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Review
. 2022 Feb 22;14(5):921.
doi: 10.3390/nu14050921.

Effects of Creatine Supplementation on Brain Function and Health

Scott C Forbes  1   2 , Dean M Cordingley  3   4 , Stephen M Cornish  2   3   5 , Bruno Gualano  6 , Hamilton Roschel  6 , Sergej M Ostojic  7   8 , Eric S Rawson  9 , Brian D Roy  10 , Konstantinos Prokopidis  11 , Panagiotis Giannos  12 , Darren G Candow  13
Affiliations
Review

Effects of Creatine Supplementation on Brain Function and Health

Scott C Forbes et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

While the vast majority of research involving creatine supplementation has focused on skeletal muscle, there is a small body of accumulating research that has focused on creatine and the brain. Preliminary studies indicate that creatine supplementation (and guanidinoacetic acid; GAA) has the ability to increase brain creatine content in humans. Furthermore, creatine has shown some promise for attenuating symptoms of concussion, mild traumatic brain injury and depression but its effect on neurodegenerative diseases appears to be lacking. The purpose of this narrative review is to summarize the current body of research pertaining to creatine supplementation on total creatine and phophorylcreatine (PCr) content, explore GAA as an alternative or adjunct to creatine supplementation on brain creatine uptake, assess the impact of creatine on cognition with a focus on sleep deprivation, discuss the effects of creatine supplementation on a variety of neurological and mental health conditions, and outline recent advances on creatine supplementation as a neuroprotective supplement following traumatic brain injury or concussion.

Keywords: amino acids; depression; mental health; supplementation.

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Conflict of interest statement

S.C.F. has previously served as a scientific advisor for a company that sold creatine monohydrate and has received industry sponsored research involving creatine supplementation and received creatine donations for scientific studies. D.G.C. and E.S.R have conducted industry sponsored research involving creatine supplementation and received creatine donations for scientific studies and travel support for presentations involving creatine supplementation at scientific conferences. In addition, D.G.C. and E.S.R serve on the Scientific Advisory Board for Alzchem (a company that manufactures creatine) and as an expert witness/consultant in legal cases involving creatine supplementation. S.M.O. serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Alzchem (a company that manufactures creatine). S.M.O. owns patent “Sports Supplements Based on Liquid Creatine” at European Patent Office (WO2019150323 A1), and active patent application “Synergistic Creatine” at 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 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, ThermoLife International LLC, and Hueston Hennigan LLP. S.M.O. does not own stocks and shares in any organization. D.M.C. is affiliated with the Pan Am Clinic Foundation which receives general education and research support from ConMed Linvatec, Ossur, Zimmer Biomet, and Arthrex. B.G. has received research grants, creatine donation for scientific studies, travel support for participation in scientific conferences (includes the ISSN) and honorarium for speaking at lectures from AlzChem (a company which manufactures creatine). In addition, B.G. serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Alzchem (a company that manufactures creatine). All other authors report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Open questions of guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) supplementation for brain health.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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