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Does creatine make you smarter?
- thisisauserid 3mo agoArticle's answer to its own question: It safely builds muscle and boosts cognition.
- dd8601fn 3mo agoNo, it does not. More like "probably", "yes", and "probably not."
- petra 3mo agoGiven LLM's is being smarter still a worthwhile to optimize with supplements?
- fragmede 3mo agothat was hard to parse, but yes, because then you can ask smarter questions to the LLM which saves you money, so you can afford supplements
- isakmarr 3mo agoOf course it is. LLMs aren't as smart as you think, or at least their "intelligence" isn't comparable to ours. They're just a useful tool, and they will always need someone to guide them.
- binary132 3mo agoProductivity isn’t the only reason to be smarter. For example, there’s also the benefit of asking fewer inane questions on the internet (hypothetically)
- petra 3mo agoLoL.maybe the question is not phrased in the best way, English as a second language and laziness, but it's a pretty decent question.
- shermantanktop 3mo agoPresent company excluded, of course.
- binary132 3mo agoI still seek the fount of infinite wisdom.
- toast0 3mo agoYeah, mix some creatine in with the thermal paste. It should help!
- brcmthrowaway 3mo agoI remember learning about Creatine as a weightlifting teen I never ended up doing it because you had to cycle it, and it was just one more thing to track Is it the same case in 2026? Is there a simple pill I can take?
- Helloworldboy 3mo ago[dead]
- domhudson 3mo agoYou don't have to cycle it. You also don't need to load it (a marketing ploy to get you to buy more). You can just take 3-5g daily.
- windward 3mo agoCycling is also a marketing ploy, since it makes it sound more like a PED and less like a compound found naturally in meat. It's the same reason people say they 'take' whey, when Miss Muffet simply ate it.
- btheconqueror 3mo agoI've never heard of cycling it. We're you a teen during the steroid arrival? Maybe people were confusing things. I've always just done 5mg a day, but now people are talking about taking mega doses of like 20-30mg a day, shrug
- solumunus 3mo agoThat’s never been the case, you were getting bad information.
- dvduval 3mo agoI don’t think they’re strong evidence that it does anything beyond helping you build muscle. There are some people say they think clearer, but I don’t think that’s been measured in any significant way.
- mikodin 3mo ago[dead]
- garciasn 3mo agoSaved you a click: > Does creatine make you smarter? > I don’t know. Maybe a little.
- paulpauper 3mo agoin other words, it doesn't do much of anything, similar to most powders, supplements, and minerals/vitamins People are throwing away their money
- olooney 3mo agoGood discussion, but this conclusion: > I don’t know. Maybe a little. is not the right way to interpret the null result (insufficient evidence to reject null hypothesis that it has no effect) because the prior for supplements that people are trying to sell you is so low. In the absence of clear, strong evidence, you should assume the the whole thing is just an example of motivated reasoning. People want nootropics to be real, and other people really want to sell you readily available powders by claiming they have nootropic properties. In that environment, they were always going to trying to concoct a similar narrative about some supplement, and it just happened to be creatine. Those efforts were always going to result in a handful of "positive" studies that turn out to be non-reproducible, maybe because of p-hacking, maybe because of publication bias, maybe because of outright fraud. This is what the literature always looks like for stuff that just doesn't work. If it did work - if the effect size was large enough that you could personally detect it in your own life - then the papers would be trying to put error bars around the effect size, not trying (and failing) to barely distinguish it from a placebo. “If your experiment needs statistics, you ought to have done a better experiment.” - Ernest Rutherford
- taeric 3mo agoHeavily agreed. The supplement industry has such a low level of reliability that it has really soured me on so many practices people have. And I flat out do not understand how some of the supplement stores survive.
- PaulHoule 3mo agoHard sell. I remember the time I went to GNC and they gave me a free sample of the notorious Jack3D which had some kind of amphetamine-like stimulant in it and was associated with young soldiers in the US Army falling down dead.
- Johnny555 3mo ago>And I flat out do not understand how some of the supplement stores survive. I think mostly through placebo effect, people buy a supplement to treat condition X and they think it's getting better, so they keep buying. I mean, just look at the wide variety of homeopathic "cures" that are often so diluted that there might not be any molecules of the active ingredient left. Yet people keep buying it.
