Your muscles use a special door called SLC6A8 to let creatine in, and this door only works when there’s more sodium outside the cell than inside — like a pump that needs salt to open.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (3)
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Creatine uptake in isolated soleus muscle: kinetics and dependence on sodium, but not on insulin.
The study shows that muscle cells need sodium to take in creatine, just like the claim says. Less sodium means much less creatine gets inside the muscle.
Cooperative Binding of Substrate and Ions Drives Forward Cycling of the Human Creatine Transporter-1
The study shows that creatine gets into muscle cells using a special doorway that only works when sodium is present, which matches the claim.
Probing binding and occlusion of substrate in the human creatine transporter‐1 by computation and mutagenesis
The study shows that the creatine transporter needs sodium to work properly, which supports the idea that creatine gets into muscle cells using a sodium-powered system.
Contradicting (1)
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The cataract and glucosuria associated monocarboxylate transporter MCT12 is a new creatine transporter.
The study found a new way that creatine gets into cells that doesn’t need sodium, but it didn’t test the main way people think it happens in muscles. So it doesn’t fully support or disprove the original idea.
Gold Standard Evidence Needed
According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.