Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 398: 15 Reasons to Take Creatine + Amazing NEW Research!

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

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Welcome in everybody to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue Podcast. As always, I'm your host Danny Matrenga and in this episode, I'm going to be going over what I think are the 16 best evidence-based reasons for supplementing with creatine in 2025. There's no reason not to be taking this supplement if you care about your performance, your longevity, and frankly your ability to outperform the competition cognitively. The emerging research around creatine is amazing and we'll also be diving in to the International Society

of Sports Nutrition's new stance on common questions and misconceptions regarding some of the misinformation around creatine, which I think will give you even more confidence when it comes to supplementing with creatine in the new year. Enjoy the episode. This podcast has some awesome partners and one of my favorite, of course, is Legion Athletics.

Legion is my go-to supplement manufacturer for what I like to call my big rock supplements. This would be my protein powder, my pre-training formula, my post training formula and creatine, and my kind of ancillary vitamins and micronutrient protection. So why do I like Legion so much? What sets them apart? It's quite simple. Legion uses all natural ingredients. All the formulas include natural coloring and natural sweeteners. No artificial sweeteners, just stevia. And every single formulation, be it a pre-workout or a vitamin, contains clinically effective

dosages of ingredients shown to work in humans in clinical research supported by robust trials. No filler, just legit ingredients in each and every formulation proven to work. The whey protein isolate is so light, it's fantastic, it mixes in water, it tastes amazing, and I drink it every day even as somebody who's lactose intolerant. That's just how high quality this whey protein is, and it's sourced from Irish dairy cows that are raised well, eat their natural diet, and packaged in climate-friendly packaging. I love their plant protein too, for those of you who like something that's a little on the thicker side and you aren't a fan of animal products.

Also, I love Legion's pre-workout, but specifically the pre-workout that does not contain caffeine. That would be their Stem Free Pulse. I'm a huge huge fan of beta-alanine and L-citrulline, but I don't like taking in wildly high amounts of caffeine. So, if you are somebody who likes pre-workout with caffeine, you can try Pulse. Or if you like it without caffeine, because you maybe want to enjoy your morning coffee or monitor your caffeine consumption, try the Pulse Stim Free. My favorite flavors there for sure are the New Grape and the Amazing Amazing Tropical Punch. As for my creatine, I get that from Legion's Recharge. Five grams each and every day. I take it on the days I train as well as the days I do not because Recharge also contains

L-Carnitine, which can help with promoting muscle recovery and decreasing soreness, as well as some ingredients to help with creatine utilization. And of course, my favorite supplements for my ancillary micronutrient health are Legion's Multivitamin and and legions greens powder. Not only do these two products contain a ton of high quality vitamins and minerals, they also contain unique adaptogens like KSM 66, ashwagandha, and reishi mushroom, which I like to take each and every day to promote my health. If you want to cover all your bases with a high quality protein, creatine, post-workout,

or the ancillary micronutrient health stuff like greens, powders, and multivitamin, I encourage you to go over to LegionAthletics.com and check out using the promo code Danny. That'll save you 20% on your first order and you'll rack up points that you can use the same way as Cash every time you use the code and you'll also be supporting the show. So getting right into the kind of run ofof-the-mill stuff before we dive too far into the weeds, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a physician, there are special populations who probably should not take creatine and those are people who have

existing liver kidney conditions or who are otherwise medically indicated not to supplement with creatine. On an average adjusted basis though, I'd say that about 99% of people do not fall into that category. And if you want to improve your strength performance, your speed, perhaps even your muscularity, swells your cognition, supplementing with two to five grams of creatine might be especially helpful for you. And it might be even more helpful if you eat a predominantly plant-based diet, vegan diet,

vegetarian diet. So the first reason, the first no-brainer reason to take creatine is you want improved strength gains. I'm not talking about huge strength gains like what you might see with steroids, but creatine can definitely help you increase strength compared to training without creatine. Let's say between five to 10%, meaning if you did a strength program and you

