Creatine

Contents

• Brain Creatine and Cognitive Function
• Supplementation
• Bibliography

This article is about creatine and cognitive function. For information on creatine and athletic performance see Weightlifting for Vegans.

Brain Creatine and Cognitive Function

Sandkühler (2023) conducted a crossover (6 weeks each), double-blinded, placebo-controlled, and randomized trial to study the effect of creatine supplementation on cognitive function. The authors considered it the largest study on the cognitive effects of creatine to date. The treatment consisted of daily supplementation with 5 g of creatine. About half of the 123 participants were vegetarians, and the other half were meat-eaters; the exact numbers weren’t provided. There was no interaction between diet and the results of the cognitive tests, and only a small beneficial effect of creatine on cognitive performance in general.

A study from Brazil examined the effect of creatine supplementation on brain creatine (Solis 2017). Researchers gave 14 self-described vegetarians (4 vegans, 10 vegetarians) and 17 omnivores 0.3 g/kg of creatine for 7 days. However, due to technical issues, results only included 2 vegans and 8 vegetarians for the muscle measurements, and 2 vegans and 10 vegetarians for the brain measurements (Koeder, 2025).

The vegetarians/vegans had a much lower dietary intake of creatine than the omnivores (0.01 vs 1.73 g, respectively) but brain and muscle creatine content was not different between these groups prior to supplementation. Brain creatine was not affected by supplementation in either group although the vegetarians had a significant increase in muscle creatine compared to the omnivores. These results support other studies that suggest that, in healthy individuals, brain creatine content is relatively stable and not markedly affected by supplementation at the level used in this study. The authors conclude:

The findings herein presented also cast doubt on the ability of creatine supplementation to effectively increase brain creatine/PCr [phosphorylcreatine] content in healthy individuals, regardless of their…dietary patterns. At least, it is safe to conclude that the supplementation protocol employed in this study, which is able to promote muscle creatine/PCr loading, failed to produce any increase in brain PCr, indicating that higher-dose and/or longer-duration protocols must be developed to optimize brain creatine/PCr accumulation.

A different study from Brazil compared the creatine content in a section of the brain, the posterior cingulate cortex, between vegetarians (6 women and 8 men) and omnivores (Solis, 2013). The posterior cingulate cortex was chosen because it is related to emotion formation and cognitive function (processing, learning and memory). Although the vegetarians ate much less creatine than the omnivores (0.03 vs. 1.34 g, respectively), they had similar brain creatine levels (6.0 vs. 5.9 IU, respectively). The authors state that their data reinforces previous experimental data suggesting that brain creatine content relies primarily on local endogenous synthesis rather than on dietary intake. They point out that, “[A] few but not all studies have revealed a positive effect of [creatine] supplementation on cognition in individuals exposed to highly stressing conditions (e.g. sleep deprivation and exhausting exercise).”

A study of 121 young women (70 of whom were vegetarian or vegan) had the subjects supplement with either 20 g of creatine per day (four doses of 5 g throughout the day) or placebo for 4–5 days (the number of days isn’t clear; Benton, 2011). At baseline, the vegetarians had similar memory to the meat-eaters. After treatment, the vegetarians who supplemented with creatine had better memory than the meat-eaters; the average memory performance for all groups was worse after treatment, but only statistically significantly worse for meat-eaters who took creatine. Reaction times, rapid information processing, and verbal fluency didn’t differ between groups. The authors concluded that in terms of memory, the vegetarians were more sensitive to supplementation with creatine than meat-eaters. Sandkühler (2023) commented on this study, saying that “given the high number of cognitive tasks in that study, the chance of a false positive was high, so we regard their finding as exploratory.”

A study of 27 vegetarian and 18 vegan college students found that supplementing with 5 g of creatine per day for six weeks increased their mental capacity (Rae, 2003). There was no omnivore group so it is not clear if the supplementation would have also worked for omnivores. But in other studies on omnivores:

• Six weeks of creatine supplementation of 0.03 g/kg body weight per day did not improve cognitive function in a group of young adult omnivores, but the amount of creatine was only about 1 to 1.5 g/day (Rawson, 2008).
• In elderly omnivores, four doses of 5 g of creatine per day for one or two weeks increased their cognitive function in some but not all measurements (McMorris, 2007).

Supplementation

It’s not recommended to take 20 g of creatine past an initial loading phase, which is typically one week or less.

The U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements says there are “Few safety concerns reported at typical dose (e.g., loading dose of 20 g/day for up to 7 days and 3–5 g/day for up to 12 weeks).” They list the following reported adverse effects: weight gain due to water retention; anecdotal reports of nausea, diarrhea, muscle cramps, muscle stiffness, and heat intolerance.

Bibliography

Benton D, Donohoe R. The influence of creatine supplementation on the cognitive functioning of vegetarians and omnivores. Br J Nutr. 2011 Apr;105(7):1100-5.

Koeder C. Communication with study’s author, Solis MY. Shared with Norris J on March 9, 2025.

McMorris T, Mielcarz G, Harris RC, Swain JP, Howard A. Creatine supplementation and cognitive performance in elderly individuals. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2007 Sep;14(5):517-28. (Abstract)

Office of Dietary Supplements. National Institutes of Health. Dietary Supplements for Exercise and Athletic Performance. Updated April 1, 2024. Accessed June 16, 2025.

Rae C, Digney AL, McEwan SR, Bates TC. Oral creatine monohydrate supplementation improves brain performance: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial. Proc Biol Sci. 2003 Oct 22;270(1529):2147-50.

Rawson ES, Lieberman HR, Walsh TM, Zuber SM, Harhart JM, Matthews TC. Creatine supplementation does not improve cognitive function in young adults. Physiol Behav. 2008 Sep 3;95(1-2):130-4. Epub 2008 May 15.

Sandkühler JF, Kersting X, Faust A, Königs EK, Altman G, Ettinger U, Lux S, Philipsen A, Müller H, Brauner J. The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive performance-a randomised controlled study. BMC Med. 2023 Nov 15;21(1):440.

Solis MY, Artioli GG, Otaduy MCG, Leite CDC, Arruda W, Veiga RR, Gualano B. Effect of age, diet, and tissue type on PCr response to creatine supplementation. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2017 Aug 1;123(2):407-414.

Solis MY, de Salles Painelli V, Artioli GG, Roschel H, Otaduy MC, Gualano B. Brain creatine depletion in vegetarians? A cross-sectional 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) study. Br J Nutr. 2013 Nov 29:1-3.