Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
In fat mice with fatty liver, the liver cells have fewer 'acidic cleanup pockets' than healthy mice, which might mean their cells aren't cleaning themselves properly.
Quantitative
Taking creatine or nicotinamide before skin cells are stressed might help reduce inflammation, based on lab studies with human skin cells.
Mechanistic
Taking creatine or nicotinamide before skin cells are stressed by harmful molecules might help keep them talking to neighboring skin cells, which could support skin health when under stress.
After skin cells are damaged, taking creatine or a form of vitamin B3 doesn’t seem to help them recover or become less aged, based on lab tests.
Correlational
Taking creatine or nicotinamide before damage might help protect skin cells from stress and aging by reducing harmful molecules called free radicals.
Taking creatine or nicotinamide before damage from hydrogen peroxide might help skin cells stay healthier longer by reducing signs of aging in the lab.
Creatine helps protect tiny muscle cells from shrinking when they're starved, but only when there's no sugar around — it seems to work only when energy is low.
When chicken muscle cells are starved, adding creatine seems to boost a key protein for energy and reduce harmful molecules, which might help the cells' powerhouses work better under stress.
When chicken muscle cells are starved, adding creatine seems to lower levels of two proteins that make muscles waste away — this might mean creatine helps protect muscles when there's not enough energy.
In chicken muscle cells with normal energy, adding creatine seems to boost protein building and turn on key muscle growth switches in the cells.
Taurine is a natural substance in your body that helps keep your cells from swelling or shrinking too much, especially when your muscles, heart, or brain are under stress.
Taking creatine might help your muscles keep using sugar properly when you're not moving much, and help them rebuild faster when you start moving again.
Insulin helps open up blood vessels in your muscles, letting more blood through so nutrients like creatine can get to the muscle cells more easily.
When creatine gets into muscle cells, it brings sodium with it, which pulls water into the cells and makes them swell up a bit — like a sponge soaking up water.
When your muscles store glycogen, it holds onto water—about 3 to 4 grams of water for every gram of glycogen. If glycogen runs low, cells get less hydrated, and that makes creatine less effective at pulling water into cells.
When you take creatine with carbs, it helps your body hold onto more creatine because the carbs spike insulin, which helps shuttle creatine into your cells better.
Insulin helps muscles pull in more creatine by boosting a cellular pump that creates the right conditions for creatine to get inside.
Creatine helps build muscle mostly by keeping muscle cells hydrated and reducing breakdown, not by making your body produce more muscle protein.
Creatine pulls water into your cells, making them swell a bit, and that swelling is how it helps your body work better.
Your muscles need sodium to pull in creatine, kind of like a battery-powered door — if the battery's dead or there's no sodium around, creatine can't get inside, even if you're drinking plenty of water.
Some people of African descent have natural changes in a gene called PCSK9 that seem to lower their cholesterol levels a lot.
Two specific genetic changes that can affect heart health are much more common in African Americans than in white Americans.
Some people of African descent have genetic changes in a gene called PCSK9 that seem to cut bad cholesterol levels by almost half—this might help explain why they have lower heart disease risk.
People who naturally have lower activity of a protein called PCSK9 don’t seem to have a higher chance of getting type 2 diabetes — which means drugs that target PCSK9 might not increase diabetes risk like some earlier studies worried they would.