My boyfriend turned 50 this year. He didn’t buy an expensive sports car. Or quit his job and form a garage band. He started taking … creatine.
“What is that, exactly?” I asked.
“Oh, one of those things everyone takes after 50,” he said.
Or 30. Or 80, as it turns out.
My 84-year-old mom called just the other day: “What’s, um, cree-ah-teen?” She asked. “Oh, and what’s some new popular music I should be listening to?” (Mom stays on top of the trends.)
Creatine seems to be everywhere lately, the “it” supplement. It crowds grocery store shelves and regularly pops up on social media.
“Should you be having creatine?” one fitness influencer, @tashmaraiss, urged on TikTok (from, where else, the front seat of her car). “Only if you want to be absolutely jacked, smart and recovering [from workouts] faster.”
Was that true? I set out to find out.
So what’s the deal with this supplement?
What it is: Creatine is a natural compound that helps power our muscles. It’s naturally produced in our liver, kidneys and pancreas and comes from the amino acids arginine, glycine and methionine — the “building blocks of protein.” We also get creatine from food such as red meat, fish, seafood and poultry, among other sources. Most of the creatine in our bodies — about 95% — is stored in our skeletal muscles, with a smaller amount stored in the brain, heart and other tissues. It helps support muscle performance and recovery, and may aid brain function.
Benefits: Creatine helps skeletal muscles regenerate ATP for energy. It creates “quick burst” energy and increased strength, so it’s particularly useful during short duration, explosive exercise like weight lifting, jumping, sprinting and high-intensity interval training. It may also help with cognition, including short-term memory, reasoning and neuroprotection (of nerve cells), particularly in older adults, though more research is needed in this area.
Creatine doesn’t build muscle on its own. Instead, it aids exercise, helping you lift heavier weights or do more reps per set. It sends water to our muscles, which helps to maintain cell volume and support muscle contractions. All of that, in turn — together with a well-balanced diet — then helps to offset age-related muscle loss.
The experts weigh in
A sports medicine doctor says: The thinking around creatine has changed in the last two decades, says Tracy Zaslow, a Cedars-Sinai Sports Medicine specialist. The medical establishment used to consider creatine as helpful primarily for athletes doing “power-focused sports,” she says, like weight lifting or cycling. “Activities where the smallest increment of speed would make a difference,” she says. “But we’ve really learned how broad it can apply. If you’re not under 18, pregnant or nursing, have kidney or liver disease and aren’t taking other stimulants or are bipolar, I’d recommend it. It appears safe to take long-term as long as you don’t have any of those risk factors.” For those over 40, creatine can not only help counteract age-related muscle loss, but “it can be helpful for bone health,” Zaslow says. “When partnered with resistance training, it can increase bone mineral content and reduce that reabsorption of the bone. To help prevent osteopenia and osteoporosis.” Other outdated myths about creatine: “People used to believe creatine caused dehydration and cramps, but it doesn’t seem to,” Zaslow says. “If anything, it might protect against cramps and heat issues because it increases the water content in muscles. Also [it was thought] that it would cause liver or kidney disease. It does not seem to if you don’t have a preexisting condition. But I always recommend checking with a doctor [before taking it] because they understand your full medical profile. And creatine is not regulated by the FDA, so choosing clean sources is really important.”
A nurse / fitness trainer says: “I recommend creatine to everybody, especially women in perimenopause and menopause,” says Michelle Nouraei, an L.A.-based nurse and fitness trainer who works primarily with active women as the owner of the Fit4Mom L.A. franchise. “As we age, we lose muscle. And women going through perimenopause and menopause lose muscle even faster because their estrogen declines. So as women, fight muscle loss by lifting weights and taking creatine to develop muscle to protect your bones.”
Nouraei says creatine may also aid the uncomfortable symptoms of perimenopause and menopause. “Things like fatigue, foggy memory and mood. But start low and slow and see how your body feels. Too much too quickly can give you stomach bloating, diarrhea, nausea and other gastric issues.”
For adults, the recommended daily dose of creatine is three to five grams. Nouraei tells her patients and clients, however, that the safest way to start taking creatine would be incrementally, beginning with three grams daily for a week, then four, then to five. It’s less important what time of day you take it and more important to be consistent so your muscles stay well-saturated.
A registered dietitian says: Creatine is not only helpful for gym activity, but also for enhancing recovery from exercise, says Yasi Ansari, a UCLA Health dietitian who works with athletes. And it helps with “adaptations in training.” But creatine is not just for athletes, Ansari says. “Vegetarians can benefit from creatine supplementation because they’re not consuming the foods that have higher amounts of creatine, like red meat and salmon, which have 1-2 grams per pound.”
Creatine may also be helpful to older adults, and the supplement is being studied with regard to cognitive heath, Ansari says. “If you have sleep deprivation, creatine supplementation can help with fatigue and foggy memory. It’s almost like a battery recharge for the brain and the muscles. Creatine helps the recharge that takes place in the brain to support your functioning. It’s promising, but we still need more research and information on that.”
Ansari stresses that, as with any supplement, creatine should be complementary to diet. “It’s important people are eating their protein, carbs, fat — you can take all the creatine you want, but if you don’t have a solid foundation when it comes to your nutrition, you’re not gonna see the benefits.”
Ansari suggests taking creatine with yogurt or in fruit smoothies. “It’s great when you’re taking it with carbohydrates,” she says. “That helps it get delivered to the cells because carbohydrates provide energy.”
Practicalities
Side effects, warnings: Creatine is “one of the most researched supplements,” Ansari says, and is safe, overall. But some people don’t tolerate it well. Those with sensitive gastrointestinal systems should consult a doctor as it could cause gas, bloating and other GI discomfort. Minimal weight gain is possible, but it’s water weight not fat, Ansari says, and “not guaranteed.” “There may be some fluid shifts in the muscles — because there’s more water stored in the muscles — but over time that should regulate itself. And it’s a very minor shift, not permanent weight gain.”
Shopping for creatine: Creatine is available in powder, capsule, liquid and even energy bar form. Look for creatine monohydrate and avoid products that have proprietary blends, which often don’t tell you exactly how much creatine is in the mixture. Make sure that the product has been third-party-tested. It should have a seal that says “NSF for sport” or “informed sport.” The “NSF certified for sport” website has a directory of clean, third-party-tested products.
Bottom line: Creatine is a widely researched supplement that is considered safe. By powering our muscles, it allows us to exercise longer and harder. It’s not dangerous to take if you don’t exercise, but you won’t see as much benefit. Bloating is often temporary and other gastric side effects may be mitigated by starting the supplement at a low dose and increasing daily consumption incrementally. More research is needed to better understand the connection between creatine and cognition; but the supplement may be beneficial for brain health, particularly in older adults and for issues related to sleep deprivation.
“There’s a strong interest now in aging,” Ansari says, “and how we can maintain our physical strength, movement and health as we age — which is a beautiful thing. And creatine is one of the supplements that can support us in doing that.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: latimes.com
