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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Joel Snape

The creatine conundrum: can it really help your muscles and your brain?

Creatine may help with recovery from tough training sessions.
Creatine may help with recovery from tough training sessions. Photograph: The Good Brigade/Getty Images

Until relatively recently, if you were mixing a scoop of powdered creatine into a glass of water each day, it probably meant you were a bodybuilder or training for an athletic event. Although creatine is a compound that occurs naturally in the body, its role in producing quick bursts of energy meant that, if you took extra, it was assumed to be in order to (legally) enhance your performance – to help you squat a fractionally heavier weight or run a bit faster.

But evidence has been mounting that creatine may play an important role in cognitive function and improving brain health – and could be more beneficial to women than it is to gym bros. So, should we all take it – or at least try to get more of it from food?

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