Creatine is a substance naturally produced in the body and also found in meat and seafood. It’s also a popular supplement that started selling like crazy in the 90s when bodybuilders started taking it to bulk up. It’s a great aid for building muscle or increasing strength and speed. Because of the marketing efforts that resulted from that period, most people think of creatine only as a muscle-building supplement for the fitness industry. But it’s a much more important substance for your health than you may realize.

About 95% of creatine in the body is stored in muscle cells as phosphocreatine, which plays a crucial role in providing energy for muscle contraction.

Creatine was first discovered by French scientist, Michel Eugene Chevreul in the 1830s. His discovery led to a host of fascinating studies on the topic.

In the mid-1800s, German chemist Justus von Liebig discovered that wild animals have more creatine in their muscles than their domestic cousins. He concluded that the level of activity influenced the amount of creatine produced. This is an important concept to keep in mind as we progress through this discussion.

In 1923, researchers at Harvard University found that the use of oral creatine in animals promoted nitrogen retention. This meant more protein was accumulating in the muscles to increase muscle gain.

In 1926 Alfred Chanutin found that ingesting 10g of creatine a day resulted in increased creatine storage in muscles. Creatine was found to be an effective muscle building supplement, but there was one problem—extracting creatine from meat was time consuming and expensive.

By the 1950s, scientists were able to produce a synthetic form of creatine in the lab. By 1975, they were able to confirm the findings of previous scientists when they found that creatine ensured increased nitrogen retention in the muscles. For the user, it meant faster muscle recovery, increased protein in the muscles, and increased performance.

Athletes took notice, but so did physicians dealing with conditions like Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, or Muscular Dystrophy, all of which lead to muscle atrophy.

The entrance of creatine into the public consciousness only really came in the 1990s. By 1996, it was estimated that over 80% of athletes at the Atlanta Summer Olympics used creatine.

Creatine is rightly held up as one of the most effective, safest and easiest-to-use supplements for athletes and strength trainers alike. Since the early 1990s, the Western World has been infatuated with this wonder supplement that increases athletic performance, helps build muscle and has relatively few side effects.

The body produces 1 – 2 grams of creatine per day in the liver and brain and obtains another 1 – 3 grams from dietary sources including red meat, poultry, and fish—but none from plants.

The fact that the domesticated animals we eat contain less creatine than the wild animals our ancestors ate means we don’t get as much creatine in our diets as we used to. We are starting to understand that the lower creatine consumption could be impacting our health more than we think.

Because of this, in the past 10 years or so, researchers have been investigating the possible benefits of creatine supplementation beyond muscle strength and sports performance. We are starting to see that creatine supplementation provides some promising benefits for bone health and brain health.

Bone Health

Creatine exerts direct and indirect effects on bone. Creatine directly promotes osteoblast activity (bone building cells) by enhancing energy availability. But the bigger effect creatine has on bone health is its ability to prevent bone loss. A study conducted in 2015 had two groups of women with osteoporosis strength train for 12 months. One group took creatine every day, the other group took a placebo. The women taking creatine preserved more bone minerals than the women who didn’t take it. They also had twice the increase in femoral neck (hip bone) thickness.

Brain Health

We are now learning that creatine could have a positive effect on the brain. The brain needs a steady supply of energy to function properly. This energy supply often breaks down in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Some evidence suggests that problems with the brain’s creatine system may play a role in this decline. A recent study found that creatine supplements improved brain energy use, reduced buildup of Alzheimer’s disease-related proteins, and boosted memory in mice.

Researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center conducted an eight-week pilot study involving 20 people with cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease. All participants took 20 grams of creatine daily and attended five in-person visits throughout the study. The focus of this study was to see if participants could tolerate 20 grams of creatine per day. The results showed that the participants tolerated the supplement well. The data also pointed to potential changes in brain chemistry and mitochondrial function.

A study conducted in May 2025 had 20 Alzheimer’s patients supplement with 20 grams of creatine per day for 8 weeks. During that time, they saw an 11% increase in total brain creatine levels. The patients were given two tests that measure cognitive function before and after the 8 weeks of creatine supplementation. Cognitive scores improved by 4.4%, most particularly in working memory, fluid cognition, attention, and reading recognition.

This study was the first of its kind and it only lasted for 8 weeks. How might creatine supplementation affect the brain over a year or two years? And more importantly, how much could creatine supplementation prevent cognitive loss?

Supplementing With Creatine

Creatine is another example of something that used to be more available in the foods we ate but less abundant in our modern diets. Other examples are omega 3s, vitamin D, and collagen, all of which you should seriously consider supplementing with.

If 8 weeks of creatine can improve cognitive function by 4.4% in Alzheimer’s patients, it’s worth considering. The benefits over 5 to 10 years could be amazing.

The research tells us that we should supplement with different amounts of creatine based on our desired outcome. If your goal is improved strength and athletic performance, 5 grams of creatine a day will do the job. If your goal is brain health and improved cognitive function, 10 – 20 grams a day seems to be the sweat spot.

And yes, I supplement daily with creatine. As always, check with your doctor before starting a new supplement.

Stay Strong,

Bo Railey