### Intro:
Most people that goes to the gym, knows what is creatine and its benefits in increasing strength and performance. But what most people don't know, is that creatine is not only for those who lift. Creatine has a large number of benefits for the average dude, and thats what im going to cover in this post.

![Creatine-Grows-Some-Body-Parts-Faster.jpg](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmYBSa8eyn1r1Nr1P1NddfMD4nYtm2qsyqgV2j51cHrt9y)

### What is creatine:
But first, let me explain what is creatine. Creatine is an amino acid that is produced by your body and stored in the muscle fibers(around 95% of you total store) and in the brain. Its naturally found in meats and other animal products.

### How creatine works:
To understand how creatine works, we first need to understand what ATP is. ATP stands for Adenosine triphosphate witch is the body main energy source (its the way your body transfers energy). And the way your body consumes that energy (ATP) is by hydrolyzing it, whenever a phosphate group is hydrolyzed it releases energy in the form of heat, that is used by the body to perform other processes. And that process result in the ATP molecule losing one phosphate and turning into useless ADP (adenosine diphosphate). Creatine works by donating its phosphate to the ADP molecule to re-create ATP, increasing your (ready to use) energy.
![creatine-fact-and-fiction_02.jpg](https://ipfs.busy.org/ipfs/QmVFkdz4oAswRmFdP7cVeTg12KAVJaXSLxUPthND9osMFJ)


### Creatine benefits:
#### It helps your body produce more energy:
As explained, creatine converts ADP back to ATP, producing more energy to your body.

#### It increases strength and performance:
Creatine supplementation has been shown to increase body mass and improve performance in short duration exercises. [study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12945830)

#### Creatine aids cognition in the elderly people.
[This](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17828627) study shows that creatine improved cognitive performance in elderly individuals.

#### Creatine can help with parkinson's disease.
[This](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10222117) study shows that creatine was able help in parkinson's disease by preventing 90% of the drop in dopamine levels in mices.

#### It may help with other neurological diseases like [Alzheimer's](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1510941/) and [Epilepsy](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19393274/).

#### Creatine can lower blood sugar levels fighting diabetes
In [This](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17396216/) study creatine showed a significant decrease in Oral glucose tolerance compared to the placebo in healthy male subjects.

### How to take creatine:
Because creatine is a cumulative supplement a good way to start taking creatine is using a loading protocol, because it raises your creatine stores quickly, followed by a maintenance to a maintenance protocol. I personally recommend 20 grams of creatine per day, split into 5 gram doses, for a week. Followed by a maintenance dose of o 5 grams per day.