This Creatine Dose Makes You Feel Like You Just Slept 8 Hours — Transcript

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1. 0:00I want to ask you about creatine.
2. 0:01>> Yeah.
3. 0:01>> [laughter]
4. 0:02>> I I'm 50. I started taking weight
5. 0:05training and running when I was like 16,
6. 0:07maybe. Yeah. And I started taking
7. 0:09creatine cuz back then I was skinny. I
8. 0:12want to put on muscle. I think creatine
9. 0:14was sort of first discussed or released
10. 0:17back then when I was maybe 18 or
11. 0:19something like that. Something like
12. 0:21that. 18, 19.
13. 0:22Um so I've been taking it a long, long
14. 0:23time.
15. 0:24>> Yeah. 5 to 10 g. But the original
16. 0:27protocol, which you nobody does anymore,
17. 0:30but I confess I still do it cuz I enjoy
18. 0:32it, was to take 5 g three to five times
19. 0:36per day. There was this loading phase.
20. 0:39And you would mix it with a little bit
21. 0:41of grape juice cuz the idea was you were
22. 0:42supposed to spike your insulin and then
23. 0:43you get more into the muscles. And then
24. 0:45you had a a maintenance dose, which was
25. 0:475 g per day.
26. 0:49Um and the idea back then was that you
27. 0:52need to do a washout every 20 weeks or
28. 0:54so, where you just stop taking it, you
29. 0:56urinate out a bunch of water, and then
30. 0:57you re- reload. And I confess I've
31. 0:59continued to do this minus the grape
32. 1:01juice, but occasionally I'll do the
33. 1:02grape juice thing. I don't think there's
34. 1:05any real merit to the loading phase
35. 1:07maintenance phase idea. But back then
36. 1:10and still now, I feel like creatine has
37. 1:12made me feel great. Um stronger.
38. 1:16Um I did I wasn't aware of the cognitive
39. 1:17benefits. They weren't being studied
40. 1:19back then.
41. 1:19>> They weren't being studied back then.
42. 1:21But what are your thoughts on why
43. 1:23creatine suddenly has become this like
44. 1:26banner supplement? It's like supplement
45. 1:28of the year. We should start a
46. 1:29supplement of the year thing, right? For
47. 1:31a while I think vitamin D and melatonin
48. 1:33came first. Um we'll have to figure out
49. 1:35what years those were. Then
50. 1:37uh I feel like creatine got supplement
51. 1:40of the year for 2026 is unless something
52. 1:42else comes along. So, creatine,
53. 1:44supplement of the year 2026, even though
54. 1:47it's been around for a long, long time.
55. 1:48What do you think happened? Well, so
56. 1:50first I want to talk about your loading
57. 1:52phase and I like that was really for the
58. 1:54studies that were being done, right?
59. 1:55Because if you're taking 5 g a day of
60. 1:57creatine, it takes about 3 to 4 weeks
61. 2:01for your crea- for your muscle creatine
62. 2:02stores to become saturated. And
63. 2:05researchers aren't going to do a study
64. 2:06where they wait that long. So, the
65. 2:07loading phase really was just
66. 2:09>> that's what inspired it. Yeah, it was
67. 2:11it's in this isolated bubble of in the
68. 2:13experimental protocol, but like in the
69. 2:16real world, you have 3 weeks. Or if
70. 2:18you're like an athlete and you hadn't,
71. 2:19you know, taken the creatine, you don't
72. 2:21have your creatine stores up and you
73. 2:22have to quickly, rapidly Got it. Like I
74. 2:24was just amazed at how quickly it
75. 2:25worked. I got I I might be a hyper
76. 2:27responder, but I legitimately put on I
77. 2:29realized some of it was water or most of
78. 2:31it was water, but somewhere between
79. 2:33probably 4 and 8 lb lean of water in the
80. 2:38muscle mass. I don't want to call it
81. 2:40lean mass because it's, you know, it's
82. 2:41water in the muscle.
83. 2:43Um,
84. 2:44but I I just was I was like, "Oh my
85. 2:46goodness, this is crazy." You know? And
86. 2:49um and then people thought maybe it was
87. 2:50a steroid. It's not a steroid. Maybe
88. 2:52it's bad for your kidneys. Turns out
89. 2:53safe for your kidneys and most everyone.
