Leah:
Hello and welcome to the Ideal Nutrition Podcast. I’m Leah Higl and I’m here with my co-host Aidan Muir. And today we will be discussing creatine and cognitive function. So obviously we’ve covered creatine many times on this podcast before in relation to a lot of different things, but particularly around performance and body composition. So we thought we’ll kind of tie it all up in a bow with this kind of last one on creatine with like cognitive function, although I’m sure we’ll talk about it in the future again, many, many times.
So the brain requires significant amounts of ATP to perform functions. That’s like the form of energy that the body, the brain really likes to use to perform well and creatine helps with ATP regeneration. So it would make sense that creatine monohydrate may be beneficial for cognitive function just given that link alone. So that’s the main proposed mechanism, but there are a few other little explanations like the antioxidant effect and what not of creatine that could be playing a role, but at least the link to ATP regeneration is kind of where we see or think about this the most.
Aidan:
A little interesting note before we properly get into things is it’s pretty well documented that people on plant-based diets have low intakes of creatine through food. So therefore they typically benefit more from creatine supplementation, for a lot of the things we’re normally looking at creatine for. It’s once again, more documented that they have the lower muscle levels of creatine. But something that’s interesting is that it doesn’t appear that creatine stores are lower in the brain, which therefore would very, very likely mean that from the cognitive perspective, people who are plant-based are probably going to be getting the exact same benefits if the benefits exist for that omnivores are getting basically. I find that interesting.
I also, I see a lot of people talking about this and let’s go in multiple extremes. One extreme is like in the carnivore community, like every now and they kind of make out that plant-based people are dumb because of low creatine. And it’s like, well, that’s not what the research does show. But then secondly, I off air in a way, I was speaking with Leah about this, that it is interesting that when you read people writing about this topic, there’s many times where an assumption is made that creatine stores are lower in people who are plant-based. And I also do think that that influences the way that a lot of people write about this topic as well. Even in terms of like, there are some research that I’ve read where people are commenting on that as if it’s just a factual thing, but it doesn’t seem to be. So I figured I’d bring it up because that therefore means the benefits kind of similar across the board.
Leah:
Yeah, it’s like, it’s well documented that the muscle stores are lower, but not brain stores so it’s like I feel like the body maybe somewhat prioritises creatine stores in the brain and maintaining those as obviously as opposed to muscle stores. But moving on to our first topic and that’s talking about this in the context of sleep deprivation. So sleep deprivation does disrupt ATP production in the brain which can impair 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 actually did find improvements in cognitive performance and processing speed. So they used the equivalent of around 30 grams of creatine for someone who is 80 kilos body weight. And this is actually pretty cool because creatine is normally something that we think of with chronic use having a positive impact in terms of like a long-term benefit, long-term use but this was used in an acute setting and still had a beneficial impact. So I think it’s just an interesting area to look at. Although I do wonder how well everybody tolerated that much creatine at once.
Aidan:
Yeah, I was curious on that as well. So I actually got a comment on that when I made this post, like somebody like made the assumption that everyone would tolerate that poorly. I do think there’d be a lot of people who’d struggle with 30 grams of creatine.
Leah:
But probably a lot of people though would be fine.
Aidan:
Yeah, I personally, I’ve never done 30. I’ve done like when I had previously done loading phases myself at 20, I’d never initially, like totally fine. When we look at research comparing it to placebo at 20 gram dosages, we do see a small increase in symptoms. So more people are getting symptoms. I think you’re really pushing it at 30. But once again, I would also make the assumption in this study. So I’ve read this study and I can’t even tell you off the top of my head. I would make the assumption that they spaced out across the day, they didn’t just have a big scoop of 30 grams in one dosage as well.
Leah:
Yeah I was like even just consuming that the way it doesn’t really dissolve that well would be a bit rough. But I think it is interesting because it had this acute effect, although I think just kind of adding on or layering to that, it makes sense to chronically supplement it too. Although ideally we’re not chronically sleep deprived.
Aidan:
Yeah, that’s another thing. Another area of cognitive function that is super promising for creatine is memory. We are fortunate that we have quite a few randomised control trials looking at daily creatine supplementation versus placebo for short-term memory in particular. And they have consistently found positive outcomes. So that is a pretty positive thing. There are potential benefits for long-term memory, but there’s less research looking at that. So don’t really have any like strong takes that I have on that. So at the moment, I’m just gonna focus on short-term memory and be like, that is pretty consistently positive.
Leah:
Another area of interest is looking at things like attention, focus and problem solving. So there is a 2024 systematic review that looked at all the research on cognitive function in adults and creatine supplementation and found small positive evidence for processing speed in addition to the memory side of things. The impact on other aspects like the attention and focus were much less positive. There are a lot of cases where there was either no improvement or just like very small minute improvements across the board there.
Aidan:
Yeah, that’s the little thing I found that it’s hard to make this into good podcast content. I think that summarises it well. But if you dig through the research, like it’s like looking at like 15 different like testing protocols and it’s like, small improvement here, small improvement here, no improvement, small improvement, no improvement. So I think it’s just like good to kind of view it through that lens. If there’s like some small improvements across the board, there’s some no neutral. There’s not really any cases where there’s negatives of a default.
