A trainer at the gym said I should be taking creatine as a man in my 50s, while a colleague, very fit and competitive, says there’s no need for performance enhancers that will bloat me and damage my kidneys. Who is right?
If only life were that simple. It’s unbelievable how we coalesce around dogma. Any anthropologists reading this know why we are hard-wired to pick a tribe and die on the front line defending it?
Just the other day I stumbled on to a small discussion, with vastly differing opinions, on X about Elon Musk’s plans to turn us into an interplanetary species so we can survive when Earth becomes inhospitable.
Musk is saying we must travel to an entirely inhospitable planet to build a city that can withstand those inhospitable conditions so that we can live there and procreate. Why don’t we rather spend trillions less and build something on Earth that can withstand conditions when this planet becomes uninhabitable? Why must we find another uninhabitable planet to do that when we will have one right here, complete with the spillover of unbelievable technological breakthroughs?
So, the brave adventurer and conqueror (who leaves billions behind to die) versus the homebody who loves his land and finds a way for all humanity to survive. Is it that simple, or is it just one philosophical — for now — proposal as outrageous as the other?
The stakes are luckily lower when deciding on creatine usage. Yet in the world of fitness opinions you’d swear interplanetary survival was at stake. The truth is that opposite fitness and supplement philosophies often result in the same successful outcome because no-one focuses on what is working: regular exercise and clean eating. The rest is just SpaceX versus Blue Origin — performance theatre.
First, there is no rule that says you should take anything. Second, the type of performance enhancement made possible by creatine does not warrant ethical concerns; perpetuating myths about creatine’s harm is not constructive.
There was a lot of hype in the ’90s when creatine went mainstream. A standard 9 (now grade 11) boy — a behemoth — told us at school he grew a centimetre all round from creatine. My adult self says: “Yes, pal. Someone gave you dianabol.” Creatine may enhance performance, but it is not “performance enhancing” as the sporting fraternity understands it.
Concerns around kidney health were tied to creatine’s metabolite, creatinine, which is measured in blood tests to assess kidney function. Elevated creatinine can indicate kidney issues and so the assumption was that creatine supplementation would cause kidney damage.
Studies have found no causal relationship between creatine and kidney damage and a 2019 study even found no adverse kidney effects in frail adults or postmenopausal women. However, the common, and sensible, advice is: if you have kidney problems, don’t supplement with it as it could add to your kidneys’ workload.
The bloating? Creatine is known to increase intracellular hydration in the muscles — this is where you want water. It’s quite different from the hypertension-inducing bloat tied to heavy drinking or poor eating.
Research generally agrees that middle-aged people can benefit from creatine’s use, in addition to an exercise regimen that includes strength training. Without going into the intracellular specifics, creatine has been shown to improve muscle health, exercise performance and recovery, a 2019 study even suggested supplementation may help with ageing muscle and bones and emerging evidence points to potential cognitive benefits for older individuals, along with a few more benefits.
The key to all of this is that creatine improves exercise performance in all adults, including middle-aged people, and is particularly beneficial for strength and power during resistance training.
However, there is no notable effect without exercise. It is not a magic pill.
And therein lies the dose of reality — you can enjoy all those benefits by getting creatine from the food you eat if you do regular resistance training. Adding creatine is proven to assist, and all evidence suggests it is unlikely to harm you besides some mild side effects like stomach discomfort in some people.
It’s not a case of Mars or Earth. Don’t be distracted by theatre and spectacle and focus on the facts. It benefits middle-aged people but they can get by without it. It’s not rocket science.
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