90. 2:55Um,
91. 2:56pretty remarkable molecule. Yeah, I
92. 2:58mean, obviously creatine is stored as
93. 3:00creatine phosphate in our in our cells.
94. 3:02We make to some degree between 1 to 3 g
95. 3:05of creatine a day. Our liver, our brain
96. 3:07also makes it. It's used to make energy.
97. 3:10And so,
98. 3:11your muscles, if you're working out,
99. 3:13you're really consuming a lot of energy,
100. 3:15right? It's a very energetically
101. 3:16demanding. So, having the creatine
102. 3:19stores higher in your muscle is
103. 3:21beneficial because one, you're going to
104. 3:23be able to increase your training
105. 3:24volume, right? So, it's not like
106. 3:26creatine is anabolic in the sense that
107. 3:27protein or amino acids are, right? It's
108. 3:29not like directly affecting muscle
109. 3:31protein synthesis. It's just helping you
110. 3:34train more, getting more reps in, you
111. 3:37know, and whatever it is, training train
112. 3:39your training volume's going up. And
113. 3:41because your training volume's going up,
114. 3:42then you're obviously putting more
115. 3:45stress on your muscles, which is going
116. 3:46to lead to increased muscle protein
117. 3:47synthesis and, you know, obviously
118. 3:49there's water probably as well. That
119. 3:51said, you know, you asked me, you know,
120. 3:54what happened? So, I got interested in
121. 3:55creatine back in
122. 3:5820 when I started basically weight
123. 4:00training. You know, I obviously had
124. 4:01heard about it forever, never took it.
125. 4:03And
126. 4:04as I started to get into resistance
127. 4:06training, I was like, I better start
128. 4:07taking this. This is I'm in this in this
129. 4:09world now and started doing some
130. 4:11research on taking it. So, I was taking
131. 4:12the 5 g a day cuz that's really what
132. 4:15most of the studies show creatine
133. 4:17monohydrate. That's the most
134. 4:18well-researched form of creatine. I was
135. 4:21taking 5 g a day
136. 4:23because I was interested in improving my
137. 4:25my training volume and and getting the
138. 4:27the benefits of it, right?
139. 4:29>> [snorts]
140. 4:29>> Um and then
141. 4:31I had Darren Candow on the podcast.
142. 4:34That was in 2024, I think it was.
143. 4:36And
144. 4:38once I had started getting into the
145. 4:39creatine research, I the brain stuff
146. 4:43started has been coming out over the
147. 4:44past, you know, few years.
148. 4:46And that's for me become very
149. 4:48interesting. I remember the first time I
150. 4:50heard about it years ago, I was like,
151. 4:51"Oh, it's it's helping improve cognitive
152. 4:53function in older older you know,
153. 4:54people." Yeah, the phosphocreatine
154. 4:56system seems to be somewhat
155. 5:00biased towards forebrain structures. You
156. 5:02know, I mean, obviously it's in lots of
157. 5:03brain areas, but that there might be a
158. 5:05heavier reliance on it for
159. 5:07brain areas that are associated with
160. 5:09strategic planning and you know, working
161. 5:11memory and yeah. If you if you were to
162. 5:13sort of just map the the the sort of
163. 5:15density of usage of the phosphocreatine
164. 5:17system, you'd you'd see a frontal bias
165. 5:19for sure. Okay. Yeah. Um well, anyways,
166. 5:22that's kind of where
167. 5:23my interest in in, you know, kind of
168. 5:26diving deeper. Anything that's helping
169. 5:28the brain is interesting to me as I know
170. 5:30it to you as well. And and so, I
171. 5:35learned a lot from this podcast I did
172. 5:37with Darren Candow. He, you know,
173. 5:38researches creatine and collaborates
174. 5:40with a lot of different researchers that
175. 5:41are doing you know, research on the
176. 5:43brain and muscle and you know, lots of
177. 5:45the bone. Turns out it's beneficial for
178. 5:47the bone as well. But, the brain is
179. 5:49interesting we also make creatine in the
180. 5:50brain, but um it's not like
181. 5:53So, it's kind of like the muscle, right?
