Creatine and memory: it works in 70-year-olds.
The catch? Nothing for you if you're 25
Creatine is one of the most-studied supplements in the world, mostly for lifting weights. Now some researchers say it might help your brain too. Here's how strong that claim actually is.
- Claim
- CREATINE FOR YOUR BRAIN?
- Catch
- 492 PEOPLE TOTAL
- Verdict
- A CLUE FOR OLDER BRAINS
The evidence: a 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis in Frontiers in Nutrition pooled 16 randomized controlled trials with 492 participants aged 20.8 to 76.4 (healthy people and patients with specific diseases; all used creatine monohydrate). Creatine produced a small but statistically significant improvement in memory: standardized mean difference 0.31 (95% CI 0.18 to 0.44; Hedges' g = 0.30). It also showed effects on attention time (SMD −0.31) and processing speed (SMD −0.51). But there was no significant improvement in overall cognitive function or executive function. The authors' GRADE assessment called the memory evidence "moderate" certainty and the processing speed, overall cognition, executive function and attention evidence "low" certainty.
The twist — who actually benefits, and where the reviews disagree. A 2023 meta-analysis in Nutrition Reviews (10 randomized trials, 8 pooled) found an overall memory benefit of SMD 0.29 (95% CI 0.04 to 0.53; I² = 66%; P = 0.02). But the subgroup split is the story: in older adults aged 66–76 the effect was SMD 0.88 (95% CI 0.22 to 1.55; I² = 83%; P = 0.009), while in 11–31 year olds it was SMD 0.03 (95% CI −0.14 to 0.20; I² = 0%; P = 0.72) — indistinguishable from no effect. Since the people who buy creatine are overwhelmingly younger, that is the group the headline is really about. The 2024 meta-analysis, though, reached a different subgroup conclusion: it found creatine was more beneficial in people aged 18–60 and in those with disease, not in older adults. Two meta-analyses of overlapping trials, opposite age patterns. Nobody has settled it.
The catch, part one — how thin this all is. Sixteen trials and 492 people in total, spread across dozens of cognitive tests, in small individual studies. Heterogeneity in the older-adult subgroup was 83%, which the authors flagged. An earlier systematic review of 6 trials and 281 individuals (Griffiths et al., 2018) found "conflicting" results across most cognitive domains, with the exception of short-term memory and intelligence/reasoning.
The catch, part two — this literature is actively contested. A 2023 Nutrition Reviews Letter to the Editor (Eckert & Pascher) was titled "Double-counting due to inadequate statistics leads to false-positive findings" in the Prokopidis meta-analysis, and the authors published a reply. The 2024 meta-analysis also required a published corrigendum in February 2025 to fix wording in its attention and processing-speed results sections after a translation error; the reported statistics were unchanged.
Bottom line: the effect is real but small, it is concentrated in older adults, it says nothing about overall thinking or intelligence, and the whole thing rests on a couple of hundred people spread thin. If you're under 35 and lift weights, creatine is a sports supplement with plausible, unproven brain benefits. Talk to your doctor if you take it and have any health conditions.
SOURCES
- Xu C, Bi S, Zhang W, Luo L. "The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis." Front Nutr. 2024;11:1424972. DOI: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1424972. PMID 39070254. PMCID PMC11275561. Corrigendum: Front Nutr. 2025;12:1570800, DOI 10.3389/fnut.2025.1570800.
- Prokopidis K, Giannos P, Triantafyllidis KK, Kechagias KS, Forbes SC, Candow DG. "Effects of creatine supplementation on memory in healthy individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials." Nutr Rev. 2023;81(6):614–626. DOI: 10.1093/nutrit/nuac064. PMID 35984306. PMCID PMC9999677.
- Eckert I, Pascher E. "Letter to the Editor: Double-counting due to inadequate statistics leads to false-positive findings in 'Effects of creatine supplementation on memory in healthy individuals...'" Nutr Rev. 2023;81(10). DOI: 10.1093/nutrit/nuac108. PMID 36644917. Authors' reply: DOI 10.1093/nutrit/nuac111, PMID 36644912.
- Griffiths TL, Bolton NJ, Jovanović S, et al. "Effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function of healthy individuals: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials." Exp Gerontol. 2018;108:168–178. DOI: 10.1016/j.exger.2018.04.013. PMID 29704637.
Disclaimer: For information only, not medical advice. Creatine is generally safe for healthy adults at standard doses, but this evidence is about small, short-term changes on cognitive tests in small trials — not about preventing dementia, slowing ageing or improving overall intelligence. If you have kidney disease or take medication, talk to your doctor before supplementing.