went from being able to squat 200 pounds to 220 pounds while taking creatine, a 10 percent jump, you might be only able to get from 200 to 205 without it. It does seem to make a big difference in strength. It's probably the singular most likely to change physical adaptation even more so probably than muscle growth. And I think you would be likely to change physical adaptation even more so probably than muscle growth. And I think you would be likely to see these strength increases and power increases even if you weren't totally training. And again, this is at doses of five grams a day. When it comes to creatine, we're always talking about creatine monohydrate and we're talking

about taking no more than five grams a day. Although as you'll hear throughout the episode, there's really no problem with taking more than that. Okay, when it comes to building muscle, creatine might also be particularly helpful. Reason two is that you might be able to add upwards of 2-3 pounds per year of muscle while taking creatine. This is not a ton, but this is substantial. And I think it's enough for most people to go, yeah, I'll take that because creatine is, as we'll speak about in the future, not particularly hard to get a hold of and not super cost prohibitive. But the evidence surrounding strength gains are stronger than the evidence surrounding muscle gains. But I would say

supplementing with creatine, if it allows you to do more work over time, will help you build muscle and there's some literature showing it might even help build a few extra pounds a year. Okay, the third reason to take creatine is of all the supplements that you are taking, if you're taking supplements at all, I would bet that almost none of them have been studied with the same amount of rigor as creatine, and I would bet that almost none of them have nearly as many positive benefits. It's the kind of thing where I understand being skeptical of big wellness. I am very skeptical of big wellness. But I don't understand it entirely being skeptical of big wellness if you're taking a bunch of

other supplements that don't have a ton of literature supporting their safety profile. This will never be the case with creatine. There's simply too much literature already existing that shows it's crazy safe. And I mean crazy, crazy safe, guys. It's not very often that you find a supplement that's safe for pregnant adults, for pediatrics, even for infants as well as athletes, but creatine stands the test of time in large part due to the fact that we make it in our own body. So it tends to be something our body tolerates extremely well. The primary issue people have with it is gastrointestinal. So I've always wondered if we did like

intravenous creatine supplementation, if people would have any issues at all. But the third reason to take creatine in 2025 is that there's really no downside unless you fall into that small sliver of the population who has GI issues or has medical contraindications that would otherwise, you know, have somebody else be able to take creatine. Okay, the fourth thing is that it's just so damn

affordable. Of all of the supplements on the market, creatine is without a doubt guys the most affordable for performance gains, for strength gains, and cognition. There's a ton of over-the-counter strength enhancers that don't work that cost a lot. There's a ton of products that say they will increase your muscularity over the counter that might have hormonal downsides that do not work and cost a lot. There's also a ton of nootropics on the market, things that say they enhance your cognition, that might help, but they probably don't, and they cost a lot. Creatine has a ton of literature supporting that it's good at all of these things and it's very inexpensive.

And you can add it to almost any beverage if you take it as a powder. It's very easy to supplement with as a capsule and the cost of a creatine monohydrate like daily regimen probably falls to under 30 to 50 cents per day, which is substantially lower than most supplements. So kind of a no-brainer because of the safety and the affordability. A fifth reason to take creatine that I think is awesome is there have been over 1,000 peer-reviewed studies, clinical trials, and systematic reviews performed on this supplement. Going in order from least robust to most robust, peer-reviewed studies, clinical trials, and systematic reviews are considered

the highest tier of evidence. Meaning, if you can get a peer-reviewed study done, that's great. If you can get some clinical trials knocked out, now we're in business. And if you have multiple systematic reviews saying something is safe and effective, you are really on the ball. And creatine's body of evidence, the literature, the stack of shit that says, hey, this is safe is humongous. And the stack that says it's dangerous is infinitesimal. So pay attention guys to the robustness, which is another word for like the size of the evidence

that says something is worth taking Because this is a case where more is generally better. Okay six It's been studied for over a hundred fucking years Can you believe that creatine has been studied not supplemented with but studied for over a hundred years again You just can't say that about most supplements in fact a lot of what you guys take either hasn't been studied at all or the benefits shown in a few studies haven't been replicated thoroughly over the course of many decades and a lot of scientific rigor. And again, that just shows up with creatine. And there are so many people I know

