171: Is Creatine the Missing Link for Brain Performance?

You can be “still sharp” and still feel something is off. Not weaker. Not washed. Just a fraction slower to react, a step behind on decisions, working harder to stay focused. In motorsports, that fraction matters, and we make the case that the real culprit often isn’t aging, it’s brain energy availability.

We dig into creatine monohydrate through a performance lens, not a bodybuilding lens. Creatine is one of the most researched supplements on the planet, and it plays a direct role in ATP production, the energy currency your brain and body run on. Since the brain uses a massive share of your total energy, high cognitive load, chronic stress, travel, and sleep disruption can expose gaps fast. We walk through how creatine supports brain energy systems, then connect that to what racers and teams actually care about: reaction time, processing speed, and staying consistent late in the day.

You’ll hear four key benefits we focus on: memory and processing speed, reduced mental fatigue, executive function like focus and task adaptation, and neuroprotective potential tied to oxidative stress and long-term brain resilience. We also get practical with dosing guidance, absorption tips, who may benefit most (including vegetarians, vegans, and aging high performers), and who should avoid creatine without medical oversight. Finally, we explain where creatine fits inside a tiered high performance health supplement stack and why a synergistic formula can matter.

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Transcript

When Reaction Time Starts Slipping

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There's a driver who's still sharp, still competitive, still in the game, but something feels different. Not physically, but mentally. Reaction time becomes just a fraction slower. Focus requires a little more effort, and decisions take a split second longer than before. Nothing dramatic, but just enough to matter. And in motor sports, a fraction is everything. Now what's interesting is that many would look at this situation and think, well, that's just part of aging. But what if aging isn't the primary factor? What if brain energy availability is the limiting factor? Let's break it down. Hello, I'm Jeffrey Morda. If you're like most in NASCAR's top tiers, drivers, crews, owners, or executives, while you're busy chasing podiums, have you fully considered who's taking care of you? Right here, you're about to start transforming your mind and body for peak race day performance with high performance health, designed exclusively for the demands of NASCAR. As a certified high performance health coach and consulting hypnotist, I've coached elite entrepreneurs and athletes to higher energy, sharper focus, and greater resilience. Naturally, safely, and backed by science. And right now, I'm bringing that same engineered approach to the best in motorsport. Here you'll find no wasted time, just a unique blend of integrative health, mental conditioning, and proven recovery strategies delivered in plain language that you can use right away. Imagine a season without burnout, brain fog, or the costly crash of your health. Because the truth is the real race starts within. I'm grateful you're here. Yes, welcome back to Breaking Boundaries for Champions, where conventional performance beliefs are challenged and replaced with a physiology-first, science-backed approach. In today's topic, we're diving into creatine and why creatine monohydrate, commonly associated with muscle performance, may be one of the most overlooked tools for brain performance and even longevity. Now, you may have been told that creatine is only useful for bodybuilding and muscle growth. Well, that belief makes sense, does it not? Creatine monohydrate has been heavily marketed for decades in gyms and body transformation programs. And yet, over 10,000 studies exist on creatine. Creatine monohydrate is widely used in professional sports, and research continues to demonstrate that creatine monohydrate supports far more than muscle, which raises a better question. What if creatine plays a larger role in brain performance than most even realize? So before going deeper, it's helpful to understand what creatine actually is. Creatine, it's a naturally occurring compound produced in the body from amino acids. Creatine, it's prime uh primarily stored in muscle tissue as well as brain tissue. And creatine plays a direct role in producing something that's called ATP. You may have heard of that, adenosine triphosphate. We'll go a little bit deeper into that in a few minutes. But ATP is the primary energy currency of the body. So where does creatine come from? Well, creatine is found naturally in foods such as red meat and fish. However, most individuals do not consume enough dietary creatine to fully saturate brain and muscle stores. And this is especially relevant for vegetarians or even vegans, uh, high performers, and aging individuals as well. Now, if you're analytical like myself, you might be wondering what does the monohydrate after creatine mean? Well, creatine monohydrate refers to creatine bound with a, you might have guessed this by monohydrate, bound with a single water molecule. And this form is the most researched, it's the most stable, and it's the most bioavailable or usable to the body. Creatine monohydrate is considered the gold standard form used in research and in performance settings. Now, here's the hidden layer. Creatine supports that ATP production that we were talking about, not only in the muscle tissue, but also in brain tissue. The brain requires a significant amount of energy to maintain focus, reaction time, and decision making. The brain makes up only 2% of body weight, but it uses about 20% of our total energy. So while energy availability drops, it's the brain that feels it first. Drivers, crew members, and owners may experience things like sleep disruption, travel demands, chronic stress, high cognitive load, and all of these increase demand on the brain energy systems. Now, over time, brain performance declines due to reduced energy availability. So instead of asking how can mental performance be pushed harder, a better question becomes is brain energy production optimized for sustained performance? And just to be clear, this is not medical advice or intended to diagnose or treat any condition. Medical decisions belong with a licensed medical provider. This discussion here today focuses on understanding physiology for better performance decision. What research demonstrates, and what is often observed in clinical practice, is that creatine monohydrate improves the ability of brain cells to produce and use energy efficiently. Here's a simple way to understand creatine. The brain operates like a race engine that depends on consistent fuel delivery. If fuel delivery becomes limited, performance declines. Not because skill disappears, but because energy supply cannot meet demand. So I want to go over the four performance benefits of creatine with you today. Number one, memory and processing speed. Creatine supports faster information processing. For drivers, this means quicker reaction times. For crew chiefs, faster communication processing. The second, no number two, for performance benefits of creatine, reduced mental fatigue. Creatine supports sustained energy production in the brain. Reduced mental fatigue allows consistent performance across