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by numinoid 1259 days ago
> PPS - Creatine's COVID and post-COVID price increase has made it more niche than it perhaps once was. It used to be near $10 per 30-day from a reputable brand, not it can be $20-30 depending on brand (e.g. Creapure is $32/30 day right now).

There's no reason to be using anything but generic creatine monohydrate - studies show no difference in efficacy between different formulations. BulkSupplements current price is ~$56/kg at ~28 cents per dose per day. No reason to let price scare you away from one of the few supplements with a real body of evidence.
2 comments
magila 1259 days ago
I think the biggest concern people have with cheap supplements is not so much efficacy as contamination with heavy metals and other nastiness. Especially with the vast majority of the raw ingredients being sourced from China. People are counting on the domestic distributer's testing to catch quality control issues before the product reaches consumers.
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numinoid 1259 days ago
As you said, you need to look at individual resellers/distributors and see what kind of QC/testing is being done on a company by company basis. Raw ingredients are sourced from China regardless of if they're expensive "designer" supplements or cheap generics. My comment was more along the lines of different formulations don't seem to have any difference wise, meaning that you can buy high quality generic creatine monohydrate at fraction of the price of something like Creapure(which is just monohydrate), creatine HCL, ethyl ester etc. Again, you need to audit who you're getting your supplements from - cheap doesnt always = poor quality and expensive doesn't always = high quality
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TedDoesntTalk 1259 days ago
what about contaminants? are they more or less prevalent in generic formulations?
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numinoid 1259 days ago
I haven't looked into that wrt creatine broadly - you can get generic creatine monohydrate across the spectrum from cheap to expensive. In the case I gave, bulk supplements does heavy mineral and contaminant testing on their supplements but it's going to vary depending on where you buy the generic from.
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