182. 5:55You're not just going to If you take
183. 5:56creatine and you don't work out, you're
184. 5:57not going to you're not going to get any
185. 5:59increase in lean mass, right? It's not
186. 6:01going to do much of anything because
187. 6:03you're not putting in the work.
188. 6:05I think the same goes with the brain as
189. 6:07well, where it's like researchers
190. 6:09started to find out that well, you can't
191. 6:11just take creatine and it's going to
192. 6:13enhance cognitive function. It's in the
193. 6:15background of stressing the brain,
194. 6:17right? You're stressing your muscles by
195. 6:18workout. Same goes for the brain. It's
196. 6:20like in these situations of stress,
197. 6:23whether that's sleep deprivation,
198. 6:25whether it's, you know, a traumatic
199. 6:27brain injury, I mean, I would argue, you
200. 6:30know, there's a lot of
201. 6:32psychological stress, depression,
202. 6:35constantly using your brain, like you
203. 6:37and I right now in this conversation.
204. 6:38We're we're learning, we're thinking. I
205. 6:39mean, it is stressful on the brain,
206. 6:41right? So, I mean, I'm obviously
207. 6:44speculating here and taking taking I'm
208. 6:46extrapolating, right? I'm I'm not saying
209. 6:48that there's studies showing that, but
210. 6:49it does seem as though
211. 6:51that that's when creatine seems to shine
212. 6:53in the brain. And you might go, "Well,
213. 6:55your brain makes it." And it's true.
214. 6:57Your brain does make, you know, again,
215. 6:58it's I think between 1 to 3 g or
216. 7:00something. I'm not exactly sure how
217. 7:01much, but it makes its own creatine. And
218. 7:04it's kind of resistant to taking up the
219. 7:05creatine that you're supplementing with.
220. 7:07Um
221. 7:08particularly because for one, the muscle
222. 7:10is very greedy. So, when you're getting
223. 7:13to that 5 g range, muscles are really
224. 7:15consuming If you're working out in in
225. 7:16particular, right? Your muscles are kind
226. 7:18of consuming that because that's they're
227. 7:20very greedy for it, right? Uh and and
228. 7:22there have now been, I think, a handful
229. 7:24of studies showing that when you start
230. 7:26to get above that, there's a study out
231. 7:27of Germany showing this. And it's a
232. 7:28small study. This needs to be
233. 7:30replicated. Like, this is all new,
234. 7:33you know, emerging data. But, that study
235. 7:36showed that once you start to get to,
236. 7:38you know, 10 g, then if you look by MRI,
237. 7:41you can start to see that creatine
238. 7:44levels are increasing in certain brain
239. 7:45regions and perhaps in the brain regions
240. 7:47that you were talking about. And they're
241. 7:48going higher than than what you would
242. 7:51get from just your brain normally making
243. 7:53its own creatine.
244. 7:54So, the 10 g of creatine a day, which is
245. 7:57now what my baseline is, is based off of
246. 7:59that. But there's studies now showing
247. 8:02that if you are in this sort of stressed
248. 8:05state, your brain is stressed like for
249. 8:06sleep sleep deprivation for example,
250. 8:09you're sleep deprived for 21 hours
251. 8:11and your brain's not working very good
252. 8:13after not sleeping for 21 hours, right?
253. 8:15I mean that's obviously when I have a
254. 8:17when I travel internationally, I never
255. 8:18really sleep good on a an international
256. 8:20flight and so I'm like not If you were
257. 8:22to come find me after that flight, I'd
258. 8:24be like not working very good, right?
259. 8:26Cognitively.
260. 8:27>> everybody else.
261. 8:28>> Right.
262. 8:29Well, some people can sleep great on the
263. 8:30plane, but I'm not one of those people.
264. 8:32So, um
265. 8:33there've now been at least one study
266. 8:36showing that if you give someone it's
267. 8:38like something like 0.35
268. 8:41g per kilogram body weight of creatine,
269. 8:43which comes out to a lot. I mean it's
270. 8:45like 20 25 depends on your body weight,
271. 8:47right? Like you 20 25 g perhaps even
272. 8:49more. I mean I mean I'm 100 kg. So,
273. 8:51that's a lot of creatine.
