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- Loo et al. 2015 found color cancer cells can use it as fuel and blocking the creatine cut metastasis in mice [0]
- zhang et al 20921 found it promoting mouse colon and breast cancer models [1]
not an expert in any way, but i’m guessing it depends on cancer type and there doesn’t seem to be human data either way. as a cautious person w a lot of familial cancer, i cycled off after i looked into it.
[0]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25601461/
[1]: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2021.03.009
What is blowing my mind though is that at $dayjob my team is going through a crazy crunch to deliver a very strategic project and some of us are pushing 10-12h days often. I'm in hour 12 today for the second day in a row, and my head is not tired at all. Turns out the brain also uses a lot of ATP too, specially during demanding cognitive tasks so I guess it is creatine that is keeping the engine running smoothly even after so many hours.
I will like once every week or two have a poor night sleep. These days I take twice the dose and I don't feel like I'm sleep deprived at all. Feels like cheating! And apparently no side effects at all so far. Well, maybe I'm working too much.
One of the things I'm trying to do better lately is to have a good sleep hygiene. Sun in the eyes early in the morning, no caffeine for the first 60 waking minutes of the day (adenosine absorption period), no screens 2 hours before bed and whatnot. Still, some nights I will just wake up in the middle of the night and won't be able to get back to sleep, then it's when I feel creatine helps
Edit: Typo
I suspect creatine is responsible for me not being able to get back to sleep easily, because once I'm awake, I'm awake.
I take creatine daily but when I'm working out more than a couple of weeks, i feel much better than on weeks when I skip working out.
from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42578920/ (CrM is creatine monohydrate)
And how do you know it's the creatine and not ...taking up CrossFit and the benefits to energy and cognitive function exercize brings?
I’ve previously stopped taking it for a couple months and noticed no real difference in physical or mental ability.
The GI issues are caused by the creatine absorbing water. This causes your gut to have more water than usual as it follows the creatine through the works… which causes… urgency.
The effect diminishes after you’ve been taking a regular dose for a while, even with just monogydrate (not HCL).
Some people say HCL causes less distress because it doesn’t draw water as much. Others argue that defeats the purpose of taking it.
Monohydrate is studied to death and proven effective, HCL not so much.
But otherwise, I'd agree that monohydrate has significantly more research behind it and I'd default to that if it's tolerable.
I've been taking it for almost a month and I plan to stop to see if I notice any change back that would make me want to start taking creatine again.
It has replaced in some ways caffeine for me.
The part of where creatine wipes out sleep deficit sounded like a stretch, but it definitely helps.
Just feel if we are at AGI, and its amazing then we should be able to do our own research with it on these topics...
So, creatine = good?
Title:
> Creatine promotes cancer metastasis through activation of Smad2/3
Tldr is basically that creatine helps body cells (in rats) to grow. Regardless wherever they're bad (cancer) or good (muscle). At least that's how I understood that study the last time I came across it. So probably stop using creatine when you've a cancer that's growing. Or its liable to use the creatine to turbocharge it's growth
Creatine uptake promotes dendritic cell activation and enhances antitumor immunity
> …and support the use of creatine supplementation as a strategy to augment DC-based cancer immunotherapy.
So it seems that from this research the outcome is indeed creatine = good
I honestly don't know whether it made a difference. Sleep didn't get worse, no noticeable metabolic effects. Possibly the "perma tired muscles" I've been suffering from increasingly since about age 57 (I'm an active cyclist) have gotten a bit better, with <50% of days affected rather than >90% last year, but even that is subjective.
If "taking the stuff" means "more uptake" (does it?) and there are other beneficial effects, bring it on.
It's safe, cheap, and long-term-study proven to be extremely effective.
You will want to increase your daily hydration (at least for otherwise healthy men, a good sign is that you're "peeing clear") as Creatine does increase water retention.
In the bouldering community there has also been a bit of an uproar where Emil Abrahammsson (find it on Youtube) did very light static holds 2+ times per day for ~30 seconds if I recall correctly for great tendon strength, this also had some influence on how people train for armwrestling. This style was nicknamed "Abrahangs".
As far as tendons are concerned, they require proactive rehab and you have to load them. There are various loading strategies that a physio is best placed to advise on. Shockwave therapy has also been found to help.
Some pain during tendon loading during rehab is generally expected and not necessarily a negative sign, somewhere around a 4/10 at most.
Recovery is slow in the order of months, not weeks.
There is some evidence that taking a collagen peptide based protein along with vitamin c an hour before loading the tendon can help.
