Creatine Isn’t Just for Muscle: What It Does for Your Brain, Energy and Healthy Aging

There is a single supplement with more than 1,000 studies behind it. It's inexpensive, it's safe, and the research says it builds muscle, protects your brain, strengthens your bones, and may even boost your mood. So why has almost everyone been told it's only for bodybuilders? And why are women, the very people who may benefit the most, the ones who are the most often told to skip it?

Today, I'm going to be giving you the entire picture on creatine, what it actually is, the exact way it powers every cell in your body, why women need it even more than men do, and the real studies, not the gym myths. I'll go over dosing for men and women and what happens when you stop and what to pair it with so that it actually works.

And stay with me to the very end because the part that most people get wrong is the simplest part of all. Welcome to the Dr. Axe Show. All right, so let's clear the air first. When most people hear the word creatine, they picture a tub of powder in a gym bag and a guy loading up before they bench press.

Now, by the way, I remember this in high school, starting to use creatine for the first time, and I remember feeling an actual noticeable difference in getting stronger when I took creatine. And then I didn't take it for years, but then I read a study several years back on the importance of creatine for supporting cellular energy production and improving brain health.

And then new research has started to flood in about the benefits for women. And so this has become one of the supplements I've recommended the most over the years for men and women, not only for physical fitness, but also for brain health. For brain health and cellular health. So the fact is, creatine is not a bodybuilding supplement.

It is a molecule that your own body makes every single day in your liver, in your kidneys, and in your brain. And it's also important to note that 95% of creatine is stored in your muscle. This is also important to know. Your body makes roughly about 1 gram of creatine a day. Wow. Most people consume dietarily about 1 gram a day.

So most of the time we're getting 1 gram of creatine from food, 1 gram of creatine your own body is making. And your own body has about 120 grams living in your body all the time. And we should think about creatine as essential as vitamin D or as essential as protein in your diet. Now, when we look at the top foods for creatine.

Number 1 is surprisingly a wild-caught fish called herring, has 0.85 grams of creatine per serving. And then we have an amazing superfood in heart glandular, which has about half a gram of creatine. Then we have grass-fed beef. Now this is going to be also beef, lamb, bison, venison, that red meat. Typically you're going to have nearly half a gram as well, 0.45 grams to be specific.

And then from there we have things like salmon, you have cod, So it's really, it's red meat and fish, all right? If you want to know where you get your creatine from, eat more red meat, eat more fish, and that's where you'll get your creatine. Now, I also want to mention from a lot of these foods, you're also going to get other nutrients.

In fact, one of my favorites on here is heart glandular and red meat. You're going to get not only creatine there, but some of the cofactors that work with creatine, like vitamin B12, iron, and CoQ10. All of these are essential for your body creating more cellular energy. And this is also what's important to note.

If somebody is a vegan or vegetarian and not eating any red meat and not eating any fish, they also tend to be very depleted in creatine, which is going to affect their bones and their brain and cause them to lose more muscle mass. Now, before I dive deeper, I want to ask you for one quick favor. Subscribe. It's the number one thing you can do to support the show.

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This is worth $100, but you'll get it for free if you click on the link in the show notes and go and download my guide on building cellular energy, because it takes more than creatine to do that. And I'll go through exactly what to do to build cellular energy. By the way, every time you subscribe and share, it allows me to bring on bigger guests to help improve your life.

Now, one of the most overlooked aspects of creatine has to do with its connection to cellular energy. Every heartbeat, every rep in the gym, every thought is paid for with ATP. But creatine is the system that recharges ATP faster than any fuel you can eat, especially in the muscle, the brain, and even your heart. Now, here's the one idea that makes creatine Click.

Your body does not run on food directly. It runs on a molecule called ATP, which stands for adenosine triphosphate. Now, think of ATP as a tiny rechargeable battery, and every cell that you own holds billions of them, right? And this is— these are mitochondria.

Now, when your cells are doing work to support your organs in your body, ATP loses one of the 3 phosphates and becomes something called ADP. So it's a drained battery, but still usable. Here's the problem. You only store a few seconds of ATP at any given moment. So the real question of energy is this: how fast can you recharge your batteries?

So here's how creatine recharges your cellular batteries, okay? You start off with ATP. This is the charged battery that your body uses to run your thyroid or create testosterone or move your muscles, okay? And then your cell does work. And then it loses something, right? And it becomes ADP. So it's still a battery, it's just been drained of its energy.