long races, reduced cognitive drop-off late in the day. And number three, the third performance benefit of creatine is executive function. Creatine supports executive brain functions such as focus, decision making, task adaptation. These functions decline first when brain energy is insufficient. And number four, you're gonna love this one. Number four in the performance benefits of creatine is neuroprotective potential. Creatine monohydrate supports reduced oxidative stress, brain longevity, and resilience in high impact environments. Creatine may support protection in environments involving repetitive impact, such as motorsports, and neurological stress, definitely motorsports. So why creatine monohydrate works? Creatine increases that ATP availability, ATB fuels cellular activity in brain and muscle tissue. Very, very important to understand that part. So the increased adenosine triphosphate leads to improved function, improved resilience, and improved recovery. Now, who can benefit from creatine? High performance under cognitive load, uh, sleep-deprived individuals, aging drivers, and especially team owners, uh, even students can benefit from creatine if they are over 17 years of age. And definitely anybody that's not consuming large amounts of meat, such as vegetarians or vegans, can benefit from creatine. Who should avoid creatine? So this is a pretty narrow demographic, but creatine monohydrate may not be appropriate for individuals with kidney-related conditions. And that's because simply because if the kidneys are under strain already, um, they have to process basically all the supplements that we would put through ourselves, especially the water-soluble supplements. Uh the liver and the kidneys are usually what we evaluate to make sure that a person is in good health to uh ensure that they can go forward with any particular protocol or supplement stack. So, best practices, how do you use creatine on a daily basis? Probably about three to five grams for the average individual. Combine that with carbohydrates and sodium for the best absorption. That's important. Uh so a great example of that is adding about five grams per day into your smoothie with a little bit of sea salt. That's gonna give you your carbohydrates uh in the smoothie with your fruits and vegetables, and then a little bit of sea salt for the sodium. That's gonna help absorb that creatine in there as well. Uh, if sensitivity occurs, like gastrointestinal uh sensitivities with the with the creatine, you could back that down to one and a half to two and a half grams and take it with meals uh to be able to buffer the GI discomfort, which is very uncommon. Now, when it comes to performance versus bodybuilding, higher doses of creatine monohydrate may be used in some of those bodybuilding protocols. That's not what we're talking about here today, but what that does look like for those people that are looking for that body transformation and muscle building, a loading dose of about five grams five times per day for five to seven days would be a great starting point. For the performance and cognitive support, the loading phase is not required. So, returning to that driver, we talked about at the top of the show, experiencing slower reaction time, returning to the crew chief experiencing that decision fatigue, and returning to the owner, experiencing reduced mental clarity. Creatine monohydrate has been shown to support brain energy systems that influence those outcomes. Now, there are consequences of ignoring that low brain energy. And over time, mental fatigue increases, focus becomes inconsistent, decision making slows, and performance declines gradually. Oftentimes in the background, what we don't even notice until one day we realize, wow, I am feeling way off. Now, if you put this in context with a supplement stack, let's talk about where that falls into place in our high-performance health-tiered supplement stack. Creatine monohydrate belongs in HPH tier three, and this is for performance optimization. So this is after tier one and tier two. Tier one would be foundational support. We're talking about a daily activated multivitamin or daily nutritional support powder. We're talking about a daily omega-3 for fatty acids and balancing healthy levels of inflammation. And we're talking about vitamin D3. Uh, you're already getting your K2 in with the multivitamin. So vitamin D3, it's gonna help with immunity and hormone uh production and all kinds of uh other benefits, vitamin D3. So that's tier one. Tier two would be targeted supplementation for what we need to target according to your at-home performance related, integrative, advanced uh at-home lab tests is what I was trying to say. Your at-home lab tests, your integrative health tests uh would determine what supplementation you need for tier through, tier two, and then of course tier three would be your performance-based, and that's where creatine would live. There's a lot of high-quality creatine out there on the market. What I use personally and recommend to our clients over at Victory Lane Wellness is called Advanced Cell Force. It's a synergistic formulation from our partner Equalife. They are the global leader in functional medicine, and they usually don't put out a product just to put out a product. As I said, there's plenty of creatine out there on the market. What Equalife does with their formulation team is they create a synergistic formulation. So advanced cell force contains, yes, the creatine monohydrate for strength and endurance and cognitive function, but it also contains citrulline malate, which is important for the citric acid cycle. This is the energy cycle. This increases ATP production and it boosts circulation. It also includes taurine, which supports mitochondrial health. Those are the powerhouses of the cells that create the ATP. It reduces oxidative stress, the taurine does, and it promotes brain health, very important. And it also contains one other ingredient, which is trimethylglycine, also known as TMG, which supports heart health, energy production, and healthy aging, all of which are backed by science. And perfect for those who demand both immediate performance and long-term vitality. And I'll tell you, when I don't use this for a day or two, I can definitely feel the difference. I add that back in and can certainly feel the difference immediately. And I know that it's playing a role in my long-term health. So imagine stable mental clarity, sustained focus, faster decision making under pressure, creatine monohydrate supports the energy systems required for that level of performance in a demanding motorsports environment. If you're interested in checking out the advanced self force, you can find it over on our shop page at jeffreymort.com forward slash shop. Just click on the supplement tab and you'll find it there. Creatine is not just for muscle. The research clearly demonstrates that creatine supports brand performance, resilience, and longevity. If you're the kind of driver, crew member, or team owner who values your energy and is ready to optimize your performance, you can apply to work with Victory Lane Wellness at VictoryLaneWellness.com. With programs designed for motorsports professionals committed to performance and precision, and every enrollment supports Race for a Reason, a program providing integrative health testing to chronically ill children of motorsports charities. We will see you next time. Bye-bye.