Creatine Benefits For Menopausal Women
Creatine monohydrate is one of the most well-studied, safe, and beneficial supplements available to humans. Yet, many menopausal women squirm at the idea of supplementing with creatine in fear of gaining too much mass. Many midlife women find themselves struggling with weight gain during the menopausal transition and the thought of seeing the number on the scale go up, not down, is horrifying to them. When women think about taking creatine, they often think of their teen boys loading up gaining a lot of muscle mass and bulk, or bodybuilders in the gym lifting hundreds of pounds.
Women start to lose their lean muscle mass at around age 30, at a rate of 1-3% per year. It’s becoming harder to maintain lean muscle mass and to build more muscle mass for midlife women. This is why midlife women need to eat more protein. Their body requires more protein to do the same jobs as it did when it was a younger body. For more information about eating optimal amounts of protein for midlife women, go to this blog. Lean muscle mass is a glucose dump, meaning that the more muscle mass you have in your body, the more storage area you have for glucose. That’s a good thing. Elevated levels of glucose are dangerous and may lead to pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic disease states. Midlife women already struggle with insulin resistance, so muscle mass, strength, and power are essential ingredients to longevity.
4 Benefits of Creatine for Midlife Women
Creatine improves exercise performance.
Creatine enhances HIIT training sessions and supports muscle and strength gains for women, which is a pillar of longevity as you age. As women age, their estrogen and testosterone levels decline, which are needed to preserve bone health and muscle mass at a rate of 1-3% per year starting at age 30. Women have lower creatine stores than men, making it even more important to supplement with this supplement. We get creatine from animal proteins, but unless you consume two pounds or more of animal protein per day, you are not getting the optimal amount you may need to thrive during your menopausal journey.
Creatine improves brain health.
Creatine has now been shown to improve brain health, and mental focus, manage depression, and support trauma recovery. During perimenopause and beyond, many women experience insomnia, fragmented sleep, anxiety and depression, and brain fog due to declining hormones. The brain stores and uses creatine, and supplementation is showing promising brain benefits.
Creatine supports body re-composition.
Creatine works by increasing water retention in the cells. Water molecules are drawn into the muscle cell making muscle mass appear fuller. Eventually, the creatine will help with muscle growth, improving exercise performance (lifting heavier weights, powering through intervals easier). With that, the number on the scale will show a gain in weight of a few pounds (remember, muscle weighs more than fat). This is not fat mass weight gain. This muscle mass gain will support your weight loss journey, exercise performance, and body composition. More muscle mass also means stronger bones. Creatine is beneficial to use if you’ve been diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis. While many women want to get smaller and weigh less, shifting their mindset around strength and power will set midlife women up for longevity. Creatine does not directly lead to fat loss, but the improvements in muscle mass, strength, and power will.
Creatine supports gut health.
The lining of the gut requires a lot of energy and turnover to repair and replenish the lining. Creatine helps to make ATP, our energy currency. Some people struggle with IBS, or IBD, Irritable Bowel Disease, and struggle to repair the gut lining. Creatine can help that process and increase the function of immune cells. It has been shown that midlife women experience an adverse change in their gut microbiome and women are also more susceptible to autoimmune conditions during this time in their life, as much as three times more than men.
Creatine supplementation is a beneficial supplement for almost every menopausal woman and the benefits are far-reaching. Those with a pre-existing kidney condition should not be taking creatine. Always check with your doctor before starting any new supplementations.
Do you need to be held accountable while on your health journey? Do you struggle to incorporate all the healthy lifestyle behaviors day in and day out? Do you fall off the wagon while at a work event, traveling for pleasure, or during the holidays? Consider hiring a health coach. Health coaches are experts in lifestyle modifications using science-backed strategies.
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Resources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33800439/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7916590/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8145094/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9379122/