And then creatine takes that battery that's missing a charge, and creatine recharges it, and it creates something in your body called phosphocreatine. So creatine does not directly hand you energy, but it refills the reserve that recharges your energy batteries in your body. This is why it's absolutely essential and one of the most overlooked compounds when it comes to cellular energy.

So what this looks like is you have your mitochondria with these batteries, right? These are the power plants, the engines of your cell. They make ATP. And then you have phosphocreatine. This is the portable energy reserve your body needs. And this energy gets spent typically in your muscles, your brain, and even your heart.

Now, I do also want to mention that creatine not only works in partners with mitochondria, But it also directly supports mitochondria. So beyond shuttling energy, research suggests that creatine supports the mitochondria directly. It helps stabilize their membrane for mitochondria. So most of you are aware you have a cell membrane, right, that allows things in and out?

Well, your mitochondria also have their own membrane, and they buffer things like calcium and oxidative stress. And that's why creatine is now being studied for Reducing aging and improving heart health and brain health, and of course, improving mitochondrial health as well. So creatine was really never about the gym at all.

It is part of your cellular energy system, and your brain happens to be one of the most energy-hungry organs that you own. And creatine acts as that main component that fills your batteries for your brain with energy, which really changes the whole question for creatine. So it's no longer, should I take creatine to get stronger? It becomes, what happens to every energy-demanding cell in my body?

Yeah. When I finally give it bigger and faster charging energy reserves with creatine. When we talk about emotional health, especially in our families, one thing that often gets overlooked is the environment we create at home. And the kitchen plays a bigger role than most people realize. It's where routines are built, where families connect, and where consistency really matters.

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Creatine gives your body more strength. If you've ever used creatine, you will notice you get stronger as you use it. In fact, according to studies, it delivers roughly 8 to 10% more strength And 14% better lifting performance when lifting weights. Number 2, it adds muscle mass, about 1.5 kilograms for adults. Number 3, it supports brain and cognitive function.

Number 4, it improves mood and depression. Number 5, it boosts bone health. And number 6, it may improve heart health and mitochondrial health as well. Now, for a moment, let's dive into creatine in the brain. Your brain runs on the same battery. And according to studies, one of the biggest things it helps with is sleep deprivation.

A single high dose restored brain energy markers through a 21-hour awake period. It also slowed brain aging and had memory-boosting benefits. So loads and loads of benefits statistically here. One thing to know is that it operates a little differently in the brain than in the muscle. Your brain, it's kind of like a slow drip of creatine. It uses a lot over time, but it's a slow drip.

Your muscles, based on working, will grab up and use creatine faster than the brain will. And so one thing we're seeing in these studies is that the brain may benefit from longer dosing and higher dosing than the muscles in terms of how these organs operate differently.

Now, if creatine is this good for the general population, there is one group that the research says may benefit even more than everyone else. And it happens to be the very group that has most often avoided creatine. Women. Let's spend just a moment here diving into and breaking all the myths about women and creatine and how it can benefit women immensely.

Now, women typically start further behind in creatine. Here's a big reason why is they have less dietary intake. Women on average eat less meat than men, especially less red meat. They all have smaller muscle mass, so you generally store less in your body and also hormonal turnover. Estrogen and progesterone influence how creatine is made, stored, and used.

And so this is where creatine is even more important for women that are perimenopausal and menopausal and postmenopause when it comes to having the right amounts in their body for supporting brain function and energy production. And so let's talk about this throughout the stages of a woman's life.

Number 1, during their menstrual cycle, creatine metabolism fluctuates with estrogen and progesterone across the month. And then during pregnancy, the demand rises to support the mother and the developing baby. This is promising but still emerging in terms of its research. Number 3, perimenopause. When estrogen starts to decrease, this speeds up muscle and bone loss.

And this is when creatine drops the most. And this is where if you can supplement with creatine and start weight training, you will see the biggest results typically during perimenopause. Now, also postmenopause is very important as well.

And this is where we have the strongest scientific evidence where women who use creatine, it supports their brain, it supports their bone density, it supports muscle mass, it supports their mood. Women who are in menopause or postmenopause see the biggest benefits with using creatine. Now, there are some recent studies that have come out on mood in the female brain.

And according to one study, in 50— this was a study done on 52 women with major depression. They found that adding 5 grams of creatine a day to their antidepressant roughly doubled their remission, and improvement was visible within 2 weeks. So there was a 52% remission rate versus only 26% in those that didn't use creatine.

