Creatine

Creatine can be derived from meat sources. It can also be supplemented.
have an important role in brain function. And once again, this is something that came up
Creatine can actually be used as a fuel source in the brain.
it can enhance the function of certain frontal cortical circuits that feed down onto,
or rather, connect to, areas of the brain that are involved in mood regulation and motivation.
And that's where creatine plays a role in depression, or rather, where creatine supplementation seems to be able to assist in some forms of mild depression.

That's an emerging literature. It's still not well-established. However, there is now ample evidence
that creatine supplementation can enhance brain function in certain contexts. And if you're interested in
learning more about what those contexts are, there's an excellent review that just came out. The first author is Roschel,
This was published just very recently in 2021. And one thing to make clear,
It appears to be at least five grams per day.

Now, the most typical form of creatine is so-called creatine monohydrate. There are other forms of creatine as well,
some of which are thought to not draw as much water into non-muscle tissues, and for some people, that's attractive to them.
They don't want water sitting below their skin, et cetera. I should emphasize, that the responses to creatine in that sense can differ.
Some people get a little bit of water retention. Some people experience more. There's some evidence that creatine can impact
some of the hormonal pathways, that it might enhance levels of so-called dihydrotestosterone, DHT,
and therefore, because DHT is involved in hair loss, there are these theories that creatine can cause hair loss.
And indeed, for people that are very DHT sensitive, it might. There's going to be a lot of variation person to person
in terms of how much creatine impacts DHT, and how many DHT receptors they have on their scalp,
and therefore, whether or not they experience hair loss. I'm just giving you all this information, so that you're aware of the various things
that creatine can do. But nonetheless, I think it's interesting that creatine supplementation of five grams per day,

take creatine five grams per day, and have for a very long time. I can't say that I've noticed a tremendous benefit,
because I've actually never really come off it, and so I've never done the control experiment. I take it more as kind of a baseline insurance policy.


EPAs, creatine, alpha-GPC to set a general context of support for my neurons,
for my brain. And, of course, I also pay attention to the foods that contain these various compounds. So I don't actively eat additional meat
just to obtain creatine. I eat a fairly limited amount of meat. I don't restrict it,
and I do eat meat, but I don't actively seek out creatine in my diet. Rather, I use supplementation
in order to hit that five grams per day threshold.

Andrew Huberman