// The Diet

“I eat no meat. Does the scoop do more for me than it does for my husband?” · Anna, 57

Less than the old headline says. Back in 2003, a Sydney team gave 45 young vegetarians five grams a day. They spent six weeks on creatine and six on a blank powder. Working memory and a timed logic test both rose. That paper is why meat-free eaters got told they had the most to gain.

TRIAL: 45 adults · DOSE: 5 g a day · P: <0.0001

→ Source: Rae 2003, Proc R Soc B

Then a bigger team ran it again. They signed up 123 adults, about half of them meat-free. Dose, span and tests all matched the first trial. But no edge showed up for the meat-free half. Across the group, the gain was small at best. Side effects were logged about four times as often on creatine.

So keep the scoop if you like it. Expect a nudge… not a leap. And if one bright trial is all a claim has, I wait for the second one.

REPEAT: 123 adults · MEAT-FREE EDGE: none · SIDE EFFECTS: 4.25x

→ Source: Sandkühler 2023, BMC Medicine

// The Sound

“My sense of smell is weak these days. Is there a way to run the night scent with sound?” · Tom, 66

There is, and it came out of a Northwestern lab in 2009. Twelve people learned where 50 objects sat on a screen. Each one came with its own sound, like a meow for a cat or a whistle for a kettle. Then they took a nap. Soft white noise ran the entire time. In deep sleep, the lab played 25 of the sounds under it.

On waking, the cued spots came back closer to the mark. Ten of the twelve did better on the cued half… and none of them knew a sound had played.

Here’s the thing. The team read brain waves and cued only in deep sleep. At home, a sound can wake you. And a cue that wakes you undoes the work. Scent is kind to sleep in a way sound is not. So treat the sound trick as a lab result, not a home kit.

SAMPLE: 12 · OBJECTS: 50 · CUED: 25 · HELPED: 10 of 12

→ Source: Rudoy 2009, Science

// The Walk

“Is there a free way to sharpen focus? The scoop and the oil are my budget for the month.” · Linda, 59

Yes, and you own the gear. A Michigan team gave people a hard test first. They heard strings of digits and said them back in reverse. Next came a walk of about 50 minutes. Half went through a park. The rest went down busy city streets.

On the retest, the park group scored higher. The city walk gave them nothing. By the way, that reverse digit test is the same one the creatine trials used. In other words, a free walk nudged the very score a tub of powder chases.

Leave the earbuds at home. The same lab makes the case that a podcast pulls on the focus the park is trying to rest.

WALK: about 50 min · TASK: digits in reverse · CITY WALK GAIN: none

→ Source: Berman 2008, Psychological Science

// Reader Spotlight

PAUL, 63

Paul is learning Spanish for a trip with his wife. After each lesson, he ran the ten minute hold. His phone sat in another room. He rested in a soft chair with his eyes shut. Two weeks in, he says new words stick on the first pass more often.

One man is not a trial. He also knows which days he did it, so his read is not blind. Still, that is a good start for a habit that costs nothing.

I ran the hold for a month after my own reading. My take: the ten minutes feel long on day one and short by day ten.