Do You Need Creatine—or Just Better Nutrition?

Creatine has been on the rise lately for all the benefits you can gain from it. Better energy, better mental focus, increased strength, bigger muscles, faster recovery, there is even a study about creatine helping with Alzheimer’s.

I’m not trying to refute those benefits, but the Alzheimer’s study has a lot of people taking very high doses of creatine some close to 20 grams per day! While creatine is generally one of the safest supplements you can take at a reasonable dose (5-10 grams/day), high doses of creatine can start to put extra strain on the kidneys. On top of that most people don’t need to spend their money on a creatine supplement when they could just improve their overall nutrition. More on that in a second. First, I want to talk about what creatine does and why it provides all those benefits when you need it.

What Does Creatine Do?

Creatine works in the energy system in the body known as the creatine phosphate system. This is an energy buffer system where creatine holds onto a phosphate until the body begins depleting its adenosine triphosphate (ATP) during higher intensity exercise or movement. Stored ATP lasts for about 2-3 seconds in all out movement before creatine donates its phosphate to replenish ATP. This gives another 8-15 seconds depending on how much creatine is stored.

Creatine works anywhere that energy is being used in the body, this is why there is benefit to mental focus and clarity with creatine supplementation. The brain uses a huge amount of energy especially when we are thinking hard about something. In fact, chess grandmasters are reported to burn up to 500-600 calories during a 2 to 3 hour match. This is the equivalent of running for about 1 hour at a 10-minute mile pace. As the brain is using the stored energy creatine provides a buffer while it makes more ATP from glucose. If there isn’t enough creatine, then mental fatigue will set in much faster.

The Other Half of the Equation

There is another very important player in the creatine phosphate system that I don’t see many people talking about. That player of course is the phosphate (or phosphorus) side of the creatine phosphate system. Without enough phosphorus, creatine isn’t going to be doing much. So, if you are someone who doesn’t feel a benefit from taking creatine either you are getting enough naturally, or you may just need phosphorus. I have seen many patients and myself gain the same benefits that creatine claims to give by taking phosphorus for a period to replenish it.

I will most often see people that are doing a lot of high intensity training or weightlifting benefit from taking phosphorus, but there are also people who just need to replenish this nutrient in their system. I have also seen many people with body odor that smells like ammonia improve very rapidly with the use of phosphorus. This is because phosphorus helps with the clearance of ammonia in the body.

Why I Don’t Think Everyone Should Take Creatine

The great thing about creatine and phosphorus is that most of the time you can get enough of both if you are eating nutrient-dense foods. Both are found high in animal products, so like I have said many times before it is very important to get enough protein in your diet and that should be coming from animal products. More on protein here. Yes, phosphorus is found in some plant foods, but it is stored as phytic acid which is much harder to digest and absorb.

So, while I do think some people can benefit from creatine, I don’t think that everyone needs to be on a creatine supplement. It would be much more beneficial to your overall health to check your protein intake and make sure you are actually getting enough before spending money on one nutrient that you may or may not need. Certainly, if someone is showing signs of Alzheimer’s or dementia it may be worth a shot, but in general people need more nutrient-dense foods including people that are showing mental decline.