274. 8:53>> So, for me it's more like 20 25 g,
275. 8:56right? But if you give individuals that
276. 8:58high dose in that, you know, sleep
277. 9:00deprived state that they're cognitively
278. 9:04not only performing
279. 9:05normal, but they're performing better
280. 9:07than their baseline.
281. 9:08And that of course generated a lot of
282. 9:11interest. There've been studies coming
283. 9:14out since then showing that okay, if you
284. 9:15give older adults with mild cognitive
285. 9:18impairment, perhaps mild, you know,
286. 9:19early stage Alzheimer's disease again 20
287. 9:21g, you're giving them the 20 g range of
288. 9:23creatine, it's improving their cognitive
289. 9:25function.
290. 9:26Why is that? Well, creatine is important
291. 9:30to make energy and when your brain cells
292. 9:32are stressed out, right? I mean like
293. 9:34energy energetic demand goes up and if
294. 9:37you have more creatine it's going to
295. 9:38make things easier. There's also some
296. 9:40inflammation that's being generated in
297. 9:41that stress state and it seems as though
298. 9:42creatine is also having both an indirect
299. 9:44and direct effect on inflammatory
300. 9:46processes as well. This is all early
301. 9:50early data. Like like
302. 9:52more needs to be done. But I think if
303. 9:55there's enough safety data out there now
304. 9:57where it's like well it's really not
305. 9:59harmful to take 10 g a day. I take 10 g
306. 10:02a day every day. You spread it out? I do
307. 10:04it in two doses. I mean some people are
308. 10:06very sensitive to a 10 g dose where they
309. 10:08might like get a GI irritation effect.
310. 10:11It can give some people um diarrhea.
311. 10:13>> Diarrhea, exactly. Yeah. So the very
312. 10:16scientific way of putting it.
313. 10:17>> [laughter]
314. 10:17>> But I mean that so I I do spread it out
315. 10:20and I take it I don't take it at night.
316. 10:21I like to take mine in the morning.
317. 10:23And I don't know Andrew this might be a
318. 10:25placebo. I feel like I'm constantly in a
319. 10:28stressed I'm constantly in a my brain is
320. 10:30under a lot of stress. I'm constantly
321. 10:31learning I'm reading papers and like I
322. 10:33said I'm I'm extrapolating here. This
323. 10:35isn't sleep deprivation that's obviously
324. 10:37a much more extreme type of stress. But
325. 10:40I have noticed that taking my 10 g going
326. 10:43from five to 10 really does seem to
327. 10:46affect
328. 10:47my brain functioning like later in the
329. 10:49day where I seem to keep keep going
330. 10:51better where I I'm not getting as tired.
331. 10:55And I it could be placebo which is fine.
332. 10:57Like I said I am fine with placebo
333. 10:58effects as long as what I'm ingesting is
334. 11:00not actually bad for you. Placebo's fine
335. 11:02with me.
336. 11:03Um but it is working for me. When I
337. 11:05travel
338. 11:06I do when I'm going to the East Coast I
339. 11:08mean I'm on the West Coast so when I go
340. 11:10anywhere and I have to give a talk early
341. 11:12in the morning and I never sleep good in
342. 11:14a hotel I I'm always sleep deprived. I
343. 11:16mean I don't know that a time that I
344. 11:17haven't been traveling and I'm going to
345. 11:20start traveling with my pill like you do
346. 11:22cuz that's brilliant cuz that's like one
347. 11:23of my that's one of my problems but
348. 11:24there's many problems in hotel rooms
349. 11:26that lead to me not sleeping as good,
350. 11:28right? So I take 20 sometimes 25 g of
351. 11:32creatine in those situations and they're
352. 11:35It's like, you know, it's not all the
353. 11:36time.
354. 11:37But,
355. 11:38it seems to help me again. And like I
356. 11:40said, I'm okay with placebo, which is
357. 11:42fine, but we do have some evidence that
358. 11:44it might.
359. 11:45And I think this is kind of where people
360. 11:47are already interested in creatine, and
361. 11:48so when you start to go, "Well, maybe
362. 11:50it's going to be beneficial for the
363. 11:51brain." If it's going to improve
364. 11:52cognitive function, that's really
365. 11:53something that people are interested in.