WHAT IS CREATINE? IS IT HELPFUL OR NOT?
When it comes to fueling your body for exercise there are many things to consider in terms of proper nutrition. Macronutrients like protein, carbs, and fats are the biggest part followed by micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. Something you may hear about from many people who regularly exercise is supplementing certain substances like nitric oxide, leucine, L-carnitine, etc. While some of these have anecdotal evidence or have been used in observational studies, they are not as extensively studied, and many supplements are not FDA-regulated.
What is Creatine?
One that has been studied very extensively with many helpful benefits is Creatine. You’ve probably heard of it and think, “Wait, isn’t that steroids or something?” and this is objectively false. Creatine is a substance that occurs in many animal products like beef, pork, and fish. While it is not an ingredient in plant products. There are plants that contain proteins like arginine and glycine which allows your body to produce its own creatine. Walnuts, almonds, legumes, and grains all contain these proteins to help you produce creatine. So what does creatine do for us and why is it a worthy supplement?
Creatine & Energy
In terms of exercise, creatine helps with our energy output. The human body has energy systems. When we do activity our body uses stored energy in the form of stored sugar called glycogen. This glycogen is stored in our muscles and liver. Depending on how long we are active that dictates what energy system we use predominantly. None of the energy systems act alone. They are all presently working at the same time just in different amounts. The one energy system we are worried about here is our ATP-PCr or ATP-phosphocreatine system. This is basically our short burst energy system and it accounts for our first 10-12 seconds of energy. This energy system uses creatine as its primary energy source. Essentially if there is a higher amount of creatine present that will give you more energy to use for whatever activity you are performing. Activities that involve short bursts, like sprinting, jumping, throwing, etc. all use this system, but like I said before none of the systems work alone so any type of exercise or sporting action is benefitted by having extra creatine.
Other Benefits
As an added bonus creatine has a number of other benefits than just exercise performance. Across many age groups and levels of activity creatine provides benefits in brain health and nerve health by increasing the transfer of energy in neurons and preventing nerve cell loss. It is also important for maintaining and increasing bone mineral density. This goes hand in hand with increasing exercise capacity and muscular strength, which in turn makes bones stronger.
How Much Do You Need?
How much creatine do you need to take? Despite what you may hear from influencers or other store-bought product labels, creatine does not need to be consumed in high dosages to be effective. To start out it is recommended that you take a loading phase of about a week. During this week you would consume 15-20 grams per day. After that 5 grams a day is the ideal amount to take. It is also quite cost-effective. You can buy it in amounts of 100 doses at a time for about 18-20$. You can check the label for an NSF logo on the container. This ensures it is third party tested so that you know that you are getting a quality product. If you are curious about other potential benefits here are some links to academic articles on creatine below!
Academic Articles
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0361923008001007