Is Too Much Protein Bad For You? The TRUTH About Creatine, What’s The “Healthiest” Alcohol & More! Solosode #480

Ben Greenfield [00:00:00]: In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Life Podcast. Is too much protein bad for you? The truth about creatine. What's the healthiest alcohol? And a whole lot more. Fitness, nutrition, biohacking, longevity, life optimization, spirituality, and a whole lot more. Welcome to the Ben Greenfield Life Show. Are you ready to hack your life? Let's do this.

Ben Greenfield [00:00:39]: Well, hello. Welcome to today's solosode, brought to you by tonight. It's the sparkling electrolyte water. Not a sponsor of the show, although they should be now. This LMNT. LMNT, however you pronounce it. What flavor is this? Grapefruit, my wife's favorite. Grapefruit Salt. Cheers. They took those little element powder packets and turned them into a fantastic, almost like a electrolyte-infused sparkling water with five calories sweetened with stevia. I'm in.

Ben Greenfield [00:01:08]: Actually, I'm recording this podcast, and if you're watching the video version on YouTube or on the show, I just took my gum out of my mouth. I'm recording in the evening, hence, I'm chewing nicotine gum and drinking LMNT Sparkling Water. Why in the evening? Well, I've got a little bit more time in the evenings, right. Right now, my sons, my twin sons, River and Terran Greenfield, they left the house. It's written into the Greenfield Family constitution that at age twelve, the boys go on a rite of passage into adolescence. At age 16, a solo, self-supported trip for several months, the so-called gap trip, and at age 17, a vision quest for seven to ten days in the wilderness. And they're on that middle one right now. So they're off.

Ben Greenfield [00:01:55]: I think they're in, like, Yosemite or something right now. I've got the tracker because they set their phones up and shared them with me. They're tracking, but they're doing, like, Yosemite and Glacier and Yellowstone and the Badlands. I'm kind of jealous. They're eating oatmeal and beef jerky sticks, and they didn't get a dime from dad for this, so they're just off doing their own thing. So here I am in my office, paint a picture for you. A lot of people ask me, what's your office setup? I'm leaning against this stool. I'll hold it up.

Ben Greenfield [00:02:21]: All the video, by the way, and the show notes are at bengreenfieldlife.com/480. It's a focal stool. See, that's kind of cool. Focal upright. It's called a Mogo. So I lean against this. I've got a grounding mat underneath my feet made by Ultimate Longevity. I have red light therapy device made by Joovv behind me. I have a couple of different lights on the desk that I use in the morning to amp up the blue light in my office, as well as a red light lamp for night, which if it was any later than the 05:00 p.m. I'm recording this right now.

Ben Greenfield [00:02:57]: I would actually have on for night work in the office. I have this thing called an Eng3 made by NanoVi that allows me to breathe water nasal canyon like this. And I breathe water that has reactive oxygen species infused into it for cell signaling. Interesting research on their website on repair and recovery based on the use of this NanoVi. So I breathe through that occasionally throughout the day. Not right now, because it'd be annoying for the podcast. What's this other mask at my desk? This is cool. I just recorded a podcast about this that didn't get released yet, but this is a attached to something called a carbagen.

Ben Greenfield [00:03:35]: I do about six to seven minutes of inhaled carbon dioxide therapy during the day at work. What else? There's one of those red light helmets under there, and that's the basics. There's a few other little biohacks scattered around my office, but you know, if I'm locked in here all day, I figure I might as well make my body better. What the heck? So that's the setup. Anyways though we've got some fun stuff to get into today. As a matter of fact, something came up during an interview with a guest on my show, Jay Feldman. I don't know if that podcast will have been released yet, but he was making a case that 1 gram per pound of protein is a mythical.

Ben Greenfield [00:04:17]: And the reason that this kind of caught my attention was there was a recent study, it came out this week, a paper that showed that a higher protein intake is actually associated, paradoxically, with a lower risk of all-cause mortality in people with and without chronic kidney disease. Which is surprising because a lot of people tell you, well, too much protein is going to harm your kidneys. So they looked at over 8,500 men and women, some of whom had chronic kidney disease, and they found that each 0.2 grams per kilogram day increase in protein intake was associated with a lower risk of complications in these patients. Now, however, if you actually dig into the data, what they were feeding these people was about 1.0 to 1.6 grams/kg of protein, and that comes out to 0.6 to 0.8 grams per pound. Alright, so far below, like the 1 gram per pound you hear a lot of people bodybuilders weight trainers, health enthusiasts and just the general population talking about for good protein intake. So it still is somewhat low compared to that 1 gram per pound. Now this guy is pretty smart on the Internet. Menno Henselmans. Maybe I'll interview him sometime.

