[00:01] are live. Guess what? We're going to talk about creatine. We are going to debunk one of the most prominent myths in the all across the interwebs. And that is that creatine causes hair loss, which has been so confusing for me to
[00:15] conceptualize how people could assume an erogenic aid that increases cellular energy would simultaneously somehow cause your hair follicules to be dysfunctional and have your hair fall out. Remember, creatine is found in
[00:31] foods, things like shellfish, things like fish, things like red meat. production. And many people have been claiming for a very long time that creatine causes hair loss. Increasing cellular energy causes
[00:45] hair loss. Like this to me was just mindboggling. Now we have a cl a controlled trial. We have studies. We have research to show that creatine doesn't cause hair loss. My friends, this was a uh randomized uh
[00:58] friends, this was a uh randomized uh study of over 44 45 resistance trained males that took either 5 grams of creatine monohydro or creatine monohydro or placebo for this was 12 weeks. Now
[01:10] during the course of the study the investigators looked at the hair follicules before and after and there were no differences in hair follicular I really am grateful that you're here live. If you're enjoying the content,
[01:25] We're going to dive into some research. The title of this paper that was just published, you've been hearing all about it on Twitter, on uh Instagram, is does randomized control trial. This was uh conducted by uh
[01:41] researchers in Iran as well as Texas Tech University and uh University of Manitoba and beyond. So, we're diving into it. I want to thank you for being here. Um, yeah, let's let's get into it, shall
[01:56] we? Okay, here we go. Let's uh clear this layer. Okay, we're going to do that. We're also going to clear this layer here. Uh because what we need to do is we need to bring this to the forefront and we need to start talking
[02:12] forefront and we need to start talking about this studies. Okay, here we go. Um, what we like to do on Mondays is dive into research. So, here we go dive into research. So, here we go friends. We are going to explore um this
[02:25] study right here that was as I mentioned uh just published and let's really get into this. So here's the study. Does creatine cause hair loss? A 12-week randomized control trial. Creatine is w is a widely used erogenic aid that
[02:39] endurance. However, concerns have been raised about the potential role in promoting hair loss by increasing dihydrotestosterone. Currently, there is no direct evidence examining the relationship between creatine
[02:51] supplementation and hair follicular health. Therefore, the purpose was to determine the effects of a 12week creatine supplementation on androgen levels and hair follicular health in healthy young males. 45 resistance
[03:05] trained males, you can see the screen here, were recruited and randomly monohydrate, five grams per day, or placebo, five grams of malttodextrin per Participants maintain their habitual diets and training routines. Blood
[03:20] samples were collected at baseline and after 12 weeks to measure total testosterone, free testosterone and DHT. Hair follicular health was assessed Hair follicular health was assessed using a trigram test and a photofinder
[03:32] system. Hair density, follicular unit count, and cumulative hair thickness. Statistical analysis were performed using repeated measures of ANOVA and potential outliers were examined. Blah blah blah. Okay. Conclusion. This study
[03:44] was the first to directly assess hair follicular health following creatine supplementation, providing strong evidence against the claim that con creatine contributes to hair loss. All right, now we're going to continue to
[03:57] dive into this, my friends, but think about this. Why did people assume that creatine caused hair loss? Remember, creatine increases cellular energy production in energetically demanding tissues like the placenta, like
[04:12] illegodendroytes and neurons within the brain, like the heart, like the muscle. Okay, remember how creatine is working is it's essentially offering a pool or increasing the buffering capacity for phosphate groups because when you move
[04:27] weights, you're doing pull-ups, you're doing sprints, you're doing concept 2, skier, you're running, sprinting, all that, you're taking adenosine that, you're taking adenosine triphosphate ATP and defosphorolating
[04:40] that into ADP. And that that cataly the the catalyst uh or the exothermicity or the energy released from that reaction is what helps the muscles contract. And then you have creatine there as a buffer to help give more phosphate via the
[04:55] to help give more phosphate via the phosphocreatine system. So if it's increasing cellular energy, why would that harm the hair follicule? I just I never understood the logic where people would hear these things on the internet.
