Have you ever wondered about taking creatine and if it even works?
The first time I heard about creatine, I was back in high school and it actually had a
negative stigma attached to it.
There's this group of guys that are getting bigger and stronger and people are like whispering
behind their backs, "They're on the creatine."
Like it was some negative drug or anabolic steroid that they were taking.
So, we need to clear all this up and in today's video, we're going to do that by talking about
what creatine does inside of your body, what organs and tissues get involved.
Do you need to supplement it?
Can you get it from your diet?
And is it safe?
And of course, we'll talk about, does it increase athletic performance?
Does it make you bigger, faster, stronger, kind of like the best superhero of all time
which we clearly all know is Superman regardless of what anyone tells you but we can argue
about superheroes in the comments later because for now, we need to talk about what creatine
does inside of you.
So, let's jump right into this.
[Intro]
Creatine is a nitrogen containing compound similar to protein.
It's made up of three amino acids called arginine, glycine, and methionine.
Now, you may have heard of amino acids in the past.
Maybe you've had discussions around essential amino acids versus non-essential amino acids.
The Readers Digest version of that is that the essential amino acids we have to consume
in our diet because we can't synthesize those on our own like we can the non-essential amino
acids which brings us to a very nice video quiz question of the day.
Of the three amino acids that I mentioned that build creatine, glycine, arginine, and
methionine, which one of those are considered essential versus non-essential amino acids?
Go ahead and post that answer in the comments below.
We'll pin the correct answer at the top of the comments but coming back to creatine,
we're going to find that creatine is an important energy source especially for these amazing
structures that we refer to as the skeletal muscles but we have to figure out how do we
get it.
Is creatine one of those things that only avid gym goers get through supplementation
and the answer is no.
We can actually get creatine through certain sources or food sources.
Specifically things like beef and fishes.
So, those who consume those types of meat can get anywhere from like one to two grams
of creatine per day.
However, say we're dealing with somebody who's a non-meaty dirf, maybe vegan or vegetarian,
in those cases, they'll get negligible amounts, almost none at all.
So that would possibly beg the question, could you even develop say like a creatine deficiency
and be missing out on that potential energy source?
And luck, no, because remember, we said it's built up of those three amino acids and as
long as you're consuming those amino acids, in other words, getting adequate protein intake
from other sources, there's certain organs throughout the body that can synthesize creatine.
Two main ones, one of which being this amazing liver that you can see right here as well
as these cool little structures or organs we should say, the kidneys that we have on
the tray here.
These can also help synthesize the creatine.
Now, whether you consume the creatine in your diet or it's synthesized in the liver or the
kidneys, that creatine will then be transported throughout the bloodstream and taken up by
or at least the majority which will be taken up by again the skeletal muscles and I want
you to think about as the creatines going into the skeletal muscles it's kind of filling
them up like it's a little gas tank of creatine and a third of that creatine going into the
skeletal muscle will just stay as regular old creatine but about two thirds of it will
get phosphorated and become something called creatine phosphate also referred to by some
as phosphocreatine and that's going to be really important in just a second but I do
want to go back to this discussion about meat eaters versus non-meat eaters and comparing
the creatine levels in their skeletal muscles.
A lot of the research is pretty consistent in showing that those who do not consume meat,
although they wouldn't be like deficient in creatine, they still tend to have lower amounts,
lower overall amounts of creatine in the skeletal muscle as compared to those who do consume
meat but luckily, if you choose not to consume meat, you can get creatine through other sources
like through supplementation and isn't that kind of one of the main points of this video
to discuss does it make sense to increase the creatine levels more than what you could
get naturally in your diet through the use of a supplement.
And speaking of supplementing things in our diet, it can often be challenging to get every
vitamin, mineral, and nutrient just from the foods that you consume and so, often it makes
sense to get those ingredients from other sources and that's why I'm excited to talk
about AG1 by Athletic Greens.
AG1 contains 75 whole food sourced ingredients and contains vitamins, minerals, super foods,
adaptogens, and probiotics.
I've been taking this for months now and it's really helped simplify my health routine.
I hate opening multiple pill bottles every morning.
So, since taking AG1, I've been able to shrink this down into two things every morning.
I get my one scoop of AG1 by Athletic Greens.
I also use my one scoop of five grams of creatine which is great for this video and we'll talk
about that a little bit later but with that one scoop of AG1 by Athletic Greens, I put
it in my eight ounces of water, shake it up, drink it down, and I'm good to go.
What's also cool about AG1 is that it's NSF certified which means what's written on the
label, you can be assured is actually found in the product and some of my favorite benefits
of AG1 is one, it can help boost energy levels.
I'm not a big coffee drinker, so anything that can help increase energy levels throughout
the day is definitely a benefit for me.
It also can help with performance during exercise and aid in recovery between workouts which
is extremely important to me because I love exercise and I'm trying to actually train
for a Spartan race is an obstacle course race coming up and I have to destroy Jeremy during
the next race.
