[00:00:11] Speaker A: Your eyes and your vision are under attack, damaging blue light from the sun. Your phone, your computer, your tablet, even light bulbs and car headlights is constantly bombarding you. The good news is our eyes actually already have a line of defense to counter the effects of blue light. This defense is made up of three pigments called carotenoids Macuhealth with Micro Micelle, the only supplement with the exclusive patent on all three macular carotenoids and Micro Micelle technology.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: With more screen usage and indoor time, Myopia, also known as nearsightedness, is increasing and getting worse in children.
Now certified eye doctors can prescribe my sight one day. The first and only FDA approved soft contact lens to slow myopia progression and age appropriate your children. Visit coopervision.com to find a brilliant Futures certified eye doctor near you do your patients know what presbyopia is? There are people who are afraid of the press. Have you talked to your patients about multifocal contact lenses?
[00:01:17] Speaker C: I've heard the bifocal but not multifocal.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Do you need help with your multifocal strategy? Learn more at the conclusion of this episode.
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Today's episode is about one of those most widely researched yet misunderstood supplements in health and performance, creatine. We all know creatine as a go to for athletes to build strength, enhance muscle growth and speed recovery. But what if I told you it also improves brain function, supports bone health and may even play a role in healthy aging?
To explore these powerful effects, we're joined by one of the world's leading researchers in the field, Dr. Darren Kandow. Darren is a PhD. He is a respected expert in exercise physiology with a specific focus on how lifestyle, nutrition and creatine supplementation impact muscle, brain and both health across the lifespan. Dr. Kandel, welcome to the Dr. Kerry Gel podcast.
[00:03:10] Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: Dr. Kandel.
What really intrigues me is there probably 2.5 million studies done every year but it's about 17 years before important research that you do gets to the masses of the doctors. So basically the doctors, we use experience, but we also rely on new research and research to help our patients. I'm very interested. You've done over 150 research papers. Number one, what was your favorite most impactful paper that you did?
[00:03:45] Speaker C: Oh geez, that's an excellent question. You know, it's probably actually a recent one. Me and a colleague in 2023 published a two year clinical trial on creatine in postmenopausal females.
And it took over a decade to do the study and to disseminate the research. And you know, it didn't come out with a huge impactful effect on bone geometry, but it did show some preservation effects to postmenopausal females. And I think that has lots of applications for that segment moving forward and where it took so long, so much money, so many hours in the lab, I think that was one of the biggest impactful papers. It was recently published in Medicine, Science and Sports and Exercise and, and also with that it's the evolution of just not from muscle. But we're now starting to look at creatine into bone and we'll talk about cognition. And I think the other one that comes to mind is very interesting. We sort of get so many myths and questions about creatine that I sort of spearheaded a two part paper series called Myths and Misconceptions about Creatine Supplementation. And those are both published in the Journal of International Society of Sport Nutrition and those have gotten downloaded quite a bit, almost a half a million times the first one and viewed. So those seem to have some big impacts, but that's a really good question. Geez, when I go back over it. But those are the ones that come to mind. Yeah.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: So as a doctor, I'm an eye doctor, of course, but as a doctor, the doctors that work in exercise physiology. Of your papers, what's one of the findings that you had or one of your papers that you wished that the exercise physiologists and the physiatrists would include rate into their practice that they're not yet.
[00:05:34] Speaker C: You know, that's a really good question and it's actually a non creatine paper. I think it came from my dissertation in 2005.
And me and my mentor show compared to younger males, that older males have reduced power, strength and velocity not only in the upper body, but the very interesting thing is it was substantially reduced in the lower body, not only at slow speeds, but Especially at fast speeds. So that supported evidence that as we get older, we lose type 2 muscle fibers, but more importantly, we're actually losing functionality and strength below the belly button, so to speak. So I think as we move forward, we had hoped that that would be used to maybe generate sort of a change in exercise prescription, maybe doing more exercises for the lower body, more volume. I don't know if it's really made that much of an impact.
It's been cited over 300 times, but it is in an aging population. So maybe that's why it hasn't been a mainstream thing. But it clearly shows that you should never miss leg day, and if anything, you should be doing more exercises for the lower body to compensate. As we get older and, and we still typically see most people do a lot of upper body movements, which are important, but I think lower body are just as important there. So that one definitely comes to mind is probably underrepresented or maybe not enough substantiation between it.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: Yeah, so we lose type 2 muscle fibers around 40, 50 years old, and we need to rebuild that. Is that something creatine could help replace?
