5 replies to this topic

[Lazarus Long]

According to this study in Britain a dietary supplement used for body building has nootropic effects.

http://news.bbc.co.u...lth/3145223.stm

Tuesday, 12 August, 2003, 23:09 GMT 00:09 UK
Creatine 'boosts brain power'

The dietary supplement creatine - known to improve athletic performance - can also boost memory and intelligence, researchers claim.
Creatine is a natural compound found in muscle tissue, and has been popular with athletes looking for ways to increase fitness.

However, experts say that it has a role in maintaining energy levels to the brain, and have the theory that taking more creatine might actually improve mental performance.

Researchers from the University of Sydney and Macquarie University, also in Australia, tested this by giving creatine supplements to 45 young adult volunteers.

Vegetarians were used for the tests, mainly because meat in the diet is in itself a source of creatine, and it would be difficult to gauge exactly how much an individual had consumed.

(excerpt)

[shpongled]

Yeah creatine is a good supplement, really cheap also. The study referenced by that article is somewhat flawed though in that it uses vegetarians so it doesn't establish whether it was just because they have a deficiency in creatine levels that meat eaters don't have. Here is an excerpt from an article I wrote on creatine:

Neuroprotection - Creatine is found in high concentrations in the brain, and is being explored in the treatment of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. Creatine supplementation increases total creatine levels primarily in grey matter, white matter, the cerebellum, and the thalamus. Similar to its action in skeletal muscle, creatine operates through a variety of pathways in the brain, such as reducing oxidative stress and correcting mitochondrial dysfunction (3). A recent study on mice and rats showed creatine to provide a 36%-50% reduction in cortical damage caused by traumatic brain injury by improving mitochondrial function, decreasing reactive oxygen species, and maintaining ATP levels (10). This is a new area of research, so few human studies have been done on its neuroprotectant effects at this point. One study found that supplementation of creatine at 5 grams a day for 8 days decreased task-evoked mental fatigue and increased oxygen utilization in the brain (11).

Full article: http://www.bulknutri...ngredients_id=1

[Lazarus Long]

I agree as to the weakness of the study but the linkage to nootropic result is valid regardless. Your concern could be addressed by a broader study but if the vegetarians were impacted negatively by not having sufficient creatine then this still demonstrates that creatine appears to have an important relationship to memory.

[kevin]

Here's the abstract to the study that shpongled refers to in his post... one of the researchers, Mark Mattson, is quite prolific in the areas of aging research, especially in regards to neurons with many papers to his credit in the area.

Dietary Supplement Creatine Protects against Traumatic Brain Injury
Patrick G. Sullivan, PhD,* Jonathan D. Geiger, PhD,† Mark P. Mattson, PhD,*
and Stephen W. Scheff, PhD*
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Creatine, one of the most common food supplements used by individuals at almost every level of athleticism, promote gains in performance, strength, and fat-free mass. Recent experimental findings have demonstrated that creatine affords significant neuroprotection against ischemic and oxidative insults. The present experiments investigated the possible effect of creatine dietary supplementation on brain tissue damage after experimental traumatic brain injury. Results demonstrate that chronic administration of creatine ameliorated the extent of cortical damage by as much as 36% in mice and 50% in rats. Protection seems to be related to creatine-induced maintenance of mitochondrial bioenergetics. Mitochondrial membrane potential was significantly increased, intramitochondrial levels of reactive oxygen species and calcium were significantly decreased, and adenosine triphosphate levels were maintained. Induction of mitochondrial permeability transition was significantly inhibited in animals fed creatine. This food supplement may provide clues to the mechanisms responsible for neuronal loss after traumatic brain injury and may find use as a neuroprotective agent against acute and delayed neurodegenerative processes. Sullivan PG, Geiger JD, Mattson MP, Scheff SW. Dietary supplement creatine protects against traumatic brain injury. Ann Neurol 2000;48:723–729
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It would seem to follow that if creatine protects neuronal tissue by promoting mitonchondrial energetics, that neurons whose function is very sensitive to the status of mitochondria, would probably benefit from supplementation. More studies should definitely be done before all those jocks take over the world.

Link

[shpongled]

I agree as to the weakness of the study but the linkage to nootropic result is valid regardless.  Your concern could be addressed by a broader study but if the vegetarians were impacted negatively by not having sufficient creatine then this still demonstrates that creatine appears to have an important relationship to memory.

Yeah, and there's also this study that I referenced in my article:

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Neurosci Res. 2002 Apr;42(4):279-85.

Effects of creatine on mental fatigue and cerebral hemoglobin oxygenation.

Watanabe A, Kato N, Kato T.

Department of Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, 113-8655, Tokyo, Japan.

While the role of creatine in preventing muscle (peripheral) fatigue for high performance athletes is well understood, its biochemical role in prevention of mental (central) fatigue is not. Creatine is abundant in muscles and the brain and after phosphorylation used as an energy source for adenosine triphosphate synthesis. Using double-blind placebo-controlled paradigm, we demonstrated that dietary supplement of creatine (8 g/day for 5 days) reduces mental fatigue when subjects repeatedly perform a simple mathematical calculation. After taking the creatine supplement, task-evoked increase of cerebral oxygenated hemoglobin in the brains of subjects measured by near infrared spectroscopy was significantly reduced, which is compatible with increased oxygen utilization in the brain.
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So I agree that creatine is a good addition to a nootropic regimen. Also good for anti-aging in general. In addition to supplementation a good way to get creatine is eat a lot of fish. And of course fish all sorts of other brain nutrients like DMAE, choline, docosahexaenoic acid, etc.

[dirac]

Just for the sake of overkill :


Generic Report
Boost your brain power

Edited by dirac, 17 August 2003 - 03:51 PM.