Ben Greenfield [00:05:38]: He's kind of like a physique competitor. He had a really good article that he produced on his website about optimal protein intake and the myth of 1 gram per pound of protein or 2.2 grams/kg is the terminology or the units used for those of you who are across the pond and whatnot and don't use freedom units. So the idea here is that he cites a whole bunch of research that shows that if you are taking a gram per pound of protein, protein oxidation increases, indicating a potential nutrient overload with no difference in whole body protein synthesis or indices of lean body mass. I mean, there was an advantage when you were getting up to around that 1 gram per pound. He found that 0.73 grams per pound was sufficient to maintain a positive nitrogen balance in weightlifters. He said in another study that showed the 0.37 grams per pound was enough to maintain nitrogen balance in elite bodybuilders over as long as ten days. Another study that found that there was no difference in body composition, strength or resting hormone concentrations in strength athletes who were having either 0.77 grams per pound or over 0.9 grams per pound of protein over a three month period. He goes on and on dozens of additional studies, and it's interesting because I think you can make a case that there could be many situations in which you don't need that 1 gram per pound of protein.

Ben Greenfield [00:07:11]: The way you think about this is everybody's in a constant state of protein synthesis and protein breakdown. When you lift weights, for example, that's going to cause protein breakdown and protein synthesis to increase, usually with a balance towards synthesis. And as you train more and more, your body actually becomes more efficient at stopping the breakdown of protein in your body that results from training. So since less protein would need to be replenished and there's an increase in what's called nitrogen retention, that means, contrary to what a lot of people would believe, less protein would be needed for more growth, not more protein as you get fitter. Now, Menno also makes a good point that the more advanced you are in training, the more you've lifted weights, trained, etc., the less your protein synthesis increases after training, as you become more muscular and as you get closer to your genetic limit for size or hypertrophy, you build less muscle after training, which a lot of us know it's just harder to build muscle as as you get more and more advanced in training now that means the slower you build muscle, the less protein is needed for optimal growth. So if anything, you make a case that the higher protein intake would be needed when you're first starting training and putting on muscle. And as you become more and more trained, you would need less protein and certainly not quite as much as that sighted off-sited 1.0 gram per pound. I now he also addresses this idea of where the 1 gram per pound origin came from and here are the reasons that he gives.

Ben Greenfield [00:08:42]: He says a people copy the dietary practices of pro bodybuilders who are on androgens and steroids do help you build muscle protein far more rapidly than if you are not juiced. So that's a good point. 1 gram per pound of protein. If you're on steroids, you might be able to make a case for that. If not, maybe not. Also, the way that we measure nitrogen balance in individuals has become more advanced and more accurate. And this 1 gram per pound of protein is based on recommendations from earlier nitrogen balance studies that may not be quite as accurate as current nitrogen balance studies. Next, supplement companies do have a financial incentive.

Ben Greenfield [00:09:23]: I mean, I own a supplements company, Kion. We make the most fantastic tasting, creamy, delicious vanilla whey protein, in my opinion, on the face of the planet. But there are a lot of supplement companies, including industry-sponsored studies, that show miraculous benefits of consuming 1.0 gram per pound of protein and beyond. So Menno does make some good points and I think that in many cases we might be going out of our way to get more protein than we may actually need. And yet, if you look at, let's say, the fantastic website examine.com, they also have some pretty up to date research on how much protein you can actually consume. So for example, they show a 2018 meta analysis that shows that a protein intake of 1.6 grams/kg per day maximize resistant exercise-induced gains in lean body mass with the upper end of that being up to 2.2 grams/kg per day. Now 2.2 grams/kg per day, that's up around 1.2 grams per pound. This was in male weight trainers.

Ben Greenfield [00:10:32]: Male amateur bodybuilders in another study were able to get up to 1.7 to 2.2 grams/kg per day and resistance trainmen required, meaning to maintain that nitrogen balance. And this is what the current nitrogen balance studies 1.6 to 2.4 grams/kg per day. So we see in trained athletes, bodybuilders, people, heavily weight training, specifically males heavily weight training. A case that could be made for one to 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. I mean, they even saw a benefit with some studies cited on this of up to 2.7 grams/kg per day, which is quite a bit of protein, I believe. Rough math. I actually believe that would be around 1.2 grams per pound. So the idea here is that higher protein intakes may enhance resistance and exercise-induced muscle gain, but more is not necessarily better.

Ben Greenfield [00:11:31]: I think that in many cases, there may be some genetic factors here that many of these studies don't take into consideration that have yet to be elucidated. Now, what I would say is this. I would start off at around 0.7 to 0.8 grams of protein per pound per day. That's actually the recommendations I've made for the average population for a very long time, which actually lies pretty close to what Menno is recommending in his article, which I'll link to. If you go to bengreenfieldlife.com/480, you can dig into some of these studies and some of this research. Now, if you are new to training, if you are male and if, God forbid, you're on androgen therapy or steroids, you might be able to build muscle faster eating one and up to 1.2 grams per pound of protein. If you're a hard gain or a lean gainer, you're eating adequate calories. You're eating that 0.7 to 0.8 grams per pound of protein and you just cant seem to put on muscle.

