What if I told you there was a single substance that could make you stronger, sharper, and literally protect your brain as you age, and has been proven by over 500 peer-reviewed studies. You'd think it was a pharmaceutical miracle, but it's not. It's creatine. And I get asked questions about creatine every single day. Today on Body Holica, we're going to strip away the Jim Bro stigma. We're talking about why this isn't just for bodybuilders, because that's what everybody has thought up until now, why the cons that you've heard about are actually mostly myths, and exactly how to dose it up so that you can rip it up for good. Let's dive in. Welcome to Bodyholic with D. We don't do fads here. We give you the facts that move your body and health forward. Wait up, hold up. I'm not a doctor. The information in this podcast is for informational purposes only and not medical advice. So kick back and enjoy the show. First, let's get the science straight. Creatine is not a steroid, it's a nitrogenous organic acid that you already have in your body, and it helps your cells produce ATP. ATP is your body's primary energy currency, basically. So when you supplement with creatine, you are essentially topping off the tank, so to speak. And here's why that matters for everyone, not only the gym bros. Muscle and strength. Muscle and strength is the gold standard for high-intensity performance. It helps you get those last two reps in, and it actually is what those last two reps are actually what triggers muscle growth. Brain health. Your brain is an energy hog. Recent studies show creatine can help with mental fatigue, task performance, and even neuroprotection. Cellular hydration. It pulls water into the muscle cell. This isn't bloat, and we're going to get to that very soon. This is volumization. A hydrated cell is an anabolic or a growth cell. It's a cell that is ready to work and grow. But like I said, we're going to get into it in a moment. I want to pause for a minute and talk about the female advantage. Because this is really my goal this year is to get more women on creatine. I take creatine. I ask all my female trainees to take creatine because for years the supplement industry marketed creatine basically with a four-men kind of label. And honestly, that was a massive disservice to us, ladies. Women typically have 70 to 80% lower neural creatine than men. So we have neural stores of creatine and 70 to 80% less than men. So we actually need it more to see those same performances and uh same recovery gains. The hormonal connection with creatine is that our creatine levels actually fluctuate with our estrogen levels. So during the luteal phase, right before you get your period, and during menopause, our natural energy synthesis can really dip. And supplementing helps bridge that gap so that you don't feel that brain fog or that heavy limb sensation. You know what I'm talking about when I say brain fog, that feeling where you can't really remember something, you don't know which day it is exactly, or really like you're walking around in a cloud. That's what I'm talking about. And the creatine can really help us kind of override that situation. Now, continuing with the focus on women, bone density. This is so huge. I mean, so is the hormonal connection. Everything's so important here. The women over 40 plus, you know, my ladies, my group, creatine combined with resistance training has been shown to increase bone mineral density. We're talking about preventing osteoporosis and not just getting toned, right? Where when I say preventing osteoporosis, I mean we are preventing the situation where we fall and break a hip bone, and then three weeks later we are in a dire situation. And I'm just saying that statistically speaking, older people who break a hip bone, which is something that happens often because of low bone density, usually end up either in a dire situation or dead. I'm just gonna say it as it is. So the fact that creatine helps us together with resistance training create higher bone density or rather prevent osteoporosis is super, super important. Another thing for women, mood and mental health. Emerging research, and this is really, really the latest, and this is actually what um sold it to me and what made me a huge advocate of creatine. This is it. The latest research shows that creatine may help with depression and anxiety in women. And because our brains process energy differently, having extra ATP can be a literal mood stabilizer and ward off all kinds of cognitive diseases such as dementia. I'm gonna let you take that for a moment and let it sink in because this is huge, huge. Ladies, you need the extra creatine in order to even match the performance levels of our counterpart, our male counterpart. And we need it for bone density and we need it for mood and mental health. And remember also what I said about the menopause period as well as the luteal period of the month. As the estrogen levels drop, so does our creatine. And we actually need to overcome that and top it off so that we can, again, I'm gonna say this so we can become more equal to our male counterparts in terms of creatine levels. Now, we're gonna get into the elephant in the room, the uh, so to speak, the cons. And this is people talk to me about this all the time. They are concerned about it. So let's get into it. Um, if you are a healthy individual, then you're good to go. So, nothing that I'm saying, of course, doesn't happen in your personal life until you've spoken to your doctor and made sure that everything is good and healthy and you're ready to go. And you can even uh get a certain advice about what supplement to take, how much to supplement, what brand is best from your doctor, from your physician. So that's first of all. But there is a question that keeps repeating itself. Will it hurt the kidneys? So if you have healthy kidneys, the literature actually says a resounding no. And because it's a concern, the literature, there's a lot of literature on this. The myth comes from doctors seeing elevated creatinine in blood tests. That's where it comes from, which is a byproduct, but it doesn't mean your kidneys are actually struggling. Like I said, you have to go and talk to your doctor about this, but like, but I'm repeating it, it's actually a byproduct. It's not creatine. Okay. Now, another one is will I lose hair? One single study in 2009 showed an increase in DHT, but it has never been replicated. Not that I know of. So let me let me put it differently. If you've seen the replicated study, please send it over my way. I would love, love, love to read it. So in science, we never want to look at the outlier. We never want to look at the research that cannot be replicated, that people actually