Creatine and Memory: 16 Trials, 492 Adults
The finding: Pooling 16 randomised trials, creatine monohydrate significantly improved memory, attention and processing speed. The memory finding was graded moderate certainty, the strongest rating in the analysis.
What they did
Following PRISMA guidelines, with the protocol registered in advance on PROSPERO, the reviewers searched PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science for randomised controlled trials of creatine and cognition published between 1993 and 2024. Pre-registering matters: it means they committed to what they were looking for before they saw any results.
Sixteen trials qualified, covering 492 participants aged 20.8 to 76.4 years, including both healthy people and people with specific conditions. Every included trial used creatine monohydrate.
What they found
- Memory improved: standardised mean difference 0.31, 95% confidence interval 0.18 to 0.44. Certainty graded moderate.
- Attention time improved: SMD -0.31, 95% confidence interval -0.58 to -0.03.
- Processing speed improved: SMD -0.51, 95% confidence interval -1.01 to -0.01.
- Benefits were larger in people with a health condition, in the 18 to 60 age group, and in women.
- No meaningful difference between short-term (under 4 weeks) and longer-term use.
- Low to moderate risk of bias, and no significant publication bias detected.
What this means for you
Every one of these trials used creatine monohydrate. Not HCl, not buffered forms, not the premium variants. If you want the form the evidence is actually built on, it is monohydrate, which happens to also be the cheapest and most available.
The effect showed up quickly. There was no difference between trials running under four weeks and those running longer, which suggests creatine saturates its stores and does its work early rather than needing months to build. For a supplement, that is unusually fast.
Benefits were larger in the 18 to 60 group and in people with a health condition, which hints that creatine does more where something is already limiting brain energy metabolism. People eating little or no red meat start with lower creatine stores, which is a plausible place for a bigger effect, though this review did not test it directly.
Women saw larger benefits than men across the pooled trials, which is worth knowing given how much creatine is marketed almost exclusively at men.
The study
Xu C, Bi S, Zhang W, Luo L. The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Nutrition. 2024 Jul 12;11:1424972.
General information only. This is a summary of published research, not a therapeutic claim and not medical advice. A result found in a trial population is not the same as a product doing that for you. Always read the label and follow the directions for use. If you have a health condition or take medication, check with your health practitioner before use.
