Dr. Rhonda Patrick: Kind of going back, circling back to the disuse atrophy, you know, that's something that's obviously very relevant for people if they're injured or perhaps they're traveling somewhere and they don't have the same setup; they're not working their muscles out the same way that they usually do. And so there's a, there's a, a lot, there's a case to, to be made, you know, where it's like, okay, well I'm not gonna be engaging my muscles as much. And you're kind of like, you don't use it, you lose it. Right? And this is where a supplement that I'm, I'm, I'm quite fond of for a variety of reasons, omega-3 fatty acids seem to be beneficial. So Dr. Chris McGlory came on the podcast and talked about some of his research using high-dose omega-3s.

About 5 grams a day, which is a little bit higher than what is prescribed for some people for different cardiometabolic reasons, was able to prevent or cut disuse atrophy almost by 50%.

Brady Holmer: Wow.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: In, in this case it was in, in women. So omega-3 fatty acids might be another sort of tool for recovery, right? Used during perhaps illness, injury. I think they should be used every day. There's a lot of benefits, cardiovascular benefits as well, anti-inflammatory benefits. Again, going down to the recovery and omega-3 fatty acids being beneficial for inflammation. Perhaps, perhaps. For some, someone like yourself, it might, might be even more useful, right? Where you're really running, you're running what, 20, 20 hours a week almost.

Brady Holmer: There's a lot of stress on your muscles and a lot of inflammatory cytokines and molecules that are generated during that kind of training. And, you know, the heart too, I think, I mean, it was maybe something that you had posted, but I think there was a study showing omega-3 fatty acids could prevent some of the cardiac injury biomarkers after endurance running or after downhill running. So yeah, I look at some of those studies and I mean, I do take omega-3 myself. I think I take 2 grams per day, so maybe I need to up my dose to 3 to 5 grams per day based on some of this research here. But yeah, I like cardiac stuff too, you know, I think makes sense to take that for recovery purposes for sure.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: Yeah, I think it was 3 grams a day and it decreased the troponin levels, which are a marker of, you know, cardiac stress. I, I kind of wanna move lastly to the, the last sort of aspect in our, in the training guide. And that has to do with creatine supplementation. And Dr. Stuart Phillips and also Dr. Layne Norton both mentioned creatine as one of their top-tier supplements that they take. Lots and lots of evidence on safety and efficacy. I take it, you take it. Maybe you can talk a little bit about, you know, just summarize briefly for people what are some of the benefits of creatine supplementation, how people should start. Yeah. Dose, you know, some of the best practices?

Brady Holmer: I think creatine, I feel like it's probably like one of the most popular supplements these days and everybody is taking it, or if they're not, they probably should be due to the, the evidence that's coming out. So yeah, creatine, it, you know, it's something that we get from the diet, but that you can supplement with it to get more regarding, you know, how much you should take. I think that currently the recommendations and, you know, based on what Dr. Stu Phillips and Layne Norton and others said, taking 5 to 10 grams per day appears to be the optimal dose. If you're a bit larger, you could maybe, you know, take 10 to 15, but even 5 grams per day after a while will probably saturate your muscle creatine stores, especially if you're consuming a lot of meat, which does contain creatine too.

So you're getting some from your diet and supplementing. So in regards to how to dose, there was once a thought that you had to do this loading dose when you started supplementing. So you take 20 grams per day for a week and then you go down to a maintenance dose of 5 to 10 grams per day indefinitely. Right, the loading dose isn't necessarily recommended anymore. It's pretty much just start taking 5 to 10 grams per day tomorrow and never stop it. So the loading dose doesn't appear to be optimal unless for some reason you need to get your muscle creatine stores up, you know, in the next few days, then you need to take a loading dose. But for most people that doesn't appear to be important. So it's a pretty easy supplement to take.

It doesn't matter what time of day you take it because it doesn't have the acute benefits. So just find the time during the day when it works and makes sense to take it. Take 5 to 10 grams and just continue to take it. It seems to have benefits for muscle performance and building strength. Obviously that's kind of what, where the main benefits are probably most evidenced. And it was thought of as being like this bodybuilding strength supplement, which it obviously is. So it, uh, allows you to train harder, which then allows you to build more strength and muscle mass. But I think there's a lot of evidence coming out that it might be good for older adults to take for muscle strength as well. For endurance athletes, it probably makes sense for them to take it.

And then there's a lot of stuff coming out about creatine in the brain for, you know, during sleep deprivation. So just a lot of evidence that it's good to take. There appear to be very few side effects. It's very safe. And all of the myths, I think Stu was talking about some of the myths regarding hair loss or kidney health and Lane even said, mentioned some of those and none of those really appear to be valid. Creatine is well studied and so it's something that most people can, can benefit from. And it's again, pretty, pretty simple to take. It's just buy creatine monohydrate, take 5 to 10 grams per day and just continue to take it after about a month or so. That's kind of when the benefits might start to appear because that's when your muscle stores are, are saturated.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: I take about 5 grams a day.

Brady Holmer: Yeah, as do I. I take, I take 5 grams per day. I've been experimenting with taking 10 grams per day on the weekend for no reason. I, I run longer on on those days. So I just am like, oh, maybe for recovery purposes, just take 10 grams. It's just something I'm trying. But yeah, usually I'm 5 grams per day.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: I thought about experimenting with 10 grams. I wanna see, just is there, I mean, it's hard to sometimes notice differences, subtle differences like that, especially when you're taking so many other things and doing so many other things right. But I've al— I've also thought about kind of increasing the dose just to see like, oh, can I lift a little bit heavier? Is it, is it gonna affect, affect my strength as well?

Brady Holmer: Yeah, it might be worth, it might be worth trying out. I think one more thing about creatine to note is that like, I think people are concerned. Stu Phillips mentioned he doesn't take it all the time and that if he goes on vacation, he might just like not take it because it's not important. It does appear that after you stop taking it, your stores will still stay saturated for about like 1 to 2 weeks. So like if you go on vacation or forget your creatine, then just like eat more steak maybe on vacation and supplement when you come back.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: Yeah, that's good to know.

Brady Holmer: Yeah.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: I've definitely, uh, not taken it on, uh, vacations before, especially cuz my, my container is like this big of it. It's like—

Brady Holmer: TSA also might think it's like, they might be, get a little bit skeptical due to how it looks. I,

Dr. Rhonda Patrick: I know. And I, I often wonder that sometimes when I'm aliquoting like powders and stuff, I'm like, oh, are my, is this gonna get my bag flagged?

Brady Holmer: Yeah.