that take supplements with very little rigor. and if they do have any robustness of literature supporting their benefit, it's not 100 years worth. So five and six are an appeal to authority in their purest form, guys. My way of saying, hey, look, this is what the evidence says, but truly I believe these are legitimate reasons to take it. Moving on to number seven, this is if you care about your brain and memory, you need to be taking creatine. The benefits around creatine's effects on the brain are so very intriguing. They're so encouraging. They're so

exciting that I think we're gonna see a ton more money spent researching how creatine can affect various different brain conditions. And I think in the long run, this could make a huge difference in the way people age and the way we might fight various neurodegenerative diseases. I am not saying that creatine stands as a cure, but it might be a nice adjunct and potential beneficial way to triage the various different age related brain changes that come with aging as well as some more advanced cognitive decline. So creatine exists mostly in the space of I want to get big, strong and fast, but it's

starting to leak into the space of longevity and kind of, shall we say, brain care. And I think it belongs there. of longevity and brain care. It probably always has belonged there because a certain amount of the creatine in your body is stored in your muscles, most of it. A certain amount is stored in your liver, the second largest amount. And a good chunk, the smallest, but a good chunk, is stored in your brain. So clearly we use it and we use it in our brain in ways that supplementing with might be unique, especially for older adults. Number eight, you don't like to be sore. If you don't like to be sore, I would recommend supplementing with creatine. Creatine definitely has reduced my muscle soreness. I have for many years taken my creatine with another amino acid, L-carnitine, and a supplement

from Legion who full, full transparency, sponsors both me and the podcast, but they make an awesome post-workout product called Recharge, which contains L-creatine. This isn't an ad, I promise, guys. We're getting to the juice. So in this Recharge, you got five grams of creatine as well as some L-carnitine.

And both of those independently help my soreness. I know this because for many many years I took recharge which had both creatine and l carnitine and that helped my soreness. Then I switched to taking just creatine and I noticed it helped my soreness still but not quite as much even at lower volumes. But again without without creatine, I generally find myself much more sore. But it's been literally years since I have taken any meaningful time off creatine. How I think it helps with soreness is because it helps with intramuscular hydration and making sure that you have enough hydration in your muscles, which doesn't sound like it would be a really big deal guys. I get it, but it is it is you want to be hydrated you want fluid in your muscles it can help with soreness it can help

with recovery and it can help with performance so this I'm gonna say kind of loosely because we're getting into the components of creatine where there isn't quite as much research but one area that I just find so unique and so cool is depression I'm somebody who kind of battles on and off with various different effects and moods that could be seen as depressed. I've been diagnosed with depression, nothing extreme, and I feel that I manage it quite well. And I certainly don't think creatine is making it marginally better, but there is some literature that shows creatine may be helpful.

So that gives me another reason to take it, and it might give us another population, meaning group of people, for whom creatine supplementation might be uniquely beneficial. How it works in this way, I'm honestly not totally sure, but I think that's super duper cool and really exciting. What's going on guys? Taking a break from this episode to tell you a little bit about my coaching company, Core Coaching Method. More specifically, our app-based training. We partnered with Train Heroic to bring app-based training

to you using the best technology and best user interface possible. You can join either my Home Heroes team, or you can train from home with bands and dumbbells, or Elite Physique, which is a female bodybuilding- heroes team or you can train from home with bands and dumbbells or elite physique Which is a female bodybuilding focused program where you can train at the gym with equipments designed Specifically to help you develop strength as well as the glutes hamstrings quads and back I have more teams coming plan for a variety of different fitness levels

But what's cool about this is when you join these programs you get programming That's updated every single week the sets to to do, the reps to do, exercise tutorials filmed by me with me and my team. So you'll get my exact coaching expertise as to how to perform the movement, whether you're training at home or you're training in the gym. And again, these teams are somewhat specific, so you'll find other members of those communities looking to pursue similar goals at similar fitness levels. You can chat, ask questions, upload form for form review, ask for substitutions.

