Creatine for Brain Health, Cognitive Performance, and Healthy Aging with Mark Faulkner

Creatine is often discussed as a performance supplement, but choosing the right product can be difficult amid conflicting claims, inconsistent manufacturing standards, and changing health trends.

In Part 2 of the ANEW Insight Podcast, Dr. Supatra Tovar continues her conversation with Mark Faulkner, Founder and President of Vireo Systems and inventor of CON-CRĒT Creatine HCl. They discuss supplement quality, manufacturing transparency, ingredient sourcing, and certifications such as GMP, NSF, Informed Choice, TrueShield, and SQF.

The conversation also explores creatine misconceptions, differences between creatine hydrochloride and creatine monohydrate, GLP-1 medications, nutrient adequacy, muscle preservation, brain energy, peptides, biohacking, hunger signals, and nervous-system regulation. Dr. Tovar emphasizes the importance of working with the body, honoring hunger, and supporting health through nourishment rather than control.

You will learn about:

• How to evaluate the quality of a supplement
 • Which supplement certifications consumers can look for
 • Warning signs related to sourcing and manufacturing transparency
 • The nutritional concerns associated with reduced food intake on GLP-1 medications
 • Concerns surrounding peptides and unsupported biohacking claims
 • How hunger, stress, and the nervous system affect eating and digestion
 • Why calm, social eating may support a healthier relationship with food

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome back and introduction to Part 2
 00:45 How to choose a high-quality supplement
 02:20 Good manufacturing practices and ingredient sourcing
 03:10 NSF, Informed Choice, TrueShield, and SQF certifications
 05:00 Warning signs on supplement labels
 06:00 How to investigate supplement manufacturers
 07:45 Whey protein, marketing, and supplement trends
 09:00 GLP-1 medications, nutrition, and brain fog
 10:00 Why registered dietitians are an important resource
 11:00 Hunger, nutrient needs, and reduced food intake
 12:00 Creatine, protein, exercise, and muscle preservation
 13:00 Muscle loss, aging, and long-term health
 14:00 Carbohydrates, glucose, and brain energy
 15:00 ATP production and cellular functioning
 15:30 Evaluating health claims and GLP-1 considerations
 17:30 The biggest misconceptions about creatine
 18:00 Is creatine only for men and athletes?
 18:30 Creatine hydrochloride versus creatine monohydrate
 19:00 Creatine dosage, strength, endurance, and recovery
 20:00 Bloating, water retention, and reported side effects
 20:30 Peptides, biohacking, and unsupported claims
 22:00 Why the body is not a puzzle to hack
 22:30 Hunger signals and the need for nourishment
 23:30 Stress, digestion, and nervous-system safety
 24:00 The importance of calm and social eating
 25:00 Hara hachi bu and honoring fullness
 26:00 Where to learn more about creatine research
 28:00 Closing thoughts

Key Topics Covered

Creatine benefits
 Creatine hydrochloride
 Creatine monohydrate
 Protein and carbohydrates
 Peptides and biohacking
 Hunger signals
 Mindful eating
 Nervous-system regulation

CONNECT WITH MARK FAULKNER

Learn more about Mark Faulkner and CON-CRĒT Creatine HCl:

Website:
 https://con-cret.com/

LinkedIn:
 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-faulkner

Instagram:
 https://www.instagram.com/concret_creatine/reels/

Connect With Dr. Supatra Tovar

Follow Dr. Supatra Tovar on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads, and TikTok:

@drsupatratovar

Continue Your Journey

Book:
 Deprogram Diet Culture: Rethink Your Relationship with Food, Heal Your Mind, and Live a Diet-Free Life

