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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."
One of the side effects, however, is an unpleasant body odour
...yeah...like this affects the slashdot crowd much...
...dope testing for SAT's and other qualifying exams was announced today.
Thanks to creatine, not only is his body huge and muscular, he apparently has to be brilliant and have a good memory as well!
And maybe the "unpleasant body odour" will help him with his "clean out Sacremento" campaign...
MORTAR COMBAT!
...the amount of jokes about smartness, body odour and slashdotters will soon be verging on the infinite.
We all know that it's Odor though..... right?
I can't imagine how dumb the muscle headed pea brains, I see at the gym every day, were before they started taking this stuff!
The Good Life
They're called 'geeks'. :P
j/k. I used creatine for a while, and I never experience any unusual b/o. Of course I bathe daily and use deodorant, excercise, play hockey...
Perhaps it only happens if you're sedentary?
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Some TV show or something did a poll catering to women. They asked them, "If there were a pill that made your ass bigger, but made you way smarter, would you take it?" 90% of the women said they wouldn't take it. Of course, that might not apply here, as us men have no shame.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Just because you stink, it doesn't mean you're clever!
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
Oh great...let's perpetuate the myth that geeks smell bad. You bastards!
It would be fun to be a buff geek though. "You talkin' to me?"
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
I think that comment goes with the 'real geeks dont have women' subject. Maybe I'm a poser then, cause I like showering, and chicks, and even both at the same time.
> So I can intelligent and smell or stupid and smell nice. Ho hum life is full of hard decisions.
To paraphrase an old saw, "strong, intelligent, sweet-smelling: choose two".
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
First discovered on the Simpsons and named "poindextrose"
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
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.
Instead of remembering the letters S-C-I-E-N-C-E, I can now take come creatine and remember the letters B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T. I'd like to see some of their numbers first before jump to a conclusion that creatine makes you smarter... Even if it were true, remember 1.5 items more than the next guy isn't going to change your life. I wonder if all meat eaters are smarter than their vegetarian counterparts? I should stock up on McD's $1 Double Cheeseburgers and say it's so I can become smarter.
-Christopher Wu
http://www.christopherwu.net/
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.
Will this be the end of the dumb jock? At least we'll still be able to make fun of their B.O.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
A much cheaper way to boost your brain power is to take Niacin (not Niacinamide). Many people notice that their mental clarity is remarkably better when they have had 500 milligrams of Niacin.
Take Niacin only after meals to avoid skin flushing (redness and tingling which lasts about 15 minutes), and only with an equal quantity of Vitamin C.
There are flush-free Niacin compounds and timed-release versions on the market of varying quality in their ability to prevent flushing.
Niacin is a vitamin, so it is completely safe.
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.
... 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
"Reports of gastrointestinal distress, stomach cramps, nausea and diarrhea are also frequently reported, especially during the loading phase when greater amounts of creatine are being ingested daily." (creatinemonohydrate.net)
ugh, double the odor issues.
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
Creatine's just an amino acid.
Not one of the vital ones to life: ie, if you don't have it, your protiens will not all mis-fold / you will not degenerate into a corpse.
Having WAYYY too much Creatine will help fuel bacterial growth & whatnot. Still, Creatine is a neat fuel, the body likes having it in muscle to fuel short-term bursts of energy.
Interested in more about amino acids/proteins and what they can mean to you? Check out Folding@Home as mentioned on Slash_ _dot
And fold for team #93
I assert that my comment is only my opinion, not that of any employer, past, present or future.
Note that the trial was done on vegetarians, as meat contains creatine and thus meat-eaters already get some in their diet. I can't see any tests done that suggest supplementing the dose has any significant affect for those of us that already get creatine from meat.
According to this article, about 4 grams of creatine is found per kilogram of meat. So to get the same level of creatine you'd get from taking a supplement, you'd need to eat about 1-2 kilos of meat or fish a day.
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.
Vegatarianarian: One who eats nothing but Vegitarians.
Eat at Joe's.
See:
Shopper's Drug Mart herbal info on Creatine
Some snippets from this link:
We really need a moderation option "-1 not funny"
Szo
Red Leader Standing By!
The supplement is also notorious for creating an unpleasant odour in the vicinity of the taker.
I heard that they had to give the control group garlic pills to keep the study "double blind".
Bureaucracy loves company.
I read something similar to this in Muscle and Fitness about a year ago, but the note there pertained to increased mental function in elderly men.
As a personal note, I've used creatine monohydrate powder off and on for about a year. I noticed somewhat increased lifting performance, but along with it a somewhat increased thirst. Be sure to drink *lots* of water if you take creatine. I didn't notice any difference between a creatine/glycogen stack (CELL-TECH) versus using a plain creatine monohydrate powder mixed in water, execpt the stacked product was much more expensive.
