Nutrition Diva

881. Bodybuilders have been taking creatine for decades, and its effects on strength and muscle mass are well established. Lately it's also being sold for brain health, better sleep, and menopause. The evidence on those newer claims is a lot thinner, but it isn't nothing.

Creatine is stored mostly in your muscles, where it powers short bursts of high-intensity effort. Your body makes some of it, and you get the rest from meat and fish, which is why vegans tend to run lower. Stores also decline with age as muscle mass drops.

Monica walks through what the research actually shows, including her own experiment with creatine supplementation:

• Why creatine doesn't build muscle directly, and what it does instead
• The 2 to 5 pounds of water weight most people gain in the first few weeks, and why it isn't the kind you'd notice in your jeans
• What a 2025 meta-analysis found about creatine, resistance training, and strength in adults over 50, and why the training group eventually caught up
• The sleep-deprivation studies, where a single large dose measurably improved memory and processing speed for up to nine hours
• Why women may respond differently than men
• What the cognition research in older adults does and doesn't support
• Whether creatine is hard on your kidneys, and what that creatinine bump on your bloodwork really means
• Loading doses versus starting straight at maintenance

New to Nutrition Diva? Check out our special Spotify playlist for a collection of the best episodes curated by our team and Monica herself! 

Follow Nutrition Diva on Facebook and subscribe to the newsletter for more diet and nutrition tips. 

Find out about Monica's keynotes and other programs at WellnessWorksHere.com

Nutrition Diva is a part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network. 

References

Single dose creatine improves cognitive performance and induces changes in cerebral high energy phosphates during sleep deprivation | Scientific Reports 

Single-Dose Creatine Reduces Sleep Deprivation-Induced Deterioration in Cognitive Performance 

Creatine and Cognition in Aging: A Systematic Review of Evidence in Older Adults | Nutrition Reviews | Oxford Academic 

The impact of creatine supplementation associated with resistance training on muscular strength and lean tissue mass in the aged: a systematic review and meta-analysis | European Review of Aging and Physical Activity | Springer Nature Link 

Creatine in women’s health: bridging the gap from menstruation through pregnancy to menopause - PMC 

Creatine Improves Total Sleep Duration Following Resistance Training Days versus Non-Resistance Training Days among Naturally Menstruating Females 

Impact of creatine supplementation on menopausal women’s body composition, cognition, estrogen, strength, and sleep: Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition: Vol 22, No sup1 

Effect of creatine supplementation on kidney function: a systematic review and meta-analysis - PMC 

Related Episodes

877 - Why is everyone talking about L-Theanine?

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880. CoQ10 shows up in cellular energy production, in antioxidant defense, and increasingly, in marketing aimed at anyone over fifty. It's sold for energy, for athletic performance, and especially to the millions of people taking a statin, since those medications really do lower CoQ10 levels in the blood.

So who genuinely benefits? In this episode, Monica sorts the credible case from the promotional one. She covers why your body makes most of its own CoQ10 rather than getting it from food, what statins actually do to your levels and whether that matters, and what the evidence says about the claim that CoQ10 relieves statin-related muscle pain. You'll also hear the better-validated steps to try before reaching for a supplement, why she compares this situation to glucosamine and joint pain, how to take CoQ10 if you decide to test it yourself, and why the energy-boosting claims deserve real skepticism.

Join us for a live show taping on September 17 in New York City. Details at wellnessworkshere.com/live.

New to Nutrition Diva? Check out our special Spotify playlist for a collection of the best episodes curated by our team and Monica herself! 

Follow Nutrition Diva on Facebook and subscribe to the newsletter for more diet and nutrition tips. 

Find out about Monica's keynotes and other programs at WellnessWorksHere.com

Nutrition Diva is a part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network. 

References

Marcoff L, Thompson PD. The role of coenzyme Q10 in statin-associated myopathy: a systematic review - PubMed 

Grundy SM, Stone N. AHA Guideline on the Management of Blood Cholesterol: PubMed 

Kovacic S, Habicht SD, Effects of coenzyme Q10 supplementation on myopathy in statin-treated patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis - PubMed 

Warden BA, Guyton JR, Assessment and management of statin-associated muscle symptoms (SAMS): A clinical perspective from the National Lipid Association - PubMed 

Stroes ES, et al. Statin-associated muscle symptoms: impact on statin therapy - PubMed 

Iatan I, Mancini J Statin associated muscle symptoms (SAMS): strategies for prevention, assessment and management - PubMed 

Deng H, Song T Coenzyme Q10 supplementation increases blood concentrations but shows limited and inconsistent effects on exercise performance: a systematic review and meta-analysis - PubMed 

Related Episodes

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879. Are you eating too much protein, or not enough? The honest answer is that the question itself is flawed, because there's no single number that fits everyone.

In this episode, Monica breaks down why protein needs shift across a lifetime. The mTOR "growth switch" inside your cells runs hot during childhood, powering the tissue-building that young bodies require. In your 30s and 40s, dialing protein back may nudge cells toward repair and cleanup instead. And after 50, when muscle naturally starts to decline, eating more actually helps preserve strength, mobility, and bone health well into later years.

