When I say creatine, the first image that comes to your mind is probably that of a muscular, young man working out (i.e. a gym bro) but what if I said creatine may be for the grandads? While there is a lot of doubt about the legitimacy of creatine supplementation, here is a look at how it affects different parts of the body and if it can truly counteract detrimental, age-related muscle weakness.
Creatine聽is a compound made by your body that aids in providing energy to your muscles, especially when there is a deficit in available oxygen. In simpler terms, when you are exercising and start to gasp for breath, your body tries to find different ways to produce energy that do not require air (i.e. oxygen). This leads to the breaking down of compounds like creatine to help supply short-term energy, but this process is limited by the amount of creatine stored in your body. This has led to people trying to ingest more creatine in hopes of increasing their endurance during physical activities. While this can be done by eating creatine-rich foods, like meat and seafood, many people have turned towards taking synthetically created creatine supplements.
The use of these supplements is met with skepticism for several reasons. Firstly, only聽聽and most research has been conducted exclusively in males and on one supplement form (creatine monohydrate). Secondly, there are recommended ways to take creatine supplements but not one standardised dosage. This can lead to ineffective or incorrect consumption, especially since creatine supplements can be taken without prescription or follow-up by a health professional and are regulated in a way that does not ensure it is free of other additives. Thirdly, side-effects such as water retention can lead to an increase in body weight (bloating) but this has been shown to be an initial effect that is not retained in the long term. As聽聽clarifying the use and effects of creatine has been conducted,聽聽exploring the use of creatine monohydrate to combat sarcopenia, the decrease of muscle strength, mass and function with age, has emerged.
Sarcopenia can directly affect muscles leading to a reduced capacity for physical exercise and can indirectly affect bone structure and strength leading to an increased chance of fractures and osteoporosis. This age-related muscle weakness has also been associated with a decline in mental capacity and cognitive defects. Overall, sarcopenia can lead to an increased chance of physical injury and mortality in older adults. This combined with the fact that around聽聽of the elderly are affected by this condition has led to the need to find interventions that counteract these effects. This is where creatine monohydrate (CrM) comes into play.
CrM and muscle:聽It has been shown that CrM combined with physical exercise like resistance training can lead to increased limb muscle mass and strength. In older males, it can also increase lean mass (the weight of your body without the body fat), 50% of which is muscle mass. However, it remains unknown the direct relation between CrM and new muscle formation and if CrM alone could produce these beneficial effects.
CrM and bone:聽With regards to bone mass, there is little evidence to show that CrM is more beneficial when combined with exercise as compared to strength exercise alone.
CrM and brain:聽In the aging brain, high doses of CrM can improve memory in healthy adults and patients with specific diseases, like chronic pain and Parkinson鈥檚 disease. However, it has limited efficacy in improving cognitive function in post-menopausal females and its effect in adults with neurodegenerative conditions is yet to be studied.
Creatine supplements combined with exercise thus have the potential to improve certain negative outcomes associated with sarcopenia, but this condition is still just treated using resistance- based exercises and protein rich diets. Dosage inconsistencies, indirect measures of physical abilities and rigid study exclusion criteria (including exclusions based on sex and disease states) have led to an incomplete picture of the efficacy of these compounds and the widescale impact of this as a therapeutic intervention remains to be seen.
Simran Dhir a second聽year PhD student in Pharmacology.
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