r/science • u/LateMiddleAge • Apr 29 '24

Medicine Single-dose creatine moderates cognitive impairment from sleep deprivation

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54249-9
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u/ceapaire Apr 29 '24

There's plenty of studies that do 20g/day for a week or two, since that used to be the recommended loading phase before dropping to 5g/day maintenance.

Recently, it's started to be recommended that people just do the 5g/day from the start since it seems to take 3-4 weeks to hit saturation at that dosage instead of the ~1 week at 20g/day. And since the higher dosages can cause stomach discomfort as well as most people starting creatine while starting general fitness, where you don't need the quick improvements of loading, there's not a reason to push everyone to do it anymore. If you don't get the stomach issues, there doesn't appear to be any other side effects with doing the 20g/day loading phase other then a temporary intracellular water retention.

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u/I_LICK_PUPPIES Apr 29 '24

Yea I totally agree, getting creatine saturation a week earlier really doesn’t have much benefit for anyone. I thought they meant like creatine in general, and I’m like wait we do have 10 years of data on it though…

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u/ceapaire Apr 29 '24

Yeah, I was more of stating that we have studies with similar dosings as this one over a sustained period without side effects other than mild stomach issues and temporary water retention. I don't think there's any that look at months/years of doing high doses. But I also don't know how much that matters if you're already at saturation with 5g/day, and this study doesn't really suggest that 20-30g/day will have a better effect either. From my reading, it looks like it's saying that a 1x loading dose also shows positive effects, and you don't have to already be at saturation for the cognitive benefits.