One thing to remember that merely taking a supplement (other than anabolic steriods) is not going to make you look like this guy. Athletic use of creatine delays the onset of muscle fatigue by enhancing the resynthesis of ATP from ADP and creatine phosphate. In other words, it allows you to do a little more work, a little faster than you could without it. It's a subtle, but measureable effect.
Pardon my ignorance, but would a plausible explanation be that vegetarians have a creatine deficiency, thereby making them hypersensitive to the supplements? Is it also possible to consider that the sample group had less muscle mass than their carnivorous counterparts, thereby further lowering the amount of regular creatine within their bodies?
I really don't know if publishing theories from research journals is prudent or responsible reporting; the distillation of findings, capped by the bold statement that "Creatine 'boosts brain power'" seems hasty. Don't tell me about the disclaiming effect of the quotation marks around 'boosts brain power'--the statement still has the same effect to most casual news readers.
Losers choose to abuse the use of "loose".
I used creatine for about six months with the recommended 'break' periods in between doses.
One side effect that I remember was increased agitation. Of course, the inferior boobs surrounding me at work could have caused that.
Rubber duckies don't count
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
You're retarded.
Anyone who told you they got those side effects from "using creatine" was bullshitting you. They were using some serious gear, not just creatine. In case you didn't know, it's actually quite difficult for most people to "look like a juicer" without some form of anabolic steroids or possibly a keen stack of prohormones. Natural body builders don't generally look like body builders, and they rarely compete, because they simply cannot pack on the muscle with the same ease of a hormonally-enhanced body builder. Creatine, while it does work, does not pack on the muscle like steriods do. If it did, it would be a controlled substance. Here comes the cluestick!
...I'll be smarter, but smell like a goat.
Let's look at this for a moment.
By being smarter and having a better memory, I'll do better at work, and there by get a better/more raises with which to buy a bigger house, more geek toys, and possibly make me attractive to women, and the only drawback is I'll smell like ass.
I guess I can forget those penis enlargement pills I keep getting mail about and go with this.
With all that extra money I'll be making, I'll just spend a little of it on some cologne.
-Goran
Carpe Scrotum - The only way to deal with your competition.
I agree. The side-effects he mentioned are historically associated with juicing (taking anabolic steriods), not with creatine.
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).
This study seems weak. And the body odor side effect raises a red flag.
Among the thousands of creatine monohydrate studies, this is the first time I hear something about body odor.
By the way, I have been using creatine monohydrate since 2000.
Some side effects of creatine, mentioned in other posts, like stomach cramps, and diarrea, are not really creatine monohydrate side effects. If you buy a good brand of creatine, like the German one CREAPURE, you won't have any problem. If you have stomach cramps, that means you are using a crap suplement. A lot of cheap "creatine" supplements in the market are full of impurities, like Na, creatinine, Dihydrotriazine, Dicyandiamide, and some companies add baking soda to rip you off (verified with a lab test) and only half real creatine.
In conclusion, most side effects attributed to creatine are not caused by the creatine, are caused by impurities in cheap products. Just don't buy cheap creatine.
No, no, and no.
"People who use creatine have problems with losing hair..."
I used creatine for a while. I have a lot of hair.... and it's still on my head.... and I grew it myself.
"...enlarged foreheads and impotence."
No. That does not occur from creatine.
"Basically, you can expect a number of the side affects that you would from using steroids-- you start to look like a "juicer"."
The only way you can look like a juicer is if you become a juicer. I don't know where you got your information, but I can assure you it's not the boyscouts.
Having used creatine on and off for the past 5 or so years, I can say that none of what this dude says is correct or accurate in any way. If anything, creatine can make you bloated IF you don't work out while using it. Also, some studies are linking creatine to increased rates of diabetes, and are finding that creatine might be taxing on the liver. And while using it, you have to drink more water (go to any nutrtion store and look at ANY of the creatine supplements and it will always say to drink moer water). Anyway, get a fucking clue.
I have seen studies linking creatine to DECREASED risk of diabetes, because it helps to regulate blood sugar.
A lot of studies show that creatine, in your post workout meal, increases the transport of glucose to your muscles, increasing glycogen retention in your muscles. Translation: good for you, stronger, faster recovery, decreased diabetes.
I believe Creatine also increases the amount of cellular water retention, but that once you stop taking it everything goes back to "normal". I also used Cell-Tech's Creatine mix, and concur with your statement that you should drink extra water.