[00:07:05] Speaker C: Well, it can't help rebuild the fiber, but those fibers really store the greatest quantity. So this is a really important point. I think the main facet behind creatine is to enhance muscle and, or exercise performance, especially at the higher intensities. That's where we see the most robust evidence.
So for those listening, if you are engaging in cardiovascular exercise or resistance training, creatine may allow you to lift heavier weights, do more repetitions, maybe at a faster speed, and it also helps speed up recovery. So it sort of gives you a little bit of an adjunct to perform more volume of work, which might help maintain or even increase the hypertrophy of type 2 and type 1 muscle fibers. So although we've never looked at it in a diagnosed sarcopenic population, it's certainly been shown numerous times to improve age related muscle mass, strength and functionality, which I think everybody listening to would raise their hand, say, hey, I'm all in. I think as we get out of bed and if you're 40 years and above, you started to notice more aches and pain. Strength is starting to decline, muscle mass is starting to decline, and exercise has to be foundational. And maybe considering dietary or supplementation of creatine might be something to also consider.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: And is there a big difference between type 1 and type 2 muscle fibers? And if you could explain the difference.
[00:08:23] Speaker C: Yeah. So type one are the ones we're actually using right now. Breathing you know, if you get up and go to the bathroom, go for a walk around the park, something that's low intensity, but they're fatigue resistant.
Now, most individuals are born with 50 of these type 1 or what they call slow twitch fibers. And the majority of individuals, about 50, have these type 2 muscle fibers.
Type 2 are the larger. Those are the ones we typically activate or recruit at higher velocity when we're sprinting, performing heavy squat, playing intermittent sports, for example, they're very powerful, but they have a reduced capacity, so they fatigue or get tired quicker. And those are the ones that we're really recruiting. The last few repetitions of a set, they're very important. Both fibers are.
But the cool thing is there's new emerging research suggesting that we don't just have type 1 and type 2 anymore. We might have a hybrid. So they're a combination workout of California in Belgium, by Andy Galpin in California and Wim de Rave in Belgium. They've actually shown. Now, if you're an exercising individual, you decrease the expression of Even these type 2x fibers, which we were probably taught in university, and they only express type 2A. So even the exercising individual might over time have more evidence to suggest that we're getting a bit slower or more oxidative. So they're both important. But I think from an exercise perspective, especially anaerobically or intensity, these type 2 fibers are crucial. Sadly, those are the ones we seem to lose as we get older. So that's why performing activities around the house, carrying things, lifting things, might get a little bit more difficult.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: Is there a way to replace those?
[00:10:06] Speaker C: There's not a way to replace those, but the key is that if you can maintain exercise, there's a high prevalence that you'll maintain not only the type 1, but as we get older, I think you should focus on a little bit higher intensity. So power training has come to mind in the last decade. Really crucial for older adults. The faster you can move a muscle, it might recruit those type 2 muscle fibers longer and maybe you'll delay the offset of atrophy and necrosis of those fibers. As we get older.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: We talked about, you talked about legs. So how important is for a kid, a teenager, to exercise? What kind of leg exercises should they do? Should they do squats? Or is that something they should be afraid of, of hurting their back? And as an adult, somebody who's never exercised, a 50 or 60 year old, should they do squats because they could hurt their back or leg presses, just regular leg extensions? So with the, with the Kids at what you think kids, being an expert on exercise, start exercising. And what leg exercises would you recommend they start with? So first, what age and what exercises?
[00:11:15] Speaker C: Yeah, so for children that, you know, the idea that children shouldn't lift weights, that myth has been debunked now for almost a decade. And I think you go with a little bit of caution. So what we usually recommend is to start with machines. Get the body accustomed to the feeling of exercise, the motion, the feelings of delayed onset muscle soreness, some of those patterns, and then they can certainly move into more functional patterns. Plyometrics even come to mind.
