Shreyansh Sharma

08-07-2022

Everything You Need to Know About Creatine

Creatine is a substance found naturally in muscle cells. It helps your muscles produce energy during heavy lifting or high intensity exercise.

Why use creatine?

Taking creatine as a supplement is very popular among athletes and bodybuilders. They use it to gain muscle, enhance strength, and improve exercise performance ().

Chemically speaking, creatine shares many similarities with , important compounds in the body that help build protein. Your body can produce creatine from the amino acids glycine and arginine ().

About half of your body’s creatine stores come from the food you eat — especially and — and the rest is made in your liver and kidneys from amino acids ().

Where is creatine phosphate found in the body?

About 95% of the body’s creatine is stored in the , mainly in the form of phosphocreatine. The other 5% is found in the and ().

When you supplement, you increase your stores of phosphocreatine. This is a form of stored energy in the cells. It helps your body produce more of a high energy molecule called ATP.

ATP is often called the body’s energy currency. When you have more ATP, your body can perform better during exercise ().

Creatine also alters several cellular processes that lead to increased muscle mass, strength, and recovery ().

Creatine can improve health and athletic performance in several ways.

In high intensity exercise, its primary role is to increase the phosphocreatine stores in your muscles.

The additional stores can then be used to produce more ATP, which is the key energy source for heavy lifting and (, ).

Creatine also helps you gain muscle in the following ways:

Creatine supplements also increase phosphocreatine stores in your brain, which may promote and improve symptoms of neurological disease (, , , , ).

Creatine is effective for both short- and long-term ().

It assists many people, including sedentary individuals, older adults, and elite athletes (, , , ).

One 14-week study in older adults determined that adding creatine to a weight training program significantly increased leg strength and muscle mass ().

In a 12-week study in weightlifters, creatine increased muscle fiber growth 2–3 times more than training alone. The increase in total body mass also doubled, alongside one-rep max for bench press, a common strength exercise ().

A large review of the selected creatine as the single most effective supplement for adding muscle mass ().

Research also indicates that creatine may (, , , , , ):

However, more research in these areas is needed.

Creatine is one of the most well-researched supplements available, and studies lasting up to 4 years reveal (, , ).

One of the most comprehensive studies measured 52 blood markers and observed no adverse effects following 21 months of supplementing ().

There is also no evidence that creatine harms the liver and kidneys in healthy people who take standard doses. That said, people with preexisting liver or kidney concerns should consult with a doctor before supplementing (, , , ).

Although people associate creatine with dehydration and cramps, research doesn’t support this link. Studies suggest it can reduce cramps and during endurance exercise in high heat (, ).

One 2009 study found that creatine supplementation is associated with an increase in a hormone called DHT, which can contribute to hair loss. More research is needed, but people who are predisposed to hair loss may wish to avoid this supplement (, ).