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Most 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
by John23832 2mo ago
Most 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.
- jacob_rezi 2mo agojust reminded me to buy a decent waterbottle - thank you
- Retr0id 2mo 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 2mo 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 2mo agoIf you actually drank enough water daily, sans creatine, I'm sure you'd feel better.
- Retr0id 2mo 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?
- John23832 2mo agoPlacebo.
- Retr0id 2mo agoI wasn't expecting creatine to have any bearing on my emotional state in the first place, so I'm not sure how that would work.
- John23832 2mo agoKnowledge of the potential is peripheral expectation. If you can say "Oh yea that makes sense" with the same set of knowledge you had both before and after some event happens, all else being equal, you have an expectation. That is enough for placebo. You have to have literally 0 knowledge about an event to rule out placebo.
- Retr0id 2mo agoAre you suggesting that the placebo effect applies retroactively? I'd been using creatine for months before I even heard there were conversations about supposed cognitive effects (and I hadn't noticed any myself, either, and I continue to not notice any. That isn't why I take it.)
- SubmarineClub 2mo agoWhy are you so sure that the poster (or anyone else commenting here) isn’t drinking enough water? I drink lots of water. Lots and lots, to the point that it’s already kind of annoying how frequently I have to piss. I’m fairly skeptical that drinking yet more would yield any benefits.
- Isamu 2mo agoA pity that water isn’t being sold as an expensive supplement. Or is it?
- geophile 2mo agoYou're looking in the wrong place. There is a moderately large industry around water bottles.
- jerlam 2mo agoThere are lots like Vitamin water, alkaline, and coconut water. And overpriced salt packets like Nuun and LMNT. There's also no shortage of expensive water bottles being sold, and smart water bottles that track your drinking frequencies and flavor pods sold via subscription.
- rhinoceraptor 2mo agoI do really love LMNT, it's basically the only one I've tried that actually has a sizable dose of sodium, has no sugar, and tastes good.
- theappsecguy 2mo agoSure, except it has an insane markup for what are some of the cheapest ingredients one could source. $50 for flavoured salt is pure insanity.
- andy99 2mo agoTo go off topic a bit further, I recently went into Walgreens to buy some bottled water, and other than Evian, it was all advertised as alkaline. Is that just a trend, was it already alkaline and now that’s just in fashion? Personally I see it and worry I’ll get an upset stomach if it start messing with my pH.
- throwforfeds 2mo agoWater that's coming out of your tap is generally aiming for neutral (~7 ph). The alkaline waters in the store are using minerals to elevate it into probably the 9s. Like many hippie health trends that then go mainstream, a lot of it seems to filter in from Rastafarian traditions, where in the Ital diet they believe that alkaline water coming from the Blue Mountains in Jamaica (and other natural springs there which are naturally alkaline) help detoxify the acids in the body.
- TIPSIO 2mo agoI don’t know. I personally wouldn’t take it if you aren’t also working out/lifting frequently (even if you drink a ton of water). Anecdotal so safe to ignore this… but my hair did thin out but only after I was lazier on my work outs. Stopped taking and hair mostly returned to normal thank God.
- leoqa 2mo agoI get severe muscle cramping, even after pounding water and electrolytes. Like I can’t handle my kid something in the car without risking a spasm.
- logicallee 2mo agospasms are commonly a potassium deficiency, you could take a multivitamin.
- smallerize 2mo agoMultivitamins don't contain a lot of potassium because of the risk over overdosing in that form. Eat a banana instead (or 3).
- leoqa 2mo agoI do function health and have completely normal nutrient blood levels.
- matwood 2mo agoDo you lift weights?
- jgbuddy 2mo agoThis is not true. Did you read the article?
- peder 2mo agoPeople love to float this myth that everyone's just walking around dehydrated all the time and they do so based on absolutely no data.
- _superposition_ 2mo agoThis. People forget most food we eat is at least 50% water.
- John23832 2mo agoYes. None of the supposed action of creatine was backed by any statistically significant study. Just drink water. Or don't. It's up to you.
- jgbuddy 2mo agoDoes creatine make you stronger? Yes. It’s very rare for a supplement to have such strong and consistent evidence. A widely-cited review says that short-term supplementation increases maximal power/strength by 5-15%. This in turn may increase the long-term gainz from strength-training exercise. Creatine also increases sprint performance by 1-5%. Though, there seems to be little if any benefit for endurance exercise like long-distance running. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5469049/#CR46 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5469049/#CR46
- richardlblair 2mo agoI slam a lot of water. I also have a toddler and baby who suck at sleeping (I've done all the things, these kids just suck at sleeping). Since taking creatine I feel so much more energized. I can make it through the day with just 2 coffees (was previously drinking 5 coffees and an energy drink). Maybe it's placebo. Maybe it's not. I don't really care. I feel the benefit and I love it.
- jerlam 2mo ago"Creatine found to improve cognitive performance during sleep deprivation" (2024, 56 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40170474 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40170474
- richardlblair 2mo agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40184046 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40184046 "Other studies already proved those effects with creatine with a normal dose schedule, what they were testing is if a single high dose would have a beneficial effect too, which it did. A normal schedule is 3-5g per day with an optional loading phase of 10-20g per day during 7 days. In the study they used a single dose of 0.35g/kg which means 20-40g per dose. How do they not get diarrhea? The loading phase is usually split into several doses to avoid diarrhea and I can personally attest to that being a good idea." What the above doesn't tell you is that taking a loading dose can draw water into your intestines causing diarrhea. You probably can guess how I found this out.
- throwforfeds 2mo agoI also drink a lot of water (always have). I also train Muay Thai and am in my 40s, which means an hour of 1:1 with my trainer would just leave me ridiculously tired. I started supplementing with creatine and immediately it was evident that it was working -- after 8-10 rounds on pads and the heavy bag I was fine. To the point where my trainer would often tell me to take another round on the bag. At a certain point I was wondering if it was just placebo, stopped taking it for a month or so, and was quickly back to feeling tired after training. Started taking it again, back to feeling energized. It really does work.
- kixiQu 2mo agoPlausible-sounding mechanisms like you're presenting here do not add value to the discourse without data. There are tons of plausible mechanisms we could make up absent empirical evidence to distinguish them.
- CalChris 2mo agoI was taking 5mg of Creatine and was in the ER for an unrelated reason. My metabolic panel measured creatinine at 1.34 mg/dL. A panel from last year without the supplement was a very normal 0.95. These were gummies and I wasn’t slamming water. BTW, it tends to trash the eGFR test which relies on an unbiased creatinine reading.
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- rubyfruit 2mo agoThe people who deny that Epsom salt has any effect say the same thing. They say it’s only the hot water relaxing your muscles not the Epsom salt. But they fail to account for ice baths with Epsom. Similarly you fail to account for anyone who takes creatine with any other food or beverage. So I don’t love such theories.
- neurahawk 2mo agoThis is nonsense. Creatine works because of buffering ATP and creatine kinase. A problem though is that 1lb of chicken breast contains about 1.5 grams of creatine. If a person is already eating a modern high protein diet, they are most likely already getting a decent amount of creatine. I would imagine a vegetarian taking creatine would get a much better effect.
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