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In this episode, Dr. Barrett Deubert breaks down why creatine is one of the most underrated supplements for brain health, energy, and long-term performance. From improving mental clarity and reducing fatigue to supporting migraines and cognitive function, this simple molecule plays a much bigger role than most people realize.
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Watch the episode on YouTube here!
DISCLAIMER
This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Barrett Deubert and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to replace medical advice or treatment from a physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding health questions and concerns. Neither Dr. Deubert nor the Real Health Co. takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All audience members, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.
. . .
Watch the episode on YouTube here!
- (00:00) - Intro
- (01:33) - What is Creatine?
- (02:38) - The Body’s Energy System
- (05:44) - Brain Fog, Focus, and Mental Fatigue
- (07:36) - Creatine & Mental Health
- (08:57) - Can Creatine Help Migraines?
- (10:19) - What Type & How Much?
- (13:35) - Creatine Mythbusting
- (14:33) - Closing Thoughts
DISCLAIMER
This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Barrett Deubert and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to replace medical advice or treatment from a physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding health questions and concerns. Neither Dr. Deubert nor the Real Health Co. takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All audience members, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.
Creators and Guests
What is The Real Health Podcast?
On a mission to share practical solutions to improve your wellbeing, The Real Health Podcast will equip you with evidence-based recommendations essential to achieving a healthy lifestyle. Join Dr. Barrett Deubert as he shares his passion for educating, inspiring, and empowering individuals to achieve “real health for real people”. Breaking down health topics such as: immunity, stress, real food, natural living, and much more to provide you with actionable steps to improving your family’s health.
Go to the gym and I wanna build muscle, should take creatine. And yes, although that is where it's been popularized, creatine what if I told you creatine can improve brain function? Would you take it? What if I told you creatine is is probably the least expensive supplement on the market? What if I told you it increases mental energy and endurance?
Dr. Barrett:What if I told you it reduces fatigue? What if I told you it was studied in migraine patients and and dementia and Alzheimer's? It's bigger than muscles. Well, welcome back to another episode of the Real Health Podcast. Today, we are talking all things creatine.
Dr. Barrett:Let's get straight to it. Creatine is a game changing molecule or supplement, and I can't wait to share more about it in today's episode. Hey. April 27 at 6PM at our West office here in Farragut is our gut check workshop. This is all things digestive health, all the way from kids with eczema and food allergies to adults with colitis, irritable bowel disease, or even just symptoms of leaky gut.
Dr. Barrett:We are gonna dive deep into how to heal the gut, how to optimize the gut, which does everything to support immune system health. So make sure you check it out on our, Instagram, sign up in the link tree, and we can't wait to see you there. Let's talk creatine. Most people think creatine is is a is a gym rat type supplement, right? So if I go to the gym and I want to build muscle, should take creatine.
Dr. Barrett:And yes, although that is where it's been popularized. Creatine, what if I told you creatine can improve brain function? Would you take it? What if I told you creatine is is probably the least expensive supplement on the market? What if I told you it increases mental energy and endurance?
Dr. Barrett:What if I told you it reduces fatigue? What if I told you it was studied in migraine patients and and dementia and Alzheimer's? It's bigger than muscles. And the reality is creatine might be the supplement you're missing out on, or you started taking it, you just don't know how to take it. So today, again, deep dive into creatine.
Dr. Barrett:Let's make it super practical, real health, real people. Let's get into it. What is creatine? Creatine phosphate or phosphocreatine is a molecule, it's an energy molecule. When you look at a cell, within the cell there's a power plant I like to say.
Dr. Barrett:The power plant is what we term the mitochondria. And within the mitochondria, the job of that that organelle is to create ATP or an energy molecule. ATP, adenosine triphosphate, is a molecule that fundamentally is your energy system. When it's used up, it then is recycled back into ATP, but it goes through a recycling phase. What is lost on that ATP molecule is what we call a phosphate group.
Dr. Barrett:Creatine phosphate fundamentally gives or donates its phosphate group to recycle ATP from ADP. So adenosine diphosphate or two to adenosine triphosphate, which is three. It takes two phosphates, adds one, and now it has three, and now it can operate again as the energy molecule that the cells need to function and thrive. When we have a depletion of ATP, we have a depletion in cellular energy. A lot of people are saying, hey, should I take NAD?
Dr. Barrett:Should I be taking Why is NAD and these high end supplements being popularized? Because fundamentally, they drive health to the mitochondria. And the more that you look into the epidemic of chronic fatigue and chronic disease and cancer, you'll see that the mitochondria are the first foremost to be destroyed or deficient. Energy systems, when they are not operating properly, can create havoc on disease. So how do we optimize energy?
Dr. Barrett:Well, it starts within that creatine phosphate group. Creatine in essence is that it's it's just a molecule that helps ATP regeneration. And when you look at the tissues that contain the most amount of cells and specifically mitochondria within those cells, we can look at three organs: brain, heart, and muscle. If brain, heart, and muscle are the organs that have the most amount of mitochondria then it's illogical to say creatine has the biggest impact on brain, heart, and muscle. So why did bodybuilders use it for decades now?
Dr. Barrett:Because it impacts the cellular energy of a muscle. So when that muscle is being stressed, strained, and trained, it has the ability to create more energy from creatine. Creatine enables the muscle to go longer in essence, lift more. Okay? So what about the brain then?
Dr. Barrett:Wouldn't it make sense that if you are cognitively impaired, if you have a sense of brain fog, loss of mental clarity, cognitive performance declines midday, afternoon, wouldn't it make sense that if we were to support that system with creatine that our cognitive function would improve? Well absolutely and the research supports it. So, let's talk about creatine for the brain. This is where it gets interesting because brain uses about 20% of the body's total energy. So it's one of the smallest, quote unquote, organs, all right, but it utilizes the most amount of energy per organ.
