Andrew Huberman· PhD
So what I would say is that I am not convinced. It's only one study. Never been replicated to my knowledge. And it was looking at a mechanism rather than an outcome.
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We can't find evidence that holds up here. Proponents are reasoning from mechanism or analogy rather than direct human data, and the most credible skeptics raise objections we can't dismiss.
So what I would say is that I am not convinced. It's only one study. Never been replicated to my knowledge. And it was looking at a mechanism rather than an outcome.
Every Sunday: the week’s new conflicts and verdict changes — and nothing else.
Native comments, Twitter mentions, and Reddit threads about this claim — surfaced together so the conversation isn't fragmented across platforms.
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?
Theoretically, it can, but in each individual, preventing hair loss is a very poor reason to take creatine, because it's not going to take you to a supraphysiologic level, it's not going to increase your androgens to a unnormal level of binding.
Theoretically, it can, but in each individual, preventing hair loss is a very poor reason to take creatine, because it's not going to take you to a supraphysiologic level, it's not going to increase your androgens to a unnormal level of binding.
and then I do hear concerns about creatine uh causing hair loss I my understanding is there is zero evidence for that no evidence there is a smidgen of evidence that it might increase dihydrotestosterone levels but it's like one study marginal increase
there is a smidgen of evidence that it might increase dihydrotestosterone levels but it's like one study marginal increase and then people linked dihydrotestosterone to hair loss and so then the the conclusion people drew was that somehow creatine increases hair loss
There is essentially no evidence that creatine causes hair loss, guys.
So, the idea that creatine causes hair loss is based on a 2009 study.
So, let me break this one down for you. This is a big myth. It all started with a 2009 study. It was a small study and it found small increases in DHT, dihydrotestosterone in the participants, but they did not directly measure hair follicle growth. And so in recent times, in 2025, a study was repeated with 45 males aged 18 to 40. It was a randomized control trial comparing five grams of creatine per day versus five grams of malttodextrin as a placebo per day. And what did they find? non-significant increases in DHT, no changes in the DHT to testosterone ratio, and no significant changes in hair follicle growth.
So now that we have a solid study on creatine and hair loss, we can pretty confidently say creatine does not lead to hair loss.
I'm not I don't think the data on that's very compelling at all so there was a single study that showed an increase in DHT from uh supplementing with creatin one study 2009 I've never seen it replicated never seen any follow up
so there was a single study that showed an increase in DHT from uh supplementing with creatine one study 2009 I've never seen it replicated never seen any follow-up
The evidence simply doesn’t support this claim. The concern stemmed from a small study linking creatine to increased DHT levels, but no direct connection to hair loss has been found.
The creatine hair loss connection is unsubstantiated and its mechanism implausible.
It's a myth that has been debunked (due to a lack of evidence).
Experts agree that there's nothing to worry about regarding creatine and hair loss.
Why creatine is linked (wrongly?) to baldness
The one thing that I hear pop up consistently now is well it causes hair lies no no one study in 2009 showed that increased DHT okay which is a metabolite of testosterone it didn't show any changes in the precursor or the thing that comes after after DHT and so how is this happening right like where is this happening I mean it must be directly affecting the enzyme that catalyzes the conversion if we believe this right but again even if it was true an increase in DHT is not the same thing as showing hair loss right you're showing a surrogate marker you're showing a mechanism and it's never been replicated and again very to me a suspect mechanism because you're not seeing the either the precursor or whatever you know came after I fet what comes after DHT you're not seeing a difference in those and so how is this effect happening and more importantly hair loss wasn't measured they didn't measure hair loss
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.