The "Swiss Army Knife" of Mitochondrial Support Supplements 🔬 Creatine Biohacker Overview by @jeroseland on 3Speak
Creatine is one of the most well-known health supplements. It's often caricatured as something just for gym bros because it helps them build muscle. But actually, it's a veritable Mitochondrial Noo...
Tags: #health #science #fitness #biohacking
Creatine is the Swiss Army knife of mitochondrial support supplements. Hey, I'm Jonathan with Limitless Mindset, and this is my biohacker review of creatine. Like I said, it is the Swiss Army Knife of mitochondrial Support Supplements. I use it both as a neutropic and as a workout performance enhancer. I'm going to tell you all about that. As you can see, I've got the capsuled stuff, I've got the powdered stuff. I use these two a little bit differently. I'm going to share all that with you, along with breaking down the recent science that's been done on... Creatine, there are some interesting new studies that have come out in the last year on it. As a neutropic, while I won't call creatine a smart drug, it does have subtle neutropic effects. I find myself a bit more motivated. optimistic, productive, uh, I got just a little bit more wind in my sails in the mornings after doing a few grams. I did stack it with about 800 milligrams of N-acetyl eltyrazine, nalt for short, which enhanced the neutropic effects and kept me alert on days when I was perhaps a little underslept. I did take a heart rate variability measurement on this stack, and I achieved 1.2 while just standing there at my standing desk working on my laptop, which is a pretty decent coherence score. Current year, Jonathan here in my podcasting studio with some more to add to this review of creatine. I wanted to take a look at the latest creatine science to drop some real practical knowledge on you. I've got a big meta-analysis article linked below wherever you're watching or listening to me with all the research I mention here. You might notice something a little different about the Limitless Podcast slash video channel here. There are no dumb ads for random things interrupting my delivery of the knowledge you need. That's because I value your time and I'd be wasting it if I was trying to sell you a mattress or VPN here. If you appreciate that, please take just a moment now to drop me one of those algorithmic signals. Subscribe, upvote. comment, or if you're listening on one of the podcast platforms, a five-star rating plus quick review. It really makes my day to get one of those. Let's now talk about creatine versus sleep deprivation. A 2024 randomized trial found that a single high dose, about 0.35 grams per kilogram, increased brain phosphocreotene, and buffered the cognitive hit of overnight sleep loss. If you're underslaped, and it happens to all of us sometimes, reach for some creatine, and don't be shy about the dose. It assuages sleep deprivation, jet lag, stress, and fatigue generally, because the more the brain is stressed, the more creatine comes to the rescue. According to a Dr. Kandau, which we're going to hear more from creatine... stacks well with one of my long-time favorite daily driver, New Tropics. That would be L.Torazine. My first year as a brand new dad was surprisingly productive, thanks to this stack, and some other... new dad life hacks that I figured out and did an article about, which is linked. As a workout performance enhancer, one of the most reliable effects from creatine is that you'll be able to push yourself just a bit harder in the gym. You'll walk home from the gym a little sore than usual. but with a proud smile on your face for the gains you've made. Pushing more weight, achieving more reps, or sweating it out more, doing cardio. I stack it with one of my other favorite workout supplements, HMB for epic workouts that I'd be sore from. for days, if it wasn't for the recovery hacks I employ, red light therapy on my muscles, healing frequencies delivered from my IC Hummer, and a before-bedtime massage from my lady, sometimes with a happy ending. The other thing I really like about creatine is the muscle pump. It does make your muscles look bigger if you take it and work out consistently. HMB has a complementary effect. It essentially preserves muscle mass if you're slacking on your workouts a little bit. So a vain yet economically minded biohacker would want to use them both. Take 5 grams of creatine and HMB on workout days to build muscle. and then if you need to take a few weeks off the gym for travel, work, or over the holidays, take just a few grams of creatine daily as a neutropic and HMB to preserve your strength gains. A caveat on workout performance enhancers. As Jeff of Athleen X preaches, You earn the right to take workout supplements. You probably shouldn't be cramming your mouth with workout performance enhancers your first week or even month in the gym. You should put in the work for a couple of months, building up foundational strength and competence before turning to supplements. The kinds of performance enhancers I name here do unlock an