People should understand that taking supplements doesn't gives you muscles. The only thing that increases muscle mass is your body repairing damaged muscle tissue. That's why you lift weights. If you've ever done bar-dips, you probably know the tingling feeling of micro-muscle tears. Supplements, steroids, it's all for the same purpose: to enable you to better wear out your muscles. Of course, people are always looking for shortcuts, often to their detriment (in the case of steroids), yet overlook some of the most basic and essential needs the body requires.
This is why sleep and diet are so crucial to muscle development. A proper diet, particularly one rich in protein, not only gives you the right building blocks for new muscle material, but also gives you energy when you're working out. Sleep is just as important, because it is during sleep (not during exercise) that your body repairs itself and rebuilds muscle. I've seen too many people work out every day, and then stay up late into the evening, complaining that they aren't seeing any results. They simply never give their body a chance to heal before they're breaking it down again in the gym.
Sorry for the fitness diatrabe, I just thought I'd add my two cents for anyone interested.
One side effect that I remember was increased agitation. Of course, the inferior boobs surrounding me at work could have caused that.
You know, you start working out, and all of a sudden your standards go through the roof. The chicks around you aren't pretty enough... they're not fit enough... their boobs are "inferior". Jeez.
"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
It is rumoured that are these pills that can be found on the Internet that will make your penis bigger that you can ever imagine. That will counteract any potential shrinkage....
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
How long did it take them to figure this out?
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
I used to live with a body builder, taking this suppliment doesn't make you ooze some odor out of your skin. One word, FARTS! Thats it, the stuff that used to come out of him used to clear classrooms! Oh my god, they should bottle that for riot control!
IMPORTANT: as the article states, people who eat red meat already get creatine from that source. Creatine supplementation is most interesting for people who exercise regularly and don't eat red meat.
It's interesting that the sub-headline of the article says "The dietary supplement creatine - known to improve athletic performance..."
I seem to recall seeing in the 1990s reports of studies showing that creatine did indeed improve athletic performance. My own experience was different.
In the mid-1990s, I was basically following the recommendations of the US government: loads of carbohydrates, reasonable quantities of protein, and very, very little fat. I avoided red meat and ate a lot more chicken and turkey breast meat.
I would go to the gym twice per week and train with high intensity. I discovered that even with the massive quantities of food I was eating and the decent amount of sleep I was getting (being a grad student at the time, I had a very flexible schedule... as a result, it was almost always possible to correct any sleep deficit with a nap), my body simply could not recuperate in less time.
The personal trainers at the gym had, I'm sure, the best intentions when they designed workout programs for me, but the problem is that the programs they designed would have been good for two types of person: the genetically gifted and users of 'roids (I don't think it's a coincidence that many personal trainers fit into one of these two categories). For a normal human being, it just isn't possible for the body to recover from three days of exercise in one day (they typically designed programs of the type "three days of training and one day of rest").
Anyway, since I wasn't eating red meat, I thought I could benefit from creatine supplementation. What did I find? Well, I can summarize it like this: if creatine were as effective as a bodybuilding supplement as it is as a laxative, I would be as big now as the next Governor of California.
In my experience, creatine just made my poop (much) softer and gave it a funny color. No, I don't make a habit of checking out the contents of the toilet, but the color was so weird it caught my eye and I started paying attention. I know this is disgusting, but I am simply telling a true story.
I eventually quit creatine and designed a workout program based on the book "Brawn," i.e., on lots of squats as the main exercise and on increasing the weight lifted each time at the gym, and focused on building strength, not size. I got a lot stronger, and I gained a significant amount of muscle weight.
In my experience, a good workout program that did not force overtraining (unlike most that personal trainers at gyms will create for you) and done with sufficient intensity (gawd how my thighs used to burn toward the end of a set of 20 squats with a bar 1.5 times the weight of my body) had a much greater effect on my strength than my use or non-use of creatine did.
In 2000, I came to the conclusion that it was kind of stupid for me to put so much effort into fighting nature. If my body were meant to be larger and more muscular, it would be that way naturally, without me having to destroy it every 3 or 4 days. I haven't done any weightlifting in years, and I haven't even thought about wasting money on creatine in several years.
FWIW, I don't remember feeling smarter during my experimentation with creatine. My immediate guess is that creatine is as effective as a "smart drug" as it is as a bodybuilding supplement, i.e., not very.
YMMV.
--Mark
"It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too." --Eugene Wigner
Back in the 1950s, chlorophyll was a fad food, and supposedly had the power to make you and your breath smell better. They put it in everything: toothpaste, candy, all sorts of stuff. Even dog food, so that your pooch would smell better. I think Clorets is the sole survivor from that time.
The fad ended when it was pointed out that goats practically live on chlorophyll, but they still stink.