- aeonik 3mo agoStudies I read seems to show a marginal boost in cognitionl and memory, but only if you were otherwise overtaxed for some reason. Like being tired, stressed, etc...
- slipnslider 3mo agoYep. From what I read mental fatigue (mental math problems is what the study used) or sleep deprivation are two scenarios in which creatine boosted cognition and memory. Here are the sleep deprivation studies 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/
- softbuilder 3mo agoI started taking 5g for cognition. Never any clear signal for that, but it does seem to help a bit with my (more than occasional) sleep deprivation. Mostly with fighting off headaches.
- faangguyindia 3mo agoSometimes I stay up until 1–3 a.m. because I'm working on a problem that's so interesting I can't stop until I make progress. If I know I'm only going to get a few hours of sleep, I'll take 5–10 g of creatine, drink plenty of water, and go to bed. The next morning, I usually don't wake up with a headache. If I skip the creatine under the same conditions, I'm much more likely to wake up with a headache after a short night's sleep. Now it's become a habit, I automatically take creatine whenever I know my sleep duration is going to be much shorter than usual.
- pawelduda 3mo agoDo you take monohydrate or HCL?
- faangguyindia 3mo agomost common one, monohydrate.
- SkyPuncher 3mo agoMonihydrate causes me terrible GI issues and insomnia. I’ve found HCL to me much easier on my body.
- pawelduda 3mo agoIt's just so annoyingly sour but it dissolves very well so you can drink it like shot of vodka. And the body absorbs it so much faster
- SkyPuncher 3mo agoHmm, I guess I haven’t notice the sour flavor. Con-Crete is the brand I use and the flavors are naturally sour.
- BugsJustFindMe 3mo ago> If I know I'm only going to get a few hours of sleep, I'll ... drink plenty of water https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21517-dehydration-headache https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21517-dehydra...
- imzadi 3mo agoThis made me wonder if sun exposure/vitamin D has any impact on storing or processing creatine, and maybe that's why the results in Australia were so much greater
- bassiee 3mo agoIn my experience, it wont make you smarter but my brain just feels more energized to think.
- Sammi 3mo agoIt clears my brainfog. But I'm burned out because of 3 years in crunch mode doing a one man startup and chronically sleep deprived because of small children. So I'm definitely in the stressed category.
- John23832 3mo agoMost people taking creatine just need to drink water. They drink more water using creatine. In reality, the water/hydration is doing the heaviest lift, not the creatine.
- Retr0id 3mo agoI take my creatine with as little volume of water as possible, probably less than 50ml. I doubt that 50ml is having much impact on my overall hydration.
- clayhacks 3mo agoHow much water are you drinking the rest of the day? Creatine in theory makes you more thirsty such that you should be drinking more water throughout the day
- John23832 3mo agoIf you actually drank enough water daily, sans creatine, I'm sure you'd feel better.
- Retr0id 3mo agoHydration is important so I'm with you on the first half, but what is the proposed link between reduced creatine intake and emotional wellbeing?
- 6thbit 3mo agoWhy is creatine so popular lately? what changed?
- gedy 3mo agoHealth fads come and go
- perrygeo 3mo agoCreatine is a health fad? No other supplement has been this widely-used for such a long time. It was considered safe and effective when I started using it 30 years ago. The benefits are/were well established, the mechanisms well-known, the safety is impeccable. If anything, it's the most well-established supplement on the market - the exact opposite of a fad!
- gedy 3mo agoOP was asking why the attention now though specifically. I'm not calling it quackery, etc.
- perrygeo 3mo agoMy point is that creatine has had significant attention on it for decades. OP perceives an increase in attention but that's just a reflection of their knowledge (Baader–Meinhof effect)
- throwup238 3mo agoIt’s always been popular among athletes and weight lifters but now nootropic influencers have gotten ahold of it. It’s one of the few supplements with robust scientific evidence of a strong effect but that’s in athletic performance not nootropics.
- exhumet 3mo agoanother upside is its also hella cheap so its a very easy addin
- igor_nast 3mo agoNope, but makes a producer's pocket heavier :D
- croes 3mo agoWhen you realize that, you got a little smarter
- sspehr 3mo ago> Available short and long-term studies in healthy and diseased populations, from > infants to the elderly, at dosages ranging from 0.3 to 0.8 g/kg/day for up to 5 > years have consistently shown that creatine supplementation poses no adverse > health risks and may provide a number of health and performance benefits. They missed a zero behind the comma, didn't they?
