Of all the gifts handed down to us from the supplement Gods, creatine is the most precious.
Supplementing with 5 g of creatine per day will make you bigger and stronger, and help you recover faster.
In addition, creatine is cheap and safe. The only consistently reported side-effect is weight gain of around 1–3%. But, since 95% of your in-body creatine is stored in your muscles, it is your muscles that will gain most of this weight! This means that your muscles will look slightly more buff when you’re supplementing with creatine.
So where is the remaining five percent stored?
In other tissues with high, fluctuating energy demands, such as your liver, kidney …
And brain.
High-Intensity Brain & Biceps Work
Pretty much every activity in our bodies is fueled by ATP (adenosine triphosphate).
When we use ATP, it is resynthesized by our different energy systems. The fastest of these systems is the phosphagen system, which uses phosphocreatine (PCr).
When we take extra creatine in the form of supplements, we increase the levels of phosphocreatine in our muscles and brain. Both of which use PCr to regenerate ATP during high-intensity work, like lifting heavy weights or … doing challenging brain stuff.
While creatine supplementation is used to treat brain diseases that result in creatine deficiency (which results in severe intelligence disability), there is also a growing body of studies investigating if creatine supplementation can boost cognitive functions like intelligence and memory in healthy people.1
And, prompting today’s article, the largest study to date on creatine supplementation and cognitive function was recently published.2
Can Creatine Improve Intelligence and Working Memory?
This sweet gang of (mostly) German researchers did a really solid thing: They picked the creatine study3 that had previously shown the largest positive effects on cognition and replicated it. Only bigger and better.
This is how you science, folks. 👏
Here’s what they did:
- They recruited 123 adult participants with a mean age of 31 years, of which 50% were vegetarians, and the rest were omnivores (which can influence body creatine levels).
- Each participant underwent two six-week phases where they either received 5 g of creatine monohydrate per day or a placebo, in randomized order. There was a five-week wash-out period between the two interventions.
- At the end of each intervention period, the participants completed two tests to measure cognitive function. One was the intelligence test kind, where you should predict the next shape out of a series of shapes, and the other was a working memory test, where you should repeat (but in reverse order) a sequence of digits you’ve just heard.
Results, Please
The study from 2003 which they replicated saw a large, significant effect on both of these types of tests after six weeks of creatine supplementation.
Kind of disappointingly, while the present study did see improvements in both tests in the creatine group compared to the placebo group, the results did not reach statistical significance.
- The working memory test came close, though, with a p-value of 0.064, whereas the conventional cut-off for statistical significance is 0.05.
- The intelligence test, while showing a positive effect, was far off with a p-value of 0.33.
The effect sizes would be classified as small.
I thought this was a curious line from the article:
If these were IQ tests, this increase in raw scores would mean 2.5 IQ points for [the working memory test]. … For [the intelligence test], the improvement would be 1 IQ point.
It’s worth noting that there wasn’t any difference in effect between the vegetarians and omnivores, either. If anything, the results pointed in the opposite direction of their hypothesis, which was that vegetarians would see a greater benefit than omnivores.
Should You Take Extra Creatine For Brain Gains?
As the authors say: their study, in combination with the literature, implies that creatine might have a small beneficial effect. But, larger studies are needed to confirm or rule out this effect.
They then go on to say that, given the safety and broad availability of creatine, this is well worth investigating; a small effect could have large benefits when scaled over time and over many people.
So, should you take extra creatine for brain gains?
Probably not.
Maybe if you don’t eat a lot of meat or fish. Maybe if you’re a bit older. Maybe if you’re often sleep-deprived. These are all factors that might indicate the cognitive benefits of creatine. (although vegetarianism failed to do so in this study)
But …
Take it for the strength and muscle gains!
Creatine is by far the most effective supplement for increasing muscle growth and strength gains from strength training. It is also cheap, safe, and very well-studied.
Really, take creatine instead of weird “testoboosters” that might cost you a liver. Or something.
Oh, and follow a great strength training program.
Anyway, that’s it for this article. Here are some related articles that might catch your fancy.
- Creatine: Effects, Benefits and Safety (our big guide on creatine that covers all the important stuff)
- What Happens if You Forget to Take Creatine One Day?
- The Best Time to Take Creatine
References
- Effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function of healthy individuals: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Exp Gerontol. 2018 Jul 15; 108: 166–173.
- The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive performance—a randomised controlled study. BMC Med. 2023; 21: 440. Published online 2023 Nov 15.
- Oral creatine monohydrate supplementation improves brain performance: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial. Proc Biol Sci. 2003 Oct 22; 270(1529): 2147–2150.
