Everything You Need to Know About Creatine 

Creatine supplements are widely known for their effectiveness in high-intensity activities like weightlifting. But it’s a common misconception that it’s only for bodybuilders or for men.

Creatine actually provides remarkable benefits for women in their 40s and beyond. Beyond enhancing strength and workout performance, its positive impact extends to brain health, bone strength, beautiful skin and more. 

What Is Creatine? 

Creatine is a vital compound for energy production in your body that your body makes from three amino acids: arginine, glycine, and methionine. Your liver, kidneys, and pancreas make about a gram of creatine daily, which is then transported to your muscles. In fact, about 95% of creatine is stored in your skeletal muscle. Smaller amounts of creatine are also found in your brain and gut, contributing to various physiological functions. 

A few foods, including red meat and fish, provide some creatine. However, you’d have to eat an impractical amount (over two pounds of red meat) to get the recommended 4-5 grams of creatine daily. This is where supplementation comes into play as a convenient and effective way to get therapeutic amounts of this essential nutrient. 

What Does Creatine Do? 

Creatine plays a major role in energy production, particularly during short bursts of intense physical activity. In fact, the most important benefit of creatine is building a fundamental energy molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).¹ 

When you work out, your muscles require energy, which is supplied by glucose. ATP acts like a middleman between glucose and your muscles, enabling the rapid conversion of glucose into ATP to fuel muscle contraction and movement. But everything comes at a cost.  

During this energy transfer, ATP loses a phosphate group, transforming into adenosine diphosphate (ADP). However, muscles cannot utilize ADP for energy. To regenerate ATP and maintain energy levels, muscles combine ADP with creatine phosphate (also known as phosphocreatine). This process effectively recharges ADP into ATP, ensuring a continuous supply of energy for muscle function.  

Think of supplementing with creatine as a battery charger to help your muscles power through a workout. During intense exercise, using ATP for energy and then recharging it with creatine phosphate happens again and again. Keeping your tissues saturated with creatine provides a continuous energy cycle that helps keeps your muscles fueled and ready to move.  

Notably, the benefits of this energy-enhancing process extend beyond the muscles. The brain, an organ with its own demanding energy requirements, also benefits from this mechanism. 

Why Is Creatine So Important For Women? 

Compared with men, women have 70-80% fewer tissue stores of creatine.² You’re also less likely to get it from your diet, especially if you’re vegan or vegetarian. Animal-derived foods are the highest sources, and most plant foods have little if any creatine. Deficiencies can especially become a problem with age. After 30, muscle mass decreases by about 3-8% every decade. By the time you reach 60, that loss accelerates.  

The consequences of muscle loss extend beyond aesthetics. We rely on muscle strength for everyday activities, from lifting a carry-on bag into an overhead compartment on a flight to hoisting a 30-pound bag of dog food into your trunk.³ A decrease in muscle mass also increases your risk of falling, disability, and even early death.⁴ 

Aging brings about an increased likelihood of bone loss, too. In the few years following menopause, women can lose up to 20% of their bone mass, leading to heightened risks of fractures, osteoporosis, and weakened bones.⁵ 

Muscle and bone loss are not inevitable parts of getting older, thanks to the potential benefits of creatine. One of its biggest benefits is its ability to counteract inflammation—a critical factor in various age-related concerns like bone loss and muscle decline.⁶ Creatine is also a powerful antioxidant, fighting the free radicals that can damage your cells and steal your health.⁷ 

Creatine Benefits for Women 

Creatine can be a valuable ally for women in maintaining muscle strength, bone health, and overall well-being as you navigate the aging process. From enhancing physical performance to supporting cognitive health and beyond, the advantages of this nutrient are far-reaching, making it one of the essential supplements for women over 40. 

1. Muscle Mass and Strength 

When muscle mass declines with age, so does your strength and mobility. Creatine can help. When you’re doing intense exercise (like lifting heavy weights), your muscles demand high amounts of ATP.  

Creatine accelerates the production of ATP. It’s like having a backup generator for your muscles to work longer and better. With this extra energy, you can do more repetitions with weight or go harder (such as with high-intensity interval training or HIIT). 

Research supports these promising effects. In one study, older women supplementing with creatine had significant gains in muscle strength, especially when they combined creatine with resistance training for at least 24 weeks.⁸ Additional studies show that creatine can benefit muscle size and function in post-menopausal women.⁹ 

Overall, creatine is a powerful tool to slow down muscle loss and enhance strength, improving your overall physical performance and quality of life. 

2. Brain Health 

Just like your muscle cells need energy, so do your brain cells. Creatine provides energy to your brain cells (called neurons), helping them work more efficiently. When neurons have enough energy, they communicate better with each other, supporting memory and the ability to learn new things. 

When you’re stressed out or sleep-deprived, your brain rapidly uses creatine to maintain ATP levels, which can impair energy production. Optimizing ATP production with creatine can especially benefit tasks that rely on the frontal cortex, including cognition, attention, and memory.¹⁰  

These and other brain-boosting benefits become important with age to reduce the risk for neurodegenerative diseases. Women have lower brain levels of creatine, particularly in the frontal lobe.¹¹ Supplementation can support brain energy levels in older women, promoting a healthy mood and brain function.¹² 

Other research shows that creatine can boost cognitive performance and brain function while reducing mental fatigue during stressful mental tasks.¹³ Creatine may even help with depression, which impacts women much more than men. One review found that women with a major depressive disorder who supplemented their daily antidepressant with 5 grams of creatine responded twice as fast and experienced remission of depression at twice the rate of women who took only their antidepressant.¹⁴ 

3. Bone Health  

Age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) can increase your risk for falls, injuries, and fractures. Sarcopenia is also associated with other age-related conditions, including osteoporosis. Creatine offers direct and indirect benefits for bone health. Compared with strength training alone, creatine can help support bone mineral density to reduce the risk of fractures and frailty.¹⁵  

Indirectly, creatine supports bone health by promoting muscle strength and mass. When you do strength-training exercises, your muscles pull on your bones, stimulating bone growth and improving bone density.  

