Creatine Expert: Creatine Is The Secret To Weight Loss

**Steven Bartlett** (0:00)
For the last couple of years, I've been working on something that I realised every podcaster listening to this, but actually probably every creator listening to this might just need. Podcasting is difficult for many reasons. And one of them is that these hosting platforms don't give you much information. And also because they're so fragmented, you kind of have to go through every single platform, uploading it to YouTube, and then taking the same big old video file and uploading it to Spotify's platform. It takes huge amounts of time, and that friction means most of us don't do it. That is the problem we set out to solve. And so we built something called Flightcast, which you can find at flightcast.com. And today Flightcast is also one of our show sponsors, and some of the world's biggest podcasters are now using our platform to run their shows because it gives you an edge, it saves you time, it gives you analytics most people won't typically get, it allows you to use AI to be more informed on your show, and it has growth tools that other hosting platforms don't have. So podcasters that are using Flightcast have this unfair advantage. So go to flightcast.com/doac now.

**Dr. Darren Candow** (0:58)
A healthy brain likely doesn't need any creatine. But what if you're stressed? What about sleep deprivation? Night shift workers, university students cramming for a midterm, then all of a sudden the healthy brain becomes a metabolically stressed brain. And most people fall into the stressed environment, and that's where creatine comes to the rescue. And we'll talk about how much, but the more stressed it is, the higher the dose seems to come into play.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:21)
And is there anyone that shouldn't take creatine?

**Dr. Darren Candow** (1:23)
Well, I've published over 120 papers just on creatine alone. And we've done at least 30 to 40 studies in our lab. And I can't find anybody that can't or shouldn't take creatine. So for example, at recommended dosages, creatine can not only have potential anti-cancer properties, but really speed up rehabilitation. And there's a lot of hope, especially around Alzheimer's.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:41)
And what about kids?

**Dr. Darren Candow** (1:42)
The current body of evidence suggests they want to get at least one gram per day, because in children they want to have optimization for bone health as well as muscle development. And so I'm fascinated that this nutrient, discovered in 1832, seems like boring for the longest time as having these profound benefits we never even thought would happen. And so your viewers today will be surprised by some of the things I'm going to talk about, including microdosing.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:03)
And we've got this thing here in front of us. This is the dosing dilemma. And I want to talk about how much I need to take for all these things. And I want to talk about nutrition, protein, weight training, etc. But before that, you've got five myths in front of you. Can you reveal one by one what they are?

**Dr. Darren Candow** (2:15)
So this is, oh, I can't believe you did this one to me. Creatine causes hair loss.
I was going bald before I started taking creatine. Myth number two. Oh, so this is by far the biggest myth and that is...

**Steven Bartlett** (2:30)
Guys, I've got a favor to ask before this episode begins. The algorithm, if you follow a show, will deliver you the best episodes from that show very prominently in your feed. So when we have our best episodes on this show, the most shared episodes, the most rated episodes, I would love you to know. And the simple way for you to know that is to hit that follow button. But also, it's the simple, easy, free thing that you can do to help us make the show better. I would be hugely grateful if you could take a minute on the app you're listing to this on right now and hit that follow button. Thank you so, so, so much.
Dr. Darren Candow, what is the mission that you're on in your life?

**Dr. Darren Candow** (3:11)
I think right now would be to promote health and make people live longer, free of disease. It's fascinating how we've transcended our understanding of weight training, and now weight training is seeming to have these profound effects that cardiovascular exercise has, and it gives you a bit more. So really focusing now on the benefits of lifting things around the house, and how exercise, and then of course nutrition, we're going to talk about creatine, but also how other macronutrients, especially protein, come into play. And then when you combine those two, are we doing enough to optimize longevity? And we hope that we are.