Why Creatine Is the Most Overlooked Supplement for Women's Health | Dr Stacy Sims

0:02This is a Be Well Moment, the most replayed moments from my latest conversation. It's a glimpse into the wider episode, which you can find linked in the show notes below. Because sometimes one small moment is enough to reconnect to living well and being well.

0:22I really want to talk about supplementation. Yeah. There's so much we didn't get to talk about last time i've i've pulled out a few that i think women whether you're menopausal perimenopause or you can say whether it's more specific in which life phase but these are the ones that i think women want to know a lot about so collagen yeah okay so as from a scientific point of view i think about collagen not from a beauty standpoint yeah right so that i think this is what most women want to know does it also have those benefits but i always look at it from a bone standpoint yeah So talk to me about supplementation.

0:58Should women be supplementing with collagen? And if so, why? What are the reasons? That one's a hard one. I have to chuck in a few hard ones. I know, you have to. I've got to. Okay, so if we look at collagen, there's things that aren't well known. We have collagen peptides. We also have native collagen, which is the whole molecule of the collagen. If we look at collagen peptides, because they're small bits of collagen, they're actually absorbed and can go to target tissue. And we see that there is evidence that if you're using type 2 collagen, which is joint specific, and you're using peptides, they can actually go and they can help attenuate the decline of some of the cartilage.

1:41So it does help with joints. If we look at using native collagen with that, native collagen or the whole collagen molecule is not absorbed, but it causes an immune response. So then you are getting an immune response that's telling the body not to attack the cartilage. So there is evidence to show that if you're looking at type 2 collagen specific to joints, that it can help with reducing the degradation of cartilage. It's not going to stop it, but it's going to help reduce it. When we look at the type 3s and 1s, which is the most common that's out there, that doesn't do anything for joints. That's your hair, that's your nails, that's some of the structural stuff around your intestines and organs, but it doesn't help with joints.

2:30But when you look at most of the stuff on the market, and you're seeing things like vital protein, collagen protein, that's not protein that goes to our daily intake of protein, because collagen does not count as our daily intake of protein, because it's structural. One of the amino acids. Right. Because it's structural. And they're always type one and three. So they're like, yeah, you can take this supplement and it really benefits your joints and it accounts for your protein intake. It's like, no, it doesn't. One, it's the wrong kind of collagen. And two, it doesn't count for my protein intake.

3:04So do you say don't have collagen? Or if you do, you don't have it as your protein intake? You don't have it as your protein intake. But if you're someone who has a family history or has a diagnosis of osteoarthritis, then it can be beneficial to use type 2s. But you have to be very cognate that you want type 2 peptide and native. Okay. And it's hard to find. So you have to do your due diligence to find it. Any good brands? No, I can't say that because it's global, right? Every country is a little bit different. Okay. And what about, I mean, I know it's in your area, but on the beauty side of things, because women are going to want it.

3:41I think women buy it for that reason as opposed to the bone density. And when you're seeing people using collagen, the type ones and threes, then yes, they get strong nails, they get lustrous hair, all those kinds of things. When we look at vegetarian and vegans and they're not getting collagen and you see this vegan collagen, walk away because there's no such thing as vegan collagen. There's a collagen booster, which is copper and zinc and vitamin C. You can use that. that's going to help your body's own production, but it's not going to be like ingesting collagen. So the jury's out on collagen.

4:17We think, okay, we think yes, but very specific on what type. Right. And it's not going towards your protein daily intake. Correct. Because it's only one of the amino acids. Correct. Okay. Magnesium. Yes. This is a big one. Yes. There's lots of types of magnesium. Yes. This is not talked about at all. So can you give your outtake on magnesium and which one should women be looking at? Yes, so there is some data that shows that magnesium is beneficial for sleep. And this is primarily because of our muscle contractions, right? So we want to have a relaxation of everything. So if we have enough magnesium to support brain and muscle, then yes, we can get to sleep.

4:58We need one that crosses blood-brain barrier to help. And this is a biglyconate. There's only one, isn't there? Yep. So when you're looking at your magnesium supplement, you don't want to go for, what is it, oxalate? Because that's a laxative. So you have to be very conscious that you want to look for a biglyconate or a glyconate. Okay. Creatine. It's the best thing out there. I knew you'd say that. Okay. How should people be looking at creatine and how much should they be taking? Yeah. So your body naturally produces around two grams a day. If you have a diet that is meat-oriented, then you're also ingesting a lot of creatine that way.

5:39Most women don't eat enough to actually provide as much as the body actually goes through. We see there's a change across the menstrual cycle of how your body uses and regulates creatine. So we see that there's an increase in creatine kinase, which is your breakdown in the high hormone phase. Because again, progesterone is trying to provide all the building blocks. So really having the availability of more creatine helps with that too. If we're looking at supplementing with creatine, we want creatine monohydrate. And I don't get any kind of kickback from this company, but the company that produces CreaPure, this is a German B2B, meaning business to business.