So really if they have a good base, they can progress upwards over there. I don't think you would start a child right over the get go with a free weight squat because that could be very dangerous and or movement patterns need to be established. And the same thing goes for an older adult. If you've never lifted weights before, I would do the same pattern there. You can start as little as one set for 8 to 10 repetitions, see how you feel and progress up to there. The good thing for your audience is two days a week of weightlifting can give you substantial health and fitness benefits. So it's not, you got to work out six or seven days a week, two days a week, and you can progress slowly and Canada and U.S. actually prescribe that. But I always would start with machine based rubber bands or anything that causes a mechanical stimuli to you in a safe manner and then progress in a slow manner over time.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: And what do you think of deadlifts?
[00:12:29] Speaker C: So deadlifts, squats, power cleans, they're all effective movements because the body has to lift something. So the key is if you have proper technique, adequate breathing, you understand the principles of the movement as you progress over time. I see no reasons why any exercise can't be effective if done properly.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: You know, for sports, you know, you watch baseball on television.
My son is 15, he plays baseball. And they have big lower bodies, big butts, big legs. They concentrate more on that than the upper body. Although of course their upper body is very strong as well.
[00:13:03] Speaker C: Right.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: Professional athletes, is that, is that the new trend now as you mentioned, working on your legs, working on getting your, having that big butt for, for power?
[00:13:15] Speaker C: Yeah, everything is sort of from the ground up. The vector velocities come from the biggest muscles in the body which are in the lower limbs. And if the power is stable from a gravity perspective, they can sort of transition into any type of rotation, or in your case, your son's case, swing speed, velocity, with the bat. Or I look at Rory McIlroy now, like these professional golfers who we think, oh, this must be just upper body, because they're swinging the club there. All the power is coming from the lower limbs. It's amazing. So most sports are driven from the ground up and not from the top down, which we typically see in the mirror or from an outward perspective.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: And Rory is a small guy. He's not a big guy, and he could hit the ball a mile.
[00:13:55] Speaker C: Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, he's come out and said how much creatine he's on. We'll probably talk about that. But, you know, for a small guy and he's carrying the ball 300 to 315 yards as a carry, with his swing speed, getting the ball around 190 miles an hour is unbelievable. And if you look at his stance, a lot of the power will come from the quadriceps and the internal rotation.
Obviously, he's very muscular, but if you see the size of their legs, no different than a hockey player. It's all driven from the lower body, which is quite important.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: So what professional athletes do take creatine that maybe have come to you for advice that you could share with us.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: The latest I've been getting is a lot from the National Hockey League for concussion treatment, so that's something that we can talk about a little bit later. But most sports can now probably benefit from creatine in many facets. So if you typically take the aerobic type of sports, the swimmers, the tennis players, the soccer players, maybe creatine won't allow you to get a greater increase from an anaerobic perspective. But it certainly will help with agility, balance, coordination, and more likely recovery from the sport. If those are engaged, I think a professional football, the offensive lineman or someone like that wanting to get bigger, stronger, faster. That's where the most robust evidence from creatine comes. So, you know, even weight cutting, I think a UFC or boxing, especially from the head impacts. We'll talk about that shortly. But there's not a lot of sports out there that may not get some avenue or benefit from creatine from either recovery or from an or performance perspective.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, there was a study about head injuries.
[00:15:31] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: And creatine. That creatine was helpful, that we'll. We'll definitely get to that. Yeah.
[00:15:36] Speaker C: Especially in the NFL. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: But I do. I got to go back to the beginning.
[00:15:41] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: What creatine is. Yeah, that's made of arginine, glycine, glycine glycine and methionine. So does that mean creatine is really a peptide?
[00:15:51] Speaker C: It's, it's kind of a tripeptide of the three amino acids, but it's involved, those amino acids are involved in reaction. So there's two major enzymes in the kidney and liver. So it's, it uses those three amino acids to form this molecule called creatine.
And of course those amino acids are non essential and essential. So we don't call it an amino acid, we call it a nitrogen containing compound.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Okay. And so it's kind of like a peptide but you wouldn't call it.
[00:16:20] Speaker C: Yeah, it's very unique. It has its unique identity.
Some people call it an amino acid, but when you look at the R chain, it's not an amino acid. It's more of a nitrogen containing compound. Yeah.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: We're up against a quick break, but don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with exercise physiologist Dr. Darren Kandale.