- jefozabuss 3mo agoLikely. I did one time a creatine loading week of 30gr a day at 100kg body weight and I had to drink 7L of water to not feel like I have a hangover.
- nonameiguess 3mo agoThe conclusions aren't any different (it's one of the few thing that helps strength, poses no danger to your hair, and almost certainly does nothing for cognition), but the articles at https://www.strongerbyscience.com/?s=creatine https://www.strongerbyscience.com/?s=creatine are far more comprehensive, including the famous extremely long podcast episodes they used to do. The one thing this misses is many supplements are tainted, which skews the popular perception of both upsides and risks. This was especially true in the US prior to 2005 or so when prohormones were still legal over the counter. Anything branded that wasn't just pure creatine was extremely likely to actually be a low-dose oral steroid, which really can make you lose hair and will increase strength quite a bit more than any dietary supplement. This also misses caffeine as the other a-tier supplement that consistently shows strength increases in RCTs, though of course, caffeine is more frought than creatine because you build tolerance and it can disturb sleep.
- switchbak 3mo ago"poses no danger to your hair" I keep hearing folks say this, and even in this thread there's someone who's experienced that and had it stop when they eliminated creatine. I too have experienced exactly that with exactly the stopping of issues once I stopped taking creatine. Perhaps you can say "danger to your hair is rare", but there's very clearly (to me at least) an effect there, and the way it gets hand-waved away is strange to me.
- grvdrm 3mo agoDo you do anything else for hair? Like Minoxidil, Finasteride, or other serums/etc. Just curious for other folks experiences as they are on or off creatine in parallel with other hair interventions.
- switchbak 3mo agoI have normal hair, and probably less hair loss than is average for someone my age. I don't use products on it. Aside from this issue, it's been clear sailing the whole time.
- deton3991 3mo ago[dead]
- doix 3mo agoThis matches what Gwern wrote years ago [0]. It does unequivocally make you stronger though. So if you're training anyway, may as well take it and hope it makes you smarter as well (just believing might be enough for that sweet placebo effect). [0] https://gwern.net/creatine https://gwern.net/creatine
- serf 3mo ago>Contrary to the common myth, thinking hard does not burn significantly more calories. (Demonstration: Start thinking hard, and watch as your heart rate does not increase.) this is wrong [0] , it's just hard to measure. [0]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32314956/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32314956/
- Aurornis 3mo agoThe original claim is not wrong. Thinking hard does not burn significantly more calories. If it’s really hard to measure because the amount is so small that it requires precise equipment, it’s not significant relative to the rest of the body’s energy expenditure.
- kbelder 3mo agoThe increase due to thinking hard is small, but still, the amount of energy burned by your brain is very significant. It consumes around 20% of the total calories your body burns. It just doesn't spike due to intense concentration or mental activity.
- npilk 3mo agoInteresting. I had heard that chess players burn a crazy amount of calories during tournament matches, but when I looked it up just now it seems like that isn't true: https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/06/30/its-sapolsky-time-about-that-bogus-claim-that-chess-grandmasters-burn-6000-calories-per-day/ https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2025/06/30/its-sapols...
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- zuzululu 3mo agoif you are using to slim down it will hold on to water unless you are bulking i dont see creatine to be consumed regularly if you truly want fuel for the brain nothing beats keto
- blobbers 3mo agoOkay, I skimmed the article. Is creatine safe to supplement for children?
- MadameMinty 3mo ago> thinking hard does not burn significantly more calories Up to 50 Cal extra over ~2 hours of intense thinking IS significant given brains consume 240-400 Cal over 24 hours. > Start thinking hard, and watch as your heart rate does not increase. And yet you soon get tired and slow down. Now try the opposite. Stretch or punch the air a few times to get the heart rate going. You'll sustain brain performance for longer. Try it. Perhaps the problem is that higher brain activity SHOULD trigger heart rate increase, but doesn't due to one of many design defects of the human body.
- 131012 3mo agoI think another source of variation on the results is the actual nutritional intake of the subjects. The vegan/vegetarian is a big spectrum. A vegetarian eating plenty of dairy products and eggs should in theory be much better creatine-equipped than a poor vegan student feeding on noodles and ketchup pastas. A lot of pseudo-meat for vegans are full of processed shit. Confusion will be even higher if you include fish in the vegetarian diet, which is odd but some people do that. Could the cognitive effect works in the case of creatine deficiency (vegan) and not in the case a vegetarian (low creatine but not deficient) ?
