[00:00] to let me know that we're live. And we're live. Guess what? We're going to talk about creatine. We are going to debunk one of the most prominent myths all across the interwebs, and that is that creatine causes hair loss,
[00:12] which has been so confusing for me to conceptualize how people could assume an ergogenic aid that increases cellular energy would simultaneously somehow cause your hair follicles
[00:24] to be dysfunctional and have your hair fall out. Remember, creatine is found in foods, things like shellfish, things like fish, things like red meat. Creatine helps with cellular energy production,
[00:38] and many people have been claiming for a very long time that creatine causes hair loss. Increasing cellular energy causes hair loss? This, to me, was just mind-boggling. Now we have a controlled trial.
[00:52] We have studies. We have research to show that creatine doesn't cause hair loss, my friends. This was a randomized study of over 44, 45 resistance-trained males that took either 5 grams of creatine monohydrate or placebo for, this was 12 weeks.
[01:10] Now, during the course of the study, the investigators looked at the hair follicles before and after, and there were no differences in hair follicular loss. So, let's dive into it, my friends.
[01:22] I really am grateful that you're here live. If you're enjoying the content, hit that like button, please, right now. 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 Instagram, is Does Creatine Cause Hair Loss?
[01:36] A 12-Week Randomized Control Trial. This was conducted by researchers in Iran, as well as Texas Tech University, and University of Manitoba, and beyond.
[01:49] So we're diving into it. I want to thank you for being here. um yeah let's let's get into it shall 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
[02:07] do is we need to bring this to the forefront and we need to start talking about this stuff okay Okay, here we go. What we like to do on Mondays is dive into research, so here we go, friends.
[02:21] We are going to explore this study right here that was, as I mentioned, just published. And let's really get into this. So here's the study. Does creasing cause hair loss?
[02:33] A 12-week randomized controlled trial. Creasing is a widely used ergogenic aid that enhances muscular strength and endurance. However, concerns have been raised about the potential role in promoting hair loss by increasing dieheads or testosterone.
[02:46] Currently, there is no direct evidence examining the relationship between creasing supplementation and hair follicular health. Therefore, the purpose was to determine the effects of a 12-week creasing supplementation on androgen levels and hair follicular health in healthy young males.
[03:03] 45 resistance-trained males, you can see the screen here, were recruited and randomly assigned to either a creasing monohydrate, 5 grams per day, or placebo, 5 grams of maltodexin per day.
[03:16] Participants maintained their habitual diets and training routines. Blood samples were collected at baseline, and after 12 weeks to measure total testosterone, free testosterone, and DHT, Hair Follicular Health was assessed using a trichogram test and a photofinder system.
[03:33] 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, concluded. This study was the first to directly assess hair follicular health
[03:47] following creatine supplementation, providing strong evidence against the claim that creatine contributes to hair loss. All right. Now, we're going to continue to dive into this, my friends, but think about this.
[04:01] Why did people assume that creatine caused hair loss? Remember, creatine increases cellular energy production in energetically demanding tissues, like the placenta, like oligodendrocytes and neurons within the brain,
[04:16] like the heart, like the muscle. Okay? Remember, how creatine is working is it's essentially offering a pull or increasing the buffering capacity for phosphate groups because when you move your muscles,
[04:28] when you're lifting weights, you're doing pull-ups, you're doing sprints, you're doing Concept2, SkiErg, you're running, sprinting, all that. You're taking adenosine triphosphate, ATP, and dephosphorylating that into ADP.
[04:42] And the catalyst, 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 phosphocreatine system.
[04:58] So, if it's increasing cellular energy, why would that harm the hair follicle? I just, I never understood the logic where people would hear these things on the internet. So, you got to be really careful when you start to read the forums and Reddits and Quora and all these different things.
[05:14] You know, people start to say stuff without really understanding how these things are working. And I'm not, you know, saying that they're bad people or they're ill intent. but I just think it's important that we sort of understand mechanistically what's going on,
[05:29] and that's why I have this channel, okay, because I want people to better understand physiology. All right, so getting back to the study. I'll share this on the screen. I don't want to toggle back and forth and lose your attention.