Ben Greenfield [00:12:28]: You can also try to increase the protein intake. If you're struggling with satiety, with cravings, with being hungry a lot in your training, you might need to up your protein intake because protein and fiber, admittedly are both very satiating. But if you're, say, not training, you're building muscle just fine or maintaining muscle, whatever you want to do. And you're putting yourself under the pressure of trying to eat 1 gram per pound of protein and dropping every barbell at the last minute at the gym and rushing to your gym bag to suck down your whey protein shake. Hopefully the key on one. Then you might be engaging in a little bit too much stress and a little bit too much protein intake, even though I think you can establish from this most recent study that you gotta have a lot of protein before you're gonna start to do damage to your kidneys or something like that. Now, of course, this should all be couched with something that I've said before in the podcast, and I'll say it again, a lot of these sources of protein, whey protein, steak, chicken, fish, poultry, pork, you name it. It's very high in methionine, an amino acid that can excessively stimulate mTOR and potentially decrease lifespan if not balanced out with glycine, an amino acid that you would find both in supplement form and also in organ meats.

Ben Greenfield [00:13:52]: Which is why if you are eating a lot of meat, a lot of muscle meat, a lot of whey protein, etcetera, you should make sure that you balance that out with adequate glycine. I explore that topic quite a bit in my book Boundless. But the idea here is don't just eat a ribeye steak for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I mean, weave in the liver, kidney, both of which I have upstairs in my kitchen right now being soaked in kefir for dinner tomorrow night. Heart, glycine powder. Like now foods, glycine powder, you can supplement with anywhere from 5 to 10 grams of glycine per day. It's also fantastic for sleep, for keeping your body cool when exercising in hot weather. So some other advantages to glycine as well, but just make sure you're not consuming methionine willy nilly.

Ben Greenfield [00:14:33]: So if you want to do the math on this, you can use an online calorie calculator, like a calorimeter. That's a good one. And you would want for every 1 gram of methionine to get anywhere from 0.5 to 1 gram of glycine. I'll give you an example. Collagen, for example, collagen has 25 times more glycine than methionine. So if you had an extra gram of collagen for every 10 grams of methionine rich protein that you have, that would be a perfect example of how you could get your glycine ratios up with something like that. Or again, you can just purchase glycine as a powder. I prefer the natural route.

Ben Greenfield [00:15:09]: I just weave in liver, kidney, heart, etc., a few times a week. Put a little raw liver in my morning smoothie, which I know a lot of people think is gross, but it's just like hiding vegetables in mom's spaghetti sauce tastes great. If your mom was like that, if she was sneaky like that, she just cared about you. Okay, so that addresses what I wanted to let you know about. Protein. Okay, so next up, speaking of alcohol, what is the healthiest alcohol for a cocktail? I am often asked this and, you know, I know that there are people out there that will say things like, this is a healthy alcohol. That is a healthy alcohol. Lane Norton, who's pretty smart, you can check him out on YouTube.

Ben Greenfield [00:15:55]: He recently produced a video in which he pointed out the fact that alcohol is basically alcohol, right? The chemical composition of alcohol is carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Alcohols are just organic compounds that are made up of what's called a hydrocarbon and a hydroxyl group. The hydroxyl group is a hydrogen and an oxygen. Oh. They're joined by a covalent bond. And ethanol is a type of alcohol. It's got a chemical formula, C2H5O. And it's also known as ethyl alcohol or fermentation alcohol.

Ben Greenfield [00:16:24]: That's usually what we're consuming when we are drinking a cocktail or a hard alcohol or something like that. And there's not, like, different kinds of alcohols in that respect. Right? You can't, like, I don't know, add a sulfur or a. I don't know, let's, let's pull random things off the periodic table of the elements, shall we? Sulfur or a mercury or an extra hydrogen or two extra oxygens or something like that, and make alcohol different or healthier. But the way that alcohol is actually produced can have an effect on how healthy that alcohol actually is. So, for example, I've often said that mezcal tequila is a healthy kind of tequila. I've also said that a healthy type of spirit is anything that doesn't use a high fructose corn syrup-infused margarita mix or a bunch of pesticides and herbicides and, say, the wine or something like that. That's kind of a no-brainer, right? There's a bunch of additives to the drink.

Ben Greenfield [00:17:19]: Automatically you can say that those are things that are added in addition to alcohol. But let's say we're just talking about a shot of hard alcohol. Which would be healthiest? Well, mezcal is made from the agave plant. The agave plant contains inulin, which is a type of fiber that can promote gut health and satiety. It can slow the absorption of alcohol. Thus you possibly get inebriated or at least spin a few dials in your brain faster, possibly making you feel like you need less to drink, which could have benefits because you're consuming less calories and less additional alcohol, thus producing less additional acetaldehyde, which could be harmful for the liver. But inulin is just a prebiotic fiber. It feeds beneficial gut bacteria like bifidobacteria and lactobacilli.

