We hear a lot about different mitochondrial boosting supplements like carnitine and coQ10, but I think creatine supplementation is often overlooked and can be very beneficial (and cheap!).
Creatine has many uses including neurological disease, diabetes, and cognition.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14561278 Studies show that it also improves brain performance,
The doses used are typically around 5g/30g day.
I don't find it affects me as much physically. I'd say more in terms of having the mental energy to get moving, but the physical downtimes haven't changed.
If you've tried this for brain performance let me know, I am interested in hearing your experience with creatine and what form and dosage you found to be most effective.
Creatine has many uses including neurological disease, diabetes, and cognition.
Quote:Creatine is a peptide molecule that the human body can use for energy.[url=http://www.schwarzenegger.com/fitness/post/creatine-isnt-just-for-building-muscle][/url]
Muscles need fuel to work. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the primary source of energy for cells. ATP comes from a variety of sources, including sugars like glucose.
Some activities, like lifting weights, quickly use up ATP. Exhausted ATP becomes adenosine diphosphate (ADP). Since creatine is stored in the body as creatine phosphate, it can provide a phosphate group for the ADP, which quickly regenerates the ADP into emergency ATP.
Creatine is a good source of energy because it kicks in when your body needs it.
http://www.schwarzenegger.com/fitness/post/creatine-isnt-just-for-building-muscle
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14561278 Studies show that it also improves brain performance,
Quote:People who suffer from CFS/ME (like myself) are almost always deficient in creatine as well and supplementation is particularly crucial in this population.
Creatine supplementation is in widespread use to enhance sports-fitness performance, and has been trialled successfully in the treatment of neurological, neuromuscular and atherosclerotic disease. Creatine plays a pivotal role in brain energy homeostasis, being a temporal and spatial buffer for cytosolic and mitochondrial pools of the cellular energy currency, adenosine triphosphate and its regulator, adenosine diphosphate.
In this work, we tested the hypothesis that oral creatine supplementation (5 g d(-1) for six weeks) would enhance intelligence test scores and working memory performance in 45 young adult, vegetarian subjects in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over design. Creatine supplementation had a significant positive effect (p < 0.0001) on both working memory (backward digit span) and intelligence (Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices), both tasks that require speed of processing. These findings underline a dynamic and significant role of brain energy capacity in influencing brain performance.
The doses used are typically around 5g/30g day.
I don't find it affects me as much physically. I'd say more in terms of having the mental energy to get moving, but the physical downtimes haven't changed.
If you've tried this for brain performance let me know, I am interested in hearing your experience with creatine and what form and dosage you found to be most effective.