Creatine Myths: Hair Loss, Bloating, Dosing, and More

Does creatine cause hair loss? What about bloating? In this episode, Greg and Lyndsey bust myths and misconceptions about creatine, one of the most popular supplements on the market. Greg also explains how creatine actually works to increase muscle growth and discusses myths related to creatine dosing (is 5g per day enough?). Then, they play a few listener calls about creatine and answer questions about creatine's impact on individual genetic potential for muscularity, different forms of creatine, and the interaction between caffeine and creatine.

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TIME STAMPS, SOURCES, AND LINKS

 Intro (0:00)

What’s on your mind/bright spots: Love Island (3:23)

Recommendations and plugs (8:30)

Creatine Introduction (10:49)

• Recent research spotlight on creatine and muscle growth

History of Creatine (17:56)

• 1912 study establishing that dietary creatine increases muscle concentrations
• 1926 frog study discovering phosphocreatine (origin of “phosphagen”)
• 1927 study specifically identifying phosphocreatine for what it was

Creatine and hair loss introduction (38:39)

Background information on DHT (40:48)

• DHT basics

Discussion of the study everyone cites to support the idea that creatine causes hair loss (44:35)

• The creatine/DHT study
• DHT reference range
• Intraindividual variability in DHT levels

 The key thing everyone misses when discussing the creatine/DHT study: serum DHT is irrelevant to the physiology of androgenic alopecia (54:21)

• General review article –  Androgens and androgen receptor action in skin and hair follicles

Potential physiological explanations for increased scalp DHT production and hair loss (1:04:09)

• Scalp blood flow with androgenic alopecia
• Interesting (but probably wrong) gravity-related hypothesis
• Different effects of DHT in different hair follicles (specially, see the section heading “Hormones and Androgenetic Alopecia”)
• Hypothesis related to scalp tension