Course:
 Deprogram Diet Culture
 https://anew-insight.com

Visit the Website:
 https://drsupatratovar.com

Watch More Episodes:
 ANEW Insight Podcast

Watch the TEDx Talk:
 Rethinking Your Relationship with Food in the GLP-1 Era

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the A New Insight Podcast, empowering and inspiring your journey to optimal health. Hosted by Dr. Supatra Kavar, clinical psychologist, registered dietitian, fitness expert, and author of Deprogram Diet Culture. Rethink your relationship with food, feel your mind, and live a diet-free life. I follow my guests' journey to optimal health, providing you with the keys to unlock your own wellness path. Tune in and evolve with us. Welcome back, everyone. We are back for the second half of our conversation with Mark Faulkner. We have been discussing the evolving science of creatine and its impact not only on physical performance, but also on brain health and cognitive function. I cannot wait to continue. Welcome back, Mark.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Thank you. Happy to be back.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

So we have a lot of conflicting information online about supplements. Supplement industry is not regulated, and there are a lot of difficulties. There's also a lot of studies done on supplements not even containing what they purport to contain. Help the consumer. What should consumers look for when choosing a high-quality supplement or and or creatine product?

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Certainly. I have to say this was something that was most unsettling to me when I got into the supplement space. So I stepped out of forensic toxicology, which heavily regulated by the College of American Pathologists and the Substance Abuse Middle Health Services Administration and all sorts of uh governing bodies. And everything had to be buttoned up. We were inspected regularly. Uh people crawled through all of our documents and regulations. And that led me into research to try to find something, as I indicated, that to help athletes from a performance standpoint, since forensic toxicology and testing was taking away some of their steroids and things. And that research led me into the supplement world. And I was aghast at what a wild west it was and what kind of um dark and shadowy figures were uh were populating the uh the supplement industry. There was a couple of times where somebody would make a claim, and I would call them out and say, well, that's not accurate. That's that's not a justifiable or a valid claim. And it seemed like all that the industry would do was shout it louder to try to overwhelm any voice that was um naysaying against uh uh their their smoke and mirrors and against their baloney. Um and so it is difficult. Uh at the at the at the root of it, I would say, okay, uh people need to look for supplements that are processed under GMP, good manufacturing practices, at a bare minimum. Um number two is they need to understand um their their origin of the compound that they're they're getting. It's it's oftentimes not listed on the label. Uh they say things like made in America or assembled in America from international and domestic uh parts or whatever. Um, so many of our supplements come from overseas. And and that's not necessarily bad. There are some very good supplements that come in from overseas, but there's also a lot of stuff that is uh not well regulated, not well tested. Um, and so besides GMP and good manufacturing practices, people really should look for something like NSF, um, which is the certification, uh particularly for creatine or any other fitness nutrition uh products that are allowed to be used in professional sports like Major League Baseball, football, or the NCAA for high-level orcher uh athletics. So NSF certification or informed choice, that's another certification uh where these things are tested. Uh True Shield is another certification uh that is very good for testing uh against contaminants or banned substances in poles. Um if I had to say what the the ultimate um certification for somebody to know that what they're putting in their body uh has been uh very well uh defined from a quality standpoint and and very well distilled uh in the in the processes is SQF, safe quality foods. If a if a compound or if a nutrient, if a supplement has SQF designation, uh that's really the the the top, that's the pinnacle of uh of achievement for a uh a supplement manufacturing process. Um but uh yeah, GMP, NSF, True Shield, Inform Choice, and SQF are things that I would uh would look for.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

And is there any like warning sign that we should be looking out for if they don't have those, but you know, they're really popular or we're seeing them on the internet. What are some of the warning signs that people aren't really aware of those additional uh certifications?