[00:16:46] Speaker C: MacuHealth your science born and tested solutions for visual performance, macular degeneration and dry eye syndrome. New products coming soon. Embrace the science.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: So, and I know my audience is going to be scratching their head right now to know the difference between creatinine. Yes, it's a byproduct of muscle metabolism and creatine. So if you could explain the difference. And this creatine come from creatine?
[00:17:10] Speaker C: Yeah. Excellent. So creatine, we can get it through the food or when it's taken into the body, it goes to our cells. And most people have heard of adenosine triphosphate or ATP. And what creatine really does is help maintain ATP, the energy currency of our cell. So we can perform activities of daily living or exercise a little bit more. But when creatine is used in the cell, primarily muscle, it doesn't get released from the muscle as creatine. It gets released as a metabolic byproduct. It's non enzymatically created or converted in the form of creatinine. So when people say oh, that was on my doctor's blood requisition form, I'm like exactly. They use creatinine, also referred to as serum creatinine, to use that as an indicator of kidney function. So think of creatinine as a byproduct. It gets into the blood and essentially it just goes through normal circulation, goes to our renal system and then gets excreted down the toilet in the urine. So when you're on creatine supplementation It's a good idea to tell your doctor, I'm on it. If you see my creatinine slightly elevated, that's probably what's happening. Unfortunately, a lot of times people will take creatine supplementation, their creatinine levels may go high. That's an indirect meaning saying, wow, my kidneys are not filtering it. Maybe I'm in kidney stress.
And that's usually not the case. It results in a false positive or just anxiety to the person.
So again, creatine and creatinine, they go hand in hand, but they're not the same molecule.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: Yeah, the healthy levels of creatinine is, I think it's about 0.6 to 1.2.
[00:18:43] Speaker C: Right.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: DL so what can we expect of someone's taking, you know, a lot of creatine every day and we're going to talk about dosage. How much higher than 1.2 do you think would be a false positive? How high would it get?
[00:18:59] Speaker C: Yeah, I think anything above the outside the normal range, the doctor gets a little concerned because typically now creatinine can also come from dehydration, excessive meat intake and or excessive exercise. So it's not just creatine supplementation. But my understanding is anything above the normal reference range, the doctor gets a little hesitant and they'll say, go off creatine. See if those numbers come back to baseline. And if they do, then, you know, it's just the metabolism of creatine and.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Creatine stored in the muscles. Right. And it produces energy.
[00:19:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:29] Speaker B: So how much creatine does the body make a day and where is the creatine made? In our body?
[00:19:37] Speaker C: Yeah. So we, we are producing about 1 to 3 grams, depending on genetics and your variability. On average a day, it's only produced in two areas, the liver and also the brain. We can consume about 1 to 3 grams also through the diet. Now, the, the important thing is that creatine is only found in animal flesh.
So red meat, poultry, but seafood, the fattier and colder water fish have the highest concentrations. So for those listening that are vegan, vegetarian, you're not getting any dietary creatine. You're relying on your natural body's production. So on average, we produce or consume anywhere between 2 to maybe 5 or 6 grams. We can excrete in the form of creatinine, about 1 to 3. So you have a small net surplus.
Is that dose required or effective enough to cause the health benefits? We think if you take a little bit more, that would be the baseline and we could talk about probably the minimal dose there, but it's an important distinction. We consider creatine maybe conditionally essential for some, but at the end of the day, the definition of an essential nutrient is that you would develop disease like symptoms without enough. And then vegans and vegetarians live long, healthy lives. So if you're synthesizing a minimal amount, you'll probably get the minimal efficacy. If you take a smaller, greater amount, you'll get greater effects.
[00:20:54] Speaker B: And a vegans take creatine, they probably do very well.
[00:20:58] Speaker C: I would assume they do exceptionally well. So think of a, your, your living room and it's 50% full of furniture. But you have so many people coming for a party. You take creatine, you double the amount of furniture, everybody can sit down. So that's essentially what's happening. So we store about 95% of our creatine in skeletal muscle. The remaining 5% is spread across tissues such as the heart br as well as bone. So the vast majority is stored in your skeletal muscle. Think of your bicep, tricep, and therefore once the muscle is full, then you only need a small amount to maintain those levels. Or with the evolution of research we're seeing, maybe if you take a little bit more, some of that extra might go to your brain, cardiovascular system and bone tissue.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: And I, my understanding is herring has the most creatine in the fish, about three or four grams. Now I'm not sure how much herring you have to eat to get the three or four grams, but. And how many people eat herring?
