[jdiff]

Even as an informal conclusion I think it's important to know who you're up against and what their motivations are. Waving that away is how we get people like known, obvious charlatans like RFK Jr in any sort of position of power. I know this is nitpicking word choice but the informal conclusion is "Not likely, and not enough to matter for anything."

[Retr0id]

Personally I take creatine for entirely non-cognitive reasons, so it's reassuring to know it's probably not making me any dumber.

[hombre_fatal]

Though you also have to consider potentially adulterated powder (accidental or not) in the unregulated supplement industry.

That's why I dropped creatine since I didn't notice any benefits when I tried it for a year.

[somenameforme]

With most industries companies live and die by their reputation. Find a bulk provider with a positive reputation and the creatine you buy is almost certainly going to be safer than e.g. eating at Taco Bell. And with creatine in particular it's so dirt cheap that a lot of motivation for dodgy stuff goes away unlike e.g. with protein powders where amino acid spiking can save a company a bunch of money. And incidentally creatine is one of the substances dodgy companies use for amino acid spiking, just because it's so cheap!

That said it's obviously the right decision to drop it if you're not seeing any effects. The interesting thing about creatine is that people's bodies are very different in their natural levels of creatine, and if you're already at 'saturation' then more creatine isn't going to do anything. Same reason the typical benefits of creatine don't show much difference beyond 5g/day. That's enough to send the overwhelming majority of people towards 'saturation.'

[bhelkey]

There is a brand of creatine manufactured in the US (con-cret) and a brand manufactured in Germany (Creapure). Either of those companies should address the concern around adulterated powder.

> That's why I dropped creatine since I didn't notice any benefits when I tried it for a year.

Some percentage of people (~20%) are creatine non-responders [1]. It's pretty reasonable to try creatine and then drop it if you find no benefit. I personally find the gain very marginal.

[1] https://fitchef.com/shorts/creatine-non-responder/

[econ]

For me it has an insanely large effect. Roughly 30% more reps and endurance.

[zorobo]

When I stopped taking it, I went from 12 reps to 10, and slower recovery.

My level at tennis dropped too, but bicycle endurance remained the same.

I stopped because of high blood creatinine, and wanted to see what baseline was

[infinite_spin]

It's not unregulated.

https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B...

[NopIdoN]

it might even be counteracting the negative effects of your frequent contact with airborne nitrogen

[infinite_spin]

what negative effects? N2 is inert under physiological conditions.

[NopIdoN]

nothing it's fine if you buy enough creatine. It's much easier with my proprietary blend though

[infinite_spin]

You still haven't specified what negative side effects you're referring to. Nitrogen tends to be inert, so I'm questioning your claim that N2 causes some negative side effect, not your claim that creatine hinders this yet-unnamed side effect

[NopIdoN]

the price just went up, better act fast!

[thisisit]

You do realise that you cannot prove a negative? So the right conclusion even informally cannot be “ probably not making me any dumber”.

[infinite_spin]

Yes you can. E.g. Euler's proof that there is no largest prime number.