Creatine Supplements May Benefit Cardiac Function
The current evidence suggests a neutral or slightly beneficial effect on cardiac function.
The first sign for me was that my watch band became too large for my wrist. I had lost 10 pounds but still had a larger-than-normal amount of abdominal (visceral) fat. But I was also concerned that I might be having sarcopenia (or age-related muscle mass loss). This led me to review the data on Creatine supplements. Creatine has been promoted as helping prevent muscle loss.
What Is Creatine And How Do You Get It?
Creatine is a compound that comes from three amino acids. Creatine is found mostly in your body’s muscles as well as in the brain. Most people get creatine through seafood and red meat, though at levels far below those found in synthetically made creatine supplements.
If you are a vegan or are eating a plant-based diet, you are getting almost no creatine in your food. The primary sources are beef, herring, pork, salmon, tuna, cod, and chicken. But even if you eat lots of these, you likely will fall short of the 3–5 grams a day needed to maintain muscle mass if you are old, like me.
How Does Creatine Affect Your Body?
Most studies suggest that muscle mass declines with age. Creatine supplements help blunt this loss. It is particularly effective when paired with resistance training exercises.
There is some more questionable data that may help prevent dementia.
But what about your heart? There is some evidence suggesting it retards atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). This study is suggestive but by no means conclusive. It utilized the cardio-ankle blood pressure difference to measure arterial stiffness. Stiff arteries correlate with more severe atherosclerosis.
In the above study, supplements of creatine improved this parameter of arterial stiffness. The study was small. However, only seven days of supplementation produced significant changes. The study group (men only) was not young, with ages ranging from 50 to 80.
Other studies of Creatine show little benefit to the heart. However, none show that it is dangerous. Thus, as long as you are ingesting 5 grams or less per day, you should not worry about any cardiac damage.
I can’t tell you which product to buy since I am researching that myself. However, I see little, if any, downside risk to taking it. For more information, check out this post by The Skeptical Cardiologist. He does not address the heart but rather the brain.
Other studies have shown that creatine might help treat chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, depression, and knee osteoarthritis. Also, neurodegenerative and neuromuscular disorders, such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease).
More research is needed, but for your heart, it looks promising. Since no one drug company makes it, and it can be purchased easily online without a prescription, public health funding would need to do clinical trials. Sadly, given the current state of public health, that might not happen anytime soon.