Dr. Barrett:It is the most metabolically active organ. One fifth of energy is within the brain, used within the brain. So what you eat, the food you eat, the energy systems that you have, the vitamins and minerals, all the things that you do, it's actually for a healthy brain. Creatine increases the phosphate levels or phosphocreatine levels allowing for better ATP recycling within the brain. And and and this has been shown to improve cognitive processing and reduce mental fatigue and better performance under stress.
Dr. Barrett:Better even when they're sleep deprivation. If you're a student studying and cramming for a test, you need to be on creatine. No question about it. It not only helps with brain energy optimization, the second thing it does is it helps with protecting the brain, what we call neuroprotection. Creatine's been studied specifically with traumatic brain injuries, neurodegenerative diseases, and cognitive decline.
Dr. Barrett:When patients come in with any neurodegenerative condition, we recommend five to ten grams of creatine every day. When someone has a traumatic brain injury and the cells have been damaged and injured, we recommend five to ten grams of creatine every single day. And when you look at how it stabilizes mitochondrial function and reduces oxidative stress, is an inflammatory pathway within the brain, then it just makes perfect sense why everyone should be taking creatine if they have any cognitive decline, especially when it comes to neurodegeneration. And the third thing it's been studied for is mood and mental health. There's emerging data now that shows it supports the balance of neurotransmitters and specifically, it may even improve symptoms of depression, especially studied in women.
Dr. Barrett:If you are within any of those categories, creatine can be a game changer for you. Now there's some additional data. We're seeing how it's emerging in specific studies with migraines. Know, migraines at the core of it is a brain energy crisis event. The stress load on the brain exceeds what the brain can adapt to.
Dr. Barrett:And so when you look at migraines as increasingly understood as mitochondrial dysfunction and impaired ATP availability, well this is why creatine may be very effective strategy. They did a study that showed up to twenty grams of creatine a day reduced migraines and headaches. You know, if you're someone who has migraines and headaches, this would be something you wanna dive in with your practitioner and consider how creatine could be a instrument in helping your brain work better. Research backed inside shows low brain energy increases susceptibility to migraines. So even if it doesn't necessarily treat the migraines specifically in the moment, it can help build some resiliency within the nervous system and potentially reduce the episodes of those migraines.
Dr. Barrett:There is even studies that show creatine may raise the threshold for what triggers an episode. If increase we the threshold by which stress accumulates and finally hits the threshold by which there's a migraine and we can do that through supplementing with creatine, I think this is a novel way of supporting migraines today. The clinical application for creatine with our patients is typically five to ten grams a day. Now what type? When you look at creatine what you're looking for is something called CreaPure.
Dr. Barrett:CreaPure. This is backed by science to be additive and chemical free. So when you're looking for a creatine monohydrate, make sure it's CreaPure brand. When you dose it, it's usually in a powder form, five gram servings at a time. Anything more than that can cause bowel issues and digestive symptoms, bloating potentially or even loose stools.
Dr. Barrett:So, you wanna make sure you dose it properly and about five grams is a very effective absorption amount. You know, there's some data that shows you could only really absorb about two to three grams at a time, but most of the time you'll see supplementing at five thousand milligrams per serving is pretty standard in the industry today. Now, how often? Well, it depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you take in five grams multiple times a day, it can start to have a significant cognitive improvement and effect.
Dr. Barrett:So if you're trying to treat migraines, there were studies that showed it was over twenty grams a day. But this is where you work with your practitioner and figure out what the right dosage is for you. Outside of it being clean Kriya Pure, five grams to ten grams a day, the best way to take it is first thing in the morning and a little bit of warm water, about three, four ounces, half a scoop, mix it up, knock it down. If you drink it quickly, then it doesn't have time to degrade. If you let it sit and you just put it in your water, drink it throughout the day, it actually starts to turn into a different form that you want to avoid.
Dr. Barrett:So the most effective dosing is immediately upon mixing we consume it. You know, there's a lot of people that look at how they can use creatine. We talked about the brain. Well, if you're training before you train, it's a great time to do it. Physical energy, it increases research shows strength output, it improves recovery and cellular hydration.
Dr. Barrett:It led to less daily crashes, afternoon crashes and improved resiliency. So from a muscle standpoint, if you're looking to try to make strength gains in the gym, it may be considered to use before you workout. How long before you workout? About thirty to sixty minutes, five grams, a little bit of water, knock it down, can be a great way to support cellular energy within the muscular system to drive a stronger and more effective workout. The muscular system is essential.
Dr. Barrett:It's an organ. It's a longevity organ to support and most importantly as you age, it's harder to gain and maintain lean muscle. So, condition there's we call sarcopenia which is the loss of skeletal mass. There is a way to delay sarcopenia in aging adults by taking creatine daily. Most people don't know that the myths around creatine are not backed by science.
Dr. Barrett:So the idea that quick myths, it's bad for your kidneys, is false in healthy individuals or it causes bloating. Alright? Only in loading phase in excessive amounts. So if you keep it at about three to five grams per serving, you won't have those effects. And, some people thinks it's a steroid because it's been associated with bodybuilders.
Dr. Barrett:It's not. It's just an energy molecule and it doesn't impact healthy individuals' kidney function at all. Those are total myths and it is one of the most safest, well researched supplements that's ever been created and on the market today. So for me, I take it daily. For my kids, they take it daily.
Dr. Barrett:For my wife, she takes it daily. And especially if you're not a high protein consumer, the need for creatine is that much more. Don't forget the gut check workshop, April 27, 6PM at our West office. And as always, if this episode adds value to your life, we would we would greatly appreciate you sharing it with others. Thanks again for listening to another episode of The Real Health Podcast.