So doing 5 grams of creatine a day made a big difference in mood in these women. Now, I want to bust a few myths around creatine when it comes to women as well. Okay, here's a myth I hear. It will make me hold water, look softer, and get bulky. By the way, this isn't true. The truth is creatine pulls water into the muscle cell, okay? Not underneath the skin.

This is called cell volumizing, and it's a good thing. So it will make your muscles bigger, but it will not cause you to hold onto water, and it will not— definitely won't cause you to gain fat. If anything, it supports your metabolism so you can actually burn fat. And so in reality, it actually makes your muscle look Fuller and you more fit. It does not make you look softer.

And also, it's important to remember creatine is not a hormone. It cannot make you bulky. So here's the bottom line for every woman listening. You are already starting with a more depleted creatine tank than most of the men around you. Your hormones shift the demand across your entire life and the payoffs. So more strength, more muscle, stronger bones, better brain, better mood.

These line up with almost everything that women tell me they care about as they start to age. And the research is so clear that I would put creatine near the top of the list for almost every woman out there, especially in perimenopause and menopause, in terms of the top 5 to 10 supplements they should be taking on a regular basis.

Now, I want to mention, if you want to get the greatest benefits for looking younger, feeling younger, supporting energy, supporting hormones, I put together a Cellular Energy Guide. That goes through not only creatine, it goes through all of the supplements you need for supporting your hormones and cellular energy, ideal diet. It goes through all of this in great detail.

It's worth $100, but you can get it for free if you click a link in the show notes and just download the Dr. Axe Cellular Energy Guide. You can get it for free for anyone who is watching this episode right now. It also goes through a dosing cheat sheet, so exactly when to take it and how to take it, the cellular energy stack to take together, and so much more.

Again, Click the link in the show notes to download this Cellular Energy Guide right now. Now, I want to walk you through a few studies on creatine. One of these studies actually called creatine monohydrate the most effective nutritional supplement. Not the second, not the third, the most effective at increasing high-intensity exercise performance and improving your lean muscle mass.

So if you want to improve HIIT training, if you want to improve your lean body mass, Nothing made as big of a difference as creatine, the number one supplement for that. The next study here, very similar. It was number one for strength and power. In another study, it found to be one of the most effective supplements that could be taken for vegetarians and vegans.

In another study, it was shown to help aging muscle. Another study, it was shown to improve sleep deprivation. Another study, it improved memory and cognition. In fact, researchers found an overall memory benefit, especially in older adults. Another study found it was effective against depression. Another study showed it was effective on bone health.

In fact, in this bone health study, this is a 12-month trial, a full year. Postmenopausal women who took creatine while they did weight training had higher hip bone density and improved measure of bone strength. And then also there's now a study out on showing it improves mitochondrial health and longevity.

Beyond shuttling energy, creatine appears to stabilize the mitochondrial membranes, and overall improve cellular energy production. Now, one of the things that surprised me the most as I was preparing this episode is just how many studies there were on creatine. I'm not talking about 10 studies or hundreds. I'm talking about thousands of studies proving its benefits.

In fact, it is one of the most proven supplements out there for safety and overall benefits out there on the market. And it's great for people on a budget. Creatine has decades of randomized trials behind it in athletes, in older adults, in women, and even in clinical populations of those looking to reverse disease.

And it has a safety profile so clean that trials have run as high as 30 grams a day for 5 years without any negative side effects. So when we talk about dosing next, understand that this is not guesswork. We actually know exactly how to fill your tank or fill those cellular energy batteries back up. With the exact right dosage. So there are 2 roads to fill your tank.

So creatine does not— it is stored in the body. Important to remember that. So when you dose it, you can either do a bigger dose up front, and it works very similar to just doing 3 to 5 grams a day. So you could dose 20 grams a day for 5 to 7 days, or just do 3 to 5 grams over time, and that will get you to the optimal levels.

I remember watching, I think it was the Masters a year or 2 ago, and Rory McIlroy was caught on camera or on video saying that he takes either 20 or 30 grams of creatine every day. And you can see in this chart how it feels, but at the end you end up in the same place there when it comes to creatine, whether you're starting with 3 to 5 grams per day or 20 grams per day.

I mean, I typically just take 5 grams per day. That's what I personally do. My wife Chelsea takes 3 or 5 grams per day, and that's how she does it. So I typically don't load. We just typically take it regularly at 3 to 5 grams per day. And it's also important to know that more is not better.

