Long associated with youthful weightlifters and athletes, creatine supplements increasingly are being used by older adults to maintain muscle and even improve cognition.
Performance experts and professors at Northeastern University say the latest research shows creatine can help older people stay stronger longer. But it’s not a miracle elixir — people have to put in the work and keep active to see benefits.
“Creatine is used by the muscles to restore and provide energy,” says Carla Bouwmeester, a clinical professor of pharmacy and health systems sciences at Northeastern.
“This supplement can help muscles recover after they’ve been used. So combining this with exercise is where you would see a benefit,” she says.
Creatine is sometimes advertised, particularly to older adults, as something that will work on its own to build muscles even in couch potatoes. “But just taking the powder by itself is not going to (work),” Bouwmeester says.
“You can still ingest your creatine (without exercise), but you will probably just produce expensive urine,” says Rui Li, director of Northeastern’s Exercise Science Program.
Creatine is an amino acid that people typically consume in powder form mixed with water.
A well-established supplement since 1985, its use has been endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine, says Li, an associate clinical professor of public health and health sciences.
The benefits of taking creatine have been linked to sports that require short and explosive bursts of power such as sprinting as well as endurance athletes, Li says.
“During the aging process, muscle loss is inevitable,” she says. “But the good news is exercise and nutrition contribute to slow down the muscle loss process. And creatine supplementation certainly would help delay this process as well.”
“Years ago, creatine was primarily associated with weight room activities,” says Steve Clark, Northeastern’s director of performance rehabilitation.
“What we’re seeing now is more and more research coming out showing the increase in cellular energy availability can help in all processes of the body, from muscle growth to cognitive benefits,” Clark says.
“There are different ways to supplement with creatine, but creatine monohydrate has been proved to be the most effective” form, Li says.
Gregory Cloutier, a Northeastern psychology professor and expert in human performance, says the recommended daily dose of creatine is three to five grams, and he favors supplementing with five.
“For seniors, as we lose muscle mass, it may be a little bit more beneficial to take creatine monohydrate as opposed to someone who is younger because they have a lot of natural ability already,” Cloutier says.
“As we get older, we lose hormonal balance, muscle mass and capillary density,” he says.
Cloutier says that creatine helps restore muscle mass and balance through a chemical process that builds energy into our systems.
Exactly how does it work?
Human bodies rely on stored energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, that lasts for the first three seconds of activity, Cloutier says. Then the body relies on the naturally occurring creatine phosphate system to create more ATP.
“If we can add more (creatine) into our system, we have a little bit more of an available source to borrow that phosphate to create short-term energy and maybe forestall fatigue during resistance training,” Cloutier says.
“I’m able to lift a little bit heavier, and I’m also improving bone density, which is important for us as we get older to help prevent falls and breaks.”
Cloutier says he advises older women to maybe try heavier weights and 15 repetitions instead of lighter weights and 20 repetitions when combining resistance training with creatine to see the best results.
While creatine may not do much for exerted muscles, some research shows that supplementation alone may be good for cognition, Cloutier says.
He says it may have something to do with delivery of energy to the brain. Or it may be that people using creatine supplements are more inspired to exercise, which also increases cognitive function.
Clark says that when he experimented with creatine after his 17-year-old son added the supplement to his regimen, he was pleased to notice, “I’ll be a little less fatigued throughout the day, a little bit sharper, if you will.”
His personal experience, by itself, falls in the category of an anecdote, Clark says, but adds it was interesting to test some of the claims put out by advocates of creatine.
Li says it’s important to follow the recommended dosing to avoid wasting money and other pitfalls associated with overdoing creatine, such as increased body weight due to water retention.
Even with the proper dosing, some people may gain water weight because creatine is known as being osmotically active, meaning it draws water into the muscle cells.
“When you supplement with creatine and creatine is stored in the skeletal muscle, it’s going to attract water to the skeletal muscle,” says Geoffrey Ebbs, a Northeastern strength and conditioning coach.
“You can also think about it as being a redistribution of water within the system,” he says.
“This temporary weight gain is due to water retention, not due to an increase in fat,” Li says, adding that the water retention period tends to last one or two weeks.
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People sometimes experience gastrointestinal problems when they start supplementing with creatine, which Ebbs says can be diminished by avoiding recommendations “to load” with additional creatine servings before settling down to regular daily doses.
“A lot of the instructions on the jars that you buy and the capsules that you buy will tell you to go through this period,” he says. “Obviously, the more I ingest the more likely it is to upset my stomach. (Loading) is not something that I’m a proponent of.”
It also helps to take non-acidic juice with creatine and divide the five grams into two daily doses to keep GI symptoms at bay, Ebbs says.
While creatine is considered safe for the kidneys in healthy individuals, it could cause problems in older people with reduced kidney function, Bouwmeester says.
“Your kidneys need to work harder to excrete the creatine so it’s like an extra burden on your kidneys,” she says.
Li says she advises people taking creatine supplements to check with their doctor or dietician and always purchase from a reliable source.