Key Topic

Creatine isn’t just for muscle growth, it may support brain health too. Since the brain needs lots of ATP for energy, and creatine helps regenerate ATP, it make sense that it could enhance cognitive function. Plus, its antioxidant effects might also offer additional benefits.

Plant Based Individuals

  • A quick note that although it’s well documented that people on plant based diets have a low intake of creatine through food, that doesn’t necessarily translate to lower brain stores of creatine
  • Muscle stores are typically lower, but based on the research it seems like the brain stores are relatively comparable to omnivores   

Sleep Deprivation

  • Sleep deprivation disrupts ATP production in the brain, impairing mental functions like attention, memory, and problem-solving.
  • A recent study looking at an acute high dose of creatine in people who were sleep deprived found improvements in cognitive performance and processing speed.
  • They used the equivalent of ~30g for somebody who is 80kg body weight
  • Note: This is actually pretty cool because creatine is normally something you need to supplement long term to see benefits.
  • Research typically looks at acute cases from what I’ve seen – but logically it makes sense that chronic supplementation would help too.

Memory (In Healthy Individuals)

  • We are fortunate that we have quite a few RCT’s looking at daily creatine supplementation vs placebo for short term memory, and they consistently find positive outcomes
  • There are potential benefits for long term memory, but there is less research looking at that

Attention, Focus and Problem Solving

  • A 2024 systematic review looked at all the research on cognitive function in adults and found small positive evidence for processing speed in addition to the memory side of things.
  • The impact on other aspects like attention and focus were less positive though.
  • There are a lot of cases where there was either no improvement or small improvements across the board.

Neurodegenerative Conditions: Part 1

  • Something that is crazy is that as of right now, there are no trials actually looking at creatine and alzheimers.
  • A lot of people talk about the benefits based on mechanisms, but we don’t actually have research looking at outcomes in humans.
  • From a mechanistic perspective, we see that creatine plays an important role in functions that are disrupted in alzheimers. 
  • We also have studies involving mice with promising findings. 
  • But 1) It is early to say there are benefits 2) It is wild that there aren’t studies on the topic considering how long it has been talked about for.

Neurodegenerative Conditions: Part 2

  • With Parkinsons it is even less promising. We have the opposite problem where there is research, but it has more just confirmed that it either doesn’t help, or the impact is minimal.
  • The largest study had almost 2000 participants and was designed to go for a minimum of 5 years
  • The trial ended up terminating early with a median follow up time of 4 years because it became clear there was no difference in outcomes.

Concussion

  • Similarly to alzheimers – there isn’t human evidence looking directly at creatine and concussions
  • It’s another area where the mechanisms make sense. For example, there is potential for a reduction in cell death, plus there are things related to ATP that could help
  • Some animal research has been positive too
  • This one is hard to test though, so it makes sense that there isn’t much human research

Summary

  • Creatine arguably has a small positive effect on brain function. Out of all categories, the benefit during sleep deprivation seems the most interesting. 
  • Is it worth taking it for these reasons in isolation though? 

Relevant Blogs/Research


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