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Yeah, let me first I'll kind of work backwards on that question. Um any supplement that is uh certified by NSF, uh SQF, uh True Shield, Informed Choice, any of those or GMP should have it on their label. So the consumer should be able to easily tell that they are in fact those. If they don't have those on, I think that is a warning sign um that it probably wasn't made in a certified facility, an FDA registered facility, um, a facility that is adhering to quality standards that would be expected by the FDA if they were fully regulating them. So I think the warning signs is when some supplement doesn't proudly show that they've gone through the effort to have these accreditations and certifications. Um I, you know, you can also do a fair bit of uh of good um sleuthing uh through their website and see um, you know, how long they've been around, uh what some of their yeah, they all have good testimonials, of course, but uh if they talk about their sourcing, and then I wouldn't hesitate to ask. Um, it's interesting that uh when I first started uh looking into protein supplements, um, it was interesting to me that many of them would not uh uh designate the USDA grade of protein that was being used. Um you very rarely see that. You'll see isolates, which are very good, high purity, but on a general whey protein that says 100% whey protein, well, that sounds good. It's 100% whey protein. Well, no, there's a great difference in 100% whey proteins between the usable protein and the protein um byproducts and additives like lactic acid and or uh or lact lactose and things that uh uh that can still be considered 100% whey, but that act as filler. So uh so and without putting it on the label, you really have to drill down with the company and say, okay, what is your USDA grade of this protein? Same way with supplements, drill down, find out where is your country of origin. You know, who who was it? What what where was it manufactured in terms of actually the facility? And is the facility one that's FDA registered? Because the FDA will register sites over overseas. Um so a little bit of um little bit of due diligence on the part of the consumer if they um if they're not hanging their hat on the the other accreditations that I mentioned.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Yes. Oh my gosh, don't even get me started on whey protein because the history of whey is so interesting. Used to be just discarded into the into the rivers and we kill fishes because they never even wanted it now with this whole crazy, and I mean it is that is nuts out there. Yeah. Another wild, wild west of you know, protein and everything, especially whey protein. Uh now a whey protein is like incredibly expensive and the demand for it is far exceeding the supply. Uh and it's just commercially driven people. So I would say do your own research. Please don't just follow what's the newest trend on TikTok or Instagram. Find out if this is actually something your body needs. Do we need to eat our weed and protein? Absolutely not. No, no, no, no, no. And you can go back and look at millions of other podcasts that I've done about this topic. Um, we need to be a little bit more discerning and and go and actually look at the scientific sources. You know, we can we can parse it out. And if you can't parse it out, you can find somebody who will help you parse it out. Um, don't just put whatever into your body. And speaking of putting something into our body, my one of my biggest um, you know, areas of interest right now are people who are on these GLP ones. And they are uh kind of becoming a categorically malnourished group, and that's you know, in this in essence by design with these medications. What would you have as advice for people who are on these GLP ones? Obviously, there's a lot of cognitive brain fog, a lot of anxiety, a lot of depression. Um, even scurvy is making a comeback, which is like bad news. And so a lot of people need very specific dietary advice. They need to be working alongside a dietitian, not a doctor, a dietitian who fully understands nutritional science, knows what goes into food and how it affects the body. What kinds of advice can you give people on the creatine end who are taking these GLP ones?

