Creatine: the panacea of psychosomatics

The word panacea is used here with intelligent irony. Creatine is not a cure for everything. But it is one of those substances that forces us to think less in separated compartments.

It does not concern only muscle, not only performance, and not only the brain. It touches the body, brushes the mind, appears in some hypotheses about the psyche, and that is exactly why it is so interesting from a Bodymind perspective: it shows how little energy, action, regulation, and lived experience are truly separate worlds.

What is creatine?

Creatine is a natural substance that the body produces from certain amino acids and that we also take in through food, especially meat and fish.

It is concentrated particularly in the muscles and in the brain. Its main task is to help regenerate ATP, the form of immediate energy that cells use when they need to respond quickly. Put simply: creatine helps the body’s more “expensive” tissues avoid running out of available energy too fast.¹

That is why creatine became famous in sport, but reducing it to the gym would be too narrow. The brain is also a highly energy-demanding organ. Concentration also has a cost. Mental fatigue also has a metabolic side. And under some conditions even psychological suffering seems to be linked to brain systems that are not only struggling affectively, but also energetically.²

Facts about creatine in the body

For the body, creatine is one of the substances with the strongest evidence overall. The best evidence concerns strength, power, repeated sprint performance, high-intensity work, and adaptations to resistance training.

It does not perform miracles and it does not replace training, but it makes the energy system more efficient precisely when the body has to produce energy rapidly and repeatedly.¹

This means that creatine is especially helpful when working with weights, intense sets, explosive movements, or sports that require repeated short and powerful efforts.

Many people reduce creatine to the sentence “it only makes you hold water,” but that is a poor simplification. Yes, at the beginning intracellular water can increase, meaning water stored inside the muscle. But the results do not stop there. Studies also show real improvements in strength and in training quality.¹

With age, the issue becomes even more interesting. Then it is no longer only about performance, but about functional margin. More strength, more ability to maintain tone, more possibility to keep moving and training effectively.

In older adults, creatine, especially together with resistance training, is associated with improvements in strength and muscular function. For bone, however, the data are much less clear: there are interesting signals, but not enough to say confidently that creatine reliably increases bone mineral density as a main effect.³⁴

Differences between biological male sex and biological female sex

Here it is important to be fair to the data. For many years, creatine research was built mainly on male bodies. That means the historical evidence base is broader for the biological male sex, not necessarily that creatine is “more for men.”²

In the biological male sex, the findings on strength, power, gains in lean mass, and training adaptation are very abundant and fairly consistent. The research is larger, the protocols are more homogeneous, and so the conclusions are more secure.

For biologically male people, saying that creatine supports strength performance and training adaptations is well supported.¹²

In the biological female sex, the picture was understudied for a long time, but this has changed a great deal in recent years. Recent reviews show that creatine is also relevant for women’s health across multiple life stages, not only for training but also for issues such as available energy, body composition, muscular function, the menstrual cycle, perimenopause, and menopause.

In biological women, the most promising data concern strength, lean mass, muscular function, and the ability to train consistently, especially during the menopausal transition and after menopause.⁵

For cognition and mood in biological women, the rationale is strong, but the studies are still fewer. So the most honest formula is this: for the biological male sex we have broader and more consolidated evidence; for the biological female sex the data are highly promising, often coherent, but historically less numerous and therefore still in the process of consolidation.⁵

Facts about creatine and the mind

When we move to the mind, we enter the territory of memory, attention, processing speed, and mental resistance to fatigue. Here creatine is interesting, but not as “settled” as it is for the body.

Recent meta-analyses show positive signals especially for memory and some attention tasks, but not a uniform improvement across all cognitive functions. So it is not correct to say that creatine “improves the brain” in general. It is more correct to say that it may help some cognitive functions under some conditions.⁶

The most convincing part appears when the brain is under energetic stress. For example during sleep deprivation, intense mental fatigue, or perhaps in some conditions where brain metabolism is more vulnerable.

A 2024 study, for example, showed that during sleep deprivation a high dose of creatine improved some cognitive performances and influenced markers linked to high-energy brain metabolism.

This makes the picture much more interesting: creatine may work less in the “normal and well-rested” brain than in a brain that is functioning under costly conditions.⁷

Here too, scientific caution matters. European regulatory authorities have not recognized a general claim for improvement of cognitive function in the healthy population. And this is useful, because it protects us from overly easy language. The fact that a substance has good studies does not automatically authorize a universal promise.⁸

Facts about creatine and the psyche

The psyche is not the same as the mind. The mind can remember, calculate, and hold attention. The psyche suffers, protects itself, motivates itself, shuts down, becomes agitated, orients itself, or loses orientation. When creatine enters this field, the discussion becomes more delicate.

Psychiatry became interested in creatine because various mood disorders show alterations in brain bioenergetics and mitochondrial function. Mitochondria are the cell structures that produce a large part of the energy the cell needs. In short: some struggling brains also seem to be more fragile energetically.²⁹

In depression, creatine has been studied as a possible additional support, not as a standalone treatment. The more recent reviews suggest a possible small to moderate benefit on symptoms, but the quality of the evidence is still low and the results are not sufficiently uniform.

So the line of inquiry is serious, the theory is plausible, but the clinical conclusion must remain cautious.⁹

In bipolar disorder, even greater caution is needed. An important controlled study did not show a clear improvement in the main outcome compared with placebo, and within the same area cases of transition toward hypomania or mania were reported.

This does not mean that creatine is “bad” or inherently dangerous. It means that in affectively unstable systems it should not be treated like harmless water.¹⁰

What creatine is not

Creatine is not a steroid. It is not a doping agent in the classical sense. It is not a stimulant like caffeine. It is not an approved antidepressant. It is not a treatment for menopause. It is not a cure for existential exhaustion.

And above all, it is not a shortcut that replaces training, sleep, nutrition, stress regulation, psychotherapy, or medical care when these are needed.

It is also not correct to say that it “automatically damages the kidneys.” In the studied groups, the stronger literature does not show clear kidney damage. Blood creatinine can rise, but that does not automatically mean kidney function worsens. Of course, in people with existing kidney disease or complex clinical conditions, the discussion must be individualized.¹

Myths and distortions about body, mind, and psyche

The most tired myth about the body is that creatine “just makes you puffy.” No. Intracellular water is part of the story, especially at the beginning, but it is not the whole story. The most robust part concerns strength, power, and the quality of physical work.¹

The most modern myth about the mind is that it is a nootropic for everyone. Again, no. Some people may notice little or nothing. In others, especially under mental load or sleep deprivation, the benefit may be more visible.⁶⁷⁸

The most seductive myth about the psyche is that more brain energy automatically means more emotional balance. That would be convenient, but it is not that simple. The psyche is also relational history, lived body, environment, trauma, symbols, habits, defenses, and bonds. Metabolism matters, but it does not explain everything.

Creatine may enter some clinically meaningful hypotheses, but it does not replace therapeutic work or life context.⁹¹⁰

What creatine probably is, and where it might work

The most useful definition is this: creatine is probably a modