Creatine for Women
Creatine is a popular supplement used mainly for it’s benefits surrounding increased strength and muscle mass. However there are additional benefits being studied including improved focus & mood. Whenever taking a supplement, it’s important to look at the most current research being done on different populations. As with many supplements and conditions, creatine has been studied much less in women than men. Women’s hormonal fluctuations make them more difficult to study. Plus women haven’t been doing exercise & weight lifting for all that long in the grand scheme of history, so tons of new research on female athletes has come out in recent years, including on the supplement creatine. Females have 10% higher resting levels of creatine than men but 70-80% lower stores of creatine than men (4, 21). This could potentially change their dosing requirements and response to creatine. Here’s what I learned about creatine for women.
Benefits for the Body & the Brain
Strength Training
Creatine is an essential substrate used in the creatine kinase reaction to catalyze energy for cells to use (in the form of ATP! - remember from biology?). The increased efficiency of energy production lead to more strength and power, especially for short bursts of activity like weight lifting or sprinting. Very little side effects on organs (such as the digestive tract, kidney, liver & heart) occur from use of this supplement (5, 13). But as always, if you have any medical conditions, discuss a new supplement with your doctor. Creatine does not cause weight changes. This is because creatine is NOT a protein supplement. It does not help your muscles to grow larger (aka gaining hypertrophy), but it helps them work more efficiently and get less fatigued! By increasing your weight training and tuning in to your nutrition, you may experience increased muscle mass (aka lean body mass) and decreased fat mass, but this would not be a direct cause of taking creatine. It’s all about the quality of your training & nutrition. Creatine’s benefits may be especially of interest to athletes participating in sports that require jumping, sprinting and power (7, 15).
Endurance Training
Endurance is more about the strength and efficiency of your heart. Long runs, pilates workouts and playing basketball require endurance. Many fitness fans & athletes combine both strength and endurance in their workouts. So how does creatine help them? Some studies have found creatine to benefit the cardiovascular system and electrical activity of muscles resulting delayed fatigue (17, 21). After all, the heart is a muscle with significant creatine kinase stores! Creatine likely improves the efficiency of the heart like it does other muscles we train.
Mental Health
Creatine’s benefit on cognition and mental health have also been studied in women with some promising findings. There is a significant amount of creatine in the brain because our brain needs tons of energy to get us through the day (even more energy when we’re in a state of high stress).
Because hormonal changes in females can increase depressive episodes, we need to think about how to target our hormones to prevent depression. Estrogen is an important hormone to consider. The most significant change in estrogen levels occur during puberty, throughout the luteal phase (the second half of the menstrual cycles), following pregnancy and during perimenopause (2). So…are creatine and estrogen connected?
Interestingly, creatine levels rise and fall along with estrogen throughout the menstrual cycle. Together, these two rockstars help women have higher natural energy levels & increased muscle protein synthesis in the first half of their cycle (known as the follicular phase), making it a great time to get in the gym! It’s not well understood why estrogen + creatine rise at the same time, however what has been studied is how both creatine & estrogen impacts the brain.
Creatine Supports Mental Function
Like in muscles, creatine improves the efficiency of energy production in the brain for tasks relying on the frontal cortex including cognition, attention and memory (22). Creatine is also positively related to neurotransmitters which are often lower in those experiencing depressive states, dopamine and serotonin (1). When studied alongside anti-depressants, creatine improved their effectiveness (14). When paired together, strength training and creatine can be transformational to our mental health.
A Side Note on Estrogen & Mood
Now before I say anything about estrogen making us crazy (did you know the word is actually derived from the Greek word oistros, meaning “mad desire”), I want to preface that mental health has MANY factors. Estrogen levels are just one piece of the puzzel. Estrogen has tons of health benefits when produced in the right amounts. Having too much or too little estrogen may contribute to mood disturbances. Without going into much detail, here’s what research has confirmed:
Flucuations in estrogen are associated with mild mood changes in some women in the second half of their cycle. In about 8-10% of women this change is very severe, known as a condition call Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. (11)
Teens who start menstruation earlier (prior to 11.5 years) have also been shown to have higher estrogen levels and risk of depression. (12)
Right after giving birth, women’s estrogen (& progesterone) drop drastically, which can contribute to postpartum depression (19).
Low estrogen levels in menopausal women can also contribute to depression. (18)
Understanding who is at higher risk of depression and why, may help us to implement tools like creatine & exercise to help prevent these mood changes. Exercise & nutrition can also help to regulate estrogen levels.
With very little risk of side effects, any female (whether a fitness fanatic or not) could benefit from adding creatine to their daily supplement regimen. It can be easily added to drinks, yogurt or oatmeal. This supplemeny may have additional benefits for those in high stress job and for women who struggle with mood changes in the 2nd half of the menstrual cycle or in menopause. Creatine is an effective tool for improving the balance (homeostasis) and energy production systems in the brain, skeletal muscles & heart.
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