Great post Nick! I have a kind of knee-jerk aversion to supplements, but your recommendation plus positive experience carry a lot of weight. 2 questions: 1) Before trying creatine were there any potential side-effects you were worried about? 2) And have you experienced any negative side-effects aside from the many benefits you mention?
Hey Ben, thanks. I also have an aversion to supplements in general. There are a very small few which are generally considered safe for everyone and creatine monohydrate is one of them. People have apparently been using it for years. I think the impact of diet/exercise/sleep is much greater than any supplement. If that's not part of the equation then stop there first. But the data is very intriguing about the benefits of cognitive function for older (aka >45 yr old in my understanding) people. The most common side effect of higher doses (15-20mg) is GI issues. However at 5mg per day I haven't had any side effects. I have experimented with 10mg and 20mg during a day but always break them up into 5mg doses each time. When I hit 20mg I occasionally have a little GI upset, but really not too bad. Right now I'm sticking to 5-10mg per day and just staying there. Oh and if you do choose to take it, make sure you get it from a 3rd party verified supplier. I chose Thorne for that reason.
Sounds you have landed on some positive things to change and help. I started creatine for similar reasons and am about a month into it. Other dietary changes started this week as well …again for similar reasons. Can relate to the brain changes after 50…and again more 10 years later. So all these areas to focus on hopefully will help with chess and other life items. Now time to get on those tactics…thanks Jacob Aagaard for supporting that process and thanks for this post.
Another great article Doc. As a 76 year old adult improver I am interested in learning everything I can about improving in chess as well as in life. I've read all your articles but I believe this is the first one where you touch on the quality of life aspect. I retired when I was 70 and moved back to the US for two reasons, one the AFIB was getting worse with the stress of work and two, it was fiscally ill responsible to keep working as I was just giving money to the government. There are three things that helped improve my quality of life after retirement, change in diet including supplements like creatine, regular weight training five days a week and taking up chess again after a 30 year leave of absence. Of the three changes, diet was the most difficult to do and the most expensive I might add. Finding foods with nutritional value, less sugar and other unhealthy ingredients is HARD in the US and more costly. I now have a pretty strict diet that I following based on easy, hard or no training days in the gym. I'd be happy to share if you'd like. As for my chess training, I can devote about 8 hour a week, so I have it split as follows, ˜60% on tactics (Lichess simple puzzles and Step 2 mixed), ~20% on visualization and calculations (Step 2 Thinking ahead). I would add that all tactics work is done by writing down the answer before checking for correctness, it is wrong even if I incorrectly write down the notation. All Step 2 and Thinking Ahead work is down on a board. The remaining 20% is openings, etc. Bottom line I believe these changes to life style as one gets older are an important ingredient to a longer more fulfilling life. I would also add that a positive mental attitude toward life is also a MUST. I see too many of my friend who think, act and talk about themselves as 'OLD'. Hell I'm just getting started, as my new tattoo says.... "Die Young.... As Late As Possible". Thanks again Doc for your articles and keep them coming.
Thank you so much for the response. Purpose, connection, and meaning are as vital to life as air and water. A Fib is hard, my dad has it but is much better after treatments. Strength training in my opinion is the fountain of youth… at least physically and mentally. Staying fit in both arenas is important, but meaningless without connection and purpose. Glad you’ve found it!
Well written Nick! Fun fact when I accompanied the English team at the Chennai 2022 Olympiad, I brought creatin in my suitcase to give the players. Three years later it's a mainstay in pro esports which are a lot more advanced than chess for that sort of things.
That’s really cool! I came across the idea from Dr. Rhonda Patrick as I said in the post. Had never really heard about it before. You were way ahead of the curve! I wonder if there’s anything else you’d recommend?
"Back then" the mental fatigue researchers were the ones doing the research and getting the first results on creatine and mental function. I was grateful to have chess dojo let me invite Dr. Jeroen Van Cutsem on the podcast (search for chess dojo mental fatigue on YouTube) and we discussed creatine. Now the research has indeed massively evolved and we know a lot more of the doses effective for the brain (quite a bit larger than weightlifting doses). There is one person really I trust for performance nutrition and that's Thomas Casey (he works mostly with esports team and is really clued up, reads the primary research himself). I interviewed him for my substack a while ago and he said Ancient Greek students used to smell rosemary to help cognition and that seems to be backed up by recent research. Smelling a pouch of rosemary you have by the board seems to be a low risk anyway. Maybe the next big thing?
Dr. Vazquez, would you share which supplement you chose to use? I know it’s not an endorsement, but would give me (and perhaps others) an option to consider. Thank you in advance!
I went with creatine monohydrate from Thorne because they are 3rd party verified. 3rd party verification is critical for any supplement since there are sadly few regulations around them.
Great post Nick! I have a kind of knee-jerk aversion to supplements, but your recommendation plus positive experience carry a lot of weight. 2 questions: 1) Before trying creatine were there any potential side-effects you were worried about? 2) And have you experienced any negative side-effects aside from the many benefits you mention?