A general rule is that, after 26, any muscle or joint injury you suffer will never completely heal. So
- avoid injury scrupulously. Don't accept gym challenges (even your own). Be wary of odd exercises, machines, routines. Don't do anything hard at first, always start easy. Be lazy, build up and take your time: you have the rest of your life. Don't work out while under the influence of alcohol, especially when with friends. I avoid certain sports, e.g., any martial arts, soccer, football, even baseball, b/c the variety of situations(and consequent accidents) is so unpredictable as to be uncontrollable. Sprinting, hurdles, gymnastics and high jump are risky too.
- avoid over-stressing muscles and joints. Keep the cardio up - maybe try the gym classes with music (the crowd is better-looking and friendlier).
- See a doctor if you suffer pain unduly.
- Avoid all toe-lift weight machines and weight sleds (sleds that you push as if pushing a truck) like the plague. Never use them, otherwise you may experience pain so severe it will change your "fight or flee" response to 100% "fight" even in a life-threatening situation. Do NOT challenge this suggestion especially if above the age of 40. Explanation: look up the term "plantar fasciitis".
I anticipate "someday soon" cures for tendon/joint pain but I've been waiting too long to expect their arrival before I die!
Big heavy holds will help encourage blood flow without stretching them / stressing them as hard as big lifts.
It seems weird because it goes again ROM ideas, but it has definitely helped protect my arms for rock climbing as well as less fatigue in my legs for big lifts.
It sounds you have the hardest part of it underway - consistency.
There's lots of studies - if you can get over 20g per day it is noticeable to the brain and energy. Adding a few grams a week until you're up there I found it noticeable. 20-30g seems to be a noticeable range.
Supplements aren't always like a coffee spike, they build up and sustain quite well.
And then there were the discoveries of creatine in the brain in studies.
This might be the best supplement. People over 40 needs CoQ10 (ubiquinol) as well. The energy boost is crazy (I also combine with PQQ, but it's not really proven). Lugol iodine is also the cheapest best supplement ever.
This is vague and doesn't explain anything. Can you share any references that communicate what you're thinking about?
It became something of a panacea nutrient, recently around COVID.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D_toxicity
Overdose has been observed at 1,925 μg/d (77,000 IU per day). Acute overdose requires between 15,000 μg/d (600,000 IU per day) and 42,000 μg/d (1,680,000 IU per day) over several days to months.
~40% of people don't get enough vitamin D [1]. It's not useful to categorize it as some trend, based on people just not following general recommended dosing (with more precise dosing depending entirely on personal sun exposure and skin color).
edit: As an office worker, I take 10k IU per day when I'm entirely indoors (most of the time), but vary it based on sun exposure. I based this on recent studies, and have my doctors approval with an exactly center-of-the-nominal-range vitamin D serum level.
[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9573946/
If you don't have a primarily fish based diet or spend hours under direct overhead sunlight every day without a shirt on, you're probably deficient as well.
This doesn't mean you can just pound it, but for the most part it just becomes waste product.
It's definitely becoming mainstream.
I've taken it off and on for the past 15 years, the most noticeable effect is about 5lbs of weight gain. I do think it helps gym performance and the increased water retention mames for better muscle definition.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25601461/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2021.03.009
More accessible video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcMgHncZVIw
That being said some people do have adverse effects to supplementation, e.g. excessive water retention, bloating, stomach discomfort, &c.
So try it, if you have a bad reaction stop.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3...
Creatine binds to water (making less water available to your muscles) and allows your muscles to work harder (which makes them need more water). So if you're not drinking a lot more water when you're taking creatine, you will get cramps from either dehydration and/or muscle overuse.
But once you're past the loading phase for creatine and getting sufficient hydration, it's supposed to lessen cramps because the water bound to creatine also becomes available for use again as the creatine is used by the body.
But the cramps are really debilitating, as in random back muscle locks up debilitating, so I thought it best to just give up on this.
But it's pretty safe at recommended doses.
I would be highly sceptical of the claim "antitumor immunity". It sounds like an ad.
(I regret posting that blog post, but the study and discussion is interesting)
In a healthy individual with a balanced diet and no deficiencies, there are essentially zero supplements that do anything whatsoever to a measurable degree. Essentially the entire supplement aisle at Whole Foods or whatever is completely woo and useless, and any advertisements are someone trying to make money from you, or some mindless viral craze with no evidence. The exception to this general rule is omega 3s (fish oil is great for this, algae oil is even better given potential heavy metals in fish), protein supplementation if you're weightlifting, and creatine. GLP-1s are a wonder drug that are great if you are not a healthy individual and wish to be.
Please… just read it as the isolated and interesting insight into biology that it is. It’s a fascinating in vitro result that shows a potentially important role for creatinine in a certain immune response.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebral_creatine_deficiency
> Notably, creatine uptake similarly boosted the activation and immunostimulatory function of human monocyte-derived DCs.
Source: https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Mice