Show Notes 

What is Creatine?

Its a naturally occurring peptide made from three amino acids: Glycine, Arginine and Methionine. Not a steroid. Not abnormal. Natural and every person produces about 2-3g a day. 

120g in our body. Typical 70Kg male. We lose 2-3g a day. Creatine will spontaneously converts into creatinine and we lose it in our urine. 

Produced mainly in the liver and kidneys

90% of it is stored in the muscle. It acts as a buffer for the ATP supply. Helps your body recycle ATP more quickly and efficiently. 

ATP-PC (phosphocreatine) system. 10-12 seconds of high energy.

Creatine as phosphate shuttle

The ATP needed for the muscle to contract and relax doesn’t have to go back to the mitochondria to get recycled from ADP to ATP. The ATP/ADP being used by the muscle stays in the general vicinity of the muscle. Creatine is what gets shipped back and forth from the mitochondria to support the production of ADP to ATP. It will pick up a phosphate group in the mitochondria and bring it back to the muscle. 

Creatine phosphate donates a phosphate to ADT to make ATP through an enzyme called creatine kinase. 3 to 4 times more creatine in the surround area than ATP. Allowing creatine to recycle the ATP without having the ATP go anywhere. Creatine is better at diffusing through fluid. Creatine diffuses 2000 times faster than ADP. Phosphocreatine (high energy form) diffuses 7 times faster than ATP. So using creatine as a shuttle to move phosphate groups to and from the mitochondria is a lot faster than relying on ADP diffuse back to the mitochondria to pick up another phosphate group.

Concentrations of ATP/ADP Locations

Creatine is recycled to creatine phosphate by ATP through the enzyme creatine kinase in the mitochondria. This allows the concentrate of ATP to stay high in the muscle. Where you want it to be high to support muscle function especially during a workout. But this keeps ADP levels elevated in the mitochondria. This is important because we need more ADP than ATP in the mitochondria to keep the ETC moving at a high efficient pace. If we have a lot of ATP backed up in the mitochondria than ATP synthase. Which is at the end of the ETC wont run as smoothly or as fast because it wont have to. It runs the most efficiently when the surrounding area is high in ADP. Because to make ATP we need ADP. So using ATP to phosphorylate creatine to phosphocreatine in the mitochondria through the enzyme creatine kinase we keep the ETC moving quickly and efficiently. This is important as well because the bodies biggest source of free radicals is the ETC. specifically complexes 1 and 3. This can happen when there is too little ADP in the mitochondria, So by keeping creatine levels elevated we can limit the amount of free radicals produced in our body. 

Keeps acidity in the right locations

Creatine acts as Ph buffer. Every time you recycle ATP in the cytosol. Using phosphocreatine to turn ADP back into ATP you remove hydrogen ions from the cytosol. When we talk about acidity we are talking about hydrogen ions, H+. The H+ get incorporated back into the ATP. In the mitochondria you are doing the exact opposite. You are releasing H+ when you hydrolyze ATP to ADP to give the phosphate group to the creatine, this increases the H+ concentration in the mitochondria. Increases acidity in the mitochondria. This is good in the mitochondria. The hydrogen gradient in the inter membrane space in the mitochondria is what drive the creation of ATP through ATP synthase. It uses the hydrogen ion gradient which is high in the inter membrane space and low in the inner matrix of the mitochondria. This concentration difference is stored potential energy that is used to operate ATP synthase to produce ATP. Increases your ability to make ATP. 

Increases Water in Cell

Creatine increases the amount of water in the muscle. Keeps them hydrated. Which is a good thing. Look fuller better in the mirror. They say the more hydrated a muscle the more anabolic the muscle. Send hormones out that things are good here. Its time to grow. Anabolism is expensive and your body wont perform it unless the situation is ok in the cell. With one molecule of creatine you absorb three molecules of water. Increases contractile power of the cell.

Happening all the time Not just working out

All this happens all the time. Not just in high energy burst. Using while you’re sleeping sedentary. In those cases you are using it as fast as you are recycling it. ITs only when you get to high intensity that you use it faster than you can recycle. Thats when the concentration of phosphocreatine declines. Fatigue really kicks in when the concentration of phosphorylated creatine has dropped to 40% of the total. Now ATP levels will fall and your performance will start to drop.

Good for Gut health

Creatine Kinase found in systems that have a highly fluctuating energy demands. Muscles (contraction), Stomach (gastric acid secretion), the Gut(absorption of nutrients/secretion of enzymes). Microvilli (place where we absorb food) die off all the time, cell division very high in those cells. Always making new cells here. Thats a energy intensive process. Pumping H+into the stomach takes a lot of energy. H+ ions are already high in the stomach you are going against the gradient. 

Creatine Deficiency Disorders

People with creatine biosynthesis disorders experience global developmental delay. Cognitive and physical delay across the board. Gastro intestinal issues. Vomiting. Feeding difficulties and acid reflux. Makes sense because creatine is involved in high energy metabolic processes like secreting and absorbing nutrients. So the stomach secreting HCL takes a lot of energy and acid reflux isn’t causes by too much stomach acid but rather too little stomach acid.

Important for mental health as well. Supplementing with creatine has been shown to help with depression. 3-5g. Reduce methylation demand. 

Which supplement to take

Take creatine monohydrate. It is over 90%absorbed by the body. Very effective and safe. All the research done on creatine has been done using creatine monohydrate. It is one of if not the most researched performance enhancing supplements on the market. It is effective and safe for men and women. Dosages of 5g a day seem to be a good dose for most people. That will saturate the cells. Dosage timing doesn’t matter. Don’t have to cycle it. You wouldn’t cycle protein or b vitamins. No need to cycle something that is perfectly natural and created by the body normally. Can decrease overtime. So as we get older it might be ever more important to supplement with creatine. 

Found in Food

Highest in Beef, Fish (Herring) You can get about 2-3g of creatine from eating about 2lbs of meat a day. Muscle meat. Not organ meat.

I want to give credit to Chris Masterjohn and the Podcast mastering nutrition. They were a great resource for this podcast!