First, thanks for the amazingly useful post. I'd been lazy about my supp. regimen, and looking at yours (which I've down far too cursorily in the past) has proved to be the best way for me to review my own.
I decided to start taking creatine (because of the likely benefit to cognition in vegetarians), and I'm wondering about the volume to mass equivalence of creatine. I'm currently without an extremely accurate scale.
1/2 tsp (~2.5 g) CreaPure Creatine monohydrate (do not buy commodity creatine! See below).
My container of creatine monohydrate (brand: "Skip" -- not CreaPure; I was impatient, though I've ordered a batch made with CreaPure creatine) says 2 tsp = 5 g.
Obviously, the volume to mass conversion could be very different for different brands. Still, just curious: have you actually weighed the amount of creatine you're taking?
Another question --
Creatine: As noted, I'm vegetarian, and our levels are lower than omnivores' and trials seem to show that vegetarians' brains work better on some tasks when given a low-dose supplement(18).
Here's what the paper says about how the creatine was administered:
2. MATERIAL AND METHODS
[....]
(b) Study design
Subjects were asked to consume this supplement at the same time each day for the next six weeks and received advice on how best to take this supplement to ensure maximum solubility and absorption.
Irritatingly non-informative! Before I write the principle author, just curious: have you per chance written her and learned what this "time" and "advice" were?
Thanks
Brian
18: Rae C, Digney AL, McEwan SR, Bates TC. Oral creatine monohydrate supplementation improves brain performance: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial. Proc Biol Sci. 2003 Oct 22;270(1529):2147-50. PubMed PMID: 14561278; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC1691485.