[05:08] you start to read the forums and Reddits and Kora and all these different things. You know, people start to say stuff without really understanding how these things are working. And I'm not, you
[05:20] know, saying that they're bad people or there's uh ill intent, but I just think it's important that we we sort of understand mechanistically what's going on. And that's why I have uh this channel, okay? Because I want people to
[05:32] better understand physiology. All right. So, getting back to the study, I'll share this on the screen. Uh, I don't want to toggle back and forth and and lose your attention. I know you guys and gals are all busy. Uh,
[05:47] again, how is everyone tonight? I would love to know where you're from. Uh, we got quite a few folks on with us. Again, if you're enjoying this live, you know what to do. Hit that like button. Home girls and home boys, let's go. Let's
[06:00] girls and home boys, let's go. Let's talk about the study. Um, now what I thought was interesting in this study is testosterone did increase. I think that's pretty curious. But dihydrotestosterone did not. We're
[06:15] going to look at there's all sorts of raw data on follicular units, hair rate terminal, villis and thickness and all this. This was a really interesting study and you know there's no evidence to suggest that creatine causes hair
[06:29] loss. But I want to get to the results. 38 participants completed the study. However, one participant was missing hair assessment and was excluded from the analysis of hair outcomes in the analysis of raw data uh rankbased
[06:43] analysis and sensitivity analysis blah blah blah. Uh these effects indicate that that there was an increase in total testosterone and dihydrotestosterone over time as well as a decrease in the ratio of dihydrotestosterone to
[06:56] testosterone. uh but they found that there were no difference in the hair. Uh that's what I want to get to for each of these outcome variables uh we're talking about the creatine group versus placebo group and
[07:09] cumulative hair thickness and all these different things. No difference uh in different things. No difference uh in the hair. Now they go on to say in the discussion there was a single study that found an increase in conversion of de
[07:21] dihydrotestosterone in male athletes but that study this was in rugby players in the early 2000s didn't examine hair follicules like this study did follicules like this study did here. Um but again what they found is
[07:36] there were no changes in serum creatinine. This is important. Many people think that serum creatinine is going to just spike up if they take Serum creatinine is actually a reflection of your overall muscle mass
[07:49] as well as kidney health. Um, okay. They go on to say, "The speculation that creatine causes hair loss appears to come from a single paper that used a randomized placebo control crossover design in male rugby players
[08:03] where participants supplemented with creatine 25 grams per day or 25 gram of creatine 25 grams per day or 25 gram of glucose per day for 7 days. compared to placebo. Uh there was an increase uh in
[08:16] serum tes dihydrotestosterone increased 56% during this loading phase and that caused people to freak out about that. But why would DHT increase? Well, people were taking super physiologic amounts of creatine probably had more intense
[08:30] exercise sessions probably had better post exercise increases in hormones and beyond. Uh but this was the first study as I mentioned to look actually at the hair uh cell counts and so forth. And when
[08:46] what's curious about this when you look at the hair count and the follicules there were actually increases in the creatine group not the other way around because it's increasing it's helping to increase cellular energy. So
[08:58] you had on board would actually benefit hair hair health I would uh imagine. Okay. Specifically, DHT can bind to androgen receptors in susceptible hair follicules and cause them to shrink,
[09:12] current results contradict previous findings showing an increased conversion of testosterone to DHT as we found no significant differences between conditions for DHT and DHT to testosterone. These differences may be
[09:26] related to method methodological uh differences. Uh the current study did not use a loading phase and so forth. So, that's important to understand. But So, that's important to understand. But again, there was no effect of creatine
[09:38] on the hair follicle. Uh so I I think this is really interesting and I I just want to get to your your questions here. Um so I want to get to that my friends and then also um it's it's metabolic Monday and on
[09:54] Mondays we like to dive into to research and share studies and all the rest. And and share studies and all the rest. And so let's get to your questions very very soon. Uh because Metabolic Mondays, these live shows are brought to you by
[10:08] Myioscience. Uh since we are talking about creatine and exercise, I do want to let you know that electrolytes help increase creatine absorption and company in the world futuring electrolytes paired with creipure
[10:22] Germany. Did you know that most creatine is made in China? Most of the creatine that you buy on the interwebs, including those gummies that taste so good, are using creatine that's low quality, that is a low percentage extract made in
[10:36] China. But you are getting 100% European derived creatine if you choose to be like some of the thousands of other customers that have been using the electrolyte enhanced creatine by myioscience. This features 2 1/2 g of
[10:50] Creapure creatine paired with electrolytes and torine that help increase creatine absorption and utilization. You can save by going to myioscience.com or click the link in the description below. There's over 1,800
[11:03] reviews from people just like you over on the website myioscience.com. And this is a really unique intraworkout formulation or that you can use in your sauna session to just get more mileage from recovery,
[11:17] from exercise and beyond. So friends, let's pop out the chat, see what questions come up. I'm sorry for uh ignoring your chats up to now. Uh really you're enjoying the content, hit that like button.