- ErroneousBosh 3mo ago> if you include fish in the vegetarian diet, which is odd but some people do that. Meat Is Murder but Fish Is Justifiable Homicide.
- dotcoma 3mo agoIt's OK to eat fish cause they don't have any feelings - Something in the way, Nirvana
- block_dagger 3mo agoI have severe sleep apnea as well as insomnia. I may also be a multi-phasic sleeper. In any case my average sleep per night is ~3.5 hours with only ~1.5 hours of deep sleep. I use light therapy, CPAP, medications, etc but none of it solves my problems. I started taking creatine daily a couple of months ago. I've noticed a significant uptick in my cognitive abilities, despite being constantly sleep deprived. TFA doesn't touch on this apparent benefit of creatine, so thought I'd mention it for others who might be suffering from similar sleep issues.
- mgraczyk 3mo agoI also started sleeping measurably better when I started taking creatine, but the broader evidence strongly suggests this was some kind of coincidence
- threecheese 3mo agoApnea sufferer here, for whom cpap stopped working after weight loss. It turned out that my mouth was opening during sleep, reducing the effectiveness of cpap, and after adding a chin strap to keep my mouth shut I have had very few apnea events. The mouth-tapers aren’t always wrong (though we do always look silly).
- il-b 3mo agohttps://youtu.be/g8JzXEoT9LI https://youtu.be/g8JzXEoT9LI Kinesio tape seems to be the solution
- gavinray 3mo ago
- msie 3mo agoI just ordered some yesterday because I saw something that reminded what my friend said recently about it boosting cognition. Then this morning I saw it mentioned in some health segment on tv. Now I stumble upon this discussion. Hmmm.
- jermberj 3mo ago> Wikipedia quotes a paper saying people make / recycle around 50 kilograms per day. That would imply that people make around 0.5787 grams per second. But this is in tension with the idea that people use 100 watts at rest. Since that 100 watt number seems to be more strongly established, I think 1 gram per second is a better estimate. The cited paper in Wikipedia might be accurate and the author is just expecting "at rest" to mean awake but mostly idle. I'd wager that during sleep, we use less than 100W. For the sake of argument if you take out 8 hours (asleep time) from a 24 hour period, you end up with a rate of ~0.8681 grams per second, much closer to 1g/s. Anyway, just a little fun with numbers.
- zemvpferreira 3mo agoPersonally I have noticed a lot less cognitive impairment after a poor night’s sleep since starting on 10g per day. It seems to make a noticeable difference in my ability to reason and to act having slept less than 7 hours per night, even on consecutive nights.
- blueSky1989 3mo ago> Maybe for some reason, Rae et al.’s cohort had lower baseline creatine levels? Well, yes. It is well known that you must eat fish, beef, i.e., animal protein, to get close to optimal levels of creatine.
- Ker102 3mo agoIts something you might aswell just take, no proven side negative side effects, unless you are gulping it, it will benefit you
- eudamoniac 3mo agoI experienced dramatic and obvious hair loss in my late twenties after starting creatine supplementation. I'm talking hundreds of hairs coming out every shower. It stopped when I stopped creatine. No I didn't make any other changes in diet or lifestyle at the time. I hadn't even heard of the link before that. This is actually one of those things that made me start doubting "the science" in general because it's supposedly not true, but, it obviously is true for my head beyond a reasonable doubt.
- jgbuddy 3mo agoI have definitely noticed improvements taking a larger dose with my energy when low on sleep, check out McMorris et al. (2006) which is not cited here. I agree it probably doesn't make you generally more 'smart' but it does may improve function under stress, e.g. when sleep deprived, also see Gordji-Nejad et al. (2024). I think the sleep benefits should at least be mentioned in this article. Also search for 'sleep' in this comment section, seems many see similar improvements!
- Sammi 3mo agoI was missing both the effects for the sleep deprived and the elderly in the article. Particularly those with dementia.
- odinthedog 3mo agoDang, missed opportunity to explain the actin-myosine sliding filament theory.
