This Bodybuilding Supplement Can Fix Your Brain

Creatine is mostly known in the bodybuilding community for it’s remarkable ability to increase muscle size and strength.

However, new research is showing this supplement also packs brain-boosting power anyone who wants to keep mentally sharp can benefit from.

In fact, creatine is scientifically proven to preserve your brain as you age, stave off memory loss, and stop mental fatigue.

Boost Your Body's Energy Currency with Creatine

Creatine is a naturally occurring, organic amino acid found in abundance in the skeletal muscle tissue of humans and animals.

When digested, creatine turns into creatine phosphate, which can be used by the body to produce adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, at a fast rate.

ATP, also known as the body’s “energy currency,” is responsible for delivering energy made by your mitochondria to all cells in the body.

Meaning, every cellular process throughout your body depends on creatine to supply needed energy.

Whether it’s in the boardroom or the gym, more energy means higher performance.

With this in mind, you can quickly begin to see why creatine’s benefits extend far beyond just the physical ones.

Creatine and Your Brain

Creatine works in the brain in a very similar way to muscle.

As creatine converts in the body to creatine phosphate when digested, it is taken up by your neurons (brain cells) in the same way it is taken by your myocytes (muscle cells).

The muscles in our body actively use myocytes in the same way our brain’s neurons are constantly sending billions of electrical signals every second.

How effectively these processes operate depends on how fast they can recycle creatine phosphate to build more ATP.

Therefore, the body can use energy more efficiently when the brain has more phosphate available (increased by creatine).

Cognitive Benefits of Creatine

Everyone, especially as we age, can use more energy. Meaning, everyone can use more creatine in their diet!

Creatine has been shown to:

• Boost brain power
• Increase mental energy
• Improve working memory and long-term memory
• Be neuroprotective
• Slow the aging process

In a double-blind placebo-controlled study involving 45 young adults, the University of Sydney in Australia administered a dosage of 5g of creatine per day for 6 weeks (a standard dose commonly used for boosting athletic performance).

Subjects participated in a working memory test and a Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices I.Q. test before and after supplementation.

Dr. Caroline Rae, lead researcher, concluded that:

“Both of these tests require fast brain power and the Raven’s task was conducted under time pressure. The results were clear with both our experimental groups and in both test scenarios: creatine supplementation gave a significant measurable boost to brain power.”

In 2009 at the UK’s University of Sunderland, a study was done on healthy, young individuals to find the effects of creatine supplementation.

Research made the subjects take the Uchida-Kraepelin test, a very difficult test that accurately assesses mental fatigue as participants perform repeated, mental and mathematical calculations.

The study found that participants taking creatine did much better on the test and showed significantly less signs of fatigue than the placebo group.

Another research review titled Creatine and Aging looked at hundreds of studies performed on creatine and concluded:

“Creatine depletion has been shown to lead to phenotypes of motor and cognitive impairments, and motor and cognitive dysfunctions are hallmarks of the aging process.

Overall, these studies suggest that supplementation with creatine has the potential to reverse functional declines associated with aging.”

Cognitive Benefits of Creatine

There are no clinically significant side-effects of creatine supplementation in healthy adults.

A dose of 5g daily has strong evidence for not causing any adverse side effects.

And 10g used daily for 310 days by older adults resulted in no significant differences from placebos.

Recommended Brand: Optimum Nutrition

5 1 vote
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x

Mito Male Scientific References

1. Cavallini, G., Caracciolo, S., Vitali, G., Modenini, F., & Biagiotti, G. (2004). Carnitine versus androgen administration in the treatment of sexual dysfunction, depressed mood, and fatigue associated with male aging. Urology, 63(4), 641-646. doi:10.1016/j.urology.2003.11.009

2. Malaguarnera, M., Cammalleri, L., Gargante, M. P., Vacante, M., Colonna, V., & Motta, M. (2007). L-Carnitine treatment reduces severity of physical and mental fatigue and increases cognitive functions in centenarians: A randomized and controlled clinical trial. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 86(6), 1738-1744. doi:10.1093/ajcn/86.5.1738

3. Karlic, H., & Lohninger, A. (2004). Supplementation of l-carnitine in athletes: Does it make sense? Nutrition, 20(7-8), 709-715. doi:10.1016/j.nut.2004.04.003


4. Samimi, M., Jamilian, M., Ebrahimi, F. A., Rahimi, M., Tajbakhsh, B., & Asemi, Z. (2016). Oral carnitine supplementation reduces body weight and insulin resistance in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Clinical Endocrinology,84(6), 851-857. doi:10.1111/cen.13003


5. Sahlin, K. (2011). Boosting fat burning with carnitine: An old friend comes out from the shadow. The Journal of Physiology, 589(7), 1509-1510. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2011.205815


