this is what Mark Maquire was taking that got him in trouble. The problem with Andro is that even though it is legal it has the same side effects as typical anabolic steroids (acne, shrinking testicles, etc.).
Creatine is a complex amino acid that gets called upon as your fast twitch muscle fibers get closer to failure. For people who lift, these are the portion of the muscle that will grow if exercised properly. Your muscle fibers are torn or damaged during the workout, and rebuilt over the next few days. Your body will re-build these muscles much stronger than before, and in most cases, larger than before. The critical phase of the workout is the tearing of the fibers. When your body is properly loaded with creatine, it will allow you to go a little further than normally possible to tear down more than normal, which is when you will benefit the most. Creatine is a tricky supplement though, it is difficult to get your body to deliver it on ingestion. I've heard many times that insulin has something to do with it and most supplements suggest ingesting it with a natural fruit drink (grape juice, etc.). and it also suggests a loading phase for a week where you are taking a ton of the stuff.
I have used creatine off and on for quite a while, and I can say that my strength is slightly improved during periods when taking it, but if you are looking for size, the protein supplements are more important. The BO part is hard for me to understand, since people are suggested to take creatine about 30 minutes before your workout. Doesn't everyone shower after their workout? This has always been my routine, maybe that's why I have never heard of the BO. To me the bigger problem has always been that protein rich foods, as well as the protein supplements, make your breath smell and give you gas.
I guess what I am saying is that there is no easy way to get fit and look good. And I also understand that it just isn't a priority to everyone. So be it, but don't give a half-assed try to some supplement and then bitch because it didn't work the way you wanted. The first thing people need to learn is that you need to get a good workout above all else. These supplements only work if you are already getting a good workout without them, they do not turn a bad workout into a good one, they only turn a good workout into a better one.
About 7 years ago, I played football (American) in High School (BTW, do I belong here?). Anyway, our coach pushed creatine for the better players so that they could bulk up. I do not recall an body odor issues, but there was concern over other effects.
About that time, a wrestler from Wisconsin (I believe) died while using creatine (the very high dosage and many hours in a wet suit on an exercise bike with no water while trying to make weight probably added to the issue).
Creatine is simplistically a way to get anaerobic (no oxygen) energy without the lactic acid build-up. This is because the aerobic (with oxygen) stuff happens before the activity, and the energy is then stored on the creatine amino acid in a semi-stable form.
Anyway, there was a lot of worry that nothing was/is known about the long term effects. It is known to occur naturally, even more so in fish, and swimmers have a high natural presence (holding their breath and all).
A quick google shows a lot of pro-creatine info on body-building sites. They indicate that serious side-effects are known, but IIRC the lack of possible side effects in not generally considered to be "proven" (to the extent that you can ever prove that sort of thing).
"..the reporters, in theory, know much less about the science than those reviewing for the journal..."
If the reporters know so little about the subject in question, why do they publish an article like this acting as authorities on the subject?
Completly apart that the peer review process isn't completly foolproof (look at this story if you need convincing).
The journalists have a responsibility to the comunity to publish realistic scientific stories - There are plenty more interesting scientific stories they could publish, but from what I've seen they always go for fringe/crackpot ideas and studies like this.
"The researchers found that subjects' ability to remember long numbers improved from a number length of approximately seven digits, to an average of 8.5."
Disclaimer: I am unable to find any information on the methodology of this testing (yes I RTFA and attempted to no avail). Assistance Requested.
That said, it seems like this article states that constant testing increases abilities. I learned that in grade school, lost it in hIgh school, and it returned in College. Yay.
"Dr Rae believes that the creatine increases the amount of energy available to the brain for computational tasks, improving general mental ability. "
Because it is convenient for his findings, is a bad doctor, or both?
HATE ME
-- Stupidity is mans last defence for ineptitude
"this is the gloaming"
radiohead
I am surprised that no one has mentioned the alleged protective effect creatine may have for concussions and head injuries. Most of you will probably think this will never happen to you. I did, which is why I wasn't wearing that bike helmet.
Taking creatine could prevent you from diminished mental capacity and memory problems after suffering some kind of accidental fall. The brain is quite a bit more soft and fragile than most people like to believe. It usually makes people uncomfortable to realize that the brain has a consistency not unlike jello, and that the neural (axonal) connections are surprisingly easy to disrupt permanently with a sudden deceleration or impact. It is also possible that minor shocks to the head can accumulate over the years resulting in subtly reduced memory abilities, although there is no direct evidence for this.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
The "love thing" can profitable be looked at as an independant Strategy for success in rearing off-spring (Maybe in mating as well)
A strategy that has pluses and minuses and as such subject to varianses over time, species, geography and the like.
Stick with "the one you love" and increase chances of off-spring survival vs "fool around" and increase number of off-springs. I don't know where the equilibrium is only that there must be one, morality aside.
Help fight continental drift.
Because of this, there is a scary increase in heart disease amongst Indians that are adopting this more 'western' diet. It would be interesting to see how the plot would look if you tracked rise of tech jobs versus meat consumption. Perhaps the 'new' Indian diet is supplying more creatine, explaining the country's newfound ability to do good tech work? (tongue planted firmly in cheek)