5/6g a day.
Very demanding job with lots of ‘thinking’
3 times a week gym
Pre creatine I would struggle to maintain ability to do the hard thinking around 3pm. Just like, fog or I could feel my brain didn’t have capacity.
Now, I am capable till the end of the day. Feels like a well trained athlete at the end of a game being able to deliver rather than just holding on.
If so creatine is supposed to help people push themselves harder and thus build more muscle. As a side-effect of intense exercises you'll create more testosterone. Increased testosterone leads to balding.
Using steroids does have the effect. And a bunch of others, most of them unhealthy.
These things might look correlated as steroid ppl often consume creatine as well as some other things.
But if you want to go down that road, there's also indications that the oil in pumpkin seeds reduce the enzymatic process that turns testosterone into DHT - so just eat some pumpkin seeds with your creatine and the problem goes away! It's that simple!!!
I am now on Minoxidil and Finasteride, with no creatine, and no longer have shedding.
> At one point I stopped Mino and Fin, but kept the creatine and the shedding increased rapidly.
I think it's a common for shedding to accelerate after stopping Minoxidil.
My body has a strange reaction to comonly used substances, though. For instance, even a single soda's worth of caffeine causes me to have an extreme 18-24 hour mania phase and then a two day crash afterwards. So, your mileage will definitely vary.
5g would probably be fine without a lot of training ( I train about 10hrs a week). Seems like I need 10g to both get the physical and mental benefits, especially during peak training blocks (running 50-60 mpw with strength training).
There was some improvement in cognitive scores, but no placebo group. Without a placebo group, there are a lot of explanations for the data.
Yeah 20 patients is not a lot. I'm inferring this is a pre-post test. However some of those p-values are pretty good (.001 on reading and and sorting). Very promising pilot study but not conclusive imo.
And List Sorting, Oral reading, and Flanker only? The first and last are part of global and fluid composites, so those have to be excluded from comparison. That leaves us with 3 improved scores out of 12 tests. So 9 did not improve, or got worse. Figure 3 (of the original article) shows that the changes aren't big. Just "significant". Since the participants were in the early stages of dementia, this seems well within expectations.
So I can't see those numbers as impressive.
I'll add to this: the referenced trial occurred over 8 weeks, so even if we stipulate that the improvements in cognition (which are dubious, as tgv points out in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48347906) are due to treatment rather than some other effect, we don't know that the effect is disease-modifying as opposed to symptomatic. As with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, it may just be having a cognition-enhancing effect which, nevertheless, does not alter the underlying disease trajectory (i.e. just shifting the declining trajectory up vertically by a constant amount), and might revert shortly after discontinuing use of the drug.
A controlled trial, over a much longer duration, and ideally with a wash-out period, would be necessary to identify a disease-modifying effect.
But at the same time "creatine’s brain benefits aren’t as exciting as social media makes them out to be. The research at this point just doesn’t support the hype".
Source: https://physiqonomics.com/creatine-cognitive-performance/
It would actually make sense that as you age and eat less you might get creatine deficient so sure. I don't think it's bullshit, but it's not going to be a huge noticeable effect either.
All of this reminds me of people who don't weight lift "because they don't want to get built." They somehow think you lift some weights and boom you're looking like Arnold. No, it doesn't work that way.
You just needed to read the next paragraph:
"The 2026 multicenter placebo-controlled trial extending this work..."
Confusingly they reference a 2026 article (which isn't included in their citation list) that allegedly includes "placebo-controlled trial", but I think it might just be [0], which is based on the same single-arm trial. If they do have a paper using a placebo-controlled trial, they should definitely include that citation.
Let's be real: I take a lot of edibles. I smoke sometimes on a hike. Every once in a while I get a Guiness and a gyro. My health is by no means perfect, and if I'm willing to take in literal poison (yes, alchohol is that dangerous that I say such things even about my precious Guiness).
Anyways, for years I've been mostly skeptical of vitamins. I've heard a megadose of Vitamin C can shorten the symptoms of a cold, but a "megadose" is relatively small enough that just some OJ can do that, no need for pills.