- sajithdilshan 3mo agoI wonder if there’s any long term studies like how the body gets adjusted to creatine. Because human body is remarkable at adjusting and setting new baselines and I wonder if it’s true with creatine as well, like to have the same effect you need to take more creatine the longer you keep on taking it
- eduction 3mo ago> This in turn may increase the long-term gainz from strength-training exercise Why is "gains" spelled this way? I found myself suddenly trusting the whole thing a little less. But maybe I'm missing something. Is this jargon in the body building world or something? Author being cheeky?
- grvdrm 3mo agoI take 5g/day, through better part of last 9-12 months (don't remember when I started). No noticeable cognitive difference/improvement. And the more I've researched creatine the less convinced I am that there are reliable conclusions about cognitive impacts. Significant physical changes! But other than the pure aesthetics, it's hard to say that my strength increases are tied to creatine or instead a solid routine, plan, diet, and progressive overload. Probably some all of above. I also take whey protein isolate (20-25g at least once a day) The Nootropic space fascinates me. A few observations: - Not sure if caffeine is considered nootropic. Caffeine definitely makes a difference. - Unclear if placebo effect or real, L-theanine seems to help with calm and focus. - Otherwise, when it comes to what I'm sure alters my state/body/etc. - drugs! And I'm not suggesting anything specific but my point is the effects are obvious/real/etc. vs. much of the supplement space that suffers from very murky conclusions (imo).
- sdevonoes 3mo agoIm curious, since I don’t drink coffee nor take protein supplements and the like, my question is: is the plan you keep taking what you take, let’s say, “forever”? Because the moment you stop taking, wouldn’t you notice a big drop?
- 0xmattf 3mo ago> Because the moment you stop taking, wouldn’t you notice a big drop? No. They're not steroids.
- icegreentea2 3mo agoWell, for caffeine you might... at least in the short term. But to be more specific: * Protein supplements make it easier for your body to get the protein required for whatever demand you're putting on it. You need higher protein intake to growth than to sustain muscle. If you were on protein supplementation during a growth phase, and then transitioned to a maintain, and stopped supplementing, while making sure your actual diet was sufficient, then you could in principle maintain your muscle mass with no problem. The extrapolation of this is that in principle, you could always replace protein supplements with "real food", regardless of phase and get pretty much the same benefits. There may be lifestyle/ease/cost tradeoffs. * Creatine supplementation helps your body get "a little extra" work done. The direct boost that creatine grants you is real, but also like... small. I think it's often visualized as "it helps you get that one extra rep/half rep". Where creatine pays off is that by sustainably helping you get that one extra rep, it helps create greater demand on your body over time, therefore promoting more growth. If you stopped creatine supplementation, you would probably lose that "extra rep", but all the extra growth that you got would be locked in. * Caffeine... well, that's far more psychological. Leaving the world of sports, as a knowledge worker, I've committed myself to my addiction. The withdrawal is real, and even if I worked through the headache, I definitely do not feel as sharp.
- fhdkweig 3mo agoA different discussion on the same general topic 51 days ago (and now flagged) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48346947 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48346947
- cljacoby 3mo agoPersonal anecdotal experience, but I experienced my most rapid period of hair loss while taking creatine. This was for about 1 year when I was 22-23. It could be underlying genetic predisposition to hair loss, but I do believe the creatine had an accelerating effect. When I stopped taking creatine, the rate of hair loss noticeably slowed down throughout the rest of my 20s.
- buttscicles 3mo agoYeah, enough people say this that I avoid taking creatine knowing I have the genetic predisposition for male pattern baldness, despite the lack of solid evidence. Although OP's post says "There is no mechanistic reason to think that would happen." but I don't think that's true. Creatine is known to increase DHT, and higher levels of DHT is linked to hair loss.
- jamal-kumar 3mo agoI switched from creatine to eating pickled herring or steak instead. It's WAY more expensive, but considering I don't live in a country with very great control over stuff like adulterants, I'll definitely elect for tasty and safe. Each 2-ounce rollmop contains about a gram or two of creatine, sometimes more. Steak is about a gram per 8 ounces. If you can afford it, it's way nicer than choking down that powder in water getting all crunchy in your teeth and stuff. It's decent pre-workout food although not for everyone as mentioned elsewhere in the comments here (Something like 20% of people don't see any workout endurance benefits)
- 31carmichael 3mo agoif you added back the creatine along with the herring, you could become a superhero.
