Creatine and your Brain: Concussions, Athletic Performance, Anti Aging, Sex Differences and More - Episode #12 Dr. Brian Roy and Jensen Murphy

Imperfect Progress with Anne Guzman

If you’re an athlete, there’s a high likelihood you’re familiar with and may have experience with creatine supplementation. Creatine, which is inherently part of our body’s energy production, has a robust body of evidence backing it which reaches back decades. Evidence runs deep for creatine’s ability to improve performance in sports with short explosive sub 30s efforts and repeated burst as well as resistance training type exercise.

More recently, creatine research has been focused on new areas including the brain, in relation to traumatic brain injury, anti aging, focus and fatigue resistance as well as other brain related diseases. To learn more about what we know, and where the research is headed, I reached out to speak with two scientists who are currently immersed in research on the neuroprotective effects of creatine monohydrate.

Dr. Brian Roy and Jensen Murphy are both scientists at Brock University in Canada. Dr. Roy is the current Interim Dean for the Faculty of Graduate Sciences as well as a Professor in the Kinesiology department. He’s also an accomplished athlete which you’ll hear more about this during the podcast!

Jensen Murphy is completing her Masters research at Brock University in the health sciences department, with Dr. Brian Roy as her supervisor. and shares her personal story with us as far as what drove her decision to research creatine and fuels her desire to become an emergency room physician. Jensen is also a very accomplished varsity hockey goalie and coach.

As an athlete who has experienced several concussions myself, I was very curious to learn more about the role creatine may or may not play in concussion recovery and prevention. Additionally, as a coach, I am always keen to keep up to date with the latest research on performance, including in the cognitive space where creatine may play a role. Today we dive right in after a brief foundation of what creatine is and what it does in the body.

Inside the podcast you’ll learn:

• Can you train your body to synthesize more creatine?
• How does diet impact your creatine levels in muscle and the brain?
• Can creatine give you a cognitive edge in sport?
• Can creatine help anti age your brain?
• Are there sex differences with creatine?
• How do you measure brain creatine?
• Is there a dosing regimen for the brain?
• Is creatine safe?
• What's different about getting creatine into muscle versus into the brain?

As always I finish my podcast with some deeper more personal insights about imperfect progress and how my guests have navigated their own challenging times on their paths to where they are now. Some great insights and personal stories came up and the end of this episode.

Whether you're an athlete or not, your brain is one of your most precious assets. Personally I'm super keen on keeping mine sharp and firing on all cylinders as long as possible. The question is, will creatine help?

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Imperfect Progress. My goal is always to bring you quality information about science and navigating life, in a way that is relatable and practical from the best experts in their fields.

I'd really appreciate if you could visit my podcast on Apple Podcast here and give it a rating and leave a comment. It helps others to find the podcast and that means more people learning from credible sources, which is the goal! Also, your comments and feedback are valuable and appreciated.

To follow and learn from Dr. Brian Roy and Jensen Murphy, check out the links below:

Twitter: Dr. Brian Roy https://twitter.com/DrBri78

Twitter: Dr. Jensen Murphy https://twitter.com/jensmurphy