But if I'm not giving up my Guiness and gyros, I probably should be willing to be more flexible about my "no vitamins or weird supplements rule".
So TL;DR: Let's flip this around: What are the risks of creatine, presuming a safe supply chain? (It's legal where I am as far as I know, which I'm a fan of for most things since then you can get a receipt and there will be some authority that investigates if you're unlucky to get a "bad batch".)
Then again supplements mostly create expensive pee.
This happens with a lot of popular supplements. I don’t know how common it is, but it’s a thing that happens. There are proponents of every supplement who will tell you it’s perfectly safe and any negative effect is due to impurities or your imagination, but there are a lot of reports from people who believe it’s helping until they stop, and are surprised that they feel better without.
The only side effects I've encountered have been mild GI discomfort, and that only rarely (mostly when restarting after a vacation etc-- I drop the routine when I travel). Roughly similar to having a morning coffee at its worst.
I've found I get much thirstier when on this high of a dose. If you're not already a big water drinker I'd definitely invest in a nice insulated bottle to drag around.
> The 2026 multicenter placebo-controlled trial extending this work enrolled 240 participants with early Alzheimer’s... The intervention group showed slower decline on standard cognitive scales by about 30% versus placebo.
But there's no such study in the references section. Not sure what's going on there but I want to see the data before I believe this.
Give them sugar pills and call them smart pills and their test scores will also improve.
That said, I work out daily and only just discovered the well researched and proven benefits of creatine on that front, so now I'm going to try it.
Worth looking at the range of studies as well.
I wanted to check the dosages they used. Looks like the review includes studies ranging from 5g/day to 20-25g/day.
(Typical dosage you'll see for daily use is 5 grams)
However, If you reveal to that doctor that you're supplementing Creatine it will not be concern them.
Creatine supplementation will freak out a lot of doctors if they're not warned of it ahead of time, though, and sometimes you'll even need to explain to them that they will see elevated levels of creatinine on the tests and it won't be an accurate predictor of kidney function.
If you're supplementing with creatine and need your kidneys tested it's easiest to stop a couple of weeks before, or ask for a Cystatin C test and make sure they use the relevant adjustments for body mass as well if you e.g. lift weights - I've more than once had doctors imply they were worried I had kidney disease because they were entirely unaware of the effects both creatine and large body pass has on the regular tests.
DC has conducted industry-sponsored research involving creatine supplementation and received creatine donations for scientific studies and travel support and speaking honoraria for presentations involving creatine supplementation at scientific conferences and on social media. In addition, DC serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Alzchem and Create (companies that manufacture creatine products) and as an expert witness/consultant in legal cases involving creatine supplementation. NF declares no conflicts of interest
A nice unbiased study, I may as well ask Exon Mobil for their opinion on climate change at this point
It’s called a loading phase to quickly saturate the tissues i.e for a week or so for someone who never took the creatine. You can absolutely skip this.
I wouldn’t go higher than 10g daily on a regular basis.
I personally take 7.5g for the last couple of years.
I think a lot of the minmaxed stuff people do working out is mostly placebo because very few people are actually pushing the limits of natural human physiology and hitting some nutrient bottleneck.
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.
The profit margins on creatine are not high.
Creapure sells Creatine Monohydrate not a proprietary form of creatine [1]. The higher end in creatine is Creatine HCL which is more expensive but more water soliable, easier on the stomach, and requires a smaller dose.
In terms of creatine manufactured in the Western World:
* CON-CRĒT manufactures creatine in the US, they produce Creatine HCL.
* Creapure manufactures creatine in Germany. They produce Creatine Monohydrate.
There are also a variety of brands that import creatine and run various tests to ensure quality.
Creatine recycles adenosine back into ATP, so less adenosine builds up. The amount of creatine you find in foods naturally is way less than the amount people are supplementing with.
So it makes sense physiologically why mega doses of creatine might negatively affect sleep.
However, I don't think it is so much of a signal of your brain having an idea of how long you've been awake, that's the circadian cycle. I always looked at adenosine as a driver of sleep need. If you burned this much ATP, we're going to need to recover. Seems like an elegant process.
You mean known for its branding. Most people have never heard of creapure and those who do haven't tested it for purity.