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Yeah. First, I want to echo what you just said about registered dietitians. Um, I think doctors in four years of med school get about four hours of nutrition. Um they're not expert by any stretch of the imagination in this. Dieticians are such a valuable resource in our new healthcare world. Um, I I think that uh that that is one of the most important segments for people to be able to have and to chart a course on uh with any medical routine or regimen um to have uh uh a healthy, the best opportunity for a healthy life. Um, because as my grandmother used to say, and many others say too, you are what you eat. And um and and food can be extraordinarily good medicine for us uh if it's uh if it's crafted properly. The GLP1s, and the couple of the main major concerns that I have is that it downregulates your your metabolic rate. So you're you're gonna, your, your whole metabolism is is working slower or working less um than optimal, and certainly less than it had before you started those medications. Um, you know, are there people that that um uh in in many ways probably arguably need some GLP1 assistance? Maybe so. Um but you know, our body tells us it's hungry because it's craving certain nutrients. We just are eating things that aren't giving it those nutrients. So the body says, you know, I'm still hungry because I'm not getting those nutrients. You're not feeding me the food that would cause me to be satiated in that nutrient desire that I have. Um, and and so if if you calm down, or if you if you you know stem um the diet cravings, the the hunger, you're naturally not giving your body most likely the nutrients that it needs. Uh, you're kind of uh putting it into this limbo state that uh is not healthy and that gives the opportunity for scurvy and other things um uh to to you know emerge and as you say to brain fog and all sorts of things. The key with creatine, and I would say that besides a really healthy, if somebody's on a GLP1, they need a very, very good uh vitamin uh uh nutrient regimen that a dietitian could help craft for them. Um number two, yeah, they probably need more protein, good healthy protein, uh, in order to try to not end up skinny fat, because you know, people lose weight on a GLP1, but their BMI is still out of whack uh because they've lost as much muscle as they have fat. And and along with that, you've got to keep the cellular energy up. And that then is is the importance of creatine in a GLP1 regimen. So, so uh vitamins and nutrients, vitamins, minerals, nutrients, um, protein, uh creatine, and then hopefully some exercise to help the body uh try to maintain as much of the uh the protein and the muscle mass as possible. Because as you age, you know, muscle is your currency for for being healthy long term, um and not being a fall risk and not you know developing sarcopenia and the from the muscle wasting, because that's what that's what's happening with GLP1s, is it's it's drug-induced sarcopenia. It's it's muscle wasting um as a result of uh of those uh pharmaceuticals.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Of malnutrition.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

And I I would say, you know, that that if I can be of any assistance to anybody out there who's on them, and there's no judgment for from me if you are or you're not on them, is that there's so much conflicting health advice out there. Yes, you are eating significantly fewer calories and you are losing muscle, but to only ingest protein is not going to do you any good. We get our primary energy source is from glucose, from carbohydrates. And if you are not eating any whole plant foods, you are not doing your brain especially any favors because the brain thrives on glucose. It does not thrive on ketones. It doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't. It's only used really in the uh you know dietetic setting to help quell uh uh epilepsy, a ketogenic diet. We absolutely 100% need carbohydrates and we do not need as much protein as being touted out there right now. And if you are really curious about people that do not necessarily have excess body weight, who live long, who are you know still cognitively functioning, go look at the diets of people in these blue zones. It's fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

And if you were the plants and fruit-based, the vegetable and fruit-based carbohydrates are so healthy and so good uh for the body. And it's the the glucose you mentioned, that's what fuels the Krebs cycle, you know, the citric acid cycle. That's what makes more ATP, that's what kicks off all of these other um, you know, biochemical uh compounds that are absolutely key to the health.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Exactly. So, you know, and if you are curious about the science behind it, uh I would highly recommend there's one doctor out there that, well, there's a can be, but uh there's one doctor who has made it his mission to be all about health care rather than sick care. So his name is Dr. Michael Grieger, and he runs nutritionfacts.org and he's written all slew of books that contain so much science, your eyes will pop out. And he only looks for peer-reviewed, validated science that is not industry funded. Okay. So if you're into sticking it to the man a little bit and you really want to know the true science, that is a wonderful place to start because he like disseminates the science into like really like you know, actionable little bites where you can you can understand what's going on and he will walk you through a study. Um, and I would recommend just going to town on nutritionpacks.org and going to read any of his books because that may help you also decide whether or not a GLP one is right for you. There's you know, extreme costs involved. Um, a lot of doctors will say if you go on this, you need to go on this for life, which is, you know, that's you need to consider that and consider all of the potential side effects, the difficulties that may come from long-term use of these products. They are right now kind of touted as this magic pill for all things, especially extreme weight loss. And what we're seeing, you guys, is um, you know, a lot of eating disorders and disordered eating coming out of that on the dietetic side and on the psychologist side. Uh, so I would say think about taking things very carefully, whether it's a supplement, whether it's a medication. You really want to have as much information behind that as possible. So I'm gonna pivot a little bit. Thank you for going on that wild tangent with me, but um, you know, I'm always about um helping people navigate through that kind of stuff. And speaking of navigating, what are some of the biggest misconceptions around creatine and creatine use?

