Does creatine improve cognition?
Hello everyone,
Dr Oliver Baumann, an assistant professor at Bond University in Australia recently wrote in a The Conversation article that “the brain accounts for about 20% of the body’s energy consumption, despite only representing 2% of its weight. That’s around 0.3 kilowatt hours (kWh) per day for an average adult, more than 100 times what the typical smartphone requires daily.” That’s a lot of energy!
Creatine is used as a supplement by athletes to improve energy supply to muscles. Considering the brain’s high energy demands, could creatine increase energy levels in this essential organ and therefore improve cognition? We asked 6 experts in neuroscience, exercise physiology and psychiatry ‘Does creatine improve cognition?’, here is what they said…
EXPERT CONSENSUS
Does creatine improve cognition?
3 of 6 experts are unsure
What is creatine?
Our bodies can make use of different stores of energy. When Usain Bolt runs his 100m race, the first couple of seconds after the starting gun his body is using a molecule called ATP. In the next two seconds, the ATP stores in his cells are replenished by another chemical called creatine. In the last five seconds of the race, Bolt’s body is running off a process called anaerobic respiration, which creates lactic acid, a by-product that causes muscle pain.
Creatine is a naturally-occurring, organic compound that is involved in maintaining a reservoir of the energy-carrying molecule ATP in our cells. Creatine is made in the kidneys and liver and can also be consumed from meat, fish or dietary supplements. Whilst most creatine is found in the muscles, Dr Justin Roberts, an expert in exercise physiology from Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, says “Around 5% of the body’s creatine is stored in other tissues including our brain.”
How might creatine boost cognition?
The most intuitive explanation is that creatine supplies more energy to the brain, and this would lead to improved cognition. Dr Xuansong Mao, an expert in exercise physiology from Virgina Tech in the USA, says that creatine “contributes to form ATP when energy demand increases, [but] this area of research still remains to be confirmed. Other possibilities could be that creatine supplementation improves cognitive function through activating certain molecular pathways, resulting in increased synaptogenesis in the brain.”
Does creatine improve cognition?
Dr Philip Dean, an expert in neuroscience and neuroimaging from Surrey University in the UK, says “There are mixed results from animal and human research in this area, with mixed supplements given (some containing other substances than creatine e.g. in sports supplements with sugars/proteins added), at mixed doses (much higher in animals) over mixed periods (high dose/short time; low dose/long time) in different populations (e.g. vegan/vegetarian) with mixed output variables (cognitive tasks, neuroimaging). Whether oral creatine supplementation increases creatine in the brain is still not certain.”
Professor Caroline Rae, an expert in neuroscience and biochemistry from Neuroscience Research Australia, says “appropriate supplementation with creatine has been shown to improve some cognitive tasks, such as those involving short term memory and fast processing. We showed this in vegetarians in 2003 but this result has now been reproduced by others in omnivores. It has also been suggested that older people may benefit more.”
Studying the effects of creatine on cognition is not straightforward. Dr Dean explains that creatine research “becomes trickier when looking at Phosphocreatine vs Creatine in the brain, and when accounting for the osmotic properties of creatine (water retention) which can affect data collected. Any relationship between cognition and creatine might be caused by increases in the body, other substances in the supplement or placebo effects. Properly powered and controlled studies are needed to understand potential mechanisms”
Dr Beny Lafer, an expert in psychiatry from Sao Paulo University in Brazil, concludes that “A few small studies suggest a potential benefit of Creatine on cognition but this needs to be further tested in large and controlled studies”
The takeaway:
Creatine may improve cognition but more research is needed to verify this.
May the facts be with you!
Eva
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