I max out at 5 grams per day because once you hit a certain threshold, there is no extra benefit of doing more grams on top of it. I mean, your body reaches a limit and it cannot utilize anymore. Here's another interesting question I sometimes get. What happens when I stop using creatine? Well, your body holds onto reserves and it will slowly drop over time.

This is also why, let's say you miss a day or 2 days, it's not that big of a deal. Generally, you just want to kind of keep with a 3-gram or 5-gram dosage over time and your body will stick around those optimal levels, even if you miss a day or so. Okay. And by the way, here is the mistake that I promised you at the very top of the show.

It is the one that makes people quit 2 weeks before it starts working. They obsess over the loading phase, okay? The timing and the fancy form that they take. Then they take it for 3 weeks. They don't feel anything dramatic and they stop. I see this happen a lot. Okay. But if you look at the creatine curve, creatine is not a pre-workout that you feel in an hour.

It is a reserve that you build over The winning move here is boring, right? Take 3 to 5 grams every single day over the long term, and it keeps your tank and your cells full. Now, one other important thing to note is what should you pair creatine with, right? And this is important to always think about. It's like omega-3s and fiber, right?

Or protein and carbohydrates to get maximum benefits of working out or reversing disease. So there are certain things you want to pair with creatine. So let me start off with the number one thing that you want to pair creatine with. Protein. Is resistance training. This one is almost a non-negotiable. All right. Creatine fuels the work and the work is what creates the growth.

So if you're on creatine, you really want to do at least 2 days a week, ideally 3 days a week or more in the weight room. If you can only do 2 days a week, that's fine as well. But you do want to do weight training.

And whether that's something like pressing with machines, using bands, using light dumbbells at home, going to the gym, whatever it is, Doing some resistance training and working those muscles, that is the single biggest thing there. Also doing HIIT training. Let's say you're doing the hills and HIIT training with a Peloton at home or swimming. You can get some benefits there as well.

But resistance training is the single biggest thing you want to pair creatine with. Number 2 is protein. Protein supplies the building blocks while creatine supplies the energy to use them. All right. The next thing would be Carbohydrates. The insulin from carbohydrates drives more creatine into the muscle. So take it with a meal. Okay.

So like what I do before or after I work out is oftentimes I will do fruit and protein powder and creatine together. The next thing you want to take are mitochondrial support supplements like NAD+. NAD+, coenzyme Q10, adaptogens. These support your mitochondria creating ATP. Then that allows creatine to recharge Those batteries. And then magnesium, it is also a direct cofactor in the reactions.

In fact, the usable form of ATP in the body is oftentimes MgATP. So it's magnesium bound to ATP. So magnesium is the next most essential nutrient you need to pair with creatine. So in a nutshell, this is the cellular energy stack. To make cellular energy, you must have NAD+. Okay? It carries this charge. To move it, and utilize it in the body, you need CoQ10. It is like the wire.

Imagine sort of a copper wire that's sending the signal. It ferries the electrons down the chain so that ATP actually gets made. And then to activate it, to activate the energy, you need magnesium. ATP is only biologically usable in a magnesium-bound form. And this is why magnesium is maybe the most essential mineral in your entire body. And then to recharge it, you need creatine.

So NAD+, CoQ10, magnesium, creatine— these are the Fab Four of cellular energy. Do you have hormone imbalance, weight loss resistance, low energy, and sleep problems, and you're tired of being told your labs are normal when you know something isn't right? This new test completely changes things, and my team knows exactly what to look for.

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If you want to check it out and grab one before they're gone, just go to mybloodwork.com today. Now we come to the next question. Which type of creatine should you buy? Did you know there's multiple out there? There's HCL creatine, which is more soluble but has no proven advantage over creatine monohydrate.

There's buffered creatine, which on some people— let's say you have a really severe GI issue and leaky gut— there is some evidence maybe if creatine would ever bother your stomach, that buffered creatine or Kre-Alkalyn would be better for you. There's also something called ethyl ester creatine. It's less stable and degrades. You don't want to do that. Here's the real winner, creatine monohydrate.

It is absorbed almost completely and it is by far the most studied and the cheapest of all other forms of creatine. So when I'm buying creatine, now here's something I do want to mention. There are some creatines out there that are flavored and they're using artificial sweeteners or Other fake compounds and products.

You are best off getting just 5 grams of unflavored creatine monohydrate, and it should be very inexpensive, but that's okay. 5 Grams plain creatine monohydrate, unflavored, is what you're looking for, and you can find it in virtually every health food store around the country. You can find it online. So you want to get creatine monohydrate and typically take about 5 grams daily.