extra reserve of power and motivation. They can make you overconfident in the gym when you really shouldn't be risking an injury that's going to set you back in your fitness journey. Next, let's talk about history of creatine. It was isolated in 1832 by Michel Eugène Chevalet, and I'm sure I'm misprouncing that French name. It was extracted from a water extract of meat, and he named it from the Greek Creus. which means flesh. Hey, I didn't know that. And then Justice von Lieberg confirmed it as a normal muscle constituent in 1842, and noticed that wild foxes killed in the chase had more creatine in their flesh than caged animals. Boy, those guys back then, they had some great hobbies, right, chasing foxes down and killing them. And that was an early hint that work and creatine travel together. Here's a factoid. Performance enhancement effects were first noticed giving creatine to a racehorse named Jolly. Yeah, good name for a racehorse. I appreciate having both the capsuled and powdered stuff. Many mornings I would mix a couple of grams of the powdered stuff in a beverage or into my yogurt, and the powdered stuff has a tangy taste that I find... Pleasant. And then before rushing out the door to the gym, I would drop a capsule or two, just for a bit more energy and motivation there in the domain of steel. By the way, you're going to want to download and connect with me on the heavy app, H-E-V-Y, and this is... a very well-designed gym workout tracking app that I found for the longest time, I would just track my workouts using Evernote. I think that's what a lot of people do, but I tried out the heavy app, and it does self-quantification, and it has a very intuitive UI for... for actually kind of encouraging you to push yourself a bit further in your workouts. I've noticed a bit of an uptick myself. Another thing that I like about the app that may seem just a little bit silly is that it prompts you to take a selfie of yourself at the end of every workout, which I get it. That seems narcissistic, right? But selfies actually increase self-control. Funnily enough, this was found in, I think it was a Canadian study. They found that selfies increased self-control because they remind us of the kinds of people that we are trying to be. And then, of course, also, it's just kind of a way to brag. So I was thinking, if some of you all want to join that app, you know, we can kind of... encourage each other. And the app is free and also add free. So it's a total no-brainer, especially if your New Year's resolutions include hitting the gym a bit more. So, yeah, add it and then connect with me. Let's now talk about the recent... Science. In the past year alone, over 100 articles of scientific research have been published specifically on creatine, including eight human clinical trials. Here's a couple that jumped out at me. A Spanish study compared morning-versus evening intake of creatine in elite female handball players. It concluded that while circadian rhythm certainly affects performance, it didn't make much of a difference after 12 weeks in terms of performance and body composition. However, unless the evenings are the only times that you can make it to the gym, I wouldn't take creatine in the evenings. It is a stimulating utropic, taking it too deep into the PM that could mess with your sleep. A Canadian, Italian study looked at the synergy of creatine and caffeine. Gym buddies have occasionally looked at me funny when I showed up at the gym with a coffee. in hand, but caffeine is indisputably an enhancer of power output. And in my experience, pure black coffee doesn't mess with my stomach during a workout. Although the study reports that the uptick in performance from the combination was negligible. There was a recent systemic review, and it evaluated 10 different studies that were evaluating the combination, and in conclusion, there's no real clear answer on whether, pharmacologically, the two complement each other. It's a stack that you'll just have to try for yourself and see if you like it. Another Spanish study gave it to 23 basketball players for eight weeks, which resulted in an improvement in both a bowel club jump test performance and a significant interaction effect was observed in points per game. So it's a real no-brainer for the basketball players out there that went to score more. A shorter Canadian-Iranian study administered creatine to 20 military personnel for a week and noted an uptick in cognitive performance that could make all the difference for war fighters. I did find a meta-analysis, specifically on the creatine and HMB stack that I like. The meta-analysis looked at six studies, and it concluded. In summary, the combination of 3 to 10 grams a day of creatine plus 3 grams a day of HMB for 1 to 6 weeks could produce potential positive effects on sports performance, strength, and anaerobic performance, and for 4 weeks on body composition, increasing fat-free mass and decreasing Fat Mass. A recent review sheds light on its anti -inflammatory effects. Quote, accumulating research also