[11:39] I'm 42. I've been taking creatine since I was 16 years old. I mean, yeah, if creatine caused hair loss, I'd be freaking bald. Okay.
[11:57] house. Should we avoid creatine? No. What? If you work out or go in the sauna, you should take creatine. All right. Tuning in from Aanville, California, Central Farmland, California. Awesome. Swamphawk is here.
[12:12] own hair loss with impressive testosterone levels.
[12:24] for Well, yeah. Myioscience, check out the the creatine enhanced electrolytes. Okay. Any creatine is good. Pretty standard stuff. Yeah. But most of that stuff is made in China. It's like a 60
[12:36] stuff is made in China. It's like a 60 to 84% yield. It's not honestly not that not that great. Um, that's why we only use the Creapure
[12:50] going to cost more, but I mean it is what it is. okay. We have a real question here from Papa Carnivore. I'm 27 months highfat
[13:04] carnivore down 101 pounds. Wow, it's awesome. Reverse type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, fatty liver. irritable bowel syndrome, reflux, migraines, and amazing. I love that. Thank you for sharing that, Papa
[13:24] from anti-lust. The best remedy for hair loss is regularly eating a high quality loss is regularly eating a high quality or organic sea salt. Wow. Okay. Love that. All right.
[13:43] What other questions do we have? Metabolic questions. Let me know in the chat, ladies and gentlemen. For those of you just now tuning in, we've been diving into this study right here. This is a 12week randomized control trial
[13:58] finding that creatine doesn't actually cause hair loss. Yes, it can increase testosterone possibly as a side benefit of increased exercise intensity, but it doesn't cause hair loss. This study looked at the hair follicular. Oh, wow.
[14:13] Great question from Paulie. What's the difference between monohydrate and HCL? Yeah, there's an esther creatine, there's a crealine. Um, I just I like the material from Germany. I like I know the guys at AllCam, the guys and girls
[14:27] at AllCam Bio. I think they're a great company. So, I like um I like the creatine monohydrate from those guys, those people. Okay, another comment says, "I don't take any creatine, protein powder,
[14:41] collagen, etc. I just eat lots of fatty meat, eggs, butter, tallow, and I'm in excellent health. 62 years old, 6' 3", 1999 lbs, my lowest body weight since I was 19. That's amazing. Keep up the great
[14:58] Misha says, "Are the stud mana, my throat just got dry. Are the studies done on men specifically or are they also done on
[15:10] women?" This study was done in men. Now, men have significantly higher levels of testosterone as well as dihydrotestosterone compared to women. So, if creatine was going to cause super physiologic shifts in hormone levels, it
[15:23] physiologic shifts in hormone levels, it would make more sense to study men. and it didn't affect testosterone or DHT or the hair follicule as much. Okay, so that's important to understand, Misha. Great
[15:44] Okay, what other Why are you y'all so quiet tonight? Come on now. What's
[16:04] don't work out for the day? Linda, this is a great question. So, creatine helps with hydration as well as exercise performance. So, if you live in a cool area, if
[16:16] moving, maybe you don't need creatine. Now remember what creatine is doing is Now remember what creatine is doing is it's helping to increase the amount of available cellular energy potential in the form of phosphates. And phosphate
[16:31] remember adenosine triphosphate ATP is the currency within the human body within all mammals. The way that your neurons speak and articulate words and move your hands and your arms and your mouth is by
[16:47] breaking ATP down into ADP. And creatine just helps with that refosphorilation. It's like recharging. For those of you that have electric cars and you're like, to go." You go to the charging station and you recharge your car. Creatine is
[17:01] doing that same thing during exercise, during the sauna, and beyond. Okay. I have IBS. Will creatine exacerbate diarrhea? It should not, especially if you pair it with electrolytes. The high doses of creatine do cause diarrhea and
[17:15] gastrointestinal issues, but you don't need to take super physiologic amounts thinking, I'm just plugging our stuff here, but that's why we have 2 and a half grams in the creatine containing electrolytes um from myiosense, the
[17:27] electrolyte sticks, because you don't need super high doses. Creatine loading is is obsolete, my friends. You do not need to load creatine. You need electrolytes. You need torine, magnesium. You need sodium, chloride,
[17:39] calcium, potassium. These are all the factors that help with the creatine absorption via the creatine transport protein. This idea that we all need to be loading creatine, taking a bunch of that is, this is an old school way to
[17:52] think about it. Great question. Do we take it during before or after workout? Before or during? Before or during? You could take it after, but that's like
[18:04] saying, "Well, my battery in my electric vehicle is low, so I'm going to drive home." You probably want to charge your car battery before you go out and drive or while you're driving. You know, you
[18:16] stop somewhere, you charge your electric vehicle, then you can keep driving. So, creatine is going to help you during your exercise sessions. Uh, so exercise. Now, when you start to move your muscles, when you're exercising,
[18:31] creatine by about 25%. So, that's uh really important for 25%. So, that's uh really important for you all to understand that exercise can creatine, which I think is uh particularly um important.
