This Popular Supplement May Help With Alzheimer's Symptoms
Creatine is everywhere on social media right now, with recs coming from influencers and health experts.
Research is starting to find that the popular supplement can do more than help you build muscle.
In a small pilot trial published in a journal, researchers found that creatine monohydrate may help improve cognitive function in individuals with Alzheimer's Disease.
It's hard to cruise your For You feed right now without being faced with yet another testimonial about the perks of taking a creatine supplement. While creatine is the supplement du jour, there is solid data to support its use—mostly around fitness.
But a growing body of research suggests that creatine may do more than help you build muscles, including easing depression and helping with brain fog after a bad night's sleep.
Now, a new study suggests that there may be some benefit to using creatine to boost cognition in people with Alzheimer's disease. The research is very early and this is technically a pilot trial (which is basically a trial run). But the findings bring up a number of questions about whether something as simple as adding a creatine supplement could help improve symptoms in people with such a devastating condition.
Here's what the study, found plus what doctors and nutritionists recommend keeping in mind.
Meet the experts: Amit Sachdev, MD, is the medical director in the Department of Neurology at Michigan State University; Albert Matheny, RD, CSCS, is co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab; Matthew Taylor, PhD, RD, is a study co-author, assistant professor, and director of the KU Brain Nutrition Laboratory at University of Kansas Medical Center; Clifford Segil, DO, is a neurologist at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, CA
The study, which was published in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, looked into the 'feasibility' of patients with Alzheimer's disease taking 20 grams a day of creatine monohydrate (the most widely studied form of creatine) for eight weeks.
The researchers looked at how compliant the patients were (i.e. how likely they were to take the supplement). They also monitored levels of creatine in the patients' blood at the start, four weeks, and eight weeks later, along with levels of creatine in their brains. They also tested the patients' cognition at the start of the study and after eight weeks.
The researchers found that 19 of the 20 participants were more than 80 percent compliant with taking the creatine during the study. They also found that creatine levels went up in their blood after four and eight weeks, and that creatine in the brain increased by 11 percent. And here's the really interesting part: The researchers discovered that the patients had better improvements in cognitive tests, including sorting and reading, along with tests to measure attention and response, after eight weeks of creatine supplementation.
The researchers concluded that the findings provide 'preliminary evidence' for more research.
'We decided to do this study because there were a couple of recent studies in mice suggesting that, in a mouse model of Alzheimer's, creatine monohydrate supplementation may be beneficial,' says study co-author Matthew Taylor, PhD, RD, assistant professor and director of the KU Brain Nutrition Laboratory at University of Kansas Medical Center. 'Prior to this study, no work had been done in humans with Alzheimer's, so it was the right time to start looking at it as a potentially beneficial supplement for Alzheimer's.'
The study didn't look into this, but there are some theories.
'The brain requires a lot of energy, but in Alzheimer's, brain energy metabolism drastically declines,' Taylor explains. 'Creatine is a very important substance for transporting energy produced by our mitochondria and increasing creatine levels may even encourage mitochondria to produce more energy.'
Albert Matheny, RD, CSCS, co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab, co-signs that theory. Creatine helps to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), 'and ATP is the brain's primary energy source,' he says. Adding more creatine to the body could, in theory, help support cognition in people with Alzheimer's disease, Matheny adds.
Creatine may also have other roles, like decreasing inflammation and oxidative stress in the body, which could potentially help with symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, Taylor says. 'Each of these roles could help with cognitive function in Alzheimer's, but we still have so much to learn about the roles of this molecule in the brain,' he says.
We're not there yet. Again, this was a pilot study and it simply found that people who have Alzheimer's disease may be able to regularly take creatine supplements and might have a boost in cognition as a result.
But this doesn't mean that people with Alzheimer's disease should take creatine, says Amit Sachdev, MD, medical director in the Department of Neurology at Michigan State University. 'I would not advise the use of creatine with the goal of improving cognition,' he says, noting that there's not yet 'well-established data to support this use.'
Clifford Segil, DO, a neurologist at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, agrees. "We are not at a point that creatine supplementation for brain health is an accepted supplement," he says.
Taylor agrees. 'Our study is far from a definitive study,' he says. 'Well-designed, placebo-controlled clinical trials are needed to determine whether creatine is beneficial for Alzheimer's. I would suggest Alzheimer's patients and their families discuss taking any supplement with their neurologist.'
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