It's a really cool training community and you can try it completely free for seven days. Just click the link in the podcast description below. Can't wait to see you in the Core Coaching Collective, my app-based training community, back to the show. The 10th reason to take creatine is that you can actually scale it to your body weight, to your size, going above or beyond the clinically recommended dose of five grams a day. If you're a smaller female and five grams a day tends to like mess up your gut, smaller

male is appropriate here too. Two grams, three grams, two to three doses of one to two grams is a great way to do it. You don't have to do five at once. And recently I saw Rory McElroy, the great golfer say he's taking 20 grams a day. So as to help with his cognition and ability to drive the ball with no downside. So you can go above or beyond that kind of golden dosage of five grams depending on size or goals without too much penalty. The other thing you have to remember is you do get some of the what shall we say nutrients that are well you get creatine you get some creatine in

your diet assuming you eat meat but especially cold water fatty fish and red meat So if you don't get it in your diet supplementing with it helps. That's where that five grams comes from but Maybe you do eat a lot of fish and red meat. You could get away with less if you eat none You could probably get away with 20 grams plus I have no idea We're seeing a ton of people taking lots and lots of creatine with no real issues. OK, 11 is that it could be uniquely beneficial for people

with various neurodegenerative diseases. We highlighted this earlier on point number 7 when I talked about brain and memory, but specifically diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and post-stroke. There's some really, really interesting literature here. Some of this will expand upon when I get into the position stance and some of the new research. But very cool, very unique benefits for older adults who are challenged by neurodegenerative

disease. Okay, 16 things I promised you, and only one of them is a debunk, and that is that you have got to drop, this is number 12, you have got to drop the fear and you should supplement with creatine if you're afraid that it causes baldness or acne because that is totally overblown. The evidence has never been replicated and it's very difficult to ascribe baldness and or acne to just supplementation of creatine. Okay, number 13, this is a badass one for older adults and that's that creatine can improve bone density in older adults. We love that!

We love seeing more bone density and if you paired creatine with resistance training, you'd probably get even better results. Okay number 14, creatine has a positive effect on the regulation of blood sugar. This could be beneficial for diabetics. And another one of those things, that when you layer it with exercise, is going to be even more effective. OK, number 15. We'll talk about this when we expand on the research more. But it's that creatine might be uniquely helpful for people who have a traumatic brain injury

or who have suffered a concussion. One of the most common questions I'm asked about creatine is from mothers of young adults who play football. It's almost always young boys, but they're asking, is creatine safe for my young boy? They want to know, can my little guy safely take creatine or is he kind of, for lack of a better term, putting himself in harm's way with this supplement that I know very little, if anything, about, right? So it's very common for me to get questions from concerned parents about the safety profile

of something like creatine. And I'm always really empathetic because I understand that people wanna do what's safe for their children and they do not wanna put them in harm's way, but I would just be very clear that any parent out there who wants their child to supplement safely, creatine is probably the safest one that they can take. And if you play a contact sport

where you are getting hit in the head over and over and over and over again, like football, there are some risks associated with that. And creatine, believe it or not, might actually help in a way that no other supplement to date really has ever been able to replicate. And if you could keep your kids safe when they play a sport as violent as football, I can't think of a parent who would not wanna do that. So I would strongly recommend anybody

whose child plays a contact sport. Consider supplementing with creatine or letting your child, more accurately, consider letting your child supplement with creatine because it can make a really big difference And how their brain handles the contacts and the physicality of the sport that they play? The 16th and final reason before we get into the literature guys is that you never have to cycle off creatine I've been on it for years. There's no evidence that shows we need to cycle off of it And I think that's really encouraging. So as promised we're gonna

get into some of the new literature again this is from the International Society of Sports Nutrition. This is a 2025 kind of review of some of the issues questions and concerns around creatine and one of the questions it's often asked is can creatine provide benefits if you do not work out and a new position statement, one of the conclusions drawn on some of this evidence is that creatine can actually provide benefits to skeletal muscle if you do not exercise.