Ben Greenfield [00:17:59]: And these bacteria help to break down the inulin that then produces short chain fatty acids. These are anti inflammatory, they're good for the gut, they can improve mineral absorption, they can protect against colon cancer. I'm not saying you should get all your fiber from mezcal tequila, but if we're getting kind of nitty gritty here, we can make a case that because mezcal contains these inulin fibers, because they're extracted from the exotic, from extracted from the agave plant and remain present in the alcohol, then you could actually say mezcal tequila is healthier. And as a matter of fact, mezcal has been used traditionally as a digestive aid in Mexican culture, probably because of those short chain fatty acids and fibers that it produces. It has a decent amount of antioxidants in it which can help protect your body from oxidative stress and inflammation. Alcohol in general can do that, small amounts because it regulates your body's own antioxidant production. I've talked about that before on the podcast. So, alcohol, like sauna, like exercise, etc.. It's a mild, hormetic stressor in anything beyond small to moderate amounts.

Ben Greenfield [00:19:01]: It creates excess oxidative stress, but it does spark some of your body's own endogenous production of antioxidants like say glutathione peroxidase or superoxide dismutase. And so it's also usually low sugar, low calorie count if you serve it straight. And there's actually a very interesting article in Forbes where a guy named Dr. Taryn Forelli, a San Francisco based naturopathic physician who fields a bunch of questions around alcohol use on his website, actually says, quote, "As far as spirits go, mezcal is best from the clean label perspective. Mezcal is naturally more trustworthy." And he attributes this niche mezcal movements to its label purity. And because mezcal tends to be a little bit more expensive and a little bit more pure and a little bit higher in these inulin fibers, he actually backs up what I was just saying. He says there's a prebiotic in the agave plant. The actual prebiotics called agaven, by the way, imagine that agaven allows for the fermentation process to occur when you make mezcal and it doesn't raise blood sugar.

Ben Greenfield [00:20:08]: And researchers do believe, and there are a couple of studies on this that I was able to find, these prebiotic fibers help to support the microbiome and regulate blood sugar, although these were all rodent studies. And there are no clinical studies done in humans yet, although you could sign me up for the mezcal tequila study. If there is one of those going on, just ping me in the comments section. So anyways, whole agave heart fermented mash benefits exist in mezcal. Make sure you choose a good, clean, pure version. But if you were going to choose an alcohol to drink and you were going to take, I don't know, hey, maybe a little bit of this element electrolyte drink and poured over a glass of ice with a squeeze of lemon and a shot of something, you could make a case for that something being mezcal tequila. So there you go. That's the reasoning behind me recommending mezcal tequila as a healthy, somewhat healthy form of alcohol.

Ben Greenfield [00:21:01]: All right, next up, recent study looked at the effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function. I've always said when I'm sleep deprived, if I don't want to have an energy drink or eight pieces of nicotine gum or three cups of coffee, and I want to string myself through the day and feel like I combat the effects of sleep deprivation. I use a little bit of extra NAD, which can help to regulate circadian rhythmicity, and I use a little bit of extra creatine, which has been shown to assist with sleep deprivation and cognitive function. This most recent study looked at 16 different clinical trials that use creatine monohydrate. Right. Just pure, plain old creatine monohydrate. There's a precursor to creatine called GAA that's getting a lot more popular now in the nutrition sector. But right now, just pure, clean creatine minohydrate is what most of the research has been done on, and it did show that there were potential cognitive enhancing properties, particularly a reasonable level of confidence from the combination of all these controlled trials on the positive effects of creatine on memory.

Ben Greenfield [00:22:02]: If I recall properly, and if you look at a lot of the other studies that have been done in the past few years on creatine, they backed this up. A 2022 study found that creatine supplementation improved memory in older adults, particularly. Another 2024 study found that creatine improved memory, attention, time and processing speed in adults. A 2024 study showed that it can improve cognitive function in adults. Now, what's important to know, and yes, you're probably getting the idea here, creatine is not just for football players or people who want to get swole. The amount of creatine used for cognitive performance and memory tends to be higher. It tends to be in the 10 to 20 grams range. Now, considering that if you consume more than about 5 grams of creatine that time, you're risking disaster pants, as anybody knows who has done that, or bloating or indigestion, or any type of distress that comes with excess creatine consumption.

Ben Greenfield [00:22:56]: If you want to use creatine for the cognitive enhancement, I recommend you split your creatine up throughout the day. For example, 5 gram portion with lunch, 5 gram portion with dinner, 5 gram portion with breakfast. I have no clue why I just said breakfast last. Maybe I'm sleep deprived, maybe I need some extra creatine. But anyways, 10 to 20 grams of creatine seems to be a really nice dose for creatine. Now this led me to decide to elucidate you a little bit more on common questions and misconceptions about creatine, because another paper, a pretty recent paper in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, really tore into creatine in general, and a lot of things that are useful to know about it, if you want to use it. Now, creatine is also known as methyl guanidine acetic acid, which is probably why GAA or guanidinoacetic acid is now something that's being popularly used as a creatine precursor in supplements. It is endogenously formed from reactions that include the amino acids arginine, glycine and methionine.

