Creatine
• A few people have sent me this 2025 study that questions the utility of creatine for muscle growth. We never change medical practice based on one study; but this well-done study does raise some questions about how much of the benefit of creatine is due to actual muscle hypertrophy from resistance training (RT).
• Multiple meta-analyses show an average of about 2 pounds of extra lean mass when you combine creatine with RT. Training intensity matters, and this new study may not have challenged the muscle enough – ie. approaching muscular “failure.” The study also used a wash-in period, which may lead to “measurement artifact,” due to confusion between water and lean muscle mass.
• Bottom line: creatine is one of the best studied, safest, and most effective supplements on the market. Buy cheap creatine monohydrate and take 5 grams per day (good idea to confirm normal kidney function before you start taking it).
Conscious
• I remind my kids to avoid being overly self-conscious – most of us are stuck in our own heads and don’t notice each other.
• Maria Popova (The Marginalian) writes about “Unselfconsciousness,” exploring the work of Annie Dillard, who wrote her PhD thesis on Thoreau and later spent time in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Valley (described in her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek). Popova includes excerpts from the book:
“And I have often noticed that even a few minutes of this self-forgetfulness is tremendously invigorating. I wonder if we do not waste most of our energy just by spending every waking minute saying hello to ourselves.”
“I center down wherever I am; I find a balance and repose. I retreat — not inside myself, but outside myself, so that I am a tissue of senses. Whatever I see is plenty, abundance. I am the skin of water the wind plays over; I am petal, feather, stone.”
Conan
• I am a long-time Conan fan but just started listening to his podcast. Tim Ferriss recently linked to the series Conan O’Brien Must Go (on HBO Max). Conan travels to various countries, interacting with locals and celebrities from those places. Only about 8 episodes so far in the two seasons. Excellent, (mostly) clean humor.
Clive Staples
• I often tell patients about David Sedaris and his “Four Burners” (your Work, Family, Friends, and Health). Think of a stove with those burners – you do not have enough gas to run all of them at maximum. But you can choose how much energy to devote to each and possibly excel at a couple of them.
• James Clear summarized three approaches to the burner problem: 1) outsource burners, 2) embrace constraints/limits, and 3) seasons of life (change flow to burners based on your stage in life).
• I recommend combining burners: exercise / cook with family, make friends at work, get family and friends together, bring healthy habits into your workplace, etc. We all have a finite amount of time on this earth, about 4000 Weeks as made famous Oliver Burkeman.
• Thank you, Nick, for this CS Lewis quote relevant to the Friends burner:
Friendship is the greatest of worldly goods. Certainly to me it is the chief happiness of life. If I had to give a piece of advice to a young man about a place to live, I think I should say ‘sacrifice almost everything to live where you can be near your friends.’
Crackers and Chocolate
• My favorite chocolate bar currently: Icelandic dark chocolate with sea salt.
• New crackers with essentially no carbs. You are eating a chunk of flax seeds, so don’t expect a Ritz. But it is crunchy and good for dipping. Also enjoy the creative name: Flackers.
Quotes
The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.
– Sydney J. Harris
…reminds me of the quote about meditation:
Everyone should meditate for 10 minutes a day. If you don’t have 10 minutes, you need 20.