[05:43] I know you guys and gals are all busy. Again, how is everyone tonight? I would love to know where you're from. We got quite a few folks on with us. Again, if you're enjoying this live, you know what to do.
[05:57] Hit that like button Homegirls and homeboys let go Let talk about study um now what i thought was interesting in the study is testosterone did increase i think that pretty curious but
[06:12] dihedral testosterone did not we're going to look at there's all sorts of raw data on follicular units hair rate terminal villus and thickness and all this this was a really interesting study and
[06:25] And, you know, there's no evidence to suggest that creasing causes hair loss, but I want to get to the results. 38 participants completed this study. However, one participant was missing hair assessment and was excluded from the analysis of hair outcomes.
[06:39] In the analysis of raw data, rank-based analysis and sensitivity analysis, blah, blah, blah. These effects indicate that there was an increase in total testosterone and dihydrotestosterone over time,
[06:51] as well as a decrease in the ratio of dihydrotestosterone to testosterone. But they found that there were no difference in the hair.
[07:03] That's what I want to get to. For each of these outcome variables, we're talking about the creatine group versus placebo group and tumor of hair thickness and all these different things. No difference in the hair.
[07:15] Now, they go on to say in the discussion, there was a single study that found an increase in conversion of diet or testosterone in male athletes but that study, this was in rugby players in early 2000s
[07:28] didn't examine hair follicles like this study did here. But again, what they found is there were no changes in serum creatinine. This is important.
[07:40] Many people think that serum creatinine is going to just spike up if they take creatine. That's not going to happen. and serum creatinine is actually a reflection of your overall muscle mass as well as kidney health.
[07:53] 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-controlled crossover design in male rugby players, where participants supplemented with creatine 25 grams per day
[08:07] or 25 grams of glucose per day for seven days, compared to placebo. there was an increase in serum testosterone, dihydrotestosterone increased 56% in this loading phase.
[08:20] 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 exercise sessions, probably had better post-exercise increases in hormones and beyond.
[08:38] But this was the first study, as I mentioned, to look actually at the hair cell counts and so forth. And what's curious about this, when you look at the hair count and the follicles,
[08:51] 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 it would make sense the more creatine you had on board, it would actually benefit hair health, I would imagine.
[09:05] Okay. Okay. Specifically, DHT can bind to androgen receptors in susceptible hair follicles and cause them to shrink, leading to hair loss. However, our current results contradict previous findings showing an increased conversion of testosterone to DHT
[09:19] as we found no significant differences between conditions for DHT and DHT to testosterone. These differences may be related to methodological differences. The current study did not use a loading phase and so forth,
[09:32] so that's important to understand. but again there was no effect of creasing on the hair follicle uh so i i think this is really interesting and i just want to get to your your questions here um so i want to get to that my
[09:49] friends and then also um it's it's metabolic monday and on mondays we like to dive into research and share studies and all the rest. And so let's get to your questions very, very soon.
[10:05] Because Men of Oak Mondays, these live shows are brought to you by Myoscience. Since we are talking about creatine and exercise, I do want to let you know that electrolytes help increase creatine absorption and utilization.
[10:19] Myoscience is the only company in the world featuring electrolytes paired with Creapure Creatine that is manufactured in 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,
[10:31] are using creatine that's low quality, that is a low percentage extract, made in China. But you are getting 100% European derived creatine as you choose to be like some of the thousands of other customers
[10:44] that have been using the electrolyte-enhanced creatine by MyoScience. This features 2.5 grams of CreaPure creatine paired with electrolytes and taurine that help increase crease and absorption and utilization.
[10:57] You can save by going to myoscience.com or click the link in the description below. There's over 1,800 reviews from people just like you over on the website myoscience.com.
[11:09] And this is a really unique intro workout formulation or that you can use in your sauna session to just get more mileage from recovery, from exercise and beyond. So, friends, let's pop out the chat.
[11:24] See what questions come up. I'm sorry for ignoring your chats up to now. Really grateful that you're here. Again, if you're enjoying the content, hit that like button. Okay.