Ben Greenfield [00:24:01]: Glycine and methionine, sound familiar? In your kidney. And your, kidneys, hopefully, if you got two of them, and your liver, exogenously, usually get it from meat or as a dietary supplement. So this particular paper dug into a lot of critical questions about creatine. Like does it increase fat mass? Is it an anabolic steroid? Does it cause hair loss? That's what I hear a lot. So here is what you need to know. I'm going to give you the 80:20 so you don't actually have to read the study, and you're going to get smarter while you listen to this. All right? Does creatine lead to water retention? Yes. Creatine can cause water retention in the short term due to the increase in intracellular water that occurs as your body absorbs the creatine. But long-term studies show that it doesn't cause significant increases in total body water, meaning you might get a little bit of water retention when you first start to use it.

Ben Greenfield [00:24:54]: But that's not a persistent effect, it's not a harmful effect, and it's less likely to happen if you don't load with creatine, which you don't need to do. You can just take 5 grams per day of creatine or work your way up to 15 grams if you want to do it for the cognitive benefits, even though I only do that on a sleep deprived day or a day where I feel like I need an extra kick in the brain pants. But basically, short-term retention of water with creatine is typical. But know that after about one to two weeks, it will subside. It will subside. All things will pass. Is creatine a steroid? No. I think a lot of soccer moms and dads think creatine is an anabolic steroid.

Ben Greenfield [00:25:30]: No, it's safe. It's even safe for kids. There's adolescent studies done on creatine. It's a synthetic hormone. A steroid is designed to mimic testosterone. Creatine is a naturally occurring compound that boosts energy production. It helps you produce ATP, it helps you get a few extra reps in the gym, assist with cognitive performance, etc. But it's not a steroid.

Ben Greenfield [00:25:50]: Another one, does creatine cause kidney damage or renal dysfunction? Big myth about that. But there's zero scientific evidence to support the idea that creatine causes kidney damage in healthy individuals. That's research spanning over 20 years. Now, here's the thing. If you go to a doctor and you get a blood test and you have high levels of creatinine, which is a breakdown byproduct of creatine, they will tell you that you might have some dehydration or some kidney issues. But if you then point out the fact that you are taking creatine, that increases the acceptable reference range values for creatinine. Now, here is the issue. Creatine dissolved in water, or let's say in a gummy or a drink, actually breaks down to creatinine pretty quickly.

Ben Greenfield [00:26:33]: And if you are consuming excess creatinine, that can be harmful for your kidneys. So this whole, like, creatine, gummy creatine and energy drinks. Mix creatine and water and walk away for a day and have it the next morning after your workout. Avoid that, right? Just consume pure creatine, preferably soon after it's mixed fresh. Okay. But the idea of creatine causing damage to the kidneys, especially if you're well hydrated and you're not consuming a lot of broken down byproducts of creatine, creatinine, it's usually not an issue. And often, if you've exercised hard, which a lot of people do before they go in for a lab test.

Ben Greenfield [00:27:07]: Creatinine is going to be artificially elevated anyways. So, you know, liver enzymes, creatinine, CRP, all of these things are not going to be trustworthy values at all on your lab test if you've exercised hard within about 48 hours prior to that lab test, especially if you've done eccentric training, like training that can damage the muscles, like running or, say, weight training with a lot of negatives or heavy weight. Does creatine cause hair loss or baldness? Well, concerns about creatine and hair loss stem from one study, one study, single study that suggested a rise in DHT, which is a hormone linked to hair loss. Same reason guys who get on testosterone replacement therapy that's improperly managed get excess conversion of DHT and can also experience hair loss. However, that finding has never been replicated in any studies, and there's zero substantial evidence that creatine causes hair loss. Plus, you'd rather be, if you're, dude, listening in, you know, bald and swole, right, rather than hairy and skinny. But it's not something you have to worry about anyways. All right, so does creatine cause dehydration and muscle cramping? Well, there was some early speculation that suggested that creatine might cause dehydration or cramping due to its impact on the water distribution that I talked about earlier.

Ben Greenfield [00:28:17]: But studies have now shown that creatine, paradoxically, actually results in people experiencing fewer cramps and dehydration related issues, particularly during exercise. Now, you could make a case that if you consume excess creatine, you're in a loading phase, you're new to it, and taking like 20 grams a day, you could get some of those cramping issues, but use responsibly with the type of dosing mechanism I'm talking about right now, you're fine. Is creatine harmful for children and adolescents? Like I just referred to, evidence suggests it's generally safe for children and adolescents. If you feed your kids meat, it's not a problem. Give them creatine. I think, you know, for young, hard-charging athletes who are trying to build muscle, it's probably an advantage. But there is usually not a persistent creatine deficiency in children that requires them to supplement with it, unless your child is vegan or vegetarian, in which case they're probably not getting enough creatine. And you may want to actually consider creatine supplementation for a vegan or vegetarian child.