The HCL form is more expensive, but does wonders for me. None of the negative side effects.
5g/day is the general recommendation and most packaging will come with an appropriately sized scoop, notably this is one of the rare ones where dose doesn’t seem to be adjusted by age or bodyweight. I presume because it’s cheap, well-studied, and there don’t appear to be downsides for overdoing it. They’re testing it at up to and possibly above 25g/day for Alzheimer’s.
Some people recommend a higher “loading” dose for the first two weeks to build up reserves in your body more quickly, but if the goal is to start taking it daily, this is really unnecessary.
There is the build up period where you take a higher dose for a week, 8g, in order to saturate the body faster.
I wouldn’t bother with the “loading phase” you often see recommended online. Just be consistent.
If I take creatine too late in the day, it definitely wrecks my sleep. It is good when taken as early in the day as possible.
As for the age group, I think it could be fine for anyone who is 18 or older.
As for a second dose, that's of possible value for intense exercise, but again be mindful of insomnia.
Note that some sensitive brains, e.g. those with excitotoxicity/inflammation pressure/headache/migraine issues, may not always tolerate creatine well. Such people need to fix their underlying brain issue first before using creatine.
Creatine requires you to increase your daily water intake, and actually do it.
If you were a competitive runner then you'd probably want to cycle it so that you get the strength training benefit but also optimize for your races.
I take it. I did a 10k race and stopped for two weeks. I'm also not super consistent but I try to take about 5-10g a day.
In terms of optimizing overall health I would say take it + running + strength training is a good combination. The effects are not huge and vary person to person.
In short: seems to help with high intensity exercises and post-exercise recovery, helps with muscle development, and a bunch of other benefits.
I take 10g creatine, it did wonders for me. More energy and mental sharpness.
Strength training is essential for runners to avoid injury at high mileage. Sleep, strength, and nutrition. It can’t be ignored or you will get injured.
Some folks mention cutting it out to lose weight but at higher mileage I find it hard to keep on weight anyway.
If you intend to have any benefits of going to the gym then protein (and overall calorie consumption) would have to be monitored.
Running sort of conflicts with working out: it wants you to be light and burns plenty of energy.
Gym wants you to gain mass. No mass gains -> gym us useless.
Creatine is kind of an afterthought in this bigger picture. Might give you an extra rep or two but that's it.
Strength training isn't all about mass. You can get stronger without gaining mass. There is a neural component and an efficiency component. At some point though you do need a bigger muscle to be stronger. There is also the question of whether you're optimizing for faster (fast twitch) or slower movements.
Ask because many of the online tools I've tried, they will sometimes tag what I've written at 30-40% AI written and sometimes purely AI written stuff is flagged as 60-70% AI
First one is Pangram. Other available detectors are varying level of bad, with some of them entirely shit (eg zerogpt something).
The second one is human mind. Read enough of that slop and your brain hopefully will start detecting AI patterns.
And this article is totally AI, both to Pangram, and to my mind.
Magnesium Glycinate was destroying my sleep even when I took it in the afternoon. I'd wake up after 4-5h of sleep and would feel completely alert as if it was midday and then tiredness would slowly ascend on me over the next few hours but I'd still be unable to fall asleep.
Not necessarily more restful, but deep and I don't remember anything. With B6 it's deep but more interspersed with vivid dreams.
I take zinc with them too, my own zma stack basically. I'm not sure the zinc has a direct effect on sleep, I take it for testosterone benefits.
These made me realize that legal vitamins and supplements can have much more than a subtle effect.
I switched to HCL and tolerate it massively better.
I paused taking that momentarily out of precaution while I wait some physical issue to normalize, but I plan to resume it in some weeks. Also it is considered a very safe supplement.
To my knowledge creatine has no significant effects until your levels rise after, say, a week of taking daily
Wondering strongly if those studies are not just to sell more cheap supplements... As long as for some reason we find that it has some level of effect on most people.
It has some effect for sure but not sure it is that positive... Besides, I don't know if it helped jump start the process or not but I build muscle either way, on little protein, no creatine... Carbs seem to be more important actually.