[18:55] shouldn't be a problem. any medications on infrared sauna or recommendations and red light panels to optimize sleep. You know, we like the amazing uh red light therapy blanket as well as
[19:11] uh sauna blanket. Uh the other sauna that I like is High-Tech Health. You can High Intensity Health sent you. That's another good recommendation.
[19:25] crazy, but I get a calming euphoria from creatine." Yeah, it's not crazy at all. Dave the Lobster says, "I like what it does for lifting performance, but it mostly makes my hair fall out. My scalp gets its itch sensation, and I've come
[19:40] loss." Interesting. I would love to know more Interesting. I would love to know more about that, Dave the Lobster.
[19:54] impact of vegetarians taking creatine since they don't regularly really consume it? Yeah, the group that stands to benefit the most from creatine supplementation is vegans and vegetarians for
[20:09] sure. Okay. Um, does creatine cause acne in Okay. Um, does creatine cause acne in teen boys? No. No.
[20:30] "Linda, yes, your cells hold hold more water, so less likely to get water, so less likely to get dehydrated."
[20:43] creatine being taken together, Kyle? Yeah, great question. Well, uh, if you we have tons of videos on this. We've been talking about this since 2022. talking about this. Everyone else is now saying, "Oh, yeah. Well, duh. Creatine
[20:59] electrolytes work well together." There's been at least five studies we're the only company that has a highdose creatine with electrolytes. And not only fusion just a creatine from from China, but the stuff from Germany,
[21:13] Crea Pure. So, Kyle, great question. We've been talking about creatine and electrolytes since 2022. Actually, we started in 2021, really. So, almost 5 years now. We've been uh beating this drum and all these people are taking
[21:27] drum and all these people are taking their $40 a month electrolyte plus $40 a month creatine. You can pair them together, my friends at myiosigns, for a convenient. You don't have to like mix these things. You just open up a sache,
[21:41] out and you're ready to rock. So, that's the idea. Kyle. And on our website, we have tutorials, we have articles about the creatine transport protein and how that is dependent upon electrolytes and how exercise increases the expression of
[21:56] this protein and how this can help uh get creatine into the brain and beyond. So, if you're interested, I mean, we have tons of resources for y'all. So, um
[22:10] yeah, how difficult is it to clean those on a blankets? It's not that bad. I know it sounds crazy like, "Oh, the son of blanket is gross." You just open it up and wipe it down. It's really easy. Okay. Th Hutch has a great
[22:25] question. Any data you can point me to for creatine? I only have one for creatine? I only have one kidney. Look, so the data to insinuate kidney. Look, so the data to insinuate that creatine causes kidney issues was
[22:41] based upon a case report in a nephrology journal where an individual who had chronic kidney disease. He had a serum creatinine level of five was also taking creatine and the doctor said, "Whoa, whoa, let's scale this back." And
[22:55] everyone started to freak out. So I have worked with thousands of have been taking creatine and their serum creatinine and bun and glomeular filtration rate eGFR is completely normal. So I would just say um thutch
[23:13] you're going to be just fine with 2 to 5 grams per day. you? If you enjoy the content, hit that like button. Let me know what you think
[23:30] thoughts? Has this been helpful? Is it good? Let me know. Um, speaking of creating, I'm going to go work out. So, I'm super grateful that you tuned in live, my friends. It's great to be with you Monday here on uh YouTube. Really
[23:45] your shares. Thanks for sharing this with a friend. Appreciate all the great chats that we had. Uh, super uh helpful for that. And I'm glad Dave said creatinine and creatine are not related. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. So much
[24:01] misinformation out there. So ladies and gentlemen, have an awesome evening. you on a next future video down the road. Bye now.