Does creatine make you more smarter? We joke, but no. However, it could play a role in providing the brain with energy. There’s evidence showing creatine supplementation may improve performance in complex mental tasks where your brain requires a lot of energy.12 In one study, those who supplemented creatine in a number recall task performed better. This effect wasn’t seen in a less complicated recall task, suggesting the more energy the brain needs, the more effective creatine can be.12 Whenever. As long as you’re taking creatine daily, you’ll keep your muscles saturated. Consistency is key. The fastest way to increase creatine stores is during a loading phase — where you build muscle stores over a short time before dropping to a maintenance dose. Take 5g of creatine monohydrate four times a day for 5-7 days and you should fill your muscle stores. The faster you raise your creatine levels, the sooner you’ll see performance benefits. Once creatine stores are fully saturated, a maintenance dose of 3-5g a day is sufficient Forget scary stories. The only reported side effect of creatine is weight gain (and that’s due to increased water in muscles, not fat). In fact, taking creatine is completely safe — numerous long-term studies have shown no adverse health risks from daily ingestion.13 BRAIN FUNCTION WHEN TO TAKE CREATINE CREATINE DOSAGE AND LOADING CREATINE SAFETY AND SIDE EFFECTS for maintenance.13 Larger athletes and those with more muscle may need to take 5-10g.13 If you prefer, you can skip the loading phase and go straight on to the maintenance dose. But bear in mind it’ll take longer to reach saturation levels — up to 28 days.14 BACK TO MENU REFERENCES 1. Balsom PD, Soderlund K, Ekblom B (1994). Creatine in humans with special reference to creatine supplementation. Sports Med. 1994, 18: 268-80. 2. Hultman E, Soderlund K,Timmons JA, Cederblad G, Greenhaff PL. (1996). Muscle creatine loading in men. J Appl PhysioI 1996;81:232- 237 3. Brunzel NA: Renal function: Nonprotein nitrogen compounds, function tests, and renal disease. Clinical Chemistry. Edited by: Scardiglia J, Brown M, McCullough K, Davis K. 2003, McGraw-Hill: New York, NY, 373-399. 4. Creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high-intensity exercise.The beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 3g of creatine. 5. Buford TW, Kreider RB, Stout JR, Greenwood M, Campbell B, Spano M… Antonio J (2007). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: creatine supplementation and exercise. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2007. 4:6. 6. Kreider RB. (2003. Effects of creatine supplementation on performance and training adaptations. Mol Cell Biochem. 2003;244(1– 2):89–94. 7. Nunes JP, Ribeiro AS, Schoenfeld BJ,Tomeleri CM, Avelar A,Trindade MC, Nabucco HC..Cyrino ES. (2017). Creatine supplementation elicits greater muscle hypertrophy in upper than lower limbs and trunk in resistance-trained men. Nutr Health. 2017. Dec;23(4):223-229 8. Burke DG, Candow DG, Chilibeck PD, MacNeil LG, Roy BD,Tarnopolsky MA, Ziegenfuss T: Effect of creatine supplementation and resistanceexercise training on muscle insulin-like growth factor in young adults. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 2008, 18:389–398. 9. 9. Rawson ES,Volek JS. (2003). Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2003. Nov;17(4):822-31 10. Vandenberghe M, Goris P,Van Hecke M Van Leemputte L, Hespel P. (1997). Long term creatine intake is beneficial to muscle performance during resistance training. J Appl Physiol. 1997. Dec;83(6):2055-63. 11. MacDougall JD, Ray S, Sale DG, McCartney N, Lee P, Gamer S. (1999) Muscle substrate utilization and lactate production during weightlifting. Can J Appl Physiol 1999; 24(3):209-215. 12. McMorris,T., Mielcarz, G., Harris, R.C., Swain, J.P., Howard,A., (2007a). Creatine sup- plementation and cognitive performance in elderly individuals. Aging Neuropsychol. Cogn. 2007. 14 (5), 517–528. 13. Kreider RB, Kalman DS,Antonio J, Ziedenfuss TN,Wildman R, Collins R…. Lopez H. (2017). International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2017. 14:18 14. Williams MH, Kreider R, Branch JD. Creatine: the power supplement. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Publishers; 1999.
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