Note that in the US, there is one company that produces and sources its creatine from the US. This company is CON-CRĒT. The rest is almost exclusively sourced from and produced in China.
One exception, though they'll not reveal their source company, is VitaminShoppe, which has one single version sourced from US. That is Kre-Alkalyn.
NOW, LifeExtension, etc, all of them, along with the majority of their other products are sourced from China, with NOW, in my opinion, the only one conducting rigorous testing to ensure product integrity. The supplement industry in general has become a product of China.
This is up to the individual to glean meaning from, but it remains reality.
For those interested, my inquiries with Life Extension were met with flagrant hostility. Those with NOW resulted in a long, amiable conversion with someone in direct, frequent contact with research scientists. Hostility is more common than friendliness with the dozens of inquiries I've made, but mostly when pressed past the initial superficial aloofness of the template reply.
Edit: with our corporatism paradigm, product origins are increasingly difficult to determine, with many companies now excluding origins from product labels, but most using weasel words, eg "Proudly packed in the US from globally sourced ingredients", which has one meaning which has nothing to do with the US. As one of myriad examples, go into a Treacherous Joe's and try to find origins for their teas. Pay attention and you'll see this behavior is expanding into many products, and actual food products.
I did, but found indication they were sourcing from China, which is the general rule in Germany now for most things. I haven't formally pursued it though. Regardless, it does seem of good quality.
My first choice, being in the US, is still either of the two previously mentioned. Creapure seems a good option if needed.
I took creatine in combination with weight training and got stronger. But I was never sure what proportion to attribute to the creatine vs the training itself. I stopped taking it for a few weeks and got ~10% weaker again. And then, after resuming creatine, I was back to where I was. From that point I was fairly convinced that yes, creatine actually does something.
I can't say I noticed any cognitive changes though.
A 10% in strength drop after stopping creatine intake seems like quite a bit. Creatine certainly helps out in resistance training (if you're a responder), but generally by way of maaaybe being able to add another rep to a set at a given weight or maaaybe being able to add 2-3% more weight to a given set. This has cumulative effects, of course, but I wouldn't expect such a steep decline.
I'd like to emphasise that my ~10% figure is very vibes-based and I don't have hard numbers to back it up (I don't track my progression in great detail - and even if I did, I am sample size 1). My max rep counts for bodyweight exercises definitely went down, and I reduced the weight I was lifting to hit the same rep counts as before.
>One review paper from 2017 concluded that creatine can give athletes a 10-20% performance boost in brief bouts of high-intensity exercise, such as sprinting past a defender or lifting heavy weights.
I'm a strong believer in the "no free lunch principle"
Through a lifetime of experiences with different substances, the body always adjusts to whatever you're taking. Taking a stimulant? the brain will down regulate dopamine receptors. Putting lotion on your face? The skin will produce less oils.
There is always a downside
Rather than excess in one area, we should strive for perfect balance.
Is eating plenty of carbs to have good performance during exercise a “free lunch”? It’s more like it’s just optimising what you eat to give the body what it needs during exercise, no?
Creatine is pretty much in that category. It’s just a natural source of energy, essentially. You get it in some food as well. And you don’t get much benefits unless you’re doing strength exercise.
There may be some benefits for the brain as well, especially in older individuals. I doubt that there’s any significant downsides in general.
No, you actually do have a lot of leeway in how much you eat, where you body stays the same weight, because the body adjusts how much energy it uses. Also "excess calories gets you fat" might be a circular argument or truism or whatever, as in excess calories is excess only because it gets you fat.
No one eats excess calories as any type of supplement or natural enhancement, so your example does not work as a counterpoint to the free lunch principle.
The motivation behind wanting to be 10% stronger will (probably not) go away after starting a creatine regime. So where do you go from there? Testosterone? Steroids? I can't speak for anyone else but when I work out I am usually trying to meet or beat my last session (despite the march of death) so I think I'm at risk of going too far with supplementation.
I once had a headache and thought about taking an aspirin, but you know if I take an aspirin and feel 10% better, I'll want to feel even better so I'll then just have to take meth, there's no other possibility.
I would hope it's the knowledge of testosterone having significant side effects that would stop you from wanting to take it, not the fact that you haven't taken creatine yet.
You wait two years for the drugs that inhibit the muscle growth inhibitor hormone to get through clinical trials and then do a mounjaro plus the inhibitor inhibitor cocktail to cut fat amd grow muscle with limited work i thought everyone knew this,.....;)
The people I know with radiant, flawless skin all use Asian-style skincare with a meticulous nightly regime of like 10 syrups, oils, and unguents.
Everyone I've ever met who says that people shouldn't use shampoo/lotion/face wash because it makes the body stop producing oils has been NOT as attractive - putting it kindly.
And if you're older, creatine supplementation along with regular resistance training and well-balance diet may offset muscle mass loss that happens as we age (age-related sarcopenia).
There are also cognitive benefits:
- memory enhancement
- processing speed and attention
The brain is extremely energy demanding and creatine:
- increases cellular energy reserves (ATP)
- improves neurotransmitter function (e.g. increasing synthesis of neurotransmitters like acetylcholine)
- reduces oxidative stress damage to brain cells
- enhances synaptic efficiency and plasticity crucial for learning
When I first took creatine from an Amazon dealer I had gut problems. I later bought a "micronized" creatine (similar to https://bulevip.com/es/3418-optimum-nutrition-creatina-powde...) and did not experience any gut problems. Taking the same product now for 3 years. Inbetween I used some other variant from time to time and have the theory that some vendors sell a not clean product that interferes with your gut.