suggests that creatine supplementation has anti-inflammatory and anti-cadabolic properties, which may help create a favorable environment for muscle and bone accretion and recovery from exercise. Creatine supplementation has the ability to decrease markers of inflammation and possibly attenuate cancerous tumor growth progression. And it does strengthen your bones, but only if you're actually working out. So get Grandma, some creatine, and some little pink dumbbells for Christmas. Another European study suggests that it improves anaerobic athletic performance. It increased power output during repeated sprints for 16 recreationally active males. and it concluded, creatine supplementation improved the mean power and speed in the second half of a repeated sprint running protocol, despite the increased body mass. This improvement was due to the higher power output and running speed in the last five seconds of each 10-second sprint. So, if you're hiking in the woods with a buddy, I advise not sharing your creatine with him, just in case the two of you are chased by a ferocious, angry mama bear. And don't worry, the verbal enhancing effects of creatine will enable you to deliver a very moving eulogy at his funeral. Moving beyond the squat rack science, let's talk about creatine versus Alzheimer's. A 2025 single-arm pilot study in people with Alzheimer's used 20 grams a day of creatine monohydrate for eight weeks. Brain creatine rose about 11% on spectroscopy. and scores improved on total cognition, fluid intelligence, working memory, and oral reading recognition. Verse Depression, a 2026 narrative review of five randomized trials, totaling 238 people, found a mixed but non-trivial signal, 5 grams a day of creatine, added to Eschatalatoprom. I have read that word so many times of that weird drug and still don't quite pronounce it right, I don't think. Of that, in women, with major depression, produced an additional drop in the Hamilton scale, and roughly doubled remission versus the SSRI plus placebo, a promising adjunct, but not a replacement, for treatment. For recovery, impressively, there are over 280 studies on creatine and recovery. And Dr. Kandau, who I mentioned, appeared on Rhonda Patrick's podcast. and spoke highly of its effects on recovery, and that's both the recovery post-workout and between the sets of a workout. And that was in a deep dive discussion, worth a watch. I got that embedded in the article. Next, let's talk about creatine's effects on sleep. Contrary to rumors that you may have heard, there's no good clinical evidence that it causes insomnia. What the trials actually show is closer to the opposite, especially when the nervous system is under load. A six-week trial in menstruating women taking five grams a day found about... 45 to 50 minutes of sleep, more minutes of sleep on resistance training nights versus placebo, measured with an aura ring. Placebo sleep got shorter after lifting, and creatine appeared to blunt that hit. Next, a 2025 seven-day loading study in men at 20 grams a day, improved subjective sleep quality, and polled bedtime earlier without changing total sleep time or efficiency. The insomnia reports that you might hear about in forums. usually travel with a caffeinated pre-workout, 10 to 20 gram late night bolos, or just training later in the day. If creatine itself is keeping you up, move the dose to the morning time earlier in the day. Next, let's talk about creatine for baby making. Sperm run on creatine. A 2025, eight-week study, and this was five grams a day with or without ubiquinol, and ubiquinol, the... superior form of COQ10 is actually a pretty powerful fertility, vitamin. This found that 60% of men on creatine improved sperm concentration versus 20% on placebo. And every oligiospermic man on creatine improved. Small study, right direction there. Pregnancy research is early and clinical. So I don't know if creatine really belongs in a DIY prenatal stack at this point. But I will mention post-pregnancy, my wife took creatine daily, and we think it helped her energy levels. Also, at 41 years old, she is still nursing daily after nearly 15 months. Bravo, babe. Next, let's talk about the different forms of creatine. So, marketing loves new salt, but an ISN -aligned critical review of alternative forms is blunt. There is little to know evidence that newer creatines are more stable, faster, more effective at raising muscle creatine or cleaner on the side effects than monohydrate. So let's break down a couple of forms you might have heard of. Creatine monohydrate, especially the micronized stuff, is the gold standard. It is near complete oral bioavailability. The micronized just mixes. Better. Second, creatine hydrochloride, HCI, is truly more water soluble. That is true. What is not real is the 38X more bioavailability. So just take 750 milligrams. Claim. Solubility in a glass is not the same as muscle uptake. Qualifying head-to-head muscle creatine trials are thin to non-existent. This is fine if your stomach hates monohydrate, but not really an upgrade on efficacy. What about buffered creatine or crealcline? sold as pH stable so it will not turn into creatine in the stomach a 2012 randomized study found no advantage over monohydrate for muscle creatine strength or body composition and then there's gummies and chews that probably come in colorful packaging with enticing flavors, and this is just the same molecule in a worse format. Independent tests have repeatedly found these kind of products to be underdosed. So only worth it if the brand publishes third-party assays showing a full... 3 to 5 grams of actual creatine per serving. Here's the verdict on forms. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Buy patented, creopure, or another third-party tested, monohydrate. and let's talk about its mechanism of action. And I will quote from Dr. Lee No's book, which was mitochondria and the future of medicine. Creatine is directly related to ATP. When a cell uses ATP, it loses a phosphate molecule and becomes ADP. which must be converted back to ATP for useful energy cycling. Because creatine is stored in the body as creatine phosphate, it can donate a phosphate molecule to ADP to regenerate ATP. This process is very speedy and is the main source of cellular energy production at the start of high intensity anaerobic activity. such as 100 meter sprint or lifting heavy weights. Having a large pool of creatine phosphate means this fast pathway of ATP regeneration can be restored longer, which is exactly why creatine has been so beneficial for athletes. Next, let's talk about sources. And I, in my articles, actually in all of my meta-analysis content, on my website, limitlessmindset.com, I keep pretty up-to-date, recommended, vetted. sources. And this is actually something that changes, because sometimes I'll find a really good source or stack for a particular neutropic or anti-aging agent, but then that company might go out of business, or it might be acquired by a big corporation that lowers the quality of the product. Shout out to Aubrey Marcus of On It there. And because these podcasts are kind of a static medium, yeah, I would direct you over to my website. That's where I got the really good stuff. But I will mention just one source. And, yeah, this is a solid recommendation that I think is going to stand indefinitely. My go-to for creatine and a bunch of other supplements is purebulk.com. The final thing that I really like about purebulk.com's creatine is that it is verified as pure with a certificate of analysis, which is something that you should really demand from any supplement that you're considering likely your local gym supplement shop or the sellers on Amazon, they can't. provide this, and that's part of the reason why purebulk.com is now one of our recommended Limitless Mindset Secret Society vendors. If you pick up over $150 worth of their stuff via the links below this video or over onlimitlessmindset.com, then you get kind of... some cool benefits along with it. First of all, forward your receipt over to me at consultations at limitlessmindset.com. Again, it has to be over 150, and then me and you can jump on a Skype. call, or I can call you on the phone, whatever you prefer, or you can come and meet me if you're here in the same part of the world as me, and we'll sit down for 30 minutes, and I'll do my best to provide a little bit of illumination and clarification on whatever biohacking, life hacking. things you still have questions about. This is one of my favorite parts of my job. It's a way that I've made friends around the world, and it's a way that I get to stay in touch with what people out there are doing to take their own human awesomeness to the next... level. And then once that consultation is concluded, that is also my vetting opportunity to see if you got the right kind of stuff to be a part of the limitless mindset secret society. And this is our exclusive online biohacker community. It's a place that's... just a bit snobbish. It's a just a bit more elite place on the internet to talk shop with other biohackers and neutropic enthusiasts, and we do hope to have you amongst our ranks in the near future. Let's move on to talking about usage and dosage. For the recommended daily dose, 5 grams a day is okay. for maintenance of general health. If you're ballin on a budget as a biohacker and just can't afford a whole lot, you're going to do okay with that. While 10 grams a day is the middle ground performance optimization dose for stronger muscles, bones, and brain. 20 grams, which you did here mentioned in a couple of those studies, is for aggressive muscle growth, or days when you are particularly stressed, fatigued, or underslept. Some experts out there contend that with creatine, more is more. Get crazy with over 20 grams. daily. As far as I can tell, there's no real risk to experimenting with mega dosing. So if you stock up and get a big supply of the stuff in bulk, powdered, I say, why not? Some... advocate a loading phase, in which you take 20 grams daily in four doses of 5 grams for a week, and then 5 grams daily afterwards to…