[00:21:55] Speaker C: But yeah, it's, and it's like a big porterhouse steak would have that, a salmon fill. So, you know, it's, you can get substantial dietary creatine. But nowadays with the cost of groceries, what if you're a vegan, you don't, you have allergies to seafood? Ethical treatment of animals. There's so many dietary patterns out there nowadays that most reputable creatine is third party tested. Crea pure has GRAS status, generally recognized as safe by the fda.
So if it's third party tested and creatine is vegan based, anybody can't consider it if it's part of their treatment and regimen? Yeah, Korea, poor Korea Pure is from Germany, that's correct.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: Yes, that's from Germany. And like 95% of it is stored in the muscles. Is that correct? Now, something that, that I don't know if anyone's asked you or have you ever came across this, but if there's, is there any people that can't make creatine. And if they take any creatine, what's that disease called?
[00:22:51] Speaker C: Yeah, so they're born, it's usually in children. It's called creatine synthesis deficiencies. It leads to a plethora of negative health consequences.
Impaired speech, brain development, coordination and balance for those individuals because the enzyme is lacking and, or the ability to synthesize creatine when they take super high dosages, it seems to have alleviate some of those effects. Yeah.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: And you know, creatine helps to regenerate ATP. So these unfortunate kids that are born with they, they really a lack of energy. And how does that affect their mitochondria?
[00:23:26] Speaker C: It's, it's, it's all those organelles. So not only is it the ribosomes on the, the endoplasmic reticulum, but the mitochondria reducing oxidative stress. So since creatine acts as a spatial and temporal energy buffer, it has catastrophic effects to the cell if it's not being produced in certain amounts. And some really interesting data, not from a supplementation perspective, but a good colleague of mine and one of the world's leading creatine researchers, Serge Ostiak, has looked at NHANES data in a multitude of areas and they've concluded that less than 1 gram of creatine in the diet has been shown to have reproductive issues leading to depression, substantial issues in children for future development, including bone development.
So it seems that 1 gram of creatine in the diet seems to be the baseline moving forward.
[00:24:13] Speaker B: Yeah, interesting.
So the best type of creatine, my understanding, is creatine, monohydrate or other forms of creatine. So can you compare the different forms of creatine?
[00:24:26] Speaker C: Yeah. So there's market of forms of creatine out there right now and there's probably at least 20 to 30. But Monohydrate seems to have the greatest proponents of safety and efficacy behind it. And I think because creatine monohydrate is simply creatine linked to water. And when creatine will go through your GI tract, the water diffuses and then you're left with the molecule that's very similar to what's being produced in the liver and kidney or brain. And that's why we can maintain the efficacy that our body identifies with it. And it seems to be safe and effective over time.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: And how is calcium involved? That creatine helps get calcium into the cell to be stored. If you could explain that and why that's effect, why that's Important?
[00:25:09] Speaker C: Yeah, it seems to be at this area of the cell called the sarcoplasma reticuloma. And not to bore the viewers too much, but that's the little pouch, if you will, in our skeletal muscle fibers that stores thousands, if not millions of molecules of calcium. And creatine helps take up calcium to recycle it quicker to allow muscle contraction to occur. So the thought is having more creatine that might speed up calcium recycling, allowing the actin and myosin cross bridge to cycle quicker. And that might allow or help explain why an individual would likely get an improvement in muscle performance. That's one of the mechanisms.
[00:25:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, there was a new study, there was a study that was recently published in the New York Post that was kind of negative on creatine. But if you read the study, it really isn't negative on creatine Reddit and it really just talks about the fat you should be on 5 grams. So I don't know why they interpret it that way, but if you could clear that up for us.
[00:26:04] Speaker C: Yeah, I was actually a co author on that study, and it's gotten a lot of negative pressing and I'm not sure why. But I think what happened is this was designed to see the effect of creatine before you start weight training, to see the effect of creatine on net water accumulation. So one of the biggest issues when you're measuring lean body mass and most of the techniques that we use, lean body mass is on average about 4, 50% muscle. But 50% means it's coming from water, organs, blood, things like that. And all we wanted to see was that could 5 grams of creatine before you start lifting weights cause any effect that might mask the benefits of resistance training?
