Creatine has seen its fair share of controversy in the decades since it first came to public attention, whether it was the scandal generated by sports stars like Mark McGwire admitting to taking it to its use among Olympic athletes.
But despite the inaccurate comparisons to anabolic steroids, creatine has never been banned by the Olympics or most large North American sports leagues, including the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
“It’s something that helps bursts of energy — weight lifting, sprinting, etc.,” says Kristen Drescher, an immunologist at the Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, who has written about creatine.
This muscle-building supplement is so common now that one study reported that about a third of male NCAA Division I athletes had used the supplement before. But how does it work, and does creatine actually increase your muscle mass?
What is Creatine?
Creatine is actually a natural compound made by amino acids. It’s found naturally in muscles — whether human, fish, or animal. Our bodies store creatine in muscles, using it as energy in natural processes when we use them. We also have creatine in our brains.
While we produce some creatine organically — in our livers, kidneys, and pancreas — we can also gain creatine by eating the muscles of other creatures that also produce creatine naturally. In practice, this usually means eating red meat and fish.
The thing is, our muscles can hold a lot more creatine than we can get from eating even large amounts of red meat and fish every day. As a result, creatine supplements have become a popular way to increase the creatine in the muscles.
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How Creatine Increases Your Muscle Mass
Creatine doesn’t add muscle by itself. In the beginning, it pulls more water into your muscles, something which initially leads to an increase in size. But this is temporary if you don’t follow through.
To continue to get an increase in muscles, you still need to work out — taking creatine and sitting on the couch won’t lead to much. But by taking it over time and exercising, creatine basically gives your muscles more energy to work a little harder than they otherwise might.
Drescher says that part of the way creatine accomplishes this is by reducing the inflammation of your muscles as they work out, essentially what happens when you get sore from working out. The reduction of this inflammation helps people exercise for longer at the gym, push harder, and come back more frequently — all things that can help boost muscle size.
“There is evidence that creatine decreases inflammation, and inflammation is often what prevents people from working out,” Drescher says.
While the creatine found in meat and fish helps you build muscle, you usually can’t maximize the creatine in your muscles from food alone. That’s why people turn to creatine powder or other forms of the supplement. People taking this form will often load up on a larger amount of creatine for the first two to four days, then do a more standard maintenance dose for the following four weeks. At that point, athletes may restart the cycle, Drescher says.
Creatine’s Other Positive Effects
Creatine’s muscle-building and anti-inflammation properties may extend to other benefits for those who use it — especially the elderly. Some research shows that creatine supplements can help stymie the age-related loss of muscle, even without much exercise. It can also help to increase body mass, reduce fatigue, and improve daily activities, giving the elderly more energy to do things like chores, Drescher says.
This increase in strength can help with a lot of things, Drescher says, and reduce the danger of age-related injuries from falling, for example.
Some other studies have found positive neurological effects that creatine might have in reducing symptoms related to Huntington’s disease, though those early tests have not stood up to repeat trials.
Creatine’s Negative Effects
The most common negative impacts from taking creatine are gastrointestinal. As with most things, these problems are most often encountered with people who take larger doses.
“The biggest downside of it is if you start really taking large amounts of it, you have bloating, diarrhea, and cramping,” Drescher says.
There have been some other studies showing that large amounts of creatine might impact the kidneys or livers, but there isn’t a lot of solid evidence about this, one study found.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
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Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Joshua Rapp Learn is an award-winning D.C.-based science writer. An expat Albertan, he contributes to a number of science publications like National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian, New Scientist, Hakai, and others.
