What Is Creatine? Can It Treat Sarcopenia (Muscle Loss with Age)?
What are the benefits of creatine for the elderly? When accompanied by a progressive strength-training regimen, 3 grams of creatine a day may improve muscle performance in older adults.
Stay tuned for Are There Any Side Effects to Taking Creatine? ( ), the follow-up video.
Learn about the connection between creatine and homocysteine in Should Vegetarians Take Creatine to Normalize Homocysteine? ( ) and The Efficacy and Safety of Creatine for High Homocysteine ( ).
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I love this channel!
Doesn’t creatine also provide cognitive benefits?
The brain makes all the creatine it needs, and so dietary or supplemental intake don’t matter for cognition, the video shows that research towards the start.
your body makes it, the brain get all it needs.anyone with a low creatine brain level has diet problems and health problems that first needs to be adressed.
your question is not formulated well enough. i assume you mean adding creatine in powder form.
I’ve taken creatine many times for bodybuilding. It’s not enjoyable. It’s hard to dissolve, even the micronized version & w/ warm water. You have to drink lots of water, you’re constantly peeing & you gain lots of water weight. You feel swollen & like you’re drinking granules that your body can’t really process. Not worth it for me, but if the science says it’s good for sarcopenia.
I find I’m more consistent if I just fry scoop and chase it down with water
Mix it with a vegan BCAA that is flavored 👍 fruit punch etc.
I put it on my breakfast. It’s undetectable. I take a small dose 1.5 g. Maybe you were taking the 5 g dose.
I took it for a couple years about 20 years ago to help with my workout at the gym. I didn’t really need it and all the things you described happened to me. It did make me get bigger I gained weight and it was harder to move around. I stopped using it and lost all the weight.
More importantly, the vast majority of sarcopenia sufferers are omnivorous and consume meat, so what CAUSES sarcopenia? The CAUSE cannot be a protein intake issue. Could be that protein is not being synthesized to muscle due to lack of movement or underlying disease, or both?
Pretty sure its because of the small colon which deteriates with time if you eat things that are bad for your colon (aka meat) so you absorb less protein and minerals into your blood
It may not be related to protein at all, but instead be due to lifestyle changes that happen as we age. Why do the lifestyle changes happen? I can tell you that, after 70, it becomes more difficult to motivate oneself to strenuously exercise. That of course would cause loss of muscle mass. Is that motivation due to hormonal changes? Maybe. A number of pathways irreversibly decline as we age. For example, we start losing kidney nephrons from childhood no matter what we do.
@Western GardeniaAgree 💯%
@Western Gardenia I mean its obvious that if you dont work out consistently you will lose muscle by time. There can be many factors that contribute to muscle loss but I think colon health and testosterone levels are the main factors
@ravi lagroI agree. It’s not just about animal protein intake, that’s hardly a problem for these folks. There must be underlying multi factorial issues happening that protein is not synthesizing to muscle.
Off topic but I was perplexed with your favorable new stance on fluoride. You never seem to reply to comments but since fluoride is a waste product of aluminium, fertilizer, and atomic bomb manufacturing I thought I would caution people who follow you unwaveringly. “Studies on the health effects and safety of fluoride have always used pharmaceutical grade fluoride—not the far more toxic hydrofluorosilicic acid from the phosphate fertilizer industry. Until very recently, there has been no interest in studying the effects of the continued use of hydrofluorosilicic acid.”
Dear Dr. Greger, could you please do a video on the optimal amount of protein for increasing the muscle mass? And is this even good for health and longevity? Is bodybuiling, if its wfpb, a good thing without negative health or longevity consequences?
The figure is 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight. Plenty of studies have confirmed this. And it is massively beneficial as sarcopenia in old age leads to frailty and falls. And when you fall when you’re old and frail you break stuff and post fall long term outlook is very poor. Building/retaining muscle mass should absolutely be a goal for longevity. The evidence is abundant and clear
Finally, my favorite research scientist / medical doctor on my favorite supplement. All very interesting information, to be followed closely
Dr. Greger is not a research scientist. His very valuable (and appreciated) work is to review the current research and explain the complex science. Few of us have the biological and medical education this requires to do this on our own. As I’m sure you know, his recommendations are science-based leveraging his certification in the lifestyle and nutrition sciences.
I’d be curious to hear more about the cognitive end. Early in the video, it sort of dismisses brain benefits. But elsewhere I’ve repeatedly heard that it helps because the brain uses so much energy. A deeper dive on that would be appreciated.
Same! I struggle with depression from time to time and have found a low dose (250mg was the smallest I could find) to be helpful after hearing Huberman talk about it a few years ago.
Sarcopenia is the single most concerning aspect of aging, in my opinion. Millions of people mistakenly think that instability and frailty is a normal part of aging, but in fact it’s just a symptom of a sedentary lifestyle. My wife is 77 and can outperform women (and men) many decades younger in cycling, walking, sit to stand exercises and arm-wrestling. How can that be? She’s physically active and doesn’t eat the typical North American diet. She invited a younger neighbour to join her at the local yoga class, but she declined because she is unable to get up off the floor without assistance! As my father said, move or die.
Yep, you pretty much hit the nail on the head…….although, one has to still be careful on how one moves though…..as a Masters athlete, injuries tend to happen and take longer to recover than when you are in your 20’s…….but otherwise, if you know your limits and are careful about how you move, then YES, too many people sit around all day or don’t take the time to do something extra besides their daily activities…..which might seem like a workout in itself, but simply isn’t enough………..PEACE!
I know strength training without creatine is very beneficial as well because I have witnessed it in myself and others. 💪
Can vegetarian consume creatine monohydrate suplement?
Most supplemental creatine monohydrate is vegan. If using capsules, you have to make sure the shell also conforms to your diet. Personally, I take a teaspoon in powder form in my first coffee of the day.
So excited that you’re covering creatine. Thank you!
Next you should look at creatine use for pregnancy. Check out the work being done at Monash, Australia.
I’ll just stick to my 4 lbs of potatoes and head of purple cabbage every day. I get bored of exercise long before my stamina takes a dip. After two hours of lifting and walking for 3mins between sets, it’s like, “okay, what’re we doing here?”
You can PREVENT sarcopenia by eating superior protein sources like meat, fish, eggs and dairy while doing strength training. You are an ideologue and not concerned about health as such.
And yet the vast majority of Sarcopenia sufferers are omnivores who consume meat. This disease is more than just a protein intake issue.
ah the irony.
👍 Whole food plant based for the environment and health; vegan for the victims!
You’d think it would increase stamina of the elderly, just from doing normal day to day activities like walking.
I take creatine for the cognitive benefits, but I forgot why.
Finally!
I’ve been there and done that. It causes hair loss in men, water retention and stomach bloat and upset. In my opinion the juice is not worth the squeeze.