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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!
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
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 -----------------------------------
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
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.
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.
We all know that it's Odor though..... right?
maybe we should ask Linus what HE feels is the correct spelling....
We're like rats, in some experiment! -- George Costanza
"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
Niacin is a vitamin, so it is completely safe.
Sure... Mercury is a natural mineral, so it is also completely safe to injest.
Rod Taylor
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!
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.
Well, not completely safe.
High intakes of niacin can cause:
Liver Damage
Severe Gastrointestinal Problems
Moderate doses of niacin are excreted in our urine and so cause no harm. However, high doses of the vitamin used for treatment of diseases may expand the blood vessels, thereby resulting in rashes, itching and headaches. The condition may arise in connection with doses of only 10 mg, especially when they are taken on an empty stomach. The reaction can be unpleasant, but is otherwise harmless.
High doses of niacin, more than 1,000 mg per day, consumed over a long period of time, are believed to produce side-effects like indigestion, stomach ulcers, liver problems and elevated blood concentration of uric acid and glucose. Most side-effects have been reported to arise in connection with daily doses in excess of 2,000 mg. Doses of less than 500 mg are generally considered harmless.
Rubber duckies don't count
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!
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 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.
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...
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
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.