are trying to replicate, but they can't seem to do it, which means that that one study is probably an outlier. Uh, which also in science, that means that um, if we look at a bell curve, so right smack in the middle of the bell, you know, when you go up or down, it's the average, it's the uh where most people actually live. Okay, so most of the population um will not have an increase in DHT levels when they use creatine. But what that one 2009 study was showing is that that might actually happen with a very small group of people, which the outliers live on the outskirts of that bell curve. And then the thing that uh is repeated over and over and over again the bloat, the creatine bloat. Water does go inside the cell. All right, I already said that. And if you stick to a maintenance uh dose, we're gonna talk about dosing in a moment, um, you won't actually look like you're waterlogged. You won't, you won't see this manifest in uh the mirror in the pictures and you're feeling. You're actually gonna look uh hydrated and you're actually gonna look firm because it's going into the muscle cell. It's not like that uh appearance of, you know, if you drink a whole bunch of bottles of soda or you had a really big meal and there's that belly bloat. We're not talking about that. We're talking about, uh, if you will, I'm I'm I'm just saying this uh cellular bloat. Okay, your muscular um physique is actually gonna look tighter and um more defined thanks to the water inserted into the cell. All right. Now the dosage. So I want us to quit overcomplicating it. You don't need a loading phase. People talk about the loading phase. Uh, I believe that even Daniel Herman and I, uh, when we discussed the biosynergy creatine, I believe that we actually talked about uh the loading phase. So you don't need to do any loading, all right, unless you need to see the results in 48 hours. Okay, that's it. So uh this could be relevant for people who are doing physique and aesthetic shows, but if you're just a person who understands the importance of creatine, you don't need a loading phase. The standard that I would recommend based on the repeated studies is three to five grams per day, which is not that little. Okay. This means every single day, three to five grams is what I'm seeing in the literature as being proven to be fantastic, all right. Something that you don't want to miss out on. So um by the way, I just I want to say something to make it a little bit clearer. Three grams is, you know, for really creating better performance, for feeling like you're recovering between workouts more. Five grams, I'm saying this especially to women, if you're focused on bone health or brain performance, you actually want to aim for five grams per day. And I'm I'm saying this because that's not one pill. You can't get five grams into one pill. And it means that creatine will probably show up throughout your day. And that's okay because it is that beneficial. Now, timing. The question I get about timing. Here's the thing about creatine. Actually, it doesn't matter. Timing doesn't really matter. So it could be pre-workout, it could be post-workout, it could be with your morning coffee. Consistency is the only hack. All right. It's not like BCAAs or um electrolytes, where the electrolytes are might even be the savior of the workout because maybe you're going for uh endurance training and your body's going and going and it's hitting the wall, and the electrolytes are going to be what you know pushes you a little bit further. It's not like that. It actually is something that is built, and the more you take it, the longer you take it. That's the key, the consistency. Now, the type of creatine is another issue. Creatine monohydrate. That's it. Creatine monohydrate, full stop. Don't let marketing sell you on uh HCI or I'm saying this with quotes, buffered creatine. No, because it costs three times more. And I'm not sure what the deal is. All I know is that the science is based on monohydrate. That's it. Creatine monohydrate, that's what the dosages refer to when I mentioned them before, the three to five grams. That's it. Creatine monohydrate, it's not very expensive. All right. So let me just put that out there. Do not buy into that buffered thing, all right, that I'm seeing everywhere. The bottom line is this. If you are human, okay, if you are human and you have muscles and you have a brain, you should probably be taking creatine. It's safe and it works. Of course, I'm gonna go back for a minute and talk about the fact that you must talk to your doctor, you must refer to your physician before you take anything that is beyond food, right? Creatine monohydrate is a supplement. You never want to take a supplement unless you've spoken to your doctor. Other than that, after you get the okay, because you are healthy, your kidneys are healthy, you're strong, you're ready to go, you want to get stronger, then you take it because it's an amazing supplement. I believe it's actually the only supplement worth taking. I'm not talking about prenatal supplements and folic acid and all that. We can talk about that another time. But in terms of performance, recovery, and brain health, and of course, bone density, creatine is what you should be taking. So I I think that's it. I think I really made my point. Um, I, of course, will drop the name of Biosynergy because the question that I get most of all is what creatine do I take? Another thing, and the point where I kind of lost my train of thought there was because I wanted to say that I actually take creatine more seriously than protein supplementation. The reason is because I do make sure that I eat enough protein. So there are days where I will supplement protein. There are days where I won't, but I definitely, as a woman who is active, I will supplement with creatine for sure. Um, that's that's that one thing I wanted to say as my train of thought kind of got lost. And I take Biosynergy because it is the one supplement company that is uh so rigorously uh regulated, also within the company, also um outside of the company. They have the B Corp stamp and um it's privately owned, and you can double check with the owner. He's been on the show several times. It's really an amazing company. So that's the one that I supplement with. But again, monohyde, creatine monohydrate, you don't have to get it from a specific company. Just make sure it's a good company because the supplement itself is actually pretty simple. I'm Dee, and this is Bodyholic. I want you to move with intention, and I want you to feel good as you move with intention. Before we go, I want to say a big thank you to Ben Gonzalez, who is an amazing producer and right here with me. And I will see you in the next episode.