SPEAKER_01 18:06

I think one of the misconceptions is that creatine is just creatine. You hear people talk about creatine, but you don't oftentimes hear them talk about the forms other than, oh, you should just take creatine monohydrate. Well, some people, creatine monohydrate, as I mentioned, you know, if you're looking for strength and bulk, that is a great molecule for that. But I so one misconception is that there are different forms that are useful for different applications. Um, another misconception is that it's it's for guys, you know, it's it's a male Jim bro sort of deal, and that it's not for women. Uh, really truly, all people, all cells need creatine for optimal health. Um another misconception is dosing. Uh, everybody hears five grams uh or if for cognitive benefits it's 10 to 20 grams. Well, that those are big doses, and um, and that's only talking about creatine monohydrate. The the comparative doses of creatine hydrochloride instead of five grams or five thousand milligrams are 0.75 grams or 750 milligrams up to like 1.5 grams. Um, you know, if you're really getting crazy, maybe two or three grams of creatine hydrochloride, but that does the same sort of brain energy metabolism improvement, brain creatine level improvement, um, overall cellular health improvement, the strength, endurance, and recovery improvement that those much larger doses of uh creatine monohydrate uh uh provide. So uh the the dosing is is a is a misconception. Uh five grams is not just applicable to everybody for every form of creatine. Um and and probably that uh a misconception is is that that just because creatine monohydrate has been around the longest, that it's the gold standard. Um I mean the rotary phone has been around longer than the digital smartphone. And uh, you know, it not everybody's uh uh still making calls on uh Gen Z out there is like, huh? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Why?

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Yeah. So so it's um I I think that um uh as more research emerges um on creatine hydrochloride, it's more awareness of different molecular configurations and conjugations um is understood. That uh some of those misconceptions will fall by the wayside. Another misconception is that creatine gives you side effects. Again, creatine monohydrate, yes, puffiness blow, retention for the majority of people that take it, and over 80% of women that take creatine monohydrate do experience those side effects. But those side effects are not present with low doses of creatine hydrochloride, and yet it's still those low doses deliver more creatine to all the cells. So those are some of the main misconceptions.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

Now you you mentioned Jim Bros, and I also want to pull in the biohacking kind of folk out there. Can you just briefly tell me what the heck is up with peptides? Why is up?

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Yeah, I I gotta tell you, I have not jumped on that bandwagon. Um, it is I there's a lot of people making a lot of claims about these peptides. Um, many of them, in order to be effective, have to be injected. Um, I don't know of very many peptides, maybe any that are going through if you're if you're having an injectable, for them to be not going through an FDA approved clinical trial for quality and for purity and things, that concerns me a little bit. Um, most peptides that are taken orally, not all, but most, are destroyed in the gut. So you're expending a fair bit of money for a peptide that um isn't maintaining its form into the bloodstream. Um, so I I think it's a uh pretty significant fad right now. I think that there will be Um, I'm sure some good peptides that have end up with good research behind them and that rise to the top. Um, but I think that there's a lot of people right now that are um promoting peptides that um uh the the the claims are not uh backed up by the uh by the effect effectiveness.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Yeah, it's just uh I think just taking off on the GLP ones, or those are peptides as well. Um and what they may be able to do in our body, but there's just not the research out there. I I just think that there is um are there there are these fads in these trends, and right now it's all about how we can hack the body. And what I recommend for people is that our bodies aren't math equations, they're not like puzzles to solve. We actually do better when we work in harmony with our body. Mark mentioned something so important about hunger in particular, and I think we have been conditioned to think that hunger is something that's bad and that should be pushed away and that's morally wrong and something that we should um ignore. And it is our body asking for something. There is there's a hormonal cascade when we are hungry, ghrelin, the hunger hormone, is telling us we need nutrients, we need nourishment. It is a good signal. And he was also correct in that when we do give it give in to our hunger, we're usually eating something that's you know from farther away from the ground rather than lower toward the ground. And the thing that our hunger is asking for are stuff that's like from lower to the ground. Um, and then when we don't stress out while we're eating and we stay in our parasympathetic nervous system and we're calm, that's how our body knows it's safe to digest food. And that's when it'll start doing all of the things that we want it to do, the things that we're trying to hack it into doing, using nutrients effectively, getting rid of extra fat, building muscle, all that kind of stuff. The body has to be safe. So out there right now is the wild west of, you know, let's stress ourselves out completely and totally go against our body's uh you know, natural functioning.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