Ben Greenfield [00:29:15]: Does creatine increase fat mass? No. A lot of people think it does because they will see their body weight go up, but that is usually due to water retention and or muscle gain. And multiple studies across a host of different populations have shown no significant effect of creatine on fat mass. Is a creatine loading phase required? A loading phase, that's where you take a high dose of something for several days over time. It's not necessary. Lower, consistent daily doses. As a matter of fact, doses as low as 3 grams per day are just as effective over time for increasing creatine stores in the muscles without the need for a loading phase. Okay, so if you load, lets say one person, your friend, Billy Bob, loads with creatine, whatever, 20 grams a day for a week and then tapers down to 5 grams two months later.

Ben Greenfield [00:30:04]: You taking 5 grams a day. You and Billy Bob are going to have the same creatine values, except Billy Bob will have had several additional visits to the toilet during those first two weeks and probably some cramping and bloating and water retention, whereas you will be just fine and dandy without painting the back of the toilet seat. Is creatine beneficial for older adults? Yes. As a matter of fact, creatine can help combat sarcopenia, age related muscle loss in older adults, particularly when combined with resistance training. This has been fleshed out in multiple studies. It improves muscle mass, strength, even functionality. We've already established the improvement in cognitive function, memory too, which means you should get grandpa creatine monohydrate for Christmas this year. Is creatine only useful for resistance and power type activities? A lot of endurance athletes are like, that's for the football players, that's for the cleaning jerkers.

Ben Greenfield [00:30:52]: It's not something that's going to help me out with my triathlon. Well, it is most known for benefiting high intensity, short duration activities. But creatine, especially if you're using it post workout, with your post workout smoothie or breakfast, it actually enhances glycogen replenishment, enhances recovery, helps to prevent injuries, and has that neuroprotective effect which makes it valuable also for endurance athletes and other athletic activities, like say pickleball or golf. So creatine has benefits for people beyond just the, pardon the expression, meathead. Is creatine only effective for males? No, it's been studied in both sexes. A lot of studies are skewed towards males in general in the entire industry of science. But creatine has been studied for both males and females, and creatine has been shown to support women during pregnancy and postmenopause. Now, females do have higher base creatine levels, so the dose for a female can be a little bit lower.

Ben Greenfield [00:31:49]: So you can make a case for a female needing 3 grams per day or so, a male needing 5 grams per day or so for a standard moderate daily dosage. Creatine is great for females as well. And finally, the big one. Are there other fancy, fancy forms of creatine that are superior to creatine monohydrate? And the fact is, no creatine monohydrate remains the most studied and effective form of creatine. There are various alternatives that are marketed out there like creatine ethyl ester or buffered creatine, or this newer creatine precursor called GAA. They've been marketed as superior. Research has yet to show they are more effective than creatine monohydrate at increasing muscle creatine stores. I'm not saying they're not.

Ben Greenfield [00:32:30]: I'm just saying research has yet to show that you need to spend your hard earned money on anything besides just basic pure creatine monohydrate. Company out of Germany makes a form called Creapure, which a lot of good supplement manufacturers use in their creatine monohydrate. Creatine monohydrate stability. It's low cost. It's proven safety and efficacy for over a couple of decades, in my opinion, make it the gold standard for creatine supplementation. So I will link to the full paper on creatine in the show notes. But that's what you need to know about creatine. Now let's move on to listener Q&A.

Ben Greenfield [00:33:07]: I don't know why I said it like a frat boy. You can go to the website bengreenfieldlife.com. I have a clone there. Yeah, you can interact with me, ask me questions. It actually answers questions way better than I would. It's entirely trained on like ten years of podcasts, my books, my articles. I think it's probably going to put me out of a job because you don't even need to hire me to coach you. You can just go to the website and say, Ben, write me a seven day exercise program based on the contents of your book Boundless and what you've said in podcasts before for me to put on muscle.

Ben Greenfield [00:33:37]: And it will write you a program. Ben, this is what my diet looked like today. Do you see any issues with my diet? And my clone will answer you. It's actually pretty impressive. And again, I'm a little bit nervous because I might have to go learn how to be a plumber or an electrician or something because my website clone is doing my job for me. So you can check it out at bengreenfieldlife.com. Yet people are still writing in their questions through the podcast that they probably could ask the clone. But I'm going to reply to a couple anyways.