[11:36] You put biotin on your scalp? Me? Mm-mm. 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.
[11:50] Okay. Eddie Gonzalez from South Texas in the house. Should we avoid creatine No If you work out or go on the farm you should take creatine All right Tuning in from Avondale California Central Farmland California
[12:10] Awesome. Swamp Hawk is here. The good news is that it's causing my own hair loss with impressive testosterone levels.
[12:22] Can anyone recommend a good creatine for... Well, yeah, MyoScience. Check out the creatine-enhanced electrolytes. Okay. Any creasing is good, pretty standard stuff. Yeah, but most of that stuff made in China,
[12:36] it's like a 60% to 84% yield. It's honestly not that great. That's why we only use the CreaPure material.
[12:49] Yeah, the stuff in China is going to cost more, but, I mean, it is what it is. Okay. We have a real question here from Papa Carnivore.
[13:03] I'm 27 months high fat carnivore down 101 pounds. Wow, that's awesome. Reverse type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, fatty liver, irritable bowel syndrome, reflux, migraines, and so forth. That's amazing.
[13:15] I love that. Thank you for sharing that, Papa Carnivore. Okay, we have a comment from Anti-Lust. The best remedy for hair loss is regularly eating a high-quality or organic sea salt.
[13:32] Wow. Okay. Love that. All right. What other questions do we have? Metabolic questions.
[13:45] 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 12-week randomized controlled trial.
[13:59] Funny 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.
[14:13] Oh, wow. Great question from Polly. What's the difference between monohydrate and HCL? Yeah, there's an ester creatine. There's a crealcalin. I like the material from Germany
[14:25] I know the guys at Allskem the guys and girls at Allskem Bio I think they're a great company so I like I like the creatine 100 from those guys those people okay another comment says
[14:39] I don't take any creatine, protein powder, collagen, etc I just eat lots of fatty meat eggs, butter, tallow and I'm in excellent health 62 years old 6 foot 399 pounds my lowest body weight since I was 19 that's amazing
[14:51] keep up the great work. Okay, great question from Misha. Misha says, are the... Man, my throat just got dry.
[15:06] Are the studies done on men specifically or are they also done on women? This study was done in men. Now, men have significantly higher levels of testosterone as well as dihydrotestosterone compared to women.
[15:18] So, if creatine was going to cause super-physiologic shifts in hormone levels, it would make more sense to study men. And it didn't affect testosterone or DHT or the hair follicle as much.
[15:33] Okay. So, that's important to understand. Misha, great question. Okay.
[15:45] Why are you all so quiet tonight? Come on now, what's up? No questions? Okay.
[16:02] Should we take creatine if we 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 you're not sweating, if you're not moving, maybe you don't need creatine.
[16:19] 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, remember, adenosine triphosphate, ATP, is the currency within the human body, within all mammals.
[16:39] the way that your neurons are able to fire and you're able to speak and articulate words and move your hands and your arms and your mouth is by breaking ATP down into ADP. And creatine just helps with that rephosphorylation.
[16:53] It's like recharging. For those of you that have electric cars and you're like, oh my gosh, I only have 20 more miles to go. You go to the charging station and you recharge your car. Creatine is doing that same thing during exercise, during the sauna and beyond.
[17:06] 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 gastrointestinal issues, but you don't need to take super physiologic amounts of creatine.
[17:20] Again, I know you're thinking I'm just plugging our stuff here, but that's why we have two and a half grams in the creatine-containing electrolytes. From my offense, the electrolyte six, because you don't need super high doses. Creatine loading is obsolete, my friends.
[17:33] You do not need to load creatine. You need electrolytes. You need taurine, magnesium. sodium, chloride, calcium, potassium. These are all the factors that help with the creatine absorption via the creatine transfer protein.
[17:46] This idea that we all need to be loading creatine, taking a bunch of that, this is an old school way to think about it. Great question. Do we take it during, before, or after a workout?
[17:58] Before or during? Before or during? You can take it after, but that like saying well my battery in my electric vehicle is low So I going to drive all around and charge it when I get home You probably want to charge your car battery before you go out and drive
[18:14] or while you're driving. You know, you stop somewhere, you charge your electric vehicle, then you can keep driving. So, creasing is going to help you during your exercise sessions.
