I think I think the next five years is

we're going to the most interesting

research that coming out of the creatine

world is going to be from the neck up.

It's going to be on the the the brain.

Um, so yeah, I five 5 g a day is really

it takes about four weeks or so for your

muscles to saturate and um, you don't

really need to do any loading of 20 g

before you do that unless you're doing a

competition and you've not been taking 5

g a day for a month, right? The studies

did loading because they were a

short-term study and most people weren't

taking creatine before. Um, and so it's

it's really just the 5 g a day that's

really like once you get that level for

about a month, your muscles are

saturated and you just keep replenishing

them with that 5 g, your muscles are

very greedy. Creatine as you mentioned,

um, phosphocreatine is a important

precursor to make energy and so your

muscles, especially when you're working

out, are really there's a high energetic

demand and so the creatine really shines

there because it helps to remake that

energy quicker and so you can then

increase your exercise volume and that

is how creatine can improve muscle mass

and muscle strength because you're

essentially working out more, right? So

it's not like creatine is anabolic in

and of itself kind of like amino acids

are. It requires the work, but it does

helps you work more, right? Well,

>> It's dramatic, Dr. Rhonda. It's pretty

dramatic. I log my workouts and if I go

off creatine, like say I'm doing a

you know, 10 RM and I get to 10, I'll

drop to eight the next week off

creatine. Like it's pretty dramatic.

>> I totally notice the same thing. Like a

two rep um, no, I mean it's dramatic

it's dramatic like for sure. Um, I I

absolutely for the longest time I was

doing 5 g a day and when I mean the

longest time, when I started really

taking resistance training seriously,

which has been, you know, at least a

couple of years. But um, then new data

just started to come out um,

particularly out of Germany where

actually the purest form of creatine is

is produced called Creapure.

German There was a German study, and it

was a small study, but it was looking at

you know,

the brain is very So, the brain is

resistant to a lot of things. We have

the blood-brain barrier. Um it doesn't

just take up things easily. Um and if

particularly if your muscles are greedy,

your muscles are consuming the creatine

share after 5 g, there's not much left

spillover to get into the brain. But,

creatine does get transported across the

blood-brain barrier. It can get into the

brain as long as your muscles aren't

taking it all up. So, when you start to

get over that 5 g and you go up to 10 g,

you double that amount, what this study

out of Germany has shown is that

different regions of the brain are now

getting higher levels of creatine in

them.

Creatine is also important for your

brain to make energy, right? So, that's

kind of where the rationale my rationale

for the 10 g a day comes from. And then

there have been studies looking at

cognitive function at that higher dose

of at least 10 g. Um 10 g a day seems to

improve cognitive function in people

with mild cognitive decline um or mild

cognitive impairment. So, these are

people with a stressed brain.

Um people that are

in some it it What's important to

understand is that creatine, just like

when you're working out, like you can't

just take creatine and then expect to

have bigger muscles if you don't if you

don't work out, right? You have to work

out. You have to put in the work. With

the brain, the brain has to be a little

more stressed in order for the creatine

to really make a difference. Like if

you're just fine, no problem, no

neurodegenerative disease, no sleep

deprivation, no chronic stress going on,

then creatine uh doesn't really have

much of an effect.

So, so it's really in that background of

stress. Sleep deprivation also, it's

been shown I would say 10 g a day

minimum, but studies have shown that if

you go up to 20 to it it depends on your

body weight. So, 20 g, maybe 25 if

you're really a big person, a lot of

muscle mass, or

hopefully not with fat mass. So, going

up to that level, if you are sleep

deprived, so in this study it was

actually pretty severe sleep

deprivation. It was like a 24-hour sleep

deprivation. Those individuals that were

given that really high dose of creatine

were able to perform cognitive tasks

very well. And not only were they

performing them very well, they were

performing performing them better than

their well-rested baseline levels, which

is fascinating.

And again, other studies coming out

showing that there seems to be effects

in the brain, mostly in the context of

stress. Resistance training, there's a

study in women that were doing a lot of

resistance training, when they were

supplementing with the creatine 10 g a

day, it improved their sleep. So,

I do think there's a rationale to go up

to 10 g a day. I can tell you my

anecdota, and that is I I feel like my

brain's constantly under stress. I do a

lot of learning, a lot of researching.

There's a lot going on in my brain that

is very stressful. It is a type of

stress. Learning is a type of stress.

And so, when I moved up to 10 g a day,

what I noticed for me is that I have

more mental endurance throughout the

day. Like I wasn't getting that sort of

afternoon slump a little.

And it's night and day for me. If I miss

that 10 g and I only do my first 5 g

dose, I will it'll come back. And so, it

could be placebo as you mentioned. I'm

okay with it. Creatine is safe. It's one

of the most well-studied sports

nutrition supplements ever. And so, I

don't feel, you know, if it's a placebo,

my rationale is if it's placebo and it's

safe, I'm good. That's fine. It's it's a

real effect. So, that's that's kind of

where we're at with creatine. And

there's a lot of again, a lot of

researchers are now getting into the

brain. Even people that were doing

muscle research, like exercise

physiologists, are seeing the

opportunity here because it's so

exciting.