Overall, creatine combined with resistance training can have favorable effects on muscle and bone to help you age powerfully.¹⁶ Creatine’s anti-inflammatory impact can also help lower chronic inflammation that, left unchecked, can lead to bone loss.¹⁷ 

4. Energy Levels 

With age, energy levels can decline, making workouts and other physical activity challenging. Creatine can support your body’s ATP production to create steady, sustained all-day energy.  

The advantages of creatine extend to physical performance as well. Creatine supplementation can delay the onset of fatigue during anaerobic exercise, such as HIIT.¹⁸ In fact, researchers find that women who use creatine have a 10-15% increase in exercise performance.¹⁹ 

5. Blood-Sugar Balance 

Creatine supplementation can support glucose regulation, helping manage blood-sugar levels. Research shows that creatine can enhance insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle. When muscle cells become more sensitive to insulin, they can take up and use glucose more effectively, keeping blood-sugar levels in check.²⁰ 

While we need more research, researchers believe that creatine combined with exercise training can better improve glucose metabolism.²¹ One study found creatine, especially combined with optimal protein intake and strength training, can help your muscle cells better utilize glucose and store that glucose as glycogen, your muscles’ backup fuel. ²² 

That makes creatine very promising for people with blood-sugar imbalances, including diabetes. One review of three studies found that compared with a placebo, creatine supplementation could help improve blood-sugar levels for people with type 2 diabetes.²³ 

Which Type of Creatine Should I Take?

There are two popular creatine options you’ll find on the market: creatine monohydrate and creatine hydrochloride (HCl).

Research shows creatine monohydrate is excellent for boosting your workout performance and building muscle. It can help you exercise harder and gain lean muscle mass when training.²⁴ 

Monohydrate has been the staple form of creatine in the fitness field for decades. Made of creatine combined with a single water molecule, it’s a highly effective supplement for increasing creatine stores in the body. This compound has earned its reputation through consistent, proven effectiveness in enhancing muscle strength, promoting muscle growth, and boosting overall athletic performance.²⁵ Its affordability, stability, and well-documented safety profile have contributed to its widespread use among athletes and fitness enthusiasts.

However, creatine monohydrate may cause water retention or bloating in some women, particularly during the initial loading phase (during this phase, you consume a relatively large amount of creatine over a short period to quickly saturate your muscles). This occurs because creatine draws water into muscle cells, which can temporarily increase body weight and create a slightly fuller appearance. Although this isn’t water retention in the traditional sense, it can still lead to a feeling of fullness or bloating that we just don’t need more of as women! 

In addition to water retention, some women have noted mild gastrointestinal discomfort when taking creatine monohydrate. To minimize these potential side effects while reaping the benefits of creatine monohydrate, women can start with a lower dose or skip the loading phase altogether. 

The other popular option is creatine hydrochloride (HCl), a superior form that dissolves more easily in water and can be delivered in more concentrated amounts—meaning better absorption and smaller doses.²⁶  This may help reduce common side effects of creatine monohydrate, including bloating and water retention. 

One study found that your body absorbs creatine HCl 70% better than creatine monohydrate.²⁷ Better absorption can eliminate the need for a loading phase. This could make creatine HCl supplementation more effective and efficient for women who may be sensitive to the side effects of traditional creatine monohydrate.

Whichever form you choose, be sure to track your results! Cronometer tracks your food macros, movement, and more to give you direct feedback. A measuring tape and a body-composition scale are invaluable tools to monitor progress, celebrate your wins, and tweak where necessary. 

SHEatine: Creatine Made for Women, by Women 

The research on creatine HCl’s benefits is compelling, but the real game-changer for me was experiencing the results firsthand. That’s why I developed SHEatine—a creatine supplement uniquely formulated by women, for women.

SHEatine features CON-CRĒT®, an advanced form of creatine HCl that offers comparable strength and muscle-building benefits to traditional creatine monohydrate but at a significantly reduced dosage. While typical creatine monohydrate recommendations are around 5 grams daily, only 750 mg of CON-CRĒT® is needed to get similar effects. This concentrated form is 7 times more potent and better absorbed than conventional creatine forms, making it more effective and efficient.

Our formula also includes taurine, an amino acid that reduces fatigue and enhances muscle strength, and magnesium glycinate to boost energy production, aid muscle recovery, and improve sleep. This carefully selected blend works synergistically to deliver a comprehensive supplement you won’t find anywhere else. With SHEatine, enjoy sharper mental clarity, sustained muscle strength, improved bone health, and a boost in overall vitality.* 

Order SHEatine here.

References: 

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3. Scientific American: How to Keep Muscles Strong as You Age 

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*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. Products mentioned are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The views in this blog by JJ Virgin should never be used as a substitute for professional medical advice. Please work with a healthcare practitioner concerning any medical problem or concern.