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I would think it would subjectively seem to enhance performance, but would like to see the objective fact of how it affects things like strength and intelligence as being both positive or negative.

Is there any proper research pointing in either direction?

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  • Does this fall under our "don't talk about illegal supplements" policy?
    – DeeV
    Aug 18, 2022 at 23:03
  • A typo and probably but is it not a valid scientifical question? Aug 19, 2022 at 1:53
  • @DeeV -- are you referring to this post?
    – C. Lange
    Aug 19, 2022 at 2:11
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    @DeeV - It's a fine line, kind of like nutrition. However, academic questions about the effects and such have been carefully curated and allowed on the site. Questions about "best way to cycle", not so much. This is asking about the research, so probably ok.
    – JohnP
    Aug 19, 2022 at 14:47
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    @JosephP. - Creatine does not enhance intelligence or strength. Creatine provides extra creatine monohydrate within the cell, which lets ADP get converted back to ATP, which in turn provides energy for the muscle to work a little longer. All it does is let you work harder for longer, which in turn boosts strength. Won't do diddly if you don't do the work. :) Oh, and I edited out the first sentence because it's a conversational type question, that can't be definitively answered.
    – JohnP
    Aug 19, 2022 at 21:19

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Cocaine use is a highly dangerous activity and causes major damage to nearly every organ system. This includes damage to the heart, brain, lungs, kidneys and GI system. The CDC estimates that 16,000 Americans died of cocaine overdose in 2019. If you or someone you care about uses cocaine, please seek or help them seek treatment. In the United States, you can use the SAMHSA helpline.

That said, giving research participants cocaine and seeing what would happen to them appears to have been all the rage back in the 1980's and 90's.

For example, Stillman and their research colleagues (1993. PMID 7870911) administered cocaine to 13 subjects and found:

Cocaine increased heart rate, systolic blood pressure and pupil diameter and reduced skin temperature. ... [A] reaction time measure of performance speed on the visual attention task showed improvement for 4 h after cocaine.

Higgins and colleagues (1990. PMID 2096405) administered cocaine to 8 subjects and found:

The 48 and 96 mg doses of cocaine significantly improved subjects' performance on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test above levels observed either prior to drug administration or when placebo was administered.

Thus, it seems there may be some minor, short term improvements on some attention and cognitive tests.

I was unable to find any studies where participants were asked to perform physical tests.

However, some researchers (Heyser et al 2013. PMID 23688950) though it would be a good idea to give mice cocaine and see how well they can run on a rotarod. This is a test of physical performance and endurance. They found:

Mice were given an injection of either saline or cocaine ... All mice exhibited motor learning as evidenced by an increased latency to fall across days. Animals that received cocaine injections exhibited significantly longer latencies to fall on days 3–6 compared to those mice receiving saline. ... It is hypothesized that the performance enhancing effects of cocaine are due to the increased stamina and/or psychomotor stimulation and not the result of enhanced motor learning as the increment in performance was lost when the drug was discontinued.

Thus, there is some suggestion from animal models that cocaine administration might improve physical performance in mice.

However, these minor improvements in performance are clearly outweighed by the highly dangerous side effects and complications of cocaine.

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