Welcome back everybody to Food for Thought, Thoughts
If It Were You by Neogentrics. It is 6pm, how
are you guys doing today? Now, we're going over
diet, nutrition, and the way people eat certain
nutrients and otherwise, and I started doing
this set yesterday. Or was it the day before?
It doesn't matter. And one of the topics I'm
going to go ahead and cover is creatine. It's
a... Chemical is normally found in the body and
mostly in muscles, but also in the brain. It
is commonly found in the diet in red meat and
seafood. By the way, this also can be created
in laboratory. The reason I decided to bring
up this topic is because I see a lot of people
using it and I have gotten a lot of questions
since I started this. It was like almost immediate,
like after the last podcast, whether or not they
should actually use this supplement. Now, I will
be honest with you. There are a lot of different
supplements out there. And yes, there are a lot
of different vitamins. Pros and cons to eating
and using a lot of these supplements and getting
them in the food that you're required to get
them from. However, there are those people who
are allergic to select foods and they can't use
them. So this is for those people. is also most
commonly used for improving exercise performance,
increasing muscle mass in athletes and older
adults. There is some science supporting the
use of creatine in improving athletic performance
of young and healthy people, but during brief
high -intensity activities such as sprinting.
And this is one of those few cases where, you
know, it's okay, but not in excess. You know,
because of this, creatine is often used in dietary
supplements to improve muscle strength and athletic
performance. However, in the United States, a
majority of sports nutrient supplements, which
total, let me see here, about 2 .7 billion in
annual sales, contains creatine in it already.
So it's not like it's a bad thing, okay? A little
insight here. It's allowed by the International
Olympics Committee and the NCAA. So, however,
when I say that... The NCAA no longer allows
colleges and universities to supply this to their
students. So you won't find these in any of the
actual major -level universities. Okay? So in
addition to improving athletic performance, it's
also taken by mouth for creatine deficiency syndrome,
or CDS, that affects the brain, chronic obstruction
pulmonary disease, or COPD, CHF, which is congestive
heart failure, This one's very, very common.
Depression, diabetes, fibromyalgia, Huntington's
disease. That's the cause. That one's the inflammation
of the muscles. And a good couple of others.
Along with those few. Even though I said many,
many more, I'm going to go ahead and list a few
more. Parkinson's disease, which is also a disease
of the muscles and the nerves. Keep in mind that
a lot of these diseases that it helps prevent
are all targeting the muscles in the body. Okay?
Such as sclerosis and sclerofina, or as well
as spinal problems. So, the question here stands
now, how does this actually work? Well, creatine
is involved in making the energy muscles need
to work. Vegetarians and other people who have
lower total creatine levels when they start taking
the supplement seem to get more of a benefit
than people who start with a higher level of
it to start with. Skeletal muscles, which only
hold a certain amount of creatine, adding more
won't raise the levels anymore. As a matter of
fact, if you've already reached the saturation
point within the first few days of taking a loading
dose, then there's no point in continuing to
take it because you actually will hurt yourself.
Too much of a good thing is actually a bad thing.
Not doubling the amount will increase your performance.
So, possible effects. Let's go ahead and talk
about the uses and effects of... One of the possible
effects is athletic performance, like I mentioned
before. Many factors seem to influence the effectiveness
of creatine, including the fitness level and
the age of the person using it, as well as the
type of sport and the dosage. It does not seem
to improve performance in aerobic exercises.
However, while it does increase the performance,
it does not increase the endurance. um or improve
performance in highly trained athletes okay so
keep this in mind if you're already well toned
it's not going to help you much there there is
some evidence that creatine's loading effects
using 20 grams daily for five days may be more
effective than continuous use however it is still
some uncertainty about exactly who can actually
benefit from it and at what dose because each
person is totally different so The research on
it and use of people who are not active is conflicting.
Some research showed that 20 grams of creatine
daily for 5 days followed by 5 grams daily for
5 days doesn't improve muscle strength. But other
research shows that taking 20 grams daily for
4 to 10 days does improve strength. So keep this
in mind. Oh, and I'm going to go ahead and throw
this out there. For the elderly, it's also conflicting.
Small numbers of people, also who have fewer
than 72 participants in this normal group, it's
not possible to draw firm conclusions to such
small numbers, so keep this in mind. While this
may work for younger people, it may not be as
effective for older generations. So... With that
being said, syndromes caused by problems metabolizing
creatine do arise, okay? Problems metabolizing
it cause low levels of creatine in the brain,
which results in mental retardation, seizures,
autism, not exactly that last one because it
hasn't completely been proven, and movement disorders.
Taking creatine by a mile daily for up to three
years increases creatine levels in the brain
and improves movement disorders. and helps prevent
seizures a little bit. However, it has little
effect on mental abilities in young children
and adults. So the creatine deficiency syndrome,
it does go by another name. Its abbreviation
is GAMT. You can look that one up yourself. However,
taking creatine for up to eight years seems to
improve attention, language, academic performance
in children with the CDS. it is a lot more effective
in children than it is in grown adults. So taking
creatine doesn't seem to improve brain creatine
levels or movement disorders or mental abilities
in children with creative transporter defects.
