Creatine, an essential supplement for mental and cognitive health. It doesn’t just help muscle mass. It has neuroprotective properties

Creatine supplements boost muscle stores of phosphocreatine, which helps form adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a molecule crucial for energy and basic vital functions. ATP resynthesis during exercise limits performance due to faster utilization than reproduction.

Creatine supplements increase phosphocreatine stores, allowing more ATP energy to fuel muscles during high-intensity exercise, which is the primary mechanism behind creatine’s performance-enhancing effects.

Creatine supplementation has been found to increase brain creatine content in humans, alleviating symptoms of concussion, mild traumatic brain injury, and depression. However, its effect on neurodegenerative diseases is lacking.

Why the brain needs creatine

The brain is a complex organ that consumes approximately 20% of total energy at rest, although it represents only 2% of total body mass. Neurons require a constant supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) for various cellular processes, including the maintenance of ion gradients, neurotransmitter exocytosis, and synaptic function. Creatine, an organic nitrogenous compound, is essential for resynthesizing ATP, especially during periods of increased metabolic demand.

Creatine can be synthesized in the kidneys and liver, but it can also be synthesized endogenously in the brain. It can cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) ​​via microcapillary endothelial cells that express the creatine transporter and accumulate in the brain. However, uptake in the brain is usually limited compared to other tissues such as skeletal muscle due to the low permeability of the blood-brain barrier to creatine.

Therefore, total creatine intake may need to be higher or take longer to produce significant effects in the brain compared to skeletal muscle. Research has been conducted to investigate the impact of creatine supplementation on various conditions influenced by impaired or altered brain bioenergetics.

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Cognitive effects

Creatine supplementation has been shown to have a significant impact on cognitive function, especially in people with symptoms of creatine deficiency. These symptoms are characterized by mental and developmental disorders such as learning delays and seizures, which can be reversed by creatine supplementation. However, there is mixed research on the effectiveness of creatine supplementation for improving memory measures.

In older adults, creatine supplementation (20 g/day for 7 days) improved measures of memory, while in vegetarians it resulted in better memory. However, some studies have failed to find beneficial effects on measures of memory in children, adults, and older adults.

Sleep deprivation, which impacts brain bioenergetics, can improve cognitive function when combined with creatine supplementation. Two studies investigated cognitive function following sleep deprivation in humans, both combined with light or moderate exercise.

Creatine supplementation was found to result in less change from baseline in performance in random movement generation, choice reaction time, balance, and mood after 24 hours of sleep deprivation. Additionally, creatine supplementation attenuated the loss of complex central executive function under sleep deprivation.

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Creatine could be a useful supplement to improve our brain function, especially when it is under greater demand, such as during sleep deprivation. It may also help treat some diseases that affect the brain, but more research is needed.

Creatine is a key factor in neurological diseases because it can increase the level of phosphocreatine in the brain, which can help reduce or slow the progression of the disease. In mice with Huntington’s disease, creatine restored brain phosphocreatine stores to 72% of pre-disease levels, maintaining daily function and reducing cell death by about 25%. Creatine has also shown benefits against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a disease that affects motor neurons essential for movement.

Creatine plays an important role in the health and functioning of the brain, as it needs a significant amount of ATP when performing difficult tasks. According to the NIH, supplements can increase phosphocreatine stores in the brain to help it produce more ATP, aiding brain function by increasing dopamine levels and mitochondrial function.

Vegetarians often have low creatine levels, but studies have found a 20-50% improvement in memory and intelligence test scores. In the elderly, creatine supplementation for 2 weeks significantly improved memory and recall.

Parkinson’s disease is characterized by reduced levels of dopamine, a key neurotransmitter in the brain. While creatine has been associated with beneficial effects in mice with Parkinson’s, there is no evidence that it has the same effect in humans. To treat muscle and strength loss, people with Parkinson’s often do weight training.

Combining creatine with weight training improved daily strength and function to a greater extent than training alone. However, a recent review of five controlled trials in people with Parkinson’s found that taking 4-10 grams of creatine per day did not significantly improve their ability to perform daily activities.

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