Creatine Improves Cognition In Vegetarians

[beforewisdom]

Creatine Improves Cognition in Vegetarians

Breaking news…from 2003!

I recently became aware of the following and updated the VeganHealth.org page on creatine with it:

A 2003 study of 27 lacto-ovo vegetarian and 18 vegan college students found that supplementing with 5 g of creatine per day for six weeks increased their mental capacity (1). You can get a free copy of this study at the link below under References.

There was no omnivore group so it is not clear if the supplementation would have also worked for omnivores. But in other studies on omnivores:

- Six weeks of creatine supplementation of .03 g/kg body weight per day did not improve cognitive function in a group of young adult omnivores, but the amount of creatine was only about 1 to 1.5 g/day (2).

- In elderly omnivores, four doses of 5 g of creatine per day for one or two weeks increased their cognitive function in some but not all measurements (3).

[ObiWanKenobi]

There are many ways to improve your brain function:

... Walking at least six miles a week may be one thing people can do to keep their brains from shrinking and fight off dementia ...
Link

[xrodolfox]

learning new languages helps too...

[JP]

staying off crack - another good advice.

[xrodolfox]

If you walk every day, stay off the crack, and learn a new language, it's the same as taking 3 boxes of creatine.


^My new training plan. Next up: Ayamara.

[Talyn]

so really, the solution is crack creatine. you get all the cognitive benefits of creatine, but none of the side effects of crack. win all round.

[DB]

If you walk every day, stay off the crack, and learn a new language, it's the same as taking 3 boxes of creatine.

Sweet! I totally got this one in the bag.

[beforewisdom]

What if you walked every day, stayed off the crack, learned a new language, took creatine and drank 4 cups of green tea a day?

There have already been articles stating that vegetarians tend to be a more intelligent group of people. If we add creatine and green to that, we could rule the world.

[DB]

If we add creatine and green to that, we could rule the world.

Dude, I already rule.

[Webb]

createa

[etherspin]

This strikes me as a subject we should be taking more seriously,the studies would seem to imply vegans have a lack or deficit of creatine,not that it's an optional nootropic substance.
Shunning it seems as potentially dangerous as ignoring b12 or dha

http://evolutionarypsychiatry.blogspot. ... atine.html

[beforewisdom]

Intelligence doesn't seem to be a problem in the vegan diet and AR communities.

In veg*n forums ( naturally ) I've seen articles here and there that veg*ns tend to do a little better with brain power. Whether it is better diets making people smarter or that smart people tend to think about the things more often that lead people to become vegan.

Then there is a history of thousands of years of large vegetarian populations in Asia. The current head of India is a veg for religious reasons and his sect enjoys a reputation for having very intelligent, well educated people ( "the Jews of India" ).

Leaving aside the size and number of studies and assuming that the studies are good my questions would be if taking yet another supplement, over decades of life, would hurt any of my organs? The other question would be. would there be a noticeable ( not just measurable in a clinic ) difference to me?

[vegimator]

In some of the measures, vegetarians were higher than omnivores at baseline, by the way, and in general the memory tests between the two groups did not vary at baseline - the vegetarians just seemed to benefit much more from creatine supplementation.

Maybe it's my poor, suffering low creatine brain, but this sounds like we do okay without it.

[etherspin]

Are you sure?
" Various cognitive tasks that were worse in the placebo vegetarians compared to creatine vegetarians are similar to those that are affected in ADHD, schizophrenia, dementia, and traumatic brain injury. "

[VexedCoffee]

But creatine causes hair loss.

I'll take vanity any day!