Why Are More Women Suddenly Taking Creatine?

Since you’re interested in health and fitness, my guess is you’ve heard about creatine. Maybe you’re already taking it, maybe you’re curious about it, or maybe you’re not (yet!) convinced that it’s right for you.

There are lots of misconceptions about creatine (Is it like a steroid? Doesn’t it damage the kidneys?) and lots of knowledge gaps. 

You got 90 seconds? Let me clear it all up for you…

Creatine is one of the most extensively studied supplements in all of sports nutrition and medicine, with decades of research proving it to be safe and effective.

It’s a naturally occurring compound that our bodies make on their own, and we also get some from red meat and fish (so yes, vegetarians and vegans tend to have less on board). Its main job is helping our cells rapidly produce energy, which is why the organs that use the most energy, like our muscles and brain, seem to benefit the most from it.

The muscle-related benefits are the most well-established. Creatine helps support strength, power, exercise performance, recovery, and lean muscle mass.

This is especially important for postmenopausal women, since muscle loss becomes a serious problem as estrogen levels decline. When combined with resistance training and proper nutrition, creatine does a lot to help preserve and build muscle.

But here’s what the scientific community is really excited about these days:

More recent research is showing fascinating cognitive benefits, especially in people under stress or who deal with sleep deprivation.

Umm… I’m pretty sure that’s everyone.

Studies done over the last few years show that creatine appears to improve cognition, memory, attention, mental processing, and problem solving during periods of sleep deprivation, high stress, intense mental demand, and cognitive fatigue.

This. Is. Incredible. Check it out.

Now, a few common misconceptions that need to be squashed for good:

• Creatine is NOT a steroid.
• It does NOT cause fat gain.
• There’s NO evidence that creatine damages healthy kidneys when taken at recommended doses. (Tip: check your kidney function before starting to be sure that you don’t have a pre-existing kidney problem.)

How to dose it?

Five grams/day is suitable for most men and women to get the muscle- and performance-related benefits. Interestingly, the research seems to show that we only get the cognitive benefits once the muscles are saturated. So any “leftover” creatine gets taken up by the brain. That’s why it appears we need much higher doses (10g or possibly even 20g) to reap the cognitive benefits. 

If you want the full breakdown on the who, what, when, and why of creatine, you can watch the full video here.