Creatine and brain health in humans
What it found
Creatine supplements may help thinking, especially when the brain is stressed by lack of sleep, exercise or injury.
The best dose and length of use for the brain is still unknown.
What they found
Studies in people
Brain creatine levels
In 12 human studies, 9 found creatine supplements raised brain creatine by about 5 to 10%. This is less than the rise seen in muscle with similar doses.
Thinking under stress
Creatine seemed to help thinking most when people were stressed, such as from lack of sleep or low oxygen. Results in rested people were mixed.
Older adults
Studies in older people gave conflicting results. One 16 week study found better thinking and handgrip strength with creatine plus resistance training, but it had no exercising control group.
Vegetarians vs meat eaters
Some studies found vegetarians improved more than meat eaters after creatine, but one study's difference was due to meat eaters doing worse, not vegetarians doing better. Brain creatine levels were similar between the two groups at the start.
Brain injury in children
In a few studies, children with mild traumatic brain injury who took creatine had better cognition, communication, self-care, personality and behavior, and less headache, dizziness and fatigue.
Animal and lab studies
Brain injury in animals
In mice and rats with traumatic brain injury, creatine reduced brain damage by 36% and 50%. Animals can increase brain creatine by 30 to 50%, much more than the 10% seen in people.
What the authors conclude
“There is a potential for creatine supplementation to improve cognitive processing, especially in conditions characterized by brain creatine deficits, which could be induced by acute stressors (e.g., exercise, sleep deprivation) or chronic, pathologic conditions (e.g., creatine synthesis enzyme deficiencies, mild traumatic brain injury, aging, Alzheimer's disease, depression).”
Also in their conclusions
- They say creatine may improve cognitive processing, especially when brain creatine is low due to stress or conditions like aging, depression or brain injury.
- They call for studies to find the best dose and duration to raise brain creatine, and to measure brain creatine and thinking together.
- They suggest that encouraging creatine for people at high risk of mild traumatic brain injury might be considered more prudent, given its safety profile and the devastating effects of such injury.
How it was done
Creatine is well known for helping muscles, and the authors wanted to update what is known about whether it also helps the brain.
They reviewed human studies on creatine supplements and brain creatine levels, thinking, and recovery from brain injury. They also looked at some animal studies on brain injury.
What it can’t tell you
- Most studies did not measure brain creatine and thinking at the same time, so it is hard to know if changes in thinking are caused by changes in brain creatine.
- The optimal dose and duration of creatine for brain effects is not known, and studies used different doses and lengths.
- Animal results may not apply to people because animals can increase brain creatine much more than humans.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- B.G. has received research grants, creatine donation for scientific studies, travel support for participation in scientific conferences and honorarium for speaking at lectures from AlzChem (a company which manufactures creatine). Additionally, he serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Alzchem. E.S.R. has conducted industry-sponsored research on creatine and received financial support for presenting on creatine at industry-sponsored scientific conferences. Additionally, he serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for AlzChem, who sponsored this special issue. S.M.O. serves as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board on creatine in health and medicine (AlzChem LLC). S.M.O. owns patent “Sports Supplements Based on Liquid Creatine” at the European Patent Office (WO2019150323 A1), and active patent application “Synergistic Creatine” at the UK Intellectual Property Office (GB2012773.4). S.M.O. has served as a speaker at Abbott Nutrition, a consultant of Allied Beverages Adriatic and IMLEK, and an advisory board member for the University of Novi Sad School of Medicine, and has received research funding related to creatine from the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development, Provincial Secretariat for Higher Education and Scientific Research, AlzChem GmbH, KW Pfannenschmidt GmbH, and ThermoLife International LLC. S.M.O. is an employee of the University of Novi Sad and does not own stocks and shares in any organization.
- Authors work at
- School of Physical Education and Sport, Brazil; University of São Paulo, Brazil; University of Novi Sad, Serbia
The paper
- Title
- Creatine Supplementation and Brain Health
- Type
- ReviewThe authors read earlier studies and describe what they found. It isn’t a new study.
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Roschel H, Gualano B, Ostojic SM, Rawson ES (2021). Creatine Supplementation and Brain Health. Nutrients. doi:10.3390/nu13020586Free full textPubMed 33578876DOI
Summary written 29 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error