6:22CreaPure is patented and so it uses a water wash. There's no real side effects from using it. it's pure and it's in almost every high quality creatine monohydrate product that's out there so if you're looking at something that has crea pure on it you want to start with one to three grams and work your way up to five grams over the course of about three to four weeks and that's going to attenuate any possible side effect okay if you're looking at a cheaper version of creatine monohydrate it comes as an acid wash because it's cheaper to produce it through acid um evaporative and other things in the lab than it is to use a water wash which is really specific and this is why we start to see a lot of bloating and stomach discomfort and some of the other side effects that we see okay so again being consumer be aware be aware yeah and a lot of people talk about creating with doms yeah should people be having it a specific time after they exercise when should we be consuming it no no because it doesn't have an acute effect it takes about three weeks for the body to be saturated.

7:27Okay. So you need to - That's why you're building up. Yes. Yes. And once it's saturated and has enough, that's when you start to see the performance effects. We see that over the course of three to four weeks of consistently using three to five grams every day, you get that full saturation. Muscle works better, brain works better, guts better, because anything that has a fast energetic requires creatine. So we see that the brain fog starts to be attenuated with creatine use. We start to see gut issues with women who, I go for a run, I had to find a bathroom every time I go for a run. Using the three to five grams over the course of a month, then that starts to dissipate as well.

8:09Wow. Because it maintains the gut integrity of the intestinal cells. You don't have as much of that separation because now you have creatine that's going to work in those energetics to hold it together. and then also we see for mood and mood health creatine is really beneficial for that too so actually most women are perimenopausal maybe all women but i'm just really thinking about the things side effects that we were talking about or you know the physical sides that we might see in oneself when we're perimenopausal this could be an amazing supplement absolutely absolutely gosh it's interesting how it's not spoken about more it's very much spoken in the sports domain i think but just general health for women it's just not spoken about yeah so crea vitalis and creatine for life creatine for life website has all the stuff that creatine does for health and there are a lot of my colleagues in the sports science and supplement world that also are doing research on creatine for health and so all the peer-reviewed studies that you can find are on creatine for health website.

9:11Crea Vitalis is a offshoot of Crea Pure that is designed specifically for health and not bodybuilding. So it's a lower dose and it's a very high quality protein or high quality creatine supplementation. So there's definitely stuff that's coming out and it's a push to get into the health space for both men and women. But yeah, it's slow coming. Omega-3. it's hit or miss right i as a vegetarian is that the first time you've said that no i think it's no yeah i know i think it's nine give me something sorry um i use it right but specific that it's vegetarian do you take an algae supplement yeah okay yeah and i find it it's very helpful but for the general purposes the information out there from scientific research it's it's neither here nor there if you're a vegetarian vegan then yes there's efficacy for it if you're not there's not so much unless it's specific for you as an individual and you've had tests to show that you're low in it and you need it it's interesting a lot of the studies that i've read on the omega area the ones that had a p positive value was actually from the people that ate the fish yeah not from the supplements not from the supplements so it's that's why it's really nuanced because when you look at it when you talk about omega-3 as a supplement all the benefits that i see is when people actually eat the oily fish right whereas the supplementation part is very very vague right and this comes with most supplements because when you look at taking a supplement the how is it absorbed right and what are the cofactors in food that allow things to be absorbed and used that's not in a pill yeah so this is why we're like be very careful with supplementation try to get it from food creatine can be a an exception because in order to get three to five grams you're looking at 20 chicken breasts a day yeah and if you're vegetarian you don't get it you don't get it right okay vitamin d this is one that we have to supplement yes because we can't get enough from the sun if you, well, I mean, maybe you can if you live in LA where we're recording this.

11:29But not really because we're in the society of wearing hats and sunscreen all the time. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So it is something, especially in winter and for us coming from the very different parts of the world where the light is very changeable, it's very important to supplement. Yeah. So vitamin D is a big one. I always say take it in the morning because it's a hormone. Yes. um and probiotics what because you spoke about gut health for men okay so what's your outtake on probiotics i'm not a fan of taking them uh food definitely yeah fermented food best way and yogurt yeah exactly and the reason why i say that is because we look at the probiotics that are on the shelf they come from maybe two or three different companies and they're all the same strain so the same as we have this um antibiotic fear right where antibiotics aren't working because there's an overexposure to them we see these probiotics that are over the counter all the same strain coming from three different companies it's going to create even more problems than not having them right so i'm like fermented foods for your probiotics lots of fibery foods for your prebiotics you're not using supplements for either one i say it because there's a lot of companies now talking about probiotics for menopause yes i know that's why i know and it's like start earlier start with increasing the amount of fiber that's in your diet and increasing fermented foods that are in your diet especially if you're perimenopause because it's the three to four years before that one point in time menopause we have the greatest amount of change in our gut microbiome diversity because that's when you have this really significant change in hormone production.

13:15So this is where people really go, I don't feel like myself. And once they get through menopause and things have settled down, they start to rebuild gut microbiome and they start to get a handle on energy levels and brain clears that they are like, oh, I'm out the other side. But we can do something about that to start, especially if we're taking care of our gut. thank you for listening to this be well moment if it resonated the full conversation is linked in the show notes and i hope it gave you a small pause to take a moment for you and to reconnect to living well and being well if you loved it please do leave a review follow the show or share this maybe with someone you love