Anyway, let me take a scoop of creatine to try again, even though I am unconvinced... Hope sells... :s
(I think hydration levels are more important and that is not solved by drinking low mineralized water although I find it has better taste, it gets rid of tiredness)
In my experience, those with creatine intolerance, especially if assuming it's not taken late in the day, have unresolved excitotoxicty/inflammation/pressure/headache/migraine issues in their brain.
Also, be mindful with blends as they can be fairly dangerous. It's best to get an isolated creatine monohydrate product that is not a blend.
Check your blood pressure. It is very possible that there is something else in your blend that is raising your BP.
I take 7.5 g every day for a couple of years now and what I definitely noticed is much lower sugar cravings during hard programming days: previously I would eat almost one chocolate every day.
Though YMMV, as I also bench press 140 kg.
I have the same struggles with preworkout, they are just overkill for me and make me crash and i feel they impact my sleep because i usually work out at a random time so the caffeine timing may be terrible. Certainly had success with them for a while, but it was when i didn't really care when i went to sleep because when i was younger I'd just sleep for 8-10 hours straight regardless of time of day/night.
Usual espresso from 42mm puck is 18g of coffee beans in, something around 40g of total coffee out. This has 90…150 mg of caffeine. The study focused on people having more than 300 mg daily.
So don’t drink more than 2 cups per day and you’ll be fine.
The potential for there to be a mechanism that accelerates progression is a great thing to publish, but the data looks like it is in the "do you want to enjoy coffee for 5 years or go without to maybe avoid speeding it up a little bit" category.
The worry always is what does that extra chemical destroy as the body doesn't produce it naturally.
The better rebuttal is that the paper didn’t follow RCT protocols.
I've completely replaced stimulant use with 15g of Creatine a day, and 25-30g on days when I feel especially sleep deprived. It has actually changed my life. I decided to try this after reading this paper and will never go back: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54249-9
There's lots of interesting literature on Creatine starting to be published.
EDIT: Also Creatine destroying your kidneys is a myth (unless you already have kidney issues). This myth is spread because people go to their doctors and get their kidney function tested while supplementing creatine. The doctor will initially be concerned because there will be higher levels of creatine in your urine, which is a sign of kidney disease. However, they will not be concerned if you tell them you're supplementing creatine.
If you have excess creatine in your urine while not supplementing creatine then that would be of concern. If you are worried about this stop supplementation a week prior to getting kidney function testing.
Maybe the reason is that you also need to train your brain, when you are taking creatine. Otherwise it is just wasted.
It is the same if you just take creatine, but don’t do any sports. It will have no effect.
But I still trust his analysis more than anyone else at dissecting this kind of stuff and separating the wheat from the chaff. I'll be curious to see if he covers this.
The CABA trial is an 8-week single-arm pilot (no placebo). The study measured cognitive improvement over 8 weeks in a single group — not "slowing of decline versus placebo." There is no 30% figure anywhere in the paper.
I'm glad we have AI to quickly read this kind of stuff and check these kinds of claims for us.
___
More recently, attention has shifted beyond the gym. Early research suggests creatine could have a role in cognitive function, with some studies pointing to protection from cognitive decline.
“A few bigger studies have brought it into focus,” says [Bethan Crouse, a sports nutritionist at Loughborough University].
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/may/25/is-it-t...
Daniel Okoro is NOT a science journalist - there are no other references to him online except for some Nigerian dude who doesn't match the article's profile. I also saw this on reddit - please keep Hacker News a safe spot :(
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/02/could-a-vaccine-preve...
Herpes simplex also increases Alzheimer's risk:
https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Herpes
But there is currently no vaccine for it.
First time I took it was for working out. I was a lot sharper, mainly due to working out.
Then I took it when I wasn't working out. I had issues with muscles, brain fog, etc.
Now I don't use it and have signs of brain fog, I'm going to start taking again, this time without coffee. I do not expect much of a difference, and I expect the same muscle spazms to happen. I have a feeling that stress creates these spazms, and creatine pushes it further
besides i’d rather just avoid brainrot and substances in general
Why would it be? I’m so sick of reading AI slop.