Agreed. Creatine can be dangerous too. If some loser decides to take alot of this stuff and fails to hydrate themselves...kidney and liver problems will occur. I was one of those losers. You need LOTS of hydration as it basically uses water to make your muscles bigger. I was pissing blood at one point, and that was the last of that. This is just more sensationalism.
Der Tod ist der einzige Weg hier raus!
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.
This is not how it works.
Men have close to Zero invested in making a child, so best strategy is to get as many women pregnant as he can get away with
Women on the other hand has a lot invested (9 month plus rearing) so best strategy is to get the best male sperm she can.
This is how it is for Humans and most primates hence the different behavour of male and females.
As an aside "surviaval of the fittest" as Huxley said is not enough. It is survival and procreation that is needed. You can survive as long as you want, if you don't get any offspriongs it's for naught gene pool wise.
Help fight continental drift.
Mad cow doesn't come from cow's pineal glands.
Hrmmm. Disclaimer: yes, I am a neuroscientist.
Spongeoform encephalopathies (including Mad Cow disease) result, it is thought, from prions which, when present, can be found in large concentrations in nervous tissue (including the pineal gland which is located in the center of the mammalian brain). The problem with prion disorders is that they spread via contact (via touch and transfection or consumption of tissue containing them) and it is very hard to "disenfect" things with prions in/on them. Prions are small, notoriously resilient to heat, detergents and other methods of disenfection.
So, by consuming melatonin extracted from bovine pineal glands certainly could be seen to increase your risk (given the supplements industries poor controls and lack of product composition controls) of contracting a prion disease if those pineal glands came from infected cows.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
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.
Doubtful. I've been a strict vegetarian since 1986, and a quasi-vegetarian for several years before that. I did not notice any coincident deterioration in memory function; I'd say if you want to preserve your memory function, the important thing is to avoid smoking too much weed - not take some weird, overpriced pills.
It's also interesting to note that India, a largely vegetarian nation, appears to be relatively geek-rich.
Oh, and there are plenty of brilliant vegetarians to hold up as examples, from Pythagoras and Plato to Tolstoy and Einstein.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the War Room!
It's the amazing new product, Insta-Geek! By taking this supplement regularly, you can magically turn yourself into an intelligent*, smelly nerd**! Be the, uh, envy of all your friends!
Try Insta-Geek today!
*Not guaranteed to bestow knowledge of kernel hacking.
**Not responsible for any resulting physical abuse.
~Dalcius
Rome wasn't burnt in a day.
This is a perfect example of lunacy in science reporting.
A test is performed. One group has creatine in their diet, the other has none in their diet (vegetarians)
The result shows that "creatine good, no creatine bad."
The reporter then reports "more creatine better."
Besides the fact that there is absolutly no evidence whatsoever to back up that claim, the reporter also extrapolates the affect on vegetarians to non vegitarians. On top of that, a single study is taken as gospel.
What's the difference between a preliminary study and an old wive's tale? The old wive's tale has history behind it.
It's an allusion to a recent thread on LKML, where Jasper Spaans offered a controversial patch to change the European spelling "flavour" to the American spelling "flavor." Only on Slashdot could this get a +2 Funny.
Litigious bastards
Most people can make their own creatine from other amino acids in the diet; creatine is non-essential. So, it is not really possible to be creatine-deficient unless you have an absorption/anabolism deficiency in respect to creatine. If you don't consume enough creatine over a period of time, normal people will make their own.
There is a reason for everything. Sometimes that reason just sucks.
Adversity builds character. No matter what you do, there are still going to be people significantly better suited to doing certain things than you are.
But let's suppose that some drug is created that improves you significantly across the board. You grow up performing just as well as the other kids, all taking the drug and all conquering math, music, and language with ease. You've reached adulthood without any physical, mental, or, lucky you, emotional inequalities, inadequacies, or setbacks-- what happens when you run into something that challenges your superman status? Your language boosted mind discovers some ancient atlantian, and can't grok it right away. Or your tripped out scientific thinking center can't quite figure out why that one gene doesn't seem to be doing what it should. Or god forbid someone close to you gets sick, and can't be cured? How do you deal?
Humans grow through adversity. It is how we learn academically and improve emotionally. Muscles unused atrophy, and knowledge unused is forgotten. There seems a troubling trend(or perhaps tradation) of taking damaging short cuts around facing difficulty. For it we either stop growing at that difficulty and become dependent on the short cut to go through the motions of living, or we become dependent on the short cut and try to go further, only to be stymied by that which we skipped over.
Don't make the relatively simple too easy. You'll only pay for it later.
*honk*
This is my sig. It's prescription, I swear. I need it for reading things... on the other side of things
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)