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Feels like a sign of the times that I expect half the comments here to be paid astroturfing about how amazing creatine is.

pydry 5mo ago
You tend to see that more for the more high margin and branded supplements. The profit margins on creatine are not high.
- computerphage 5mo ago
  Do you?? Show me an HN thread where half the comments are paid for
  - pydry 5mo ago
    How can you accurately detect what is and isn't a not? You seem very confident you can tell the difference so I thought I'd ask first.
    - computerphage 5mo ago
      In my view, you're the one claiming to be able to tell the difference! You said, "You tend to see that more..." ...which I took to mean that there were threads where you can look at the comments and categorize them into the two categories and then assert that the size of the paid comments category was larger on posts for high margin than it is for low margin. Like, it makes sense that the incentive is stronger in that case, but that's not what you said. You said "you tend to see that more"
      - pydry 5mo ago
        If I did show you such a thread you'd likely just say "yeah I don't think any of them are paid". So what's the point? You've just confirmed very clearly that your criteria for what constitutes a paid comment is your idiosyncratic opinion. you refused to give criteria beyond "convince me".
beacon294 5mo ago
Creatine is $10 at Walmart, I don't think they are paying for astroturfing. It's a chemical like salt.
computerphage 5mo ago
That strikes me as a really poorly calibrated expectation. Who benefits? Who's paying? How could I get this job?
- Jach 5mo ago
  I don't know who would be paying, but there are many comments here that are semantically indistinguishable from paid shill comments. I don't have a great explanation for it other than people tend to attribute way too much power to whatever random supplements they're on about (you'll see it in vitamin D or B12 threads too, and especially nootropics (which includes creatine) discussions).
king_zee 5mo ago
I work out but I've never taken it. I feel like not everything has to be minmaxed, sometimes some things are better left to nature. Easy come easy go as they say
- ai_fry_ur_brain 5mo ago
  If you dont eat meat nature will not help you here. It will change your life if you're vegan.
  - aziaziazi 5mo ago
    I don't know much about creatine, how's that supposed to help change one's life ? Is it from your experience ? A quick search learned me it helps for physical activities of the explosive type. edit: I saw your other comment, if you want to give more information that would be helpful, thanks. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48346947#48347768 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48346947#48347768
    - ai_fry_ur_brain 5mo ago
      For me its changed my life in terms of energy levels. I have bad sleep apnea and have totally gotten off of prescription stimulants because of high dose creatine. Creatine seems to have a strong postive effect on the brain when taken in doses higher than those taken for exercise. Im not interested at all in creatine for exercise. Just google: "Creatine for sleep deprevation" And as a vegan you dont get any creatine since you're not eating meat, so your body has to make it itself, which requires a ton of methylation and if you're like me and have bad genes for methylation (google MTHFR gene polymorphism) your body had a hard time with it as it is. So by supplmenting creatine you're reducing burden on your body greatly. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54249-9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54249-9 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16416332/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16416332/
- dgellow 5mo ago
  That's definitely the good attitude to have for that type of things
zug_zug 5mo ago
A few thoughts 1) It annoys me whenever anybody mentions literally anything (whatever baking soda, potassium, any vitamin) you get a million unhinged comments about how this was a personal panacea. 2) Creatine definitely does stuff, that's scientifically been established by numerous studies for decades. It's been recommended as a supplement for vegetarians for mental reasons and for people trying to build muscle-mass (sort of niche). I'm actually a bit surprised how few people talk about it when it's a standard blood test thing (possibly because it can't be patented). 3) It's dirt cheap and made by tons of difference places. I don't think there's a "big creatine." It's probably like < 25 cents a serving.
- superhuzza 5mo ago
  Even quite a bit cheaper than that, I buy 1000g of creatine for $30 USD, which is 15 cents per 5g serving. I think it's a no-brainer for most people.
dgellow 5mo ago
There isn't much money to make from creatine recommendation, it's a well known nutritional supplement that can be found for pretty cheap. You can read more about it here if you want: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317612254_International_Society_of_Sports_Nutrition_position_stand_Safety_and_efficacy_of_creatine_supplementation_in_exercise_sport_and_medicine https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317612254_Internati...
sebstefan 5mo ago
Creatine is very uncontroversial and the scientific consensus is that it's an all around good thing, so I wouldn't be surprised
ryan_n 5mo ago
Creatine doesn't need astroturfing.. It's not <frontier AI lab>'s newest model turbo boost max pro extreme rocket 5.9. It's just a supplement that some people take.