Ben Greenfield [00:34:06]: A couple good ones. Lorraine says: "You mentioned that the sea salt you use is heavy chemical free. I don't know if I said heavy chemical free, but chemical free. Does that mean there are still chemicals in it, just not heavy with chemicals?" Look, I dont remember what I said Lorraine, as far as like heavy versus not heavy. But heres the deal. If you are at me with a restaurant, there are a few things in my fanny pack, my supplements, my blood sugar control capsules called Kion Lean, some digestive enzymes. I use the MassZymes by BIOptimizers, a little bit of antihistamine or glutathione from having some alcohol and salt.

Ben Greenfield [00:34:47]: I'm a salt fiend. So I have a little bag e in my fanny pack and I have in that baggie this stuff called Colima sea salt. Colima sea salt comes this white bag. I get it by the freaking truckload to my house. It's this coarse, crunchy, moist sea salt. It's unrefined, it's microplastics free, it's all natural. And it's actually got a really, really cool story in terms of where they get it from. Apparently it is harvested from ancient Aztec lagoons.

Ben Greenfield [00:35:19]: You can't make this stuff up. Traditional salt farmers will lay it out in the hot sun. There's no processing and no chemicals added to it doesn't come from the ocean. So it doesn't have like the microplastics and the metals in it that you might find in typical sea salt. And it is way superior to table salt as far as the actual mineralization content. So they've tested it to be 100% ocean born microplastic free because it is pure, delicious salt scooped from these crystal clear lagoons, not from the ocean. It's got a ton of healthy minerals in it, really great mineral content. I care less about that.

Ben Greenfield [00:35:56]: And the fact that it's got zero processing, refining or chemicals, literally. Local salineros or salt farmers use buckets to harvest it by hand and then they just lay it out in the sun to dry. It's as natural as it gets. Okay. And these are big, crunchy granules. I like my salt big and crunchy that just burst with real, really good flavor. So, anyways, did they just make this crap up on their website? Well, I looked this up, and they actually have full laboratory analysis of Colima sea salt that they've done, provided by American West Analytical Laboratories. They found it super high in magnesium and lower than sodium than refined table salt.

Ben Greenfield [00:36:36]: They have found that a single teaspoon of it has more than 50 milligrams of magnesium. So you're getting 15% of your daily magnesium needs in the salt. Importantly, to respond to Lorraine's question, they tested for heavy metal contamination, and the lab analysis showed that it contains undetectable levels of most heavy metals, including lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium. And the levels of aluminum in it are comparable to the exposure you get from common foods, which I realize might freak a lot of people out right away who are concerned about aluminum, but it's extremely low. Right. The current upper limit on aluminum is 40 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day. The aluminum in this salt is just like trace compared to that. It's basically a 3.3 ppm, which is still extremely, extremely low.

Ben Greenfield [00:37:27]: You're not getting anywhere near the upper limit of aluminum intake. So, Colima salt, that's the stuff I use. That's the stuff I recommend. Great question. Problem is, once you try it, you won't go back. It's just incredible. The other one that's really good, by the way, is Redmond. Redmond salt is, they're a really, really good brand.

Ben Greenfield [00:37:43]: Also Celtic salt. Celtic salt. When I interviewed Robert Slovak on my podcast, he pointed out lab analysis on Celtic salt, which has an advantage in that you don't have to order from some french website like Colima. You can actually get it at your local Safeway, Rosauers, Albertsons, Whole Foods. Whatever it comes out of that blue bag, that's also really, really good, clean, pure salt, that happens to be pretty tasty, too, if you're a salt snob like me. All right, then Patty asks: "What compression system do you currently recommend for tired, aching legs with vein or blood flow issues?" Well, back when I was a very poor Ironman triathlete, I used to get back from my training days, and I would elevate my legs, literally just lay there with the book, with my legs up against the wall, elevated. And that worked okay.

Ben Greenfield [00:38:33]: And then I was at Ironman triathlon, Hawaii, one year, and this guy was at a hotel room, and I don't remember how they found my name. I was doing travel writing. They invited me over to the room, which sounds kind of creepy, but they were demo-ing this. This boot called a Normatec. That has been my go to boot for therapy ever since. I think they were purchased by the company HyperIce. So now it's called Normatec by HyperIce, but it uses air compression technology that is designed to work very, very similar to the natural vasculature of your leg muscles, meaning it starts at the bottom of your feet, and then it's got seven different sections in it, and it pumps all the way up to your thighs.

Ben Greenfield [00:39:17]: It's got an app that you can use to control it, but also a pretty handy controller right there on the boot. It uses these different zones, and if you get to a spot that is really tight or feels like it needs a little bit extra therapy, you push a little button, and it will stay on that zone and kind of massage that one zone. You take these things off, and your legs are light as a feather. So it's called dynamic compressions, like gradated compression. Gradated means it starts at the distal limb and moves its way up to the proximal limb. I think they even make them for the arms and the torso if you want to look like, Michelin man. But anyways, here's my setup. This is pretty cool.

Ben Greenfield [00:39:56]: I started off this podcast telling you about my crazy office setup. Here's what I do. In my basement, I have a chair. It's incredible. It's called a Shiftwave. It vibrates your entire body and sync to your heartbeat and heart rhythms. And when I say vibrate, I mean it's like a freaking carnival ride.