Basically, those really advanced autistic kids
that you make fun of that can't seem to do anything
right, it's not going to help them. For one,
they're already super intelligent as it is. The
possible ineffective... It's possibly ineffective
for, um, how do I put this? It doesn't slow disease
progressions or improve survival in people, especially
ones with ALS. Uh, I am a, I am a traffic, uh,
lateral sclerosis or just sclerosis for short.
Um, it doesn't help them. It is also, there's
also been, and I'm going to go ahead and clear
up some, um, what do they call them? I do believe
they're called myths on insufficient evidence
here with some insufficient evidence. Basically,
it hasn't been proven that they do. It does not
help stop skin aging. Okay. It can reduce it
in men and some women, but it doesn't help completely
stop it as well as skin who's already been sun
damaged. So keep this in mind. Especially with
early research on effects of this supplement
in people who have obstructive pulmonary disease,
which is basically a lung disease, it's inconsistent.
Some people it'll help and some people it won't.
It hasn't been proven to stop it, as well as
heart failure. It hasn't been proved to stop
that yet either. Diabetes, fibromyalgia, vision
loss, inherited nerve damage. A lot of those
other diseases that I mentioned earlier, especially
different multiple sclerosis that are there as
well as muscle cramps and dystrophy. These are
different things that people say all over the
place that it may help and improve, but that's
not always the case. However, one of the top
ones I'm going to say right now, it does not
help with recovery from surgery. So I'm going
to say that right now. Now. Let's take it back
a second. Let's look at the side effects and
the safety of this actual supplement, okay? It
is likely safe when taken by mouth approximately
for up to five years, like I mentioned before.
But when taken by mouth in high dosage, it is
possibly unsafe, okay? There is some concern
that it could possibly harm your kidney, liver,
no one has more than one of those, or heart functions.
A connection between high dosage and negative
effects has not been proven completely yet, but
it does show that it does happen. Like stomach
pain, nausea, diarrhea, and muscle cramping can
be caused from overdosing on it. But keep in
mind that creatine also draws a lot of water
from your body. So unless you're drinking a lot
of water or you're extremely dehydrated, I would
not recommend taking this supplement at all.
Many people who take this tend to gain weight.
But it's typically due to the muscles that creatine
is causing to hold water. Keep in mind, your
muscles hold a lot of water, so a lot of the
weight in your body is caused by that. It's not
fat. There is some concern that combining creatine
with caffeine and herbs might increase the chance
of having serious side effects, such as a stroke.
While this is not entirely true, there is still
the side effect of coffee mixing with the creatine
to increase its effect, and if not doubling it,
making it harmful in your body. However, with
that being said, it can cause irregular heartbeats,
so keep this in mind. Too much of a good thing
can be a bad thing. However, there's one thing
I want everybody to do, especially if you're
listening. Now, if you don't want to do this,
this is up to you, but this is more or less a
suggestion. Special precautions and warnings
when using this product. Pregnancy or breastfeeding
women should not be taking this at all. It is
safe for children. when taking my mouth but it
has to be between two to five grams daily but
they can only take it from two to six months
keep this in mind any more than this you might
actually end up hurting your child especially
if they're not active bipolar disorder they have
been there have been many many cases where people
with bipolar disorder took this and it made it
worse okay However, kidney disease and diabetes,
while the diabetes isn't 100%, kidney failure
is a high possibility. Okay? So that is also
a factor. Alright, so the last thing I want to
go ahead and cover. The dosage. I keep bringing
up the dosage a lot in this podcast, and I'm
sorry. But I want to make sure that I get this
straight, because there are a lot of people who
think that more is better, and it's not. For
athletic performance, many different doses regimen
have been used, however. But what has been proven,
and I'm going to go ahead and tell you this,
because it should be on the bottles as well,
that in short term, using the Lodi dose... followed
by a long -term maintenance dose can help your
body. However, the loading doses are usually
10 to 35 grams daily for 4 to 10 days. The maintenance
dose that you're supposed to take with it is
2 to 9 grams daily. So keep this in mind when
you're trying to take this as an adult so that
you don't exceed what your body can actually
handle at that period in time. Even if you're
an extremely active person, taking way too much
of this can still cause a lot of problems. And
on a side note, for those who want their children
to take it or because the doctor said they have
to, keep in mind that children are smaller. Their
bodies don't process the same chemicals in their
body like we do. So for syndromes caused by problems
metabolizing creatine, doses of 400 to 800 milligrams
of creatine per kilogram of the body's weight.
And you can do the math in your head or online
if you need to, to convert between kilograms
and pounds. have been taken daily for up to eight
years so it's 400 800 milligrams depending on
the weight of the person for eight years and
i'm talking about for kids this is not adults
this is for kids also with that four to eight
grams of creatine has been taken daily for up
to 25 months so at the most and a minimum you
can do it up to 25 months or you can go up to
eight years but This depends on the age of the
child. And remember, this has to be authorized
by your doctor. I would not recommend giving
this to a kid just because you feel that you're
concerned. All right? So with that, I'm done
covering creatine. And we'll move on to the next
supplement after I cover the next segment on
health. Okay? Enjoy the rest of your day.