He cannot win.
For those who don't know Jeremy is, he founded the lab with me years ago.
He's behind the scenes.
He's also my brother-in-law, married my sister so even more of a nemesis because of that
but he doesn't get any AG1.
We're not giving him any.
He doesn't get the benefits of energy.
He doesn't get the benefits of increased performance or recovery.
None of that until after the race.
We don't care if he shrivels up from a vitamin deficiency prior to the race.
That sounds extreme but we're competitive but for all of you, we want great and good
things for your health and wellness.
So, if you're interested in all these benefits of AG1 by Athletic Greens and Outperforming
Jeremy, go to athleticgreens.com/humananatomy and they'll give our community a free one-year
supply of immune supporting vitamin D as well as five free travel packets.
The link is in the description below.
So, how does creatine work and how does it help provide energy our cells?
Again, with that focus being on our skeletal muscle cells also known as our skeletal muscle
fibers.
Now, when our skeletal muscle fibers contract, they utilize or burn through the energy currency
of our cells called ATP or Adenosine Triphosphate.
Again, that phosphate is going to be important.
Now, ATP is only stored in limited amounts in your muscle tissue and so, when we're exercising,
we're burning through it like crazy and only having limited amounts, it would make sense
that our bodies great ways to synthesize more of this ATP and there's three ways that our
bodies do it or in other words three energy systems.
The first is referred to as the creatine phosphate energy system.
The second is glycolysis, often referred to as anaerobic glycolysis because oxygen is
not necessary for that process and also we have the third, oxidative phosphorylation
which oxidative refers to utilizing oxygen and you may have heard things like the creb
cycle or the citric acid cycle and the mitochondria and those last two glycolysis and oxidative
phosphorylation will save those related because as the first one's name implied, the creatine
phosphate energy system, that's where we're going to live for this video.
It's also even referred to as the ATP phosphocreatine system but it's the same thing and this energy
system, the creatine phosphate energy system is best suited for very high-intensity exercise.
Things that last like five to 10 seconds.
So, think of like a full-fledged sprint, max vertical jumping or really high-intensity
weight training like high - high weight, low repetition and so, when we're talking about
this and you're contracting your muscles during the sprinting or the weight lifting, you're
going to start burning through that ATP and as the ATP burns off, what happens is you
break off a phosphate and when a phosphate breaks off, that adenosine triphosphate, it
releases the energy necessary but that ATP then becomes ADP which is adenosine diphosphate
and this is where the creatine gets involved and it's amazing - so amazing in fact that
we're going to use the whiteboard for this.
Welcome to the whiteboard session everyone.
As you can see, we've got a nice little graph here that we're going to go over in just a
second and an ever so accurate anatomical rendition of trunk anatomy.
You can see the big old pectoralis major muscles, the six-pack muscle that we call the rectus
abdominis and of course, a belly button for a frame of reference and let's use the pectoralis
major or a bench press as an example or the quads and the hamstrings that you might use
during a sprints.
So, like if we're bench pressing high weight, low repetitions, regardless either one of
these high-intensity muscle contractions, we're going to utilize the ATP by breaking
off one of those phosphate bonds and releasing energy poof...
We've released the energy for the muscle contraction and then we're left with ADP or adenosine
diphosphate.
Now, remember earlier, I mentioned creatine as it's stored in the muscles.
About a third of it stored as regular old creatine but about two thirds of it is stored
as creatine phosphate and that's what the CRP stands for here.
Now, with the help of enzyme called creatine kinese, that creatine phosphate, that phosphate
is going to break off and then rephosphorate ADP.
In other words, think of it as donating its phosphate to ADP to create more ATP and that's
an extremely fast process.
It's a one-step chemical reaction.
So, really convenient for high-intensity muscle contractions and obviously, once we burn off
that phosphate from the creatine phosphate, you'll be left with creatine but there's limitations.
Yes, it's extremely fast process that we can replenish ATP but it only last about five
to 10 seconds because we only have so much creatine phosphate stored in the muscle tissue
and you might think well "how do we get more of that creatine phosphate?
how do we restore that?"
Well after you go for a sprint or high intensity weight training or high intensity exercise,
you tend to rest between sets and so, you're breathing heavy during those rest periods
and you're utilizing oxidative phosphorylation - another energy system that when we utilize
oxygen it's really efficient in replenishing ATP and utilizing energy to refosphoreate
creatine back into creatine phosphate so you're ready for that next sprint session or that
next you know, weight lifting set after you know, resting one to two minutes.
And that's about how long it takes to replenish that is one to two minutes.
Now, this next chart or graph right here kind of helps gives us another idea or helps drive
this point home further.
They did a test on sprinters and so this is pulled from a research study.
The green is representing creatine phosphate levels in the muscle and the ATPs - and the
blues representing the ATP levels in muscle tissue.
And for you chemistry geeks, they'd measured it in millimoles per kilogram and they did
it at various different distances - 20 - 40 - 60, all the way up to 100 meters sprint.
