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Retr0id 3 days ago

Personally I take creatine for entirely non-cognitive reasons, so it's reassuring to know it's probably not making me any dumber.

hombre_fatal 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Though you also have to consider potentially adulterated powder (accidental or not) in the unregulated supplement industry.

That's why I dropped creatine since I didn't notice any benefits when I tried it for a year.

somenameforme 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

With most industries companies live and die by their reputation. Find a bulk provider with a positive reputation and the creatine you buy is almost certainly going to be safer than e.g. eating at Taco Bell. And with creatine in particular it's so dirt cheap that a lot of motivation for dodgy stuff goes away unlike e.g. with protein powders where amino acid spiking can save a company a bunch of money. And incidentally creatine is one of the substances dodgy companies use for amino acid spiking, just because it's so cheap!

That said it's obviously the right decision to drop it if you're not seeing any effects. The interesting thing about creatine is that people's bodies are very different in their natural levels of creatine, and if you're already at 'saturation' then more creatine isn't going to do anything. Same reason the typical benefits of creatine don't show much difference beyond 5g/day. That's enough to send the overwhelming majority of people towards 'saturation.'

bhelkey 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There is a brand of creatine manufactured in the US (con-cret) and a brand manufactured in Germany (Creapure). Either of those companies should address the concern around adulterated powder.

> That's why I dropped creatine since I didn't notice any benefits when I tried it for a year.

Some percentage of people (~20%) are creatine non-responders [1]. It's pretty reasonable to try creatine and then drop it if you find no benefit. I personally find the gain very marginal.

[1] https://fitchef.com/shorts/creatine-non-responder/

econ 3 days ago | parent [-]

For me it has an insanely large effect. Roughly 30% more reps and endurance.

zorobo 3 days ago | parent [-]

When I stopped taking it, I went from 12 reps to 10, and slower recovery.

My level at tennis dropped too, but bicycle endurance remained the same.

I stopped because of high blood creatinine, and wanted to see what baseline was

infinite_spin 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

It's not unregulated.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B...

NopIdoN 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

it might even be counteracting the negative effects of your frequent contact with airborne nitrogen

infinite_spin 3 days ago | parent [-]

what negative effects? N2 is inert under physiological conditions.

NopIdoN 19 hours ago | parent [-]

nothing it's fine if you buy enough creatine. It's much easier with my proprietary blend though

infinite_spin 4 hours ago | parent [-]

You still haven't specified what negative side effects you're referring to. Nitrogen tends to be inert, so I'm questioning your claim that N2 causes some negative side effect, not your claim that creatine hinders this yet-unnamed side effect

thisisit 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

You do realise that you cannot prove a negative? So the right conclusion even informally cannot be “ probably not making me any dumber”.

infinite_spin 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes you can. E.g. Euler's proof that there is no largest prime number.