4 Reasons To Start Taking Creatine As You Age

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When it comes to supplementation for strength reasons, I know people can be a bit shy. When I first heard about creatine, I knew I sure was! Turns out, there was absolutely nothing to worry about, and it has single-handedly been the best supplement I take to this day. It’s that good.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably looking to get stronger. The good news is that creatine can speed up that process in a natural way quickly. Want to know how? Let’s read on!

What Is Creatine?

Creatine is a natural chemical compound that’s made by the liver, kidneys, and pancreas in small amounts. In the body, creatine is turned into creatine phosphate and stored in our muscles.

When we’re trying to do strength training or other high-intensity exercises, creatine is like a natural energy booster for your muscles. Therefore, the more creatine your body stores, the more power you have and the more strength you can produce.

Why Supplement When Your Body Already Makes It?

Now, if you’re a bit skeptical, you might wonder why you should supplement creatine if your body already makes it. And isn’t the vegan diet supposed to have everything already in it?

Well, kind of. The truth is that your body makes small amounts of creatine. The same is true for a vegan diet, it has small amounts of creatine as well. On the other hand, people who eat an omnivore diet (read: meat and fish) get extra creatine from their food. Depending on the study, creatine levels of vegetarians are 7 – 26% lower than non-vegetarians (source), so it’s likely it’s even lower for vegans.

That means that, as vegans, our bodies have enough creatine to easily function on a day-to-day basis but aren’t primed for strength.

When we’re trying to gain strength, supplementing creatine is a quick and easy, all-natural hack that can get us there much faster. It’s also the most well-researched supplement in the world and has no harmful effects on the human body in the short or long term. It is 100% safe and 100% vegan (if you take it in powder form).

What Are The Benefits Of Taking Creatine For Adult Vegans

Now, let’s say you do decide to get some extra creatine in your diet. What kind of results can you expect? Let’s start with the improvements in strength and work our way down the list from there.

You’ll Gain Strength

In studies that have been done between vegetarians and non-vegetarians, it’s been very clear that vegetarians gain much more strength when supplementing with creatine than the other group (source).

Since vegetarians have higher creatine levels than vegans that means that vegans are likely to see an even better or similar response which is great news!

It’s difficult to say how much of a strength increase you’ll see. That also depends on the person you are, your exercise routine, and your diet overall.

Certainly don’t expect miracles to happen, but it’s likely your strength increase will allow you to get a couple more reps in per set, or allow you to work with a little more weight. My personal experience has been that I was able to add 1-2 reps to each set of exercises I did, which was a great improvement!

Personally, I really like the creatine from Nutricost. It’s the most bang for your buck you can get. It comes in a couple of different flavors but I always buy the unflavored one and drink it with a glass of water daily. Click the button below to find it on Amazon.

You’ll Gain Muscle

Besides gaining strength, creatine will also make you gain more muscle. It does so in two interesting ways.

First, creatine makes you slightly stronger, which means you’ll be able to train a bit harder and gain slightly more muscle.

Second, creatine likes to draw water into your muscles. By drawing water into your muscles, your muscles become bigger. At a slightly older age, this won’t make a huge difference but if you do notice some bodily changes, this is something to keep in mind!

You’ll Recover Quicker

Another great benefit of creatine is that it’s been shown to help in recovery. That’s for a couple of reasons. First, muscles filled with creatine don’t get damaged as much which means they have to recover less anyway. Second, the creatine speeds up the recovery process (source).

This is especially important if you’re not in your 20s or 30s anymore. Everybody knows muscles recover slower as you age, supplementing with creatine can therefore give them the extra boost needed to recover from strength training or injury.

You’ll Improve Your Brain Health

In 2018, researchers came to the following conclusions when trying to find out if creatine improved brain function:

Generally, there was evidence that short term memory and intelligence/reasoning may be improved by creatine administration.

Source

Another interesting quote from that same study showed that younger people didn’t benefit from improvements in memory, which means it’s especially important for older generations.

Performance on cognitive tasks stayed unchanged in young individuals.

The researchers also said that vegetarians improved their memory much more than meat eaters.

Finally, while reading through these studies I also found that research suggests that people experience less mental fatigue after a stressful situation (source). In other words, it can also keep you feeling energized when going through some stressful periods in your life.

Are There Any Side Effects?

If you’ve read this far I’m sure you want to know all about this supplement. Therefore I think it’s great to also tell you about some side effects of creatine. Luckily, as promised, there’s nothing harmful here.

You Could Be A Bit Bloated

This only happens in the beginning and really depends on how much creatine you’re taking and how your body reacts to it. The reason why you may bloat up a bit is that creatine makes your body retain more water. Nevertheless, this goes away in a couple of weeks. To avoid it altogether, it’s recommended to just take a daily dose of 5g and nothing more.

You Could Be A Bit Dehydrated

This is for similar reasons as we just discussed. Creatine makes your body hold a lot of water which means that, if you don’t drink an extra glass of water, you may feel a bit dehydrated. This is also nothing to worry about and eventually wears off as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Much Creatine Should You Take?

The general rule of thumb is to take around 5 grams of creatine a day. If you notice your stomach is a bit upset by this, try to see if 3 grams a day is better. Sometimes you’ll read on the internet to start with a dose of 15 – 25 grams a day and to this for a week, but in my experience that is not necessary.

How Long Should You Take Creatine?

You should take creatine for as long as you want to be stronger and improve your cognitive functions. If you stop supplementing creatine, the benefits will go away as well. You can take creatine year-round without doing any damage.

What Type Of Creatine Is Best?

The best type of creatine, and also the most well-researched type, is creatine monohydrate. You can find this creatine in powder or capsule form. Keep in mind that capsules are sometimes made from animal products, therefore I prefer the powder.