Dr. Darren Candow

Okay, myth number three.

Creatine is only for men.

This is 100% false.

When you go through the totality of all the evidence, females respond extremely robustly to creatine supplementation.

They get profound benefits in strength, endurance, and performance.

They lose a little bit of body fat.

So there's another idea that people thought water retention was causing an increase in fat mass.

We've done some meta-analysis now showing that creatine reduces fat mass.

Females get an increase in lean mass as well.

And I'm happy this one came up because from our lab with bone health, females do respond very favorably with creatine and bone.

And we can talk about that as well.

Myth number four.

Oh, I can't believe you did this one to me.

Creatine causes hair loss.

So obviously looking at me and I'm a prolific creatine researcher and taking creatine religiously for like the last two and a half decades, people would look at me and say, well, obviously looking at him, creatine caused this.

And I was going bald before I started taking creatine.

This myth came from a study in rugby players decades ago.

where creatine, about 20 to 25 grams a day for seven days, increased a hormone called DHT.

It's a precursor for testosterone, which unfortunately has been linked to hair follicle loss and thinning.

But the ironic thing is when creatine was given to these young males, the hormone went up.