Episode Details

You might think creatine is a bodybuilder's steroid you have to cycle, load, and fear for your kidneys, but it's a compound your own body already makes from three amino acids, with one of the deepest safety records in all of nutrition science. The problem isn't the creatine; it's the noise around it.

In this solo episode, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon discusses:

• Why the bump creatine causes in your creatinine lab value is a metabolic artifact, not a sign of kidney damage in healthy people
• Where the hair-loss fear came from. A single unreplicated study in one rugby player showing a 56% DHT rise, and why no research has ever directly linked creatine to hair loss
• How men and women respond differently (roughly 1.5 kg of lean mass in men vs. about a third of a kilogram in women), and why women still gain real strength, grip, cognition, and recovery
• Why you can't realistically eat your way to 5 grams a day: it would take 2.5 to 3 pounds of cooked meat and fish daily, so a single scoop closes the gap
• The protocol: 3–5 grams of plain monohydrate every day, no loading phase, no cycling, timing barely matters

Muscle is your organ of longevity, the tissue that clears most of the glucose in your bloodstream and defends your metabolism as you age. Creatine won't build it for you, but it raises the ceiling on the work you can do, so the training that protects that muscle pays off more. Understanding what's real and what's fearmongering is the difference between avoiding a proven tool and using it well.

Studies & References

• PubMed study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1327657/
• Sports Nutrition Society: https://www.sportsnutritionsociety.org/

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