And sure enough, that 5 grams of creatine for 7 days beforehand increase lean body mass by about 1 to 2 kilograms. So therefore, any treatment effect over time with placebo would be very difficult to overcome.
So it did not show any negative effects of anything. It supported the cellular hydration effects where we think all the benefits of creatine come in.
Okay.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: So you talked about the different. About creatine monohydrate as being the best form. Now there's how about the micronized creatine?
What's with that?
[00:27:23] Speaker C: Yes, so that's an easier way. Some people complain that normal creatine monohydrate, it has a little bit of grittiness at the bottom of the glass in water. They found some issues with maybe palatability.
So micronize or ultra Filtered is simply just recycling the creatine. So it gets really, really fine and fluffy.
The weight of it is quite a bit less. So micronized creatine or ultra filter, you might have to take a little bit more volume, but it seems to dissolve a lot easier. And that's to sort of tackle. Some individuals say, I don't like that little bit of grittiness at the end of the water bottle, or whichever it is, at the end of the day, it's still creatine monohydrate coming into the body.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: And creatine increases intracellular water. So we're getting fluid into the cells. Now this, this happened to me when I started using creatine when I was in high school. It made me a lot stronger, I have to say. I was able to lift a lot more weight and it definitely made me stronger. But I. But I felt that because I got so much stronger, I tore it one of the ligaments or the tendons in my doing. Bench pressed.
[00:28:33] Speaker C: Right.
[00:28:35] Speaker B: So can you talk about that as a possible side effect?
[00:28:39] Speaker C: Well, one of the ideas is that creatine increases the cellular hydration of the cell, and that sort of unleashes the cascade of effects of satellite cells, growth factors, things like that. But the volume to the correlation between that and muscle damage is not supportive anything. It goes in the opposite way. So what could have happened is maybe you were getting a little bit stronger, had a little bit more energy, and wanted to lift more weights. And that could be some of the effects there as well.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: Talk about taking it before exercise, after exercise, or even taking it during exercise. When is the best time to take it?
[00:29:19] Speaker C: Well, actually, you hit the nail on the head. All three of those are very viable.
We've actually shown now that there's no real difference in the timing. Since creatine needs to accumulate into the cell, you can take it in the morning, in the evening even, But I usually recommend in close proximity to exercise. So we've actually shown in our lab, taking it before exercise, during and after exercise are three very viable ways and times to take creatine. There. I personally take about 5 grams with my breakfast in the morning, and then I put 5 grams in a water bottle during my workout. That's a very easy way to get it in. And there's my 10 grams. I personally take about 10 or more a day based on the whole body dosing perspective. But if you say, you know what, I only have one time of the day, I think take it at the time. That's the easiest and most Consistent for you. And yes, you can put creatine in food. There's no reason why you can't. I wouldn't put it in a lot of acidic beverages throughout the day. That just might be a little bit more inconsistent.
But if you need to put it in your coffee in the morning, if it has less than 300 milligrams of caffeine, great. If you want to put in food, whichever it is, that's totally fine.
[00:30:26] Speaker B: And I use it in my shake. I know a lot of people use it. Is there a problem putting in a blender the powder? No.
[00:30:33] Speaker C: If anything, you'll get a synergistic effect from the insulin, from either whatever carbohydrates you're putting in there if you put berries or whichever, great. If there's protein, that's even better. There's been a few studies showing that the combination of creatine and whey protein especially has led to superior gains in lean tissue mass and muscle strength compared to protein or creatine alone.
So I put 5 grams in a very high Greek yogurt breakfast and then I'll put 5 grams in water a little bit later on. So again, I like the protein effect there as well.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: And is there something we should look at when we take whey protein?
[00:31:07] Speaker C: Good.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: Whey protein versus not so good. How do we know what's a good whey protein?
[00:31:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I think the number one ingredient on the back of the label should be whey isolate or whey protein base. If it has a combination of maybe vegan base or other things like that, it will still give you a total amount of protein, which we think is the most important. But the quality, we think animal based proteins give you a little bit more bang for your dollar. You'd probably need a little bit less so high. The one that has the highest amount of leucine would be my recommendation. Yeah.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: And how about denatured versus non denatured?
