Are creatine supplements all that they're pumped up to be?
Briefly

Are creatine supplements all that they're pumped up to be?
"Creatine supplements have long been popular among iron-pumping gym bros. But these days, interest in creatine has exploded, as social media influencers tout the benefits of creatine for everything from adding muscle to boosting cognition and even helping to regulate blood sugar. "It's the supplement of the year," wellness influencer Bobby Parrish said in a recent Tiktok post. "Creatine is legit." It's a compound made from three amino acids that your muscles use as a source of energy."
"Now, you could increase your creatine stores by eating more, but "the problem with that is we're talking like 2 pounds of raw beef every day and not many people are willing to do that," says Jose Antonio, a professor of exercise and sports science at Nova Southeastern University in Florida. Hence, supplements. When it comes to adding lean muscle mass, Antonio says the evidence for creatine supplements is "overwhelming.""
Creatine is a compound made from three amino acids and is produced by the body and obtained from red meat, chicken, and fish. Creatine supplementation maximizes muscle creatine stores and reliably increases lean muscle mass and short-term athletic performance, particularly for quick bursts of high-intensity effort. Combining creatine with carbohydrates can enhance endurance and speed recovery after intense workouts. Achieving equivalent creatine levels through diet alone would require impractically large amounts of red meat. Some claims extend to preventing age-related bone and muscle loss, improving cognition during sleep deprivation, regulating blood sugar, and protecting against Alzheimer’s, but evidence for those benefits is less established.
Read at www.npr.org
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