pydry 5mo ago

You tend to see that more for the more high margin and branded supplements. The profit margins on creatine are not high.

computerphage 5mo ago
Do you?? Show me an HN thread where half the comments are paid for
- pydry 5mo ago
  How can you accurately detect what is and isn't a not? You seem very confident you can tell the difference so I thought I'd ask first.
  - computerphage 5mo ago
    In my view, you're the one claiming to be able to tell the difference! You said, "You tend to see that more..." ...which I took to mean that there were threads where you can look at the comments and categorize them into the two categories and then assert that the size of the paid comments category was larger on posts for high margin than it is for low margin. Like, it makes sense that the incentive is stronger in that case, but that's not what you said. You said "you tend to see that more"
    - pydry 5mo ago
      If I did show you such a thread you'd likely just say "yeah I don't think any of them are paid". So what's the point? You've just confirmed very clearly that your criteria for what constitutes a paid comment is your idiosyncratic opinion. you refused to give criteria beyond "convince me".

beacon294 5mo ago

Creatine is $10 at Walmart, I don't think they are paying for astroturfing. It's a chemical like salt.

computerphage 5mo ago

That strikes me as a really poorly calibrated expectation. Who benefits? Who's paying? How could I get this job?

Jach 5mo ago
I don't know who would be paying, but there are many comments here that are semantically indistinguishable from paid shill comments. I don't have a great explanation for it other than people tend to attribute way too much power to whatever random supplements they're on about (you'll see it in vitamin D or B12 threads too, and especially nootropics (which includes creatine) discussions).

king_zee 5mo ago

I work out but I've never taken it. I feel like not everything has to be minmaxed, sometimes some things are better left to nature. Easy come easy go as they say

ai_fry_ur_brain 5mo ago
If you dont eat meat nature will not help you here. It will change your life if you're vegan.
- aziaziazi 5mo ago
  I don't know much about creatine, how's that supposed to help change one's life ? Is it from your experience ? A quick search learned me it helps for physical activities of the explosive type. edit: I saw your other comment, if you want to give more information that would be helpful, thanks. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48346947#48347768 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48346947#48347768
  - ai_fry_ur_brain 5mo ago
    For me its changed my life in terms of energy levels. I have bad sleep apnea and have totally gotten off of prescription stimulants because of high dose creatine. Creatine seems to have a strong postive effect on the brain when taken in doses higher than those taken for exercise. Im not interested at all in creatine for exercise. Just google: "Creatine for sleep deprevation" And as a vegan you dont get any creatine since you're not eating meat, so your body has to make it itself, which requires a ton of methylation and if you're like me and have bad genes for methylation (google MTHFR gene polymorphism) your body had a hard time with it as it is. So by supplmenting creatine you're reducing burden on your body greatly. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54249-9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54249-9 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16416332/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16416332/
dgellow 5mo ago
That's definitely the good attitude to have for that type of things

zug_zug 5mo ago

A few thoughts 1) It annoys me whenever anybody mentions literally anything (whatever baking soda, potassium, any vitamin) you get a million unhinged comments about how this was a personal panacea. 2) Creatine definitely does stuff, that's scientifically been established by numerous studies for decades. It's been recommended as a supplement for vegetarians for mental reasons and for people trying to build muscle-mass (sort of niche). I'm actually a bit surprised how few people talk about it when it's a standard blood test thing (possibly because it can't be patented). 3) It's dirt cheap and made by tons of difference places. I don't think there's a "big creatine." It's probably like < 25 cents a serving.

superhuzza 5mo ago
Even quite a bit cheaper than that, I buy 1000g of creatine for $30 USD, which is 15 cents per 5g serving. I think it's a no-brainer for most people.

dgellow 5mo ago

There isn't much money to make from creatine recommendation, it's a well known nutritional supplement that can be found for pretty cheap. You can read more about it here if you want: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317612254_International_Society_of_Sports_Nutrition_position_stand_Safety_and_efficacy_of_creatine_supplementation_in_exercise_sport_and_medicine https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317612254_Internati...

sebstefan 5mo ago

Creatine is very uncontroversial and the scientific consensus is that it's an all around good thing, so I wouldn't be surprised

ryan_n 5mo ago

Creatine doesn't need astroturfing.. It's not <frontier AI lab>'s newest model turbo boost max pro extreme rocket 5.9. It's just a supplement that some people take.