She also puts the recent longevity headlines in context. A widely covered review of animal studies found that lower protein intake can extend lifespan in flies and rodents, yet those results don't map neatly onto human biology, where lifestyle, genetics, and the rest of your diet all shape how you grow older.

Monica offers a more grounded way to think about protein: match your intake to your age, sex, and activity level, and treat the current RDA as a floor rather than a goal.

nutritionovereasy.com/calculator

Join us for a live show taping on September 17 in New York City. Details at wellnessworkshere.com/live.

New to Nutrition Diva? Check out our special Spotify playlist for a collection of the best episodes curated by our team and Monica herself! 

Follow Nutrition Diva on Facebook and subscribe to the newsletter for more diet and nutrition tips. 

Find out about Monica's keynotes and other programs at WellnessWorksHere.com

Nutrition Diva is a part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network. 

References

The hallmarks of protein and amino acid restriction in aging and longevity: Cell Press Blue 

Low Protein Intake Is Associated with a Major Reduction in IGF-1, Cancer, and Overall Mortality in the 65 and Younger but Not Older Population: Cell Metabolism

New Horizons: Dietary protein, ageing and the Okinawan ratio | Age and Ageing | Oxford Academic

Dietary protein intake and all-cause mortality: results from The Kawasaki Aging and Wellbeing Project - PMC

The impact of dietary protein intake on longevity and metabolic health - PMC 

Protein Intake and Frailty in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies - PMC

Related Episodes

699 - Are we eating too much protein? Or not enough?

847 - Does a high protein diet accelerate aging?

865 - The new food pyramid: progress or paradox?

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878. A tick bite you may not even remember getting can leave you unable to eat a hamburger, a slice of pizza, or a bowl of ice cream. That's alpha-gal syndrome, and it's turning up far outside its original range.

Alpha-gal is a sugar molecule found in the cells of most mammals but not in humans. When a lone star tick injects it under the skin, the immune system can start treating it as a threat. After that, beef, pork, lamb, venison, and sometimes dairy or gelatin can trigger a reaction three to six hours later, which is a big part of why this food allergy goes undiagnosed for years.

Today, Monica breaks down what the research actually shows:

• Why the lone star tick's range is expanding into the Midwest, the Northeast, and eastern Canada
• How alpha-gal syndrome differs from Lyme disease, and why they get confused
• What the CDC's estimate of 450,000 cases means, and why the "1 in 4" figure circulating on social media isn't measuring the same thing
• What a diagnosis means for your diet, including collagen, gelatin, organ meats, and why tolerance varies so much from person to person
• Why symptoms can be worse on some days than others
• Whether the condition is permanent, and what happens to antibody levels over time
• How to lower your risk of tick bites, per the CDC
• Where gene-edited GalSafe pigs fit into the picture

New to Nutrition Diva? Check out our special Spotify playlist for a collection of the best episodes curated by our team and Monica herself! 

Follow Nutrition Diva on Facebook and subscribe to the newsletter for more diet and nutrition tips. 

Find out about Monica's keynotes and other programs at WellnessWorksHere.com

Nutrition Diva is a part of the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network. 

References

About Alpha-gal Syndrome | Alpha-gal Syndrome | CDC 

Nearly One in Four Adults in High-Risk States Have Alpha-gal Antibodies Linked to Tick-Borne Meat Allergy | Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases 

Join us for a live show taping on September 17 in New York City. Details at wellnessworkshere.com/live.

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Eight glasses a day. An ounce per pound. A pinch of salt in your water. Everyone has a hydration rule, and most of them came from somewhere other than the research. 

This live episode was recorded in front of an audience at the Friends of the National Arboretum in Washington, DC (@fonarboretum), with an outdoor yoga session led by Bikram Yoga Works (@bikramyogaworks). Thank you to both for making the night possible.

Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN, answers listener questions about hydration and explains what the research actually supports. She breaks down the four phases of hydration, which are intake, absorption, retention, and distribution, and explains why sodium and glucose work together to pull fluid out of your digestive system and into your tissues faster than water alone. That mechanism is exactly what an electrolyte drink mix like Liquid I.V. is built around, which is why it can be such a useful tool when you are sweating hard, training, traveling, or just trying to keep up on a hot day.

Monica also covers how much water you really need each day, how much of it you already get from food and other beverages, and how much fluid and sodium you lose through sweat.

Plus, she takes listener questions on whether sugar free electrolyte drinks work as well as the sugared kind, how to think about sodium guidelines when you are sweating heavily, whether it is possible to drink too much water, whether a pinch of salt or a squeeze of lemon does anything, whether coffee and tea count toward your daily fluids, what apple cider vinegar in your morning water actually does, and whether reverse osmosis water needs minerals added back in.

Topics include hydration, electrolytes, sodium, healthy habits, nutrition myths, viral nutrition claims, sports drinks, caffeine, and evidence based nutrition.

The science of hydration, presented by Liquid I.V. @liquidiv #paidpartner

Use the code 2026ND on liquidiv.com for 20% off your first order.

Special thanks to Friends of the National Arboretum and Bikram Yoga Works !!

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