Are creatine supplements all that they're pumped up to be?

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Creatine supplements person agelong been celebrated among iron-pumping gym bros. But these days, liking successful creatine has exploded, arsenic societal media influencers tout nan benefits of creatine for everything from adding musculus to boosting cognition and moreover helping to modulate humor sugar.

"It's nan supplement of nan year," wellness influencer Bobby Parrish said successful a recent TikTok post. "Creatine is legit."

It's a compound made from 3 amino acids that your muscles usage arsenic a root of energy. Your assemblage makes immoderate creatine, and it besides comes from reddish meat, chickenhearted aliases fish.

But tin maximizing your creatine pinch supplements really present each nan wellness benefits influencers claim? Here's what nan investigation shows.

The claim

Creatine supplements tin thief turn musculus and amended diversion performance. Some declare it could forestall age-related bony and musculus loss, amended encephalon usability erstwhile you're slumber deprived and boost cognition successful different ways, aliases moreover protect against Alzheimer's disease.

The evidence

Decades of research person shown that taking supplements to maximize nan magnitude of creatine stored successful muscles tin thief to adhd thin musculus wide and amended diversion performance, providing speedy bursts of power to "do a fewer other reps connected a chair property aliases decorativeness a small spot stronger successful a roadworthy race," says Abbie Smith-Ryan, a professor of workout and sports subject astatine nan University of North Carolina astatine Chapel Hill.

And combining creatine pinch carbohydrates tin thief boost endurance and velocity recovery from a difficult workout, she says.

Now, you could summation your creatine stores by eating more, but "the problem pinch that is we're talking for illustration 2 pounds of earthy beef each time and not galore group are consenting to do that," says Jose Antonio, a professor of workout and sports subject astatine Nova Southeastern University successful Florida. Hence, supplements.

When it comes to adding thin musculus mass, Antonio says nan grounds for creatine supplements is "overwhelming." They activity — but Antonio says there's a large caveat: "You can't conscionable return creatine and past you put connected thin mass." In different words, you really person to activity out.

A reappraisal of 35 studies recovered that erstwhile creatine supplements were mixed pinch guidance training, big men added astir 2 to 3 pounds of thin assemblage mass. For older group particularly — since we thin to suffer musculus wide arsenic we property — that could beryllium significant, Smith-Ryan says.

There's besides immoderate newer investigation suggesting creatine supplements whitethorn thief pinch bony health, though that grounds is still emerging, says Hannah Cabre, a registered dietitian, workout physiologist and postdoctoral chap astatine Pennington Biomedical Research Center successful Louisiana. She notes that workout successful wide helps support patient bones.

"Any clip we're exercising, moving, lifting weights, nan muscles are pulling connected nan bones, which is what really increases their bony density. So if you're helping nan muscle, you're besides helping nan bone," she says.

As for different imaginable benefits of creatine supplements — specified arsenic helping regulate humor sugar successful group pinch Type 2 diabetes, improving memory, helping nan brain usability amended erstwhile you're slumber deprived and boosting encephalon wellness successful different ways? Antonio says nan early grounds suggesting those benefits "isn't strong, but it's surely interesting."

Smith-Ryan agrees. "I would opportunity arsenic a scientist, I would emotion much data." Still, she says, if you want to effort creatine supplements, spell for it.

"Creatine is not going to beryllium nan magic bullet," she adds. "But I do deliberation that it's a low-hanging consequence that has minimal broadside effects."

Antonio notes that vegans and vegetarians are more apt to spot a use from creatine supplementation, because they don't get arsenic much, if any, creatine from their diet.

The nuance

If you are taking creatine supplements to boost your capacity astatine nan gym aliases successful nan sports field, conscionable cognize nan boost mightiness beryllium small. "It's not going to make you needfully a amended shot subordinate aliases a amended shot player. But it will thief you train harder," Antonio says.

Creatine is considered secure for adults, though if you person kidney disease, you should talk to your expert earlier taking it, says Dr. Pieter Cohen, an subordinate professor of medicine astatine Harvard Medical School who researches supplement safety. He recommends buying supplements that incorporate creatine monohydrate — nan astir wide studied shape — arsenic the only ingredient.

"If personification wants to usage supplements, we request to cognize precisely what constituent we're getting and precisely nan precise dose," Cohen says.

He notes that studies person recovered that products sold arsenic preworkout sports supplements tin often beryllium adulterated pinch prohibited ingredients. So he says if you do effort a creatine supplement, make judge it's certified by a third-party certification program; he recommends NSF Certified for Sport.

Cohen says while creatine supplements mightiness mean nan quality betwixt winning and losing for a competitory athlete, "for recreational activities and surely to enactment patient for nan agelong term, I don't personally deliberation there's a domiciled for creatine that's been proven arsenic of yet."

And not everyone will spot a quality successful their capacity aft supplementing pinch creatine. Cohen points to research that suggests that, owed to individual biologic differences, arsenic galore arsenic 20% to 30% of group won't respond to creatine supplementation.

If you want to effort it

There are 2 strategies for getting started connected creatine supplements for muscle-building benefits. One is what's called a loading dose, says Antonio, which involves taking 5 grams of creatine 4 times a time for 7 days. This will quickly build up creatine stores successful muscles, but mightiness origin immoderate gastrointestinal distress.

That's why Antonio and Cabre some opportunity they often urge nan 2nd strategy, which is to return 5 grams of creatine daily. It will return longer for nan creatine to saturate nan muscles, truthful you request to return this regular dose for astatine slightest 4 and preferably 8 weeks earlier noticing a quality successful position of thin musculus mass, says Antonio.

Once personification has been connected creatine for a while, 3 to 5 grams a time is mostly considered nan attraction dose.

The bottommost line

"If you want to effort creatine, but you understand what nan imaginable use is — that you mightiness beryllium capable to do a heavy, repetitive activity a small faster and you take to effort it for that logic — that's reasonable," Cohen says.