And so, at zero, obviously you're seeing the resting levels and as expected as the sprint
started and continued, the ATP levels would decline but at about 60 meters you could see
we got a little blip and we can thank that creatine phosphate energy system for replenishing
some of that ATP and at least helping maintain some of those levels for five to 10 seconds.
And as you can see that creatine phosphate really drops initially and then continues
to go down and down and down and down and eventually we're running out of that and we
won't be able to maintain that level of exercise intensity.
And so, that begs a really interesting question - what if we could start with a higher level
of resting creatine phosphate?
If we could increase the amount that was stored in the muscle tissue, could that improve athletic
performance?
Well, let's find out.
So, answering this big question, can we pack more creatine into the skeletal muscle tissue
in the form of creatine phosphate in order to improve athletic performance?
The data pretty clearly shows that the answer is yes.
Most of the data shows that people can increase their creatine muscle storage from anywhere
of about 10 to 40 percent of an increase.
Now, I do have to say some people don't respond much to creatine but the majority of people
can get those increases of 10 to 40 percent.
Now, how much would you have to consume to increase it that amount and it's about five
grams per day and some people will ask, well, "Can I get that from my diet?"
Remember where we got creatine from in the diet, mostly in beefs and fish.
So, you'd have to consume a ton of beef or fish in order to get five grams and when you
compare that to how easy it is, you just take a little scoop, mix it in your water, and
drink it down, it's a lot more feasible to take it in the supplement.
You just have to take so much meat in in order to get the five grams and especially when
you compare that to say like creatine loading, creatine loading is when people take about
20 grams per day for about five to seven days and then they'll maintain with five grams
after that and the idea behind that is to hurry and increase the levels.
Maybe they're a little impatient.
They don't want to wait for it to build up over time but that can increase the levels
a little bit more quickly but again, the most important part is being consistent with that
five grams per day to maintain those levels.
Now, once the levels are increased, what does that mean for us?
Does that magically increase your max bench press or your max squat?
Does it make you a faster sprinter?
That doesn't really, that's not really how creatine works.
You're not just going to magically go in and say your max bench press is 225 and then it
just jumps up to 245 with taking creatine because the creatine phosphate system was
all about replenishing ATP so that high intensity activity could last five to 10 seconds.
but now, maybe you can main that intensity a little bit longer.
Maybe you could sprint at that intensity for a couple seconds longer.
Maybe there's this weight that you could only do six reps.
Maybe you're curling and you could only do a certain weight for six repetitions but now
on creatine, you might be able to do it eight or nine repetitions.
And so, you can see that you're increasing your workload per session at that higher intensity
and over time, that's going to pay dividends in your muscular adaptations.
It's going to increase strength levels more efficiently over time because again, your
workloads increased as compared to when you're not using creatine.
Finally, is creatine safe and are there any potential side effects that we need to consider
when increasing creatine intake?
Well, there have been some reported side effects, things like weight gain and that's likely
due to creatine increasing the intracellular water content or in other words, the cells
retaining a little bit more water.
Now, it's generally pretty insignificant for most people but something to consider on an
individual basis.
There's also been claims that creatine could be linked to muscle cramps but that data is
pretty weak and most people don't experience cramping in their muscles due to creatine.
Also reports of things like nausea and upset stomach.
Again, variable from person to person and things that you'll have to decide on an individual
basis if it's worth it or not but there's plenty of people who don't really have any
GI side effects but coming back to this overall idea, is it actually safe?
And the organs that tend to come up in the safety discussions are the kidneys which we
saw a little earlier but we can see on the tray again here.
Now, creatine gets converted to another compound that sounds very similar called creatinine
and the creatinine will actually go in through the bloodstream, through the blood vessels
in the kidney here and make it out into the cortex of the kidney called the renal cortex
where it will get filtered out of the blood into these pyramids called collecting tubules
that are within the pyramids and then they'll go into the urinary tubules and eventually
out the toilet.
Now, creatinine levels are often looked at in clinical settings because creatinine levels
are kind of this assessment of kidney health and kidney function and so, this idea was
if we increase our creatine, are we also going to increase our creatinine and is that going
to have a problem with the kidneys.
But when you look at the data, people who take creatine, their creatinine levels are
still within the normal limits and there's been no data up to this point that has shown
taking creatine as a supplement or increasing those levels any major long-term or adverse
effects on kidney health.
Thanks for watching the video everyone.
Hopefully, you learn some cool new stuff about creatine and if you're interested, be sure
to check out AG1 by Athletic Greens.
That link is in the description below and if you feel the need, like, subscribe, leave
some comments.
We've got that video quiz question that you can comment on.
You can also comment on future videos you'd like to see in the future as well as talk
about why Superman is such a better superhero than Batman.
Justin thinks Batman is better.
It doesn't make any sense.
Jeffrey and I are on the Superman bandwagon which is the right bandwagon so you have full
permission to flame Justin over his Batman beliefs and we'll see you in the next video.