Now let’s go deeper into topics that have pretty long been talked about. And I think it’s worth talking through in relation to neurodegenerative conditions. So we’re looking at things like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. I’m going to start by talking about Alzheimer’s and something that is absolutely crazy to me is that at the time of recording, is 2024, but this will be released in 2025. But as of the time of recording, there were no trials looking at creatine and Alzheimer’s. I don’t know about you, Leah, but I, I’ve heard people talking about this for like over a decade.
Leah:
Yeah, that is actually very interesting because I feel like people link the two all the time.
Aidan:
Yeah. Even when I made a recent Instagram post, somebody commented being like, yeah, I got my nan on to it because it helps with Alzheimer’s. And like, it’s just a commonly accepted thing.
Leah:
Yeah, but it’s probably like a leap in logic rather than research base.
Aidan:
Yeah. So like the talk is really based on mechanisms. Yeah. It makes sense. So from a mechanistic perspective, we see that creatine plays an important role in functions that are disrupted in Alzheimer’s. So that makes sense. We have studies on mice that have promising findings, but it’s early to say that there are benefits. And one of things that I don’t actually understand is why aren’t there studies on the topic?
I get that these things are kind of hard to study, but in most cases, I kind of think if a supplement does exist for a long period of time and there are no studies on a topic, in many cases I’m like, well, it’s in the interest of the supplement companies for there to be studies on this topic if they believe that there’s going to be positive findings because they know some more of the supplement. In this case, I don’t actually have that tinfoil hat on this time. I actually just don’t know why there aren’t studies at this stage on this topic.
Leah:
Yeah, which is interesting because with Parkinson’s, we actually do have some research, but ironically, it’s less promising because the research we have is not that promising. So we essentially have the opposite problem where we have research, but it’s more just confirming that in Parkinson’s, creatine supplementation doesn’t really seem to help or the impact is just super minimal on that particular condition. The largest study done in this space had almost 2000 participants and was designed to go for a minimum of five years. And then the trial actually ended up terminating early with a median follow-up of four years because it became quite clear that there was just no difference in outcomes.
Aidan:
And creatine is often talked about in relation to concussions. That is another very common thing. But similar to Alzheimer’s, there isn’t human research looking directly at creatine and concussions. I looked at that for the first time a few years ago and actually surprised me that there wasn’t research because I’d seen so many evidence-based practitioners being like, if you’re competing combat sports, have creatine because it helps with concussions. But there isn’t research, but there is a lot of mechanisms that make sense. For example, there’s potential for a reduction in cell death when creatine stores are higher and there is a concussion that occurs.
And plus there are a of things related to ATP that could help. Some animal research has been positive, but the thing that’s obvious in this case, this is very hard to test. Firstly, to get a sample size that is large enough of people who are firstly at risk of getting concussed and then actually get concussed. That would be a very difficult thing to be doing. And I’m not envious of anyone who’s trying to do that. And then the second thing is it’s obviously ethically challenging to study it in people who are not at risk, but you get them concussed. Like that’s not going to happen.
Leah:
Can’t exactly do a randomised control trial of giving people concussions.
Aidan:
So like the Alzheimer’s thing seems easier to test the concussion thing. That’s kind of hard. get why that that has not been studied. So it’s promising and it’s promising enough that if I was in a combat sport, I personally would have creatine for this reason. That’s partly because I also believe that there’s no downside.
Quick tangent, I know somebody listening to this might be like, but it’s weight making sport. I’ve spoken about this previously, but I’m of the opinion that the water retention from creatine, we really only see that to a meaningful level during a loading phase if somebody chooses to do the loading phase. When it’s measured when people are just having say five or three to five grams per day, we don’t really see any difference. And if you measure somebody at a random time point, like greater than 30 days after they started supplementing, we typically don’t really see a difference.
That’s not me saying with extreme confidence that there is no difference whatsoever. It’s just that I don’t think the difference is that meaningful if it exists. And then it takes 30 days for creatine to fully get out of your system. So if you try to drop it before weigh in, for example, it’s leaving so slowly, there’s largely gonna have no impact. We’d have to drop it so early to fully get out of your system. So I think the upside would potentially outweigh the downside.
Leah:
As a little bit of a summary, creatine arguably can have a small positive effect on brain function, but out of all categories, the benefit during sleep deprivation does seem to be the most interesting or the most positive. But I guess that comes to the question of would you actually take creatine for the cognitive effects alone? mean, like personally for me, feel like A, you could have it’s an easy win in that it is just a supplement you take once a day but also I would be taking it for the many other performance related reasons. And then this would just be like the cherry on top. But what do you think?
Aidan:
Yeah, I’m in the same camp. So like I do take creatine, but I actually wouldn’t if I didn’t lift weights. And it’s a really interesting take for me because I’m like, I do stuff like this for a living. Like memory is important to me. Learning is important to me. Cognitive function matters. But for me, it’s just, I just think it puts the bar too low for a supplement being like, if I was taking this for cognitive function, like how many things do I end up taking? Like do I end up taking 30 different things? And that’s all well and good, but it’s just not how I want to live my life long term. So that’s kind of how I view it. Like I do view it as a nice bonus for me because I’m taking it for other reasons, but I probably wouldn’t take it by itself if I didn’t lift weights.
Leah:
Totally. This is being episode 189 of the Ideal Nutrition Podcast. If you haven’t already left a rating or review that would be greatly appreciated for you to do so, but otherwise thanks for tuning in.