- thinkcontext 3mo agoNot likely. There's a saturation point where excess just gets filtered out by your kidneys.
- t1234s 3mo agoI think its supposed to make you able to concentrate better when you are tired. For most people this can make them feel smarter.
- techteach00 3mo agoOn some drug abuse forums I visit people also claim creatine has antidepressant effects. I honestly can't tell but I take 3g daily.
- anenefan 3mo agoI'd say probable in some situations - maybe more effect for people who are not eating well. I am not someone who takes or used drugs or alcohol - but the 90s I used pure low dose of creatine at about half teaspoon a day to help repair neck muscles damaged from treated-too-late whiplash. At the time my diet was probably poor even though I ate meat daily, had a low grade cold I hadn't been able to shake off for three years, and would blow a fuse easily around idiotic BS. After a few weeks I was pretty mellow and easy going, not to mention the cold had finally cleared up. I stopped taking it for various reasons, needing to be on top of BS quicker was one of those reasons. Later in life I have used it but not with the same pronounced effects.
- rapamycin 3mo agoScam through and through for omnivores
- onesandofgrain 3mo agoscam through and through for omnivores
- ShipVoicedev 3mo agoBut is it even bad to kidney?
- DubiousPusher 3mo agoIf you're standing in GNC staring at a tub of creatine wondering if it will make you smarter, you better hope it does... exits stage left I'll be here all week folks!
- 99954bb63ccc 3mo agoI’ve always wanted to use creatine regularly but every time I’ve started taking it, I get a considerable rise in blood pressure. Would be curious to hear if anyone else experiences this or has found a good workaround. I’ve researched it quite a bit and found that others do experience it as well, but the usual advice of “just drink more water” (which yes, I have tried) is about the extent of info I find on it. Then, the “it causes your body to retain more water” idea which doesn’t seem to be accurate as what I’ve understood is that it causes your muscles to store more water…
- semiquaver 3mo agoDo you regularly measure your own blood pressure on a daily basis? I’d imagine if this were common most people wouldn’t know.
- 99954bb63ccc 3mo agoI’d say periodically now that I have it controlled. One of those instances was a dentists visit that I thought was solely due to improper measurement (wrist based, and they had me cross arms over my chest). But it was still high at home when I checked the next day. The other was a periodic check. Both times, BP returned to normal over the course of about a week when I stopped creatine supplementation with no other changes.
- jnaina 3mo agoTake this as anecdotal, but I started taking 1500 mg of creatine HCl daily about a year ago. Since then, I’ve felt sharper and able to perform mentally at a higher level for longer throughout the day.
- lohith1710 3mo agoI cant talk about scientific reasons, but from my experience, creatine has caused increase in hairfall for me.
- Sammi 3mo agoYou would have to start and stop several times before you could even start making anything out of that. Any one time correlation can very well just be chance.
- seizethecheese 3mo agoPerhaps the desire to start creatine and hairfall are correlated to a third thing? Or causation is reversed?
- micheloosterhof 3mo ago[flagged]
- lexoj 3mo agoFor me, whenever I took creatine I got headaches. (I drank enough water, and I could reproduce the issue everytime I tried it, so stopped it as it felt wrong)
- foo12bar 3mo agoI feel extremely lethargic whenever I take even 5g of it. I also drink 2 - 3 liters plain water a day, so I don't think it's dehydration.
- madhu_ghalame 3mo ago[flagged]
- reassess_blind 3mo agoDon’t know about cognitive effects, but it gives me around 10% more strength and a fuller, more muscular look. If the cognitive effects are real, they aren’t noticeable to me without placebo effect. Meaning, I hadn’t heard any notion of creatine impacting cognitive function and I’ve been taking it on and off for years, and never noticed anything. Thinking back, maybe an uptick in mood and a mental performance while tired? Purely unscientific, though.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- TomMasz 3mo agoI'm an endurance cyclist, and I take 5g on ride days (4/week). I started based on this study (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502783.2023.2204071 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15502783.2023.2...). In short, it does have some benefits for endurance sports by enhancing surges in intensity such as climbing or the finishing kick. I've noticed some muscle mass increase, including my upper body, but nothing I would consider dramatic. I can't say I've experienced any mental effects, though I haven't taken an IQ test in decades, so who am I to say?