Hey Ben, thanks. I also have an aversion to supplements in general. There are a very small few which are generally considered safe for everyone and creatine monohydrate is one of them. People have apparently been using it for years. I think the impact of diet/exercise/sleep is much greater than any supplement. If that's not part of the equation then stop there first. But the data is very intriguing about the benefits of cognitive function for older (aka >45 yr old in my understanding) people. The most common side effect of higher doses (15-20mg) is GI issues. However at 5mg per day I haven't had any side effects. I have experimented with 10mg and 20mg during a day but always break them up into 5mg doses each time. When I hit 20mg I occasionally have a little GI upset, but really not too bad. Right now I'm sticking to 5-10mg per day and just staying there. Oh and if you do choose to take it, make sure you get it from a 3rd party verified supplier. I chose Thorne for that reason.
Thanks Nick, will consider and report back!
try 5mg a day to start with. By 15-30 days you should see a benefit. Let me know what you experience! But please... exercise, diet, sleep first! ;)
Just checking that is 5mg, not 5g? I'm searching for products and they mostly seem to be like 3000mg doses!
Yes. One scoop. Sorry for the unit error
Sounds you have landed on some positive things to change and help. I started creatine for similar reasons and am about a month into it. Other dietary changes started this week as well …again for similar reasons. Can relate to the brain changes after 50…and again more 10 years later. So all these areas to focus on hopefully will help with chess and other life items. Now time to get on those tactics…thanks Jacob Aagaard for supporting that process and thanks for this post.
Well, I will give most things a shot 🙂
Another great article Doc. As a 76 year old adult improver I am interested in learning everything I can about improving in chess as well as in life. I've read all your articles but I believe this is the first one where you touch on the quality of life aspect. I retired when I was 70 and moved back to the US for two reasons, one the AFIB was getting worse with the stress of work and two, it was fiscally ill responsible to keep working as I was just giving money to the government. There are three things that helped improve my quality of life after retirement, change in diet including supplements like creatine, regular weight training five days a week and taking up chess again after a 30 year leave of absence. Of the three changes, diet was the most difficult to do and the most expensive I might add. Finding foods with nutritional value, less sugar and other unhealthy ingredients is HARD in the US and more costly. I now have a pretty strict diet that I following based on easy, hard or no training days in the gym. I'd be happy to share if you'd like. As for my chess training, I can devote about 8 hour a week, so I have it split as follows, ˜60% on tactics (Lichess simple puzzles and Step 2 mixed), ~20% on visualization and calculations (Step 2 Thinking ahead). I would add that all tactics work is done by writing down the answer before checking for correctness, it is wrong even if I incorrectly write down the notation. All Step 2 and Thinking Ahead work is down on a board. The remaining 20% is openings, etc. Bottom line I believe these changes to life style as one gets older are an important ingredient to a longer more fulfilling life. I would also add that a positive mental attitude toward life is also a MUST. I see too many of my friend who think, act and talk about themselves as 'OLD'. Hell I'm just getting started, as my new tattoo says.... "Die Young.... As Late As Possible". Thanks again Doc for your articles and keep them coming.
Thank you so much for the response. Purpose, connection, and meaning are as vital to life as air and water. A Fib is hard, my dad has it but is much better after treatments. Strength training in my opinion is the fountain of youth… at least physically and mentally. Staying fit in both arenas is important, but meaningless without connection and purpose. Glad you’ve found it!
Well written Nick! Fun fact when I accompanied the English team at the Chennai 2022 Olympiad, I brought creatin in my suitcase to give the players. Three years later it's a mainstay in pro esports which are a lot more advanced than chess for that sort of things.
That’s really cool! I came across the idea from Dr. Rhonda Patrick as I said in the post. Had never really heard about it before. You were way ahead of the curve! I wonder if there’s anything else you’d recommend?
"Back then" the mental fatigue researchers were the ones doing the research and getting the first results on creatine and mental function. I was grateful to have chess dojo let me invite Dr. Jeroen Van Cutsem on the podcast (search for chess dojo mental fatigue on YouTube) and we discussed creatine. Now the research has indeed massively evolved and we know a lot more of the doses effective for the brain (quite a bit larger than weightlifting doses). There is one person really I trust for performance nutrition and that's Thomas Casey (he works mostly with esports team and is really clued up, reads the primary research himself). I interviewed him for my substack a while ago and he said Ancient Greek students used to smell rosemary to help cognition and that seems to be backed up by recent research. Smelling a pouch of rosemary you have by the board seems to be a low risk anyway. Maybe the next big thing?
Dr. Vazquez, would you share which supplement you chose to use? I know it’s not an endorsement, but would give me (and perhaps others) an option to consider. Thank you in advance!
I went with creatine monohydrate from Thorne because they are 3rd party verified. 3rd party verification is critical for any supplement since there are sadly few regulations around them.