Why Creatine Is Not Just For Gym Rats!

We all have that friend… That one guy/girl that seems to be at the gym every time you talk to them!

They’re likely also the friend that you have that carries around the shaker bottle filled with a colorful concoction, or who’s constantly scooping this odd-looking powder into their bottle…

It’s likely that this friend is jamming in creatine to support their workouts/progress in the gym!

What’s important to keep in mind however is that creatine is not just for the gym, its an essential component of health!

What is Creatine?

Simply put, creatine is a protein! Well, it’s actually an amino acid, which are the building blocks that make up protein!

Our bodies can synthesize creatine using the two other amino acids, glycine and arginine; however, we can also consume this from our diets!

Adding to this, consuming more creatine from our diets, as well as high amounts of exercise, our hormone levels, and our amounts of lean muscle can affect how much creatine our body needs/stores.

The largest amounts of creatine in the body can be found in the muscles, however smaller amounts (which are very essential) can be found in the brain, liver, and kidneys.

What does Creatine Do?

Creatine is most famously known for its ability to help in the production of ATP, which is the currency of energy for all cells of the body!

This is exactly the reason why it is so popular amongst the exercise community, as if one is consuming appropriate, or even higher levels of creatine, they will facilitate a greater amount of ATP production, causing the muscles to store more energy, bolstering their performance in the gym, and thus the results they see in their lean muscle growth!

Although creatine is famous for its role in the gym, I love my clients to understand that the benefits of creatine extend much beyond this!

Here are the other important roles creatine plays in the body:

Creatine Supports Digestion:

Digestion has become a hot topic of health in the recent years, and rightfully so, as we are beginning to understand how vitally important good digestion is to all aspects of health!

In saying this, seeing as creatine is used to support energy production within cells, it is also used this way around the entire body, including the digestive system!

Creatine provides the stomach with the energy it needs to release stomach acid into the stomach, which facilitate the digestion of proteins!

We also know that at many parts of the digestive system, organs are pumping out substances important for digestion; such as the pancreas with its release of digestive enzymes, and the gallbladder with its release of bile into the digestive tract to facilitate fat digestion. All these processes require energy!

Another major source of energy use in the digestive system is the small intestine. The cells that make up the small intestine are replenished every 4-5 days, ensuring the health and integrity of this surface. Creatine can support this process! This holds even more importance nowadays, as many deal with a condition known as leaky gut, where by the small intestine wall is not as integral or strong as it could be, meaning that creatine may play a role in facilitating the healing of a leaky gut!

Creatine Supports the Brain:

We all know how important our brains are, we’re literally thinking about it as we speak! If you think about the amount of thoughts we have per day (research says up to 80,000), as well as the amount of brain-controlled actions we do per day, even as simple as breathing, our brains consume a large amount of energy!

Knowing that creatine is a molecule that facilitates energy production, we can understand that the brain requires large amounts of this very important amino acid!

Creatine also becomes very important in neurological/brain related diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease or Multiple Sclerosis, as the brain/nerve cells may require more energy for functioning/repair.

Creatine Supports the Health of Hair, Skin, and Nails:

We are all beautiful inside and out! To complement our internal beauty, we all want to keep up on the health of our hair, skin, and nails!

All these external components are made of another type of protein called Keratin, and as such, it is vital to have healthy production of this protein in order to facilitate skin, nail, and hair health!

Creatine, like its role everywhere else in the body, provides the energy the body needs to support the production of keratin, therefor supporting the health of hair, skin, and nails!

Creatine Supports Fertility:

Creatine becomes a vital part of one’s family planning, as it plays an integral role in fertility of male sperm!

As anything else in the body that performs an action, energy is required to power such action! If you didn’t already know, when sperm enters a fertile female, the sperm then must swim upstream through the female’s reproductive tract until it reaches the fertile egg. This is how pregnancy occurs!

It is creatine that powers the movement of the sperm, making it essential to the impregnation process. In other words, if creatine did not exist, fertility wouldn’t be as easily achieved if not impossible!

In Conclusion…

As you all have now come to understand, creatine is not just for gym rats! Creatine plays an integral role in the health and functioning of the entire body, and if creatine did not exist, it wouldn’t be too bold to state that life wouldn’t exist either, at least as we know it!

So, ensure your body is receiving enough creatine by consuming healthy amounts of animal protein! If you don’t consume animal products, talk to your Holistic Nutritionist, Naturopathic, or Functional Med Doc about the use of creatine supplementation!

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Keep on living holistic,

Michael Sharp, CNP, NNCP.

DISCLAIMER: The information listed above is for educational purposes and discussion of general health information only. The information, opinions, ideas, and suggestions listed above are in no way intended to diagnose disease/health issues or act as a treatment for disease/health issues and is not to act as a substitute for medical advice from your doctor. Before taking part in any natural or alternative approach to health, these approaches should be reviewed by your doctor for approval especially if there are existing health conditions and if prescribed and or pharmaceutical medication is being taken due to the potential for interactions between medications and any natural approaches to health.