Andrew Huberman· PhD
And no... it doesn't cause hair loss
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The evidence is convergent. Multiple independent sources reach the same conclusion, the underlying mechanism is well-characterized, and even the field's most cautious voices treat it as worth doing.
And no... it doesn't cause hair loss
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I've been recommending this to patients for 6 months now. The big shift is patients actually do it because the explanation is concrete.
Same in nutrition counseling. The before/after framing helps.
Tracking with a CGM on top of this for 3 months. Variability dropped quickly and stayed dropped.
Worth noting the 0.71 SMD in the Kreider meta is in trained athletes. Effect in untrained adults runs closer to 0.3 — still meaningful, but the panel should reflect that gradient.
Good catch. Could the brief surface the training-status interaction inline?
One of the ones that has really good evidence for it is creatine, it's very clear that something about creatine, although the mechanism isn't exactly clear, either increases 5-alpha reductase or makes the testosterone molecule more susceptible to certain enzymatic reactions that leads to increases in DHT, DHT dihydrotestosterone as I mentioned in the previous episode, has this dramatic role in creating a kind of masculinization of the brain prenatally, it also defines the primary sex characteristic of the growth of the penis, et cetera, and beyond infancy and early childhood and later in life, it has powerful effects in creating balding, in beard growth, et cetera, and it has a much higher affinity for the androgen receptor than does testosterone, so creatine can increase DHT, which means that if you take creatine and you're very DHT-susceptible, then you might experience some hair loss, this has been heavily debated, does creatine cause baldness? It's going to depend, it's going to depend on how much 5-alpha reductase you have and how prone to hair loss you are, some people can take creatine without any problem in terms of hair loss, some people cannot, they start losing their hair to levels that, at least for them, aren't comfortable.
But yes it does appear, based on the studies I was able to find on PubMed, that creatine does promote 5-alpha-reductase activity and therefore the conversion of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone. And so it makes sense that it might promote some degree of hair loss, as well as beard growth, as well as the other effects of DHT.
Each male and fem, so yes, it can potentially add it. I don't like to say it causes it, but it can be a little bit more fuel to the fire.
Hair loss is not a reason to avoid taking creatine.
So it's not going to speed up hair loss more than just naturally being a male does.
So, the idea that creatine causes hair loss is simply a myth.
we know creatin doesn't affect Androgen levels
5 g of creatine monohydrate daily improves muscle strength and lean mass in healthy adults at standard training loads.
Creatine improves cognitive performance, especially under sleep deprivation and high cognitive load.
Creatine improves cardiovascular health markers and reduces all-cause mortality risk.
Creatine supports bone-mineral density in post-menopausal women when paired with resistance training.
Women need higher creatine doses (8–10 g/day) than men to reach the same intramuscular saturation.