Now, I want to bust a few myths there on creatine. Okay, here's the first one. It damages your kidneys. There is no kidney harm in healthy people. Now, I will say this, it can nudge one of your lab values up like creatinine, maybe just a pinch. That's possible.

But generally, when you look at it with other labs like C-STATIN and other things that look at kidney health, it does not affect your kidneys negatively. The second myth is it can cause hair loss. This rests on a 2009 study that never actually measured hair. Okay. And it's never been replicated in thousands of studies. So it doesn't do that. Here's another one, you have to cycle it.

No, you don't have to cycle it. Every study has disproven that. And here's another one I've heard someone say once, well, is it a steroid or a hormone? No, it is a compound that's found in meat, in fish, a naturally occurring compound. It's not a hormone.

It is, in fact, it's a tripeptide is what it actually is, very similar to glutathione as a peptide in your body that your body uses In order to heal and function properly. Now, according to studies, here are the people that typically notice the greatest benefits from using creatine. Number one, vegetarians and vegans. Okay? They will notice because their tank is already starting off empty.

Their body is not creating enough creatine. They're not getting enough in their diet. The other is women. Women who carry lower baseline stores. Okay? Especially perimenopausal women, postmenopausal women. They tend to have very low stores as well. This isn't saying that everyone can't benefit from it, but these are the people that typically see the biggest benefits.

Adults over the age of 50 fighting muscle loss and bone loss see major benefits of creatine, and anyone losing weight quickly, including those on GLP-1. Here are the people that may not respond as well, but they can still benefit greatly. Let's say a bodybuilder who's already a heavy meat eater.

You know, if a man is eating 6 times a day, lots and lots of meat, Their tank might already be fairly close to full. Here's another one. Endurance athletes, I still think they can benefit somewhat, but if you don't hydrate properly, it can cause cramping. And energy athletes, endurance athletes are using actually a completely different energy system that doesn't use as much creatine.

Those people may not benefit as much, but they still often can benefit. All right. So here is your creatine game plan. Number 1, buy plain creatine monohydrate. Number 2, take 3 to 5 grams a day. Number 3, pair it wisely, right? Think about what your goals are. More energy, more strength, better bone health. You know, think about, do you need an NAD+ supplement like NMN or CoQ10 to pair it with?

Number 4, train with it. Do some weight training, even if it's just 2 days a week. It will make a massive difference in your health. And number 5, give it time, right? Give it months. Don't give it a day. It takes a little bit of time to work, but it does work. We have so much research that's proven this. All right.

And if you want to take the next step beyond this and take your cellular energy to the next level, I want to encourage you, download the free PDF I created just for you. It's called the Dr. Axe Cellular Energy Guide. It goes through not only creatine, but all of the other supplements, all the top foods, a dietary plan of exactly what you need to do to boost your cellular energy.

And listen, cellular energy is important for not only improving your energy, but also supporting thyroid health, supporting testosterone, for overall longevity, and you can download that in the show notes. Also, I want to encourage you, if you want to do a deep dive into how to boost cellular energy and also heal and promote longevity, check out my new book, Heal Yourselves.

I coauthored this with Dr. Will Cole. The book comes out very, very soon, and you can go on amazon.com and buy the book right now. Heal Yourselves. It's the best book I've ever written. So if you're really into in-depth health, in-depth nutrition, then I believe this is the best book you'll ever read. On health and longevity.

And I also want to say thanks so much for listening here to the Dr. Axe Show. Remember, each and every week we're diving deep into the science and principles of how you can heal physically, mentally, spiritually, and take your health and your life to the next level. We're not chasing hacks.

We are building a body and a mind and a spirit that can carry you all the way to the end of your life strong. So if today gave you even one thing you can actually use, I want you to do 2 things for me right now. Number one, subscribe. Subscribe.

Wherever you're listening, whether that be Spotify or Apple or on YouTube, hit that button so the next episode finds you without ever having to think about it. It's free. It takes 2 seconds, and it's the single biggest thing you can do to help this show reach more people. And second, send this episode to one person. Think about that person who really needs creatine.

Maybe it's a woman who doesn't know she needs creatine. Maybe it's a parent. In fact, right now I have my mom on creatine and I have her lifting a couple of days a week because I know it's going to help extend her lifespan, and her overall health. It takes just a few seconds and it might radically improve someone's life that you love.

I want to encourage you, take care of yourself, take care of the people you love, and I can't wait to see you on the next episode.