[18:26] So, you want to take it before or during exercise. Now, when you start to move your muscles when you're exercising, you actually increase absorption of creatine by about 25%. So that's really important for you all to understand,
[18:39] that exercise can actually increase the absorption of creatine, which I think is particularly important. Okay. Let's see.
[18:53] But yeah, if you have IBS, creatine shouldn't be a problem. any medications on infrared sauna or recommendations and red light panels to optimize sleep you know we like to focus over at Boncharge
[19:05] they make an amazing red light therapy blanket as well as sauna blanket the other sauna that I like is High Tech Health you can go visit them tell them
[19:17] that Mike at High Intensity Health sent you that's another good recommendation White Chocolate 1300 says Call me crazy, but I get a calming euphoria from creating. Yeah, it's not crazy at all.
[19:31] Dave the Lobster says, I like what it does for lifting performance, but it mostly makes my hair fall out. My scalp gets its sensation, and I've come to realize it's associated with hair loss. Interesting.
[19:43] I would love to know more about that, Dave the Lobster. Are there any studies looking at the impact of vegetarians taking creatine
[19:56] 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 sure.
[20:10] Okay. Does creatine cause acne in teen boys? No. No. No. No. Okay. I don't take... Okay. Yeah. Polyamorous. Great. Says Linda, yes. Your cells hold more water, so less likely to get dehydrated. Yes.
[20:38] Could we get more specifics on the synergy between electrolytes and creatine being taken together? Kyle, yeah, great question. Well, if you click the link in the description below, we have tons of videos on this.
[20:51] We've been talking about this since 2022. We're the only company that's been talking about this. Everyone else is now saying, oh, yeah, well, duh, creatine and electrolytes work well together. There's been at least five studies pairing creatine and electrolytes.
[21:05] that we're the only company that has a high-dose creatine with electrolytes. And not only is he using just a creatine from China, but the stuff from Germany, CreaPure. So, Kyle, great question. We've been talking about creatine and electrolytes since 2022.
[21:19] Actually, we started in 2021, really. So, almost five years now, we've been beating this rum, and all these people are taking their $40 a month electrolyte plus $40 a month creatine.
[21:31] You can pair them together, my friends, at MyOutscience. You can save a lot of money. It's so convenient. You don't have to mix these things. You just open up a sachet, put it in your water, and you go work out, and you're ready to rock.
[21:44] So that's the idea, Kyle. And on our website, we have tutorials. We have articles about decreasing transport protein and how that is dependent upon electrolytes and how exercise increases the expression of this protein
[21:57] and how this can help get creatine into the brain and beyond. So if you're interested, I mean, we have tons of resources for y'all. So, yeah.
[22:11] How difficult is it to clean those son of 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.
[22:24] Okay, T-Hutch has a great question. Any data you can point me to for creatine, I only have one kidney. Look, so the data to insinuate that creatine causes kidney issues
[22:40] was based upon a case report in a nephrology journal where an individual who had chronic kidney disease, he had a serum creatinine level of 5, was also taking creatine,
[22:52] and the doctor said, whoa, whoa, let's scale this back, and everyone started to freak out. So I have worked with thousands of people at this point in my career who have been taking creatine and their serum creatinine and bun
[23:05] and glomerular filtration rate, EGFR, is completely normal. So I would just say, T-Hatch, you're going to be just fine with 2 to 5 grams per day. Okay.
[23:20] Y'all, is this resonating with you? If you enjoyed the content, hit that like button. Let me know what you think about... What are your thoughts? Has this been helpful?
[23:32] Is it good? Let me know. Speaking of creasing, 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 YouTube.
[23:45] Really appreciate your likes, your comments, your shares. Thanks for sharing this with a friend. Appreciate all the great chats that we had. super helpful for that and I'm glad Dave said creatinine and creatine are not related
[23:58] thank you thank you so much misinformation out there so ladies and gentlemen have an awesome evening appreciate you tuning in and we'll catch you on a next future video down the road bye now