The Study
Global and targeted gene expression and protein content in skeletal muscle of young men following short-term creatine monohydrate supplementation.
This study is like a carefully controlled experiment where half the people got creatine and half got a fake pill, but everyone took both at different times without knowing which was which. Because of this smart design, we can say that creatine likely caused the changes seen in muscle genes and body water.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Creatine makes your muscle cells swell with water, which tells the cells to grow and protect themselves.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 560 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1The changes show creatine works fast, even without exercise, mainly by holding water and turning on growth signals in muscles.
- 2After 10 days, muscle mass went up by 1.6%, body water by 2.2%.
- 3Some growth-related genes increased up to 5 times.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Physiological genomics
Year
2008
Authors
A. Safdar, N. Yardley, R. Snow, S. Melov, M. Tarnopolsky
Related Content
Claims (6)
Taking creatine helps your muscle cells soak up more water, making them swell a bit—and this swelling tells your body to stop breaking down muscle as much.
Taking creatine for 10 days might turn on a gene in young men's muscles that helps muscle cells grow and stay alive.
Taking creatine for a week might change genes in young men's muscles that help reshape the muscle structure, possibly because the muscle cells are holding more water.
Taking creatine for a short time might turn on genes in young men's muscles that help fix DNA, possibly because the cells are reacting to the stress from holding more water.
Taking creatine for just a week can make young, healthy guys gain a little weight and look more muscular—even if they don’t work out, mostly because of water holding in their muscles.
Taking creatine for just a week can turn on important muscle cell signals that help with growth and energy use in young, healthy guys.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.