Ben Greenfield [00:40:15]: You can adjust the level of vibration, but when I have friends try it out, they are shocked and at the level of vibration. So the Shiftwave is in and of itself a gravity chair with a bunch of vibrating nodes built into it. I will admit, it is not inexpensive. It's like a $10,000 chair, but it's amazing. So. And I usually do my afternoon nap or a morning meditation session in this thing, and for a while, I was just using that, and then I thought, well, gosh, I'm sitting here in this gravity chair. Why don't I put on some of these boots? So now I've got my Normatec boots next to it, and I will run my Normatec boots while I'm doing a 15 to 60 minutes Shiftwave session.

Ben Greenfield [00:40:54]: And this was up until, like, a month ago. And then I thought, well, why don't I include some pulsed electromagnetic field therapy with this to help my cells while I'm in this gravity chair vibrating and getting leg compression. So I got this device called a Helo, H-e-l-o. Its like a coil and you can set it for circulation, digestion, sleep recovery, meditation, you name it and you tie it to a phone app. You select your sequence or your stack sequence. Like my favorite is circulation plus digestion plus brain recovery. And you put it on your ab or your chest and it just kind of sits there while you're vibrating while you have the boots on, while youre getting PEMF. And then, I promise, is the last thing.

Ben Greenfield [00:41:37]: Then I thought, well, what about what I could do with my head and this whole idea of using light-sound stimulation? So I got this lamp. This is going to blow your mind. It's incredible. Again, everybody I've had try this. It's like a video game for your mind without the EMF of a virtual headset. It's called a roXiva. It's about 4ft above your head. It's a lamp, and it makes these bright lights that flicker and slip you into a trance-like state.

Ben Greenfield [00:42:05]: It's got a hundred different settings on it for everything from simulating a ketamine or an ayahuasca journey, drug-free, to amping up your DMT levels, to putting you into a total hypnotic trance-like state, which I really like. I'll get up in the morning at four, sometimes just sit with that thing for like a half-hour before I start my day. It has a session called Rebirth, where you're literally hearing fetal heartbeat and whooshing sounds like you're in your mother's womb as it plays really relaxing music. And your eyes are closed, by the way, your eyelids are a millimeter thick, but the light kind of gets through the eyelids with just enough intensity to shift your brain into these states. And then towards the end of the Rebirth session, the music crescendos and the last five minutes of it, and I've never finished a session without sitting up weeping. The last five minutes of it bring you like out the birth canal with lights and sounds and this I'm ready to conquer the world type of feeling. I know my wife, who's very resistant to these types of things, do it the other night and she sat up and she's like, that was incredible. So it's called a roXiva light, and you can also feed in your own audio to it.

Ben Greenfield [00:43:11]: So if you use like a NuCalm app or Brain FM or something like that, you can actually do the roXiva and listen to that as your audio. So basically, my happy place right now in my basement. And I'll be straightforward to you. If you were to buy a Shiftwave chair, a Helo PMF device, a HyperIce and a roXiva, this would probably be like a $15,000-ish setup. It's incredible, though. It actually is super cool. And so I've combined all these things, and I sit up from that whole session and feel like I could conquer the world. Feel like I'm 16 years old and I can conquer the world.

Ben Greenfield [00:43:49]: So I understand that's a lot more expensive than, say, a salt or creatine monohydrate or even mezcal tequila, a really nice bottle of mezcal mezcal tequila. But that's my setup. And it's amazing for those of you who like to own or do nice things or into biohacking. So anyways, I think I'm going to wrap up right there because it's getting a little weird. So if you want to go to the show notes, go to bengreenfieldlife.com/480. I'll put them all there. I love to teach you guys. I love to talk about this stuff.

Ben Greenfield [00:44:20]: You have questions, comments, feedback. You can, of course, go ask my clone at bengreenfieldlife.com, lower right hand corner. Or you can leave the question right here in the show notes for this podcast episode, where I will include links to everything else that I talked about at bengeenfieldlife.com/480. So until next time, I'm Ben Greenfield wishing you an incredible week.

Ben Greenfield [00:44:58]: Do you want free access to comprehensive show notes? My Weekly Roundup newsletter, cutting edge research and articles, top recommendations from me for everything that you need to hack your life and a whole lot more, check out bengreenfieldlife.com. It's all there. Bengreenfieldlife.com. See you over there. Most of you who listen don't subscribe, like, or rate this show. If you're one of those people who do, then huge thank you. But here's why it's important to subscribe, like, and or rate this show. If you do that, that means we get more eyeballs, we get higher rankings. And the bigger the Ben Greenfield Life Show gets, the bigger and better the guests get and the better the content I'm able to deliver to you. So hit subscribe, leave a ranking, leave a review if you got a little extra time. It means way more than you might think. Thank you so much.

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