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Sanjay Gupta (1:06)

Welcome to Paging Dr. Gupta. Thanks so much for joining us. I've come to think of this time as my office hours, a place I really look forward to hearing from you, hopefully answering your questions no matter how big or small. And we're going to be doing this every week. So let's get straight to the first question.

Maggie (1:22)

Hi Sanjay, my name is Maggie and I'm calling from Montreal, Canada. Thank you for your show. The topics are always of interest and your show is always number one on my list. My question is regarding creatine, but specifically hydracreatine. I'm a 55 year old post menopausal woman and I wanted to know if the claims about it providing benefits to our brains and helping cognitive fatigue and improving bone health. True. And should I consider taking this? Thank you for considering my question and have a great day.

Sanjay Gupta (2:04)

Maggie, thanks so much for that message. How kind and I am delighted to try and humbly answer your question as best I can. First of all, creatine. Let's start with the basics here. This is all the rage a lot of people are talking about is not an amino acid but it is a compound that comes from three amino acids. So it's arginine, glycine and methionine. Arginine, glycine, methionine. Creatine is sometimes thought of as an amino acid itself but technically again it is not. It is not one of the 20amino acids that are the building blocks of all proteins. Okay, so there are 20amino acids that make up all your proteins. Creatine is not one of them, but again, is a compound that sort of is derived from three of them. It is fundamentally used by your body for energy, and it's mostly found in your body's muscles, but also in your brain. Now, the way that your body gets it, one way is your body can make a small amount of creatine. It does this in the liver and the kidneys and to some extent in the pancreas. You can also get it from the food that you eat, seafood, red meat, though, to be clear, at levels far below those found in synthetically made creatine supplements. And I think this gets to the heart of your question. So, Maggie, when you ask whether you should consider taking hydrocreatine, for example, it sounds like you're probably talking about creatine hydrochloride, one of the many different formulations of creatine supplements. When it comes to creatine hydrochloride, the claims are that it has better bioavailability, meaning you take it and it's more easily distributed throughout your body, but more easily absorbed, might lead to less weight gain as compared to the most common creatine formulation, which is creatine monohydrate. But, you know, creatine hydrochloride is typically more expensive because it is somewhat newer. It has not been as extensively studied as creatine monohydrate. There haven't been many studies comparing them head to head. So it's hard to give a straight answer on whether or not one of those is better than the other. But when it comes to creatine monohydrate, the creatine that I think is more common, it is one of the most studied supplements out there. Some studies have shown that it could have benefits, including improved performance during cognitive tasks, improved exercise performance, improved muscle performance, creatine supplementation. And this is important. But creatine supplementation in and of itself does not build muscle. But because it is used by your cells to produce energy, it might allow you to work out harder, work out longer. So you might gain muscle when it is paired with good workouts and a well balanced diet. Making sure, of course, that you're adding resistance training like weightlifting and sprinting. At any age, Maggie, at any age, you should be doing resistance exercises as much as you can tolerate and slowly building up and. And, yeah, maybe that even means sprinting every now and then instead of just jogging or fast walking, just Throwing in some sprints, throwing in some resistance exercises. My wife and I talk about this all the time. If you can start to lift some weights and you supplement that with creatine, supplement that with a well balanced diet. That's when you start to gain that muscle that can really make you look lean and fit. Now Maggie, you mentioned that you were postmenopausal. I think it's important to point out that some women experience what is known as sarcopenia, postmenopausal, meaning you start to lose muscle mass, the loss of muscle mass and the corresponding power. That happens as we grow older. But it also happens when muscles are not activated, such as after an injury or just because you start to let your workout programs falter. Creatine supplements along with resistance training can help offset that sarcopenia, which could potentially help with your bone mass and bone strength. It if you're going to use it, do check with your doctor. At least mention to your doctor to make sure you don't have any contraindications. The general recommendations are three to five grams per day. Studies show that a higher dose of creatine probably does not offer an advantage. You might in fact be putting more stress on your kidneys. Two things, and these are really important despite extensive research on creatine. And again, it is one of the more studied supplements out there. Although admittedly it is hard to do really good quality studies on supplements. But despite the research that exists, evidence for use among females, including postmenopausal females, is understudied. So we just don't have as much data on that. We aren't sure how it might affect your health long term or again, which formulation, hydrochloride or monohydrate is going to be better? And keep in mind Maggie, that the FDA at least in the United States does not regulate dietary supplements like crew creatine in the same way that it regulates prescription medications or even over the counter medications. So it is possible that the supplement you buy does not match what it says on the label and the supplement might contain other ingredients or contaminants that could potentially be harmful for you. So you gotta buy these things from a really reputable source. That's really important. Make sure the bottle has some seal of approval from a third party like USP or nsf. Maggie, thanks again for your very kind message. Means the world to me and I hope my answer helps you. When we come back. How much is too much when it comes to vaccines in our bodies?