Is It Legit?
Partially Supported
“Creatine helps memory”
Educational, not medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before changing your diet, supplements, or routine. Full disclaimer.
What the science says
Creatine produces a small improvement in memory in healthy adults, and nearly all of it shows up in people over 65. Pooling eight randomised trials, a 2023 review found that someone scoring in the middle of a group of 100 moved to about 61st place on memory tests after taking creatine, and that adults aged 66 to 76 moved to roughly 81st [1]. In healthy people aged 11 to 31, the same analysis found nothing [1].
Full analysis
The strongest evidence is a 2023 review that pooled eight randomised controlled trials, studies in which people are assigned by chance to take creatine or a dummy powder so the two groups differ only in the supplement [1].
Creatine beat the dummy powder on memory tests by a small margin. Someone scoring in the middle of a group of 100 would move to about 61st place [1].
Age changed that answer more than anything else the reviewers tested:
- among adults aged 66 to 76, a middle scorer moved to roughly 81st out of 100 [1]
- among people aged 11 to 31, they moved to about 51st, which is no move at all [1]
- the daily amount taken, the length of the course, sex and the country of testing made no difference to the result [1]
An earlier review of six trials covering 281 healthy people found the same shape. Short-term memory and reasoning improved, while attention, reaction time, word fluency and long-term memory gave conflicting results, and young participants showed no change [2].
The largest single trial complicates the pooled figure. Among 123 adults who took 5 grams a day for six weeks, with neither the participants nor the researchers knowing who was on creatine, the memory score improved slightly but fell short of the threshold the researchers had set in advance, and a reasoning test showed nothing [3].
The two reviews also disagree about who gains. Vegetarians, who take in less creatine from food, did better than meat-eaters on memory tasks in the 2018 review [2]; in the 123-person trial they gained no more than omnivores [3].
Nobody has run this in people with dementia or diagnosed memory problems, and the 2018 review names that as the trial the field still needs [2].
The same 123-person trial found that about four times as many participants reported side effects on creatine as on the dummy powder [3].
Everyone starts at 50th place, the middle of the group. Pooled from eight randomised trials, which disagreed with each other a fair amount. Data from source [1]
Key studies
The studies that carry the verdict.
[1]Effects of creatine supplementation on memory in healthy individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Prokopidis K, Giannos P, Triantafyllidis KK, et al. · Nutrition Reviews · 2023
Pooled eight randomised trials in healthy people. Creatine improved memory overall by a small margin, enough to move a middle-of-the-pack scorer to about 61st out of 100. In adults aged 66 to 76 the gain was much larger, to roughly 81st, while people aged 11 to 31 showed no gain. The daily amount, how long people took it, sex and country made no difference.
View paper[2]Effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function of healthy individuals: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.
Avgerinos KI, Spyrou N, Bougioukas KI, et al. · Experimental Gerontology · 2018
Systematic review of six randomised trials covering 281 healthy people. Short-term memory and reasoning improved with creatine, while attention, reaction time, word fluency and long-term memory gave conflicting results. Young participants showed no change, and vegetarians did better than meat-eaters on memory tasks. The authors note that creatine has not been tested in people with dementia or cognitive impairment.
View paper[3]The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive performance - a randomised controlled study.
Sandkuhler JF, Kersting X, Faust A, et al. · BMC Medicine · 2023
The largest trial of creatine and cognitive performance so far: 123 adults took 5 grams a day for six weeks in a double-blind crossover design. The memory score improved only slightly and fell short of the threshold set in advance, and a reasoning test showed nothing. Vegetarians gained no more than omnivores, and about four times as many participants reported side effects on creatine as on the dummy powder.
View paper