Creatine, long a popular supplement in the world of fitness and sports, is gaining newfound popularity for its purported benefits for brain health and women experiencing menopause.<\/p>\n
It is a naturally occurring compound in the body that stores energy, mostly in muscles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you take creatine, it acts as an energy catalyst in your cells, helping to regenerate the main source of energy in the body, called ATP \u2013 adenosine triphosphate,\u201d Katherine Basbaum, a registered dietitian at the University of Virginia, said. \u201cThe brain and muscles require a lot of ATP to function optimally, and creatine supplementation helps replenish that much-needed energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
What are the benefits?<\/p>\n
Basbaum said\u00a0research suggests that creatine may support muscle strength and exercise performance; preserve lean muscle; improve mood, memory and cognition; and\u00a0relieve brain fog during perimenopause and menopause.<\/p>\n
Newer research is exploring the purported benefits for women in perimenopause and menopause, she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get older, and your estrogen levels start to drop. Then your body\u2019s ability to create or reduce creatine starts to drop as well, which is the reason why people supplement it in order to boost their levels of creatine for things like mood and cognition,\u201d Basbaum\u00a0said. Some studies, she added, suggest creatine may also improve the effectiveness of SSRIs, a type of antidepressant.<\/p>\n
Why is it so popular?<\/p>\n
Basbaum said creatine has been researched for many years and continues to be studied, \u201cstrengthening its validity, safety and benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd with this newer research targeting not just young adults and athletic performance, but also women 50 and older who struggle with muscle loss and mood, cognitive and memory issues due to hormone shifts, interest in creatine supplementation is now reaching a broader demographic,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Basbaum said the consensus is that creatine should be in a person\u2019s system for three to four weeks for them to see results. She added that\u00a0the\u00a0typical daily recommended dosage is in the 3- to 5-gram range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Creatine, long a popular supplement in the world of fitness and sports, is gaining newfound popularity for its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[134,111,139,556,69],"class_list":["post-458874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nutrition","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}