The lower your baseline creatine, especially this is gonna be vegans and vegetarians, will experience greater response to creatine, monohydrate, even if they do not exercise. So that's awesome. Another question, does the timing matter? Okay. And the research shows that the timing of creatine monohydrate does not appear to matter. That's kind of cool too, guys.

Okay, what about things that I can take with creatine to improve absorption? Research actually shows that co-ingestion of other compounds, this would be things like creatine with protein or creatine with carbs, it's going to accelerate or potentially accelerate increases in muscle creatinine levels, meaning we might absorb our creatine better if we co-ingest with other nutrients, something I've been doing for years, something that makes a lot of sense. Okay. Creatine and caffeine, do they compete with each other? So if you co-ingest creatine and caffeine, less than five milligrams per kilograms a day of caffeine, it is likely not going to have an interference effect.

However, consider acute caffeine intake after creatine monohydrate ingestion if possible. That's an interesting stance. So there might still be a little bit of a jury still at effect, but it does seem to say that chronic caffeine use combined with creatine monohydrate does not result in greater exercise effects. The combined strategy may increase GI distress and indirectly interfere with performance, so don't overdo it on the caffeine if you're supplementing with creatine. Okay, creatine monohydrate does not increase rates of muscle protein synthesis.

That's more of a steroid thing, guys. However, there is some cool new research showing that there's existing evidence to support anti-catabolic effects or anti-muscle loss effects in men. So that can be really good and broadly applicable to people, again, who do not work out. It seems to be the case that many inflammatory markers are lower following intense aerobic exercise with creatine and that creatine has the ability to enhance recovery following injury, surgery, or joint immobilization. So that's very cool too. Another potential use case for creatine, right? People who are recovering from injury. Evidence-based research does not support that

creatine monohydrate increases the formation of carcinogenic compounds, cancer risk, primary, and metastasis. So this is good news because something you'll often hear from people is a general concern about something causing cancer. A lot of people have a loved one or somebody close to them who has had or even died from cancer. And cancer is a very prevalent disease. I believe it still is the first or second leading cause of death in America. So people are always concerned about things that may cause cancer. And because creatine is found in red meat and many people associate red meat with increased cancer risk, there's been a lot of concern. But there remains no evidence that creatine is correlated with cancer. Many people

will ask if I start supplementing with creatine, am I going to increase my rate of urination? Am I going to pee more because I have to drink all this water? One of the kind of main tag alongs with creatine supplementation is making sure, absolutely sure that you are getting enough water. And it does seem to be the case that creatine has no effect or does not increase urine production. So a lot of the I have to pee a lot when I take creatine is coming from the water. A big one I hear a lot is how is creatine going to affect my blood pressure? High

blood pressure or hypertension is one of the most common medical conditions in America and it's not a great idea if you have high blood pressure to go messing around with a bunch of stuff, especially things like salt. But in general, there's really no adverse effects between blood pressure and creatine. So that's pretty awesome. This has only been replicated in animal models, but there's also, it's very difficult to do this in humans. But again, we've seen animal models where creatine supplementation during pregnancy has no effect on the mother or offspring. Kind of unique. In adolescence, this is big. Creatine may improve measures of sports-specific activity in addition to

improving power or sprint speed. So that could be skill development as well as strength and power. That is awesome, awesome, awesome. And then again, here we have more expansion on the ability for creatine to positively affect cognition and memory during periods of sleep deprivation. So could be uniquely beneficial for the sleep deprived. So lots of new research, again, all kind of pointing in the direction of using creatine. I gave you my 16 best reasons for it. I hope you'll supplement with it in the new year if you are somebody for whom it's safely indicated, which you likely are.

Stay tuned for more episodes like this to help you perform better both at work and in the gym and get the most out of your 2025 guys. Thanks for listening. Be sure to follow the show on Apple on Spotify and leave me a five star review so more people can find to the show and we can get these golden nuggets of information out. Have a great day and I'll catch you on the next episode.