Isn't it isn't it interesting? I love what you just described and shared with your listeners, because isn't it interesting when you think about the old world um habit of gathering and sitting and eating in a social, relaxed sort of setting, and then resting a bit after the treat. You have this time of calm, this time of, as you said, kind of inviting the body to know that it's safe to go ahead, to digest, to restore itself, etc. Um, and yet what do we do? No, we eat standing up on the run, you know, shoving down whatever crap that wasn't close to. Yes, exactly. And and it's um the the the social and the peaceful and the calm aspects of uh of diet and of of of breaking bread together and things um is largely lost, which is unfortunate. And I think, yeah, our health is painful.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Yes, yes, and back to Okinawa for a second, because you know I can tell I love them. They have a concept called harihachibou, which means 80% full, which means we eat together socially, we eat slow enough, and then we gauge when we're about 80% full, we stop, talk a little bit more, and then decide if we're still hungry. And that is a huge reason why Okinawans are not huge. They listen to their bodies and they honor their bodies, and that's what I'm really hoping for people. I'm so excited about this discovery of yours, and I do think it can be very helpful, and it's also helpful to know that you can take it in very small doses, and those small doses can do some wonders for our brains. Can you please tell people how they can find out more about you? What are what's all your info?

SPEAKER_01 26:19

Certainly. Um, you had spelled out the name previously, C-O-N-H-C-R-E-T, con-crete, um, and concrete.com, con dashcrete.com uh is a site that's got uh a fair bit of information. There's also a website, uh unbranded, you know, it's not trying to sell anything that just is full of research and information. And it's just simply creatine HCl, creatine saying it's HCL is for hydrochloride, but creatine HCl.com. Um, and that has a lot of uh research. And it has research on not just creatine HCl, but also creatine monohydrate and other forms because it's it's kind of just a repository for all the things that uh the the medical world, the scientific world are studying uh uh in terms of the attributes of creatine and different life applications and things. It's um uh it helps people uh to understand that yeah, it's not just for Jim Bros. It's not for you know uh you know, males or whomever. It really is for everyone. The World Health Organization is looking at recommended daily intakes, RDIs, for all age groups, for elderly to prevent muscle wasting and sarcopenia, menopausal women, as we talked about, uh adolescents, even infants and toddlers. They have shown that uh infants and and uh that that are uh supplemented with the carefully dosed uh creatine have larger brain circumferen or skull circumferences, which means their brains.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Okay, you said carefully dose and don't just go and like dose your kid with a ton of creatine, y'all.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Gotta be gotta be done, gotta be done according to um uh uh a doctor's oversight, but also the the World Health Organization RDIs for uh you know. But pretty soon there will be RDIs for all age groups uh for creatine. Uh the research is that I indicated on those websites helps to uh show some of that.

SPEAKER_00 28:14

But it's uh we love that you bring the science. That's what I love on this podcast. When you really bring the science, it's not just a bunch of hype or you know what we're hearing on the internet, and that's why I brought you on. So thank you so much for joining me, Mark. It was a pleasure to have you on my podcast.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

It was really an honor to be here. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

Thank you, and thank you, everybody, for joining me. And I am really looking forward to my next exciting interview, and I really hope you join me next time. Thanks for tuning in to the A New Insight Podcast. Please remember the content shared on this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Tune in next time and evolve with us.