Creatine Health Benefits for Men and Women

For being THE most studied and EFFECTIVE supplement on the market, creatine still gets a bad rap. Maybe that’s because the early users and promoters of it came from the bodybuilding space - a space that isn’t exactly known to have the most truthful marketing or honest users (hiding the various “supplements” they use).

It doesn’t help that the benefits of creatine that appeal to bodybuilding circles don’t exactly appeal to the broader population, at least not until recently.

With claims like “increases muscle mass” and “helps gain muscle”, it makes sense that creatine (also known as creatine monohydrate) would scare off a majority of the population, especially women that look for things that make you “smaller and thinner”.

Shoot, even when I was in high school (2006-2010), people looked at me sideways when I told them I supplemented with creatine! To this day, I remember the summer going into my senior year, we were testing our max lifts on the football team, and I put up some really great numbers (especially for my size). One of my teammates said “well, of course, he’s strong - he takes steroids” to which I responded, “It’s just creatine and protein”. My teammate responded “same thing, creatine is basically steroids and bad for your liver”.

I remember thinking how crazy that was at the time because I had done so much research on it, but it’s even crazier that people today still think things like that. Creatine has so many benefits for both men and women and has no side effects. In this article we will dive into why this is.

What Is Creatine and What Are Its Benefits?

Creatine was first discovered in 1832 but it wasn’t until almost 100 years later, in the 1920s, that scientists found that the body stored creatine in the skeletal muscles and brain and that it could be consumed through food, primarily red meat and seafood.

These studies also found if you took creatine in amounts larger than found in food (in supplement form), then the excess creatine could be stored within the skeletal muscle system as phosphocreatine (PCr/creatine phosphate).

Now let’s put on our white lab coats (stick with me here):

We all learned about mitochondria in high school science class right? Well, if you need a refresher, simply put, mitochondria are organelles (think like the equivalent of organs in the human body but organs for the cell) that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power the cell. This chemical energy is stored within the molecule ATP (adenosine triphosphate)

During times of increased energy demands, such as weight lifting or sprinting, our body begins to use up the ATP in our cells, aka the energy stores of the cell.

Then, our ATP/PCr system rapidly resynthesizes (replenishes) ATP with the use of the phosphocreatine (PCr) that is stored within the muscle. The more phosphocreatine in our muscle, the faster it can replenish our ATP stores to meet the demands we are placing on our body during whatever exercise is being performed.

So, simply put:

ATP is consumed during energy output —> Creatine helps replenish ATP stores within the muscle —> The more creatine that is stored within the muscle, the more that can be replenished during exercise.

Creatine Health Benefits

Muscular/Physical health

Because creatine allows the cells of your skeletal muscle system to replenish ATP (energy) faster, it allows you to push your body further in exercise than you normally might be able to.

The simplistic way I’ve explained it to people who have asked before was “if you can usually lift 100 lbs in an exercise for 3 sets of 10 reps, after taking creatine, you’ll probably be able to do 3 sets of 13-15 reps”.

Of course, this then leads to greater gains in strength, muscle mass, and performance because you are now lifting more volume and taxing your muscles more while also recovering faster.

Studies are also showing that these muscle-building benefits especially help aging adults since they are more at risk for declines in muscle mass and bone density.

Cognition and brain health

There is a lot of research showing how creatine can improve short-term memory and intelligence/reasoning, especially for aging adults and stressed individuals.

Mitochondrial/Cellular health

Our outward health is a direct reflection of the health of our cells. As such, it makes sense that we would want to make sure our cells are functioning at their best and staying healthy (just think of how many diseases boil down to unhealthy or damaged cells).

Creatine does that and more by not only improving the health of the cell, but the health of the organelles (mitochondria) and helping them to function at their best by increasing adenosine monophosphate kinase (AMPK) signaling. When your energy drops, AMPK activates glucose and fatty acid uptake for energy.

One study showed that creatine activates AMPK and turns on genes that make new mitochondria, and also releases enzymes that sweep away damaging free radicals. Both processes protect your mitochondria, and thus, your cells from damage.

Natural Sources of Creatine

So, you get that creatine is healthy, and arguably essential for us, so now where can you get it?

Well, our own body does produce some for starters. Our liver, pancreas, and kidneys make about 1 gram of creatine per day.

Red Meat: 1.5-2.5g per 225g (8oz) serving size

Seafood: 1-4g per 225g (8oz) serving size

The chart above shows foods highest on the creatine scale. You might notice a glaring omission of any plant-based proteins from the list because you can’t get creatine from plants in any appreciable amount. This is why in studies, vegetarians/vegans are groups that benefit the MOST from creatine supplementation, as they aren’t getting it from anywhere else.

On that note, the way that everyone should be taking creatine, even if you already eat meat and seafood, is through supplementation. Countless studies point to 5 grams being that magic number that everyone on earth could stand to benefit from using. And don’t let any fancy marketing fool you - one of the best things about creatine is that it is amazingly simple and cheap to produce and buy.

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References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5469049/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6093191/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2016/5152029/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5005540/