Carbonfiberboy 

If you'd read the whole OP, you would have noticed that, as is my usual practice in posts of this nature, I included a study which seemed to me a thorough investigation of the effectiveness, including a long section about why some studies might differ in their results. You might want to take a look.

And as ColonelSanders intimated, one can do one's own study, which will have more valid results than anything one might read. That's what I always recommend. The only important criteria other than safety for any fitness routine or dietary thing is "Did it work for me?" And of course the things which might be even more important - whatever result it might have, is it worth the expense and bother to me? Twenty years ago, I don't think I would have bothered. I'm not a racer and was just about as strong as I needed to be to do what I wanted to do. I was a long way from wringing everything I could have out of my training.