6. Soczynska, J. K., Kennedy, S. H., Chow, C. S., Woldeyohannes, H. O., Konarski, J. Z., & Mcintyre, R. S. (2008). Acetyl-L-carnitine and α-lipoic acid: Possible neurotherapeutic agents for mood disorders? Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs, 17(6), 827-843. doi:10.1517/13543784.17.6.827


7. Miyagawa, T., Kawamura, H., Obuchi, M., Ikesaki, A., Ozaki, A., Tokunaga, K., . . . Honda, M. (2013). Effects of Oral L-Carnitine Administration in Narcolepsy Patients: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Cross-Over and Placebo-Controlled Trial. PLoS ONE,8(1). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053707


8. Cristofano, A., Sapere, N., Marca, G. L., Angiolillo, A., Vitale, M., Corbi, G., . . . Costanzo, A. D. (2016). Serum Levels of Acyl-Carnitines along the Continuum from Normal to Alzheimers Dementia. Plos One, 11(5). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0155694

. Fillit, H., & Hill, J. (2004). The Economic Benefits of Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors for Patients with Alzheimer Disease and Associated Dementias. Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders,18. doi:10.1097/01.wad.0000127492.65032.d3


10. Miyata, M., Yoshihisa, A., Yamauchi, H., Owada, T., Sato, T., Suzuki, S., . . . Takeishi, Y. (2014). Impact of sleep-disordered breathing on myocardial damage and metabolism in patients with chronic heart failure. Heart and Vessels, 30(3), 318-324. doi:10.1007/s00380-014-0479-6


11. Lango, R. (2001). Influence of ?-carnitine and its derivatives on myocardial metabolism and function in ischemic heart disease and during cardiopulmonary bypass. Cardiovascular Research, 51(1), 21-29. doi:10.1016/s0008-6363(01)00313-3


12. Vescovo, G., Ravara, B., Gobbo, V., Sandri, M., Angelini, A., Barbera, M. D., . . . Libera, L. D. (2002). L-Carnitine: A potential treatment for blocking apoptosis and preventing skeletal muscle myopathy in heart failure. American Journal of Physiology-Cell Physiology, 283(3). doi:10.1152/ajpcell.00046.2002


13. Shadboorestan, A., Shokrzadeh, M., Ahangar, N., Abdollahi, M., Omidi, M., & Payam, S. S. (2013). The chemoprotective effects of l-carnitine against genotoxicity induced by diazinon in rat blood lymphocyte. Toxicology and Industrial Health,31(12), 1334-1340. doi:10.1177/0748233713491811


14. Chowanadisai, W., Bauerly, K. A., Tchaparian, E., Wong, A., Cortopassi, G. A., & Rucker, R. B. (2009). Pyrroloquinoline Quinone Stimulates Mitochondrial Biogenesis through cAMP Response Element-binding Protein Phosphorylation and Increased PGC-1α Expression. Journal of Biological Chemistry,285(1), 142-152. doi:10.1074/jbc.m109.030130


15. Chowanadisai, W., Bauerly, K. A., Tchaparian, E., Wong, A., Cortopassi, G. A., & Rucker, R. B. (2009). Pyrroloquinoline Quinone Stimulates Mitochondrial Biogenesis through cAMP Response Element-binding Protein Phosphorylation and Increased PGC-1α Expression. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 285(1), 142-152. doi:10.1074/jbc.m109.030130


16. Stites TE, Mitchell AE, Rucker RB. Physiological importance of quinoenzymes and the O-quinone family of cofactors. J Nutr. 2000 Apr;130(4):719-27
17. Steinberg, F., Stites, T. E., Anderson, P., Storms, D., Chan, I., Eghbali, S., & Rucker, R. (2003). Pyrroloquinoline Quinone Improves Growth and Reproductive Performance in Mice Fed Chemically Defined Diets. Experimental Biology and Medicine, 228(2), 160-166. doi:10.1177/153537020322800205


18. Biswas, T. K., Pandit, S., Mondal, S., Biswas, S. K., Jana, U., Ghosh, T., . . . Auddy, B. (2010). Clinical evaluation of spermatogenic activity of processed Shilajit in oligospermia. Andrologia,42(1), 48-56. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0272.2009.00956.x


19. Surapaneni, D. K., Adapa, S. R., Preeti, K., Teja, G. R., Veeraragavan, M., & Krishnamurthy, S. (2012). Shilajit attenuates behavioral symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome by modulating the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis and mitochondrial bioenergetics in rats. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 143(1), 91-99. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2012.06.002


20. Chang, C. S., Choi, J. B., Kim, H. J., & Park, S. B. (2011). Correlation Between Serum Testosterone Level and Concentrations of Copper and Zinc in Hair Tissue. Biological Trace Element Research,144(1-3), 264-271. doi:10.1007/s12011-011-9085-y


21. Plasma Steroid-Binding Proteins in Tumour Diseases. (1984). Molecular Aspects of Medicine, 371-380. doi:10.1016/b978-0-08-033239-0.50032-6

[]