It does that to me, on occasion. It's usually due to taking too high a dose at once and/or taking it in combination with caffeine. Now, it's not a guarantee that those conditions mean I'll get some gastrointestinal discomfort, but they certainly increase the likelihood.
To myself it's darn odd to read these sort of stories ... since it was just over 30 years ago when I used it with the idea it would hopefully strengthen some of my weakened neck muscles via the serious whiplash due to a cycling accident. I only did so after reading the various studies on it and after an article in New Scientist was examining how safe and beneficial it might be to older people in nursing homes. I used a lower dose rate than body builders at the time.
The take away after taking it for a number of months - use quality creatine - unflavoured 100% or of high analysis with minor impurities. (Yes some is cheap and nasty, regardless of what the shop is charging - these days I would recommend purchasing from a pharmacy or equivalent.) Ensure the dose is completely dissolved in the water / fluid before being swallowed and not just a cordial suspension.
After a while I noted benefits apart from helping sore and tired skeletal muscles - gut seemed to work better - a much calmer state of mind / more mellow, way less chewing over whichever idiot said and did - the serious near continuous cold that had plagued me for more than a couple of years, was finally beaten, even after I stopped using it.
Readit News
One exception, though they'll not reveal their source company, is VitaminShoppe, which has one single version sourced from US. That is Kre-Alkalyn.
NOW, LifeExtension, etc, all of them, along with the majority of their other products are sourced from China, with NOW, in my opinion, the only one conducting rigorous testing to ensure product integrity. The supplement industry in general has become a product of China.
This is up to the individual to glean meaning from, but it remains reality.
For those interested, my inquiries with Life Extension were met with flagrant hostility. Those with NOW resulted in a long, amiable conversion with someone in direct, frequent contact with research scientists. Hostility is more common than friendliness with the dozens of inquiries I've made, but mostly when pressed past the initial superficial aloofness of the template reply.
Edit: with our corporatism paradigm, product origins are increasingly difficult to determine, with many companies now excluding origins from product labels, but most using weasel words, eg "Proudly packed in the US from globally sourced ingredients", which has one meaning which has nothing to do with the US. As one of myriad examples, go into a Treacherous Joe's and try to find origins for their teas. Pay attention and you'll see this behavior is expanding into many products, and actual food products.
My first choice, being in the US, is still either of the two previously mentioned. Creapure seems a good option if needed.
I can't say I noticed any cognitive changes though.
Unless you are a super-responder, that is!
>One review paper from 2017 concluded that creatine can give athletes a 10-20% performance boost in brief bouts of high-intensity exercise, such as sprinting past a defender or lifting heavy weights.
Through a lifetime of experiences with different substances, the body always adjusts to whatever you're taking. Taking a stimulant? the brain will down regulate dopamine receptors. Putting lotion on your face? The skin will produce less oils.
There is always a downside
Rather than excess in one area, we should strive for perfect balance.
edit: on a second thought... it IS making the frogs gay... so.. maybe
Creatine is pretty much in that category. It’s just a natural source of energy, essentially. You get it in some food as well. And you don’t get much benefits unless you’re doing strength exercise.
There may be some benefits for the brain as well, especially in older individuals. I doubt that there’s any significant downsides in general.
Taking vitamin supplements because the modern diet doesn’t provide all the nutrients your body needs? The body will start demanding more vitamins!!
Are you claiming that the downsides of creatine outweighs the benefits, or only that there's some non-zero amount of "downside"?
The motivation behind wanting to be 10% stronger will (probably not) go away after starting a creatine regime. So where do you go from there? Testosterone? Steroids? I can't speak for anyone else but when I work out I am usually trying to meet or beat my last session (despite the march of death) so I think I'm at risk of going too far with supplementation.
I would hope it's the knowledge of testosterone having significant side effects that would stop you from wanting to take it, not the fact that you haven't taken creatine yet.
dont you want the skin to produce less oils? so you dont get such an oily nose and such for example
The people I know with radiant, flawless skin all use Asian-style skincare with a meticulous nightly regime of like 10 syrups, oils, and unguents.
Everyone I've ever met who says that people shouldn't use shampoo/lotion/face wash because it makes the body stop producing oils has been NOT as attractive - putting it kindly.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/creatine-a-hack-to-get...
As per usual: supplements are not that marvelous as the influencers say.
https://youtu.be/0VMQk8Box-U?si=0mD26i5P8xVVsE6x
There are also cognitive benefits:
- memory enhancement
- processing speed and attention
The brain is extremely energy demanding and creatine:
- increases cellular energy reserves (ATP)
- improves neurotransmitter function (e.g. increasing synthesis of neurotransmitters like acetylcholine)
- reduces oxidative stress damage to brain cells
- enhances synaptic efficiency and plasticity crucial for learning
The take away after taking it for a number of months - use quality creatine - unflavoured 100% or of high analysis with minor impurities. (Yes some is cheap and nasty, regardless of what the shop is charging - these days I would recommend purchasing from a pharmacy or equivalent.) Ensure the dose is completely dissolved in the water / fluid before being swallowed and not just a cordial suspension.
After a while I noted benefits apart from helping sore and tired skeletal muscles - gut seemed to work better - a much calmer state of mind / more mellow, way less chewing over whichever idiot said and did - the serious near continuous cold that had plagued me for more than a couple of years, was finally beaten, even after I stopped using it.