Creatine is a natural supplement used to boost athletic performance. It’s not only safe to use but also one of the world's most popular and effective supplements for building muscle and strength. Creatine is an effective supplement with powerful benefits for both athletic performance and health. It may boost brain function, fight certain neurological diseases, improve exercise performance and accelerate muscle growth.
Here are 8 science-based benefits of creatine:
1. Helps Muscle Cells Produce More Energy
Creatine supplements increase your muscles' phosphocreatine stores. Phosphocreatine helps with the formation of new ATP, the key molecule your cells use for energy and all basic functions of life. During exercise, ATP is broken down to produce energy. The rate of ATP resynthesis limits your ability to continually perform at maximum intensity — you use ATP faster than you reproduce it. Creatine supplements increase your phosphocreatine stores, allowing you to produce more ATP energy to fuel your muscles during high-intensity exercise. This is the primary mechanism behind creatine's performance-enhancing effects. Supplementing with creatine provides additional ATP energy, which improves high-intensity exercise performance.
2. Supports Many Other Functions in Muscles
Creatine is a popular and effective supplement for adding muscle mass. It can alter numerous cellular pathways that lead to new muscle growth. For example, it boosts the formation of proteins that create new muscle fibers. It can also raise levels of a growth factor, which promotes an increase in muscle mass. What’s more, creatine supplements can increase the water content of your muscles. This is known as cell volumization and can quickly increase muscle size. Additionally, some research indicates that creatine decreases levels of myostatin, a molecule responsible for stunting muscle growth. Reducing myostatin can help you build muscle faster.
3. Improves High-Intensity Exercise Performance
Creatine's direct role in ATP production means it can drastically improve high-intensity exercise performance. Creatine improves numerous factors, including:
- Strength
- Ballistic power
- Sprint ability
- Muscle endurance
- Resistance to fatigue
- Muscle mass
- Recovery
- Brain performance
Unlike supplements that only impact advanced athletes, creatine benefits you regardless of your fitness level. One review found that it improves high-intensity exercise performance by up to 15%. Creatine is the world's most effective supplement for high-intensity sports. It offers benefits regardless of your current fitness level.
4. Speeds Up Muscle Growth
Creatine is the world's most effective supplement for adding muscle mass. Taking it for as few as 5–7 days has been shown to significantly increase lean body weight and muscle size. This initial rise is caused by increased water content in your muscles. Over the long term, it also aids in muscle fiber growth by signaling key biological pathways and boosting gym performance. In one study of a six-week training regimen, participants who used creatine added 4.4 pounds (2 kg) more muscle mass, on average, than the control group. Similarly, a comprehensive review demonstrated a clear increase in muscle mass for those taking creatine, compared to those performing the same training regimen without creatine. This review also compared the world's most popular sports supplements and concluded that creatine is the best one available. Its advantages include being less expensive and far safer than most other sports supplements. Creatine can increase both short- and long-term muscle mass. It is the most effective muscle-building supplement available.
5. May Lower Blood Sugar Levels And Fight Diabetes
Research suggests that creatine supplements may lower blood sugar levels by increasing the function of GLUT4, a transporter molecule that brings blood sugar into your muscles. A 12-week study examined how creatine affects blood sugar levels after a high-carb meal. People who combined creatine and exercise were better at controlling blood sugar levels than those who only exercised. Short-term blood sugar response to a meal is an important marker of diabetes risk. The faster your body clears sugar from the blood, the better.
6. Can Improve Brain Function
Creatine plays an important role in brain health and function. Research demonstrates that your brain requires a significant amount of ATP when performing difficult tasks. Supplements can increase phosphocreatine stores in your brain to help it produce more ATP. Creatine may also aid brain function by increasing dopamine levels and mitochondria function. As meat is the best dietary source of creatine, vegetarians often have low levels. One study on creatine supplements in vegetarians found a 20–50% improvement in some memory and intelligence test scores. For older individuals, two weeks of supplementing with creatine significantly improved memory and recall ability. In older adults, creatine may boost brain function, protect against neurological diseases and reduce age-related loss of muscle and strength. Supplementing with creatine can provide your brain with additional energy, thereby improving memory and intelligence in people with low levels of creatine.
7. May Reduce Fatigue and Tiredness
In a six-month study in people with traumatic brain injury, those who supplemented with creatine had a 50% reduction in dizziness, compared to those who did not. Furthermore, only 10% of patients in the supplement group experienced fatigue, compared to 80% in the control group. Another study determined that creatine led to reduced fatigue and increased energy levels during sleep deprivation. Creatine can also reduce fatigue in athletes taking a cycling test and has been used to decrease fatigue when exercising in high heat. Creatine can reduce symptoms of fatigue and tiredness by providing your brain with additional energy and increasing dopamine levels.
8. Safe and Easy to Use
Along with creatine’s diverse benefits, it is also one of the cheapest and safest supplements available. It's been researched for more than 200 years, and numerous studies support its safety for long-term use. Clinical trials lasting up to five years report no adverse effects in healthy individuals. What's more, supplementing is very easy.