Recently I found out from listening to the Podcast by Dave Asprey of the Bulletproof Executive that the compound that has been traditionally been used in male muscle enhancement creatine has benefits towards increasing a person’s intelligence quotient (IQ) by something around 10-15 points. (source (webMD) – Creatine May Boost Brain Performance Study Shows Intelligence, Memory Improvements With the Dietary Supplement)

From the same webMD source…

“Creatine is a type of amino acid created by the Kidneys, Liver, and Pancreas. It is mostly stored in the muscles, where it becomes a source of energy and muscle growth. As a nutritional supplement, creatine has been shown to enhance athletic performance, and in a 2000 study, Scheff found that it protected against traumatic brain injuries in people who were already using it prior to being injured.”

I remember many height increase seekers years ago on the old Impartial Grow Taller Board discussing whether taking other types of amino acids like L-Lysine, and Arginine, and Glutamine would possibly increase their height. While they never gave a scientifically sound explanation on why increased amino acid oral consumption would lead to height increase, it did lead an impression and I have wondered whether amino acids in general do have some positive correlation to height. Proteins are made of amino acids, and and there is a weak positive correlation between people who eat meat being taller than people who eat only vegetables.

This made me wonder whether Creatine could be a type of compound that might increase the level of height growth in people as well. It is indeed a big leap to go from linking the cognitive enhancements of a compound with the possibility that the same compound would have bone growth enhancing properties as well. However it seems that there might be some evidence that shows I am not so crazy in making such a connection.

Tyler wrote a post about the link between Creatine and possible natural height increase in the post “Natural Height Increase with Creatine” back in 2010. I would try to summarize what he was trying to imply with a short paragraph of what I can get from that post.

Point 1: Myostatin is BAD for height increase. While it is a good thing for increased muscle size, losing body fat, and getting cut, myostatin is bad for height increase.

Point 2: Studies Tyler found seem to imply that creatine can inhibit the functions of myostatin.

Point 3: GASP-1 inhibits the biological activity of mature myostatin, but not activin.

Point 4: Activin & Myostatin are both members of the TGF-Beta superfamily

Point 5: GASP-1 binds directly not only to mature myostatin, but also to the myostatin propeptide. – (I don’t understand what this means but I would guess that means that GASP-1 seem to inhibit all forms, mature and immature forms of myostatin.)

Point 6: The other effect of GASP-1 is that it inhibits protease.  Protease breaks down peptide bonds that link amino acids together which means that it can break down compounds like Human Growth Hormone (by Tyler)

Point 7: GASP-1 inhibits BMP-11

Point 8: Resistance training caused significant decrease in serum levels of myostatin and increase in that of GASP-1. Creatine supplementation in conjunction with resistance training lead to greater decreases in serum myostatin, but had no additional effect on GASP-1. —> So this implies…”Exercise can make you taller by inhibiting myostatin and increasing serum levels of GASP-1 which in turn inhibits Myostatin further.” (by Tyler)

That post seems to imply that if we just inhibit the inhibitors of of growth (in double negation way), then our growth will increase. At this point, I would say that this type of thinking doesn’t work very well in height increase. From articles i have read about how the stature of humans is restrained and limited due to continuous lower numbers of cells possible to proliferate and make the bones bigger, removing obstacles that might have held back bone growth doesn’t always imply that we will get taller as a result.

When I googled the term “creatine grow taller” I did find some interesting results. The first came from the website BodyBuilding.com in a thread entitled “Did I get taller from creatine?” . the poster makes the point to say that he was around 6′ 4″ before and he claims he is 6′ 5″ in his profile. He knows that Creatine is somehow related to skeletal muscles. He is 33 right now (2013), so at the time he posted (2007) he would be around 27 years old. His claim is that he grew 1-2 inches in height around the late 20s from doing creatine.

Replies talk about compounds I have never heard of like Fizogen, Cell-Tech, ….

“…creatine monohydrate as a supplement is taken for muscle creatine phospahte (CP) wich is used (during weight training) for muscle contraction energy (ATP). your supplementing your CP pretty much so it restores faster and your muscles will grow faster…in laymens terms….of course….if your creatine includes the human growth hormone well then maybe on a very very rare occasion you might just be getting taller…..”

The guy ultimate says…

“well jokes aside..I tell ya i’m sure I grew a bit (.5-1”)..not sure if it’s posture or like I said bloated spinal disks (cus “The center of the disc is a jelly-like substance called the nucleus pulposus”) no clue if it can bloat or not (hence this thread)..maybe when I cycle off i’ll take actual measurements and see..”

Other people suggest that if they took something called the hardcore version of Cell-Tech that they possibly would increase in height. – Although this can be assumed to be just a joke.

So what do I think about the possibility that Creatine can be used to possibly make a person taller?

From the EHow article “How Does Creatine Affect Growth Hormone and Aging?” it is implied that  creatine somehow stimulates the pituitary gland to overexpress on GH. This could imply that creatine has some way to help in the growth process of developing children. However another section suggests that creatine will almost all be concentrated in the muscles…

Almost all creatine in the body is concentrated in the muscles, and the remaining 5 percent is found largely in organs with high-energy needs such as the heart, brain and testes

The thing about creatine is that it just converts fats in the body to energy. There is no studies that make the connection between taking creatine supplements and possibly increasing endochondral ossification or chondrogensis. Some people have gone on the Yahoo Questions & Answers section to ask whether taking Creatine will help make them taller. The almost unanimous decision by people on there is that it won’t help even the child who is still growing.

What is the conclusion?

Creatine is made of amino acids. For so many years beginning height increase seekers want to try to take proteins and amino acid formulations to grow taller. At this point, I have not heard one genuine success story from just taking amino acids like Glutamin and Glycine. So that implies that one should NOT be able to increase their height from taking Creatine. The few cases where taking creatine would help may be for vegetarians who don’t get enough proteins in their diet or children who live in malnourishment and can’t get enough nutrients into their body which leads to stunted growth. Creatine might help a little for the child who has stunted growth, but for an adult, it should never work to make a person taller.