[00:31:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I love this question because for, you know, ever, whenever we see denature, we're always thinking bad. But Nick Byrd from Illinois put out a really cool paper last year or a few years ago on egg whites versus, you know, cooked eggs and things like that. And if you denature the egg, it actually goes through the GI tract a little bit easier. Maybe you can absorb some of those amino acids quicker. So. But too much denature, denaturation would decrease the functionality of the amino acids there as well. So there's probably not a big difference. Whatever seems to be convenient for you. Yeah.
[00:32:11] Speaker B: So you don't have to look specifically for non denatured whey from certain, you know, designer companies that make whey protein.
[00:32:20] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm not aware of any big differences there. I think at the end of a total protein your body will go through denaturation or whichever it is naturally with the hydrochloric acid of the stomach. So at the end of it, you're doing it anyway. I think the total protein to get those essential amino acids into circulation to be taken up into the cell and.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: Cycling on and off it, you have to cycle on and off like you might do with some of the, you know, like NAD or something like that.
[00:32:47] Speaker C: You mean in forms of creatine or protein Creatine? Yeah. So the thought was maybe we should cycle it because once your muscles get full, if you keep taking high amounts, you're just excreting it in down the toilet. But now that we know that creatine is going to other tissues, our evidence, or my personal recommendation, is you do not need to cycle it. I think you should be considering it on a daily basis and not just on the days you work out. Think of it almost like a multivitamin. There's no evidence to suggest you do need to cycle it. But of course we don't know if there's superiority between continuous or cycling.
[00:33:21] Speaker B: Now we talked about exercise before with kids. I forgot to ask you this question. People my age, there was a rumor that exercise weightlifting would stunt your growth.
Is there any truth to that?
[00:33:35] Speaker C: No. That's been debunked now for at least two decades. And that's why we're hopefully getting information out about evidence based research.
[00:33:43] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for, thanks for answering.
[00:33:45] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: And, and you mentioned caffeine before because I know that if you take, you know, if you take it with a large amount of caffeine, I think 250 milligrams.
[00:33:55] Speaker C: Yeah. Or higher. Yeah.
[00:33:57] Speaker B: Or higher. It could, it could counteract the benefits from the creatine.
[00:34:01] Speaker C: Yeah. The two best studies come out of Europe. They both use 5 milligrams per kilogram. So if you say the average person is 70 kilograms, that's 350 milligrams of anhydrogenous caffeine. So I often get this question, can you mix your creatine in coffee or tea? And based on those papers, the answer is actually yes, because most American Canadian coffee, a small coffee, is about 80 milligrams. A large would be maybe 250.
Do we know if 250 will totally degrade creatine? We don't Think so, but we don't know. So I usually recommend, you know, if you can split it up, great. If you're having it in a cup of coffee, that's going to be totally fine.
The thought is, if you took this in a large coffee and you sipped on it all day and you did that for months and months on end, could they interfere? They can, based on these seminal studies, but it's only from a muscle relaxation perspective. We don't actually see any big interference from a muscle growth or power perspective.
So I think if that's the best way for you to get it into your body, you get the benefits of caffeine, you get the benefits of creatine. And I see no big issues, especially if the dose of caffeine is at least under 300 milligrams, which most are.
[00:35:15] Speaker B: And we mentioned the shake before and we talked a little bit about it. But what would you recommend putting in in the shake? The creatine, the whey protein, berries, what else would you put in it? Would you put hemp seed? What would you put.
[00:35:29] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, there's a whole concoction that I would consider. So I, I would use whey protein as a staple and then you can mix it either in fat free milk or water, whichever it is. But if you measure, if you're not lactose intolerant and putting in milk, you get a lot of the good benefits of milk protein. That's whey and case. And so those two there, I would consider creatine. Anywhere between 3 to 5 grams is an easy viable amount. Berries, you get excellent fiber, phytochemicals, antioxidants. And then you start to look at some other things that you might be able to put in there, like magnesium is a really hot topic nowadays. In a non flavored powder.
Other people will put vegetables in there, but chia seeds or hemp, anything there with those high antioxidants, all those, if it tastes good, you're more likely to drink it. I think that's something to consider for sure. Yeah.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: That's a wrap for part one of our eye opening conversation with Dr. Darren Kandao. And part two will go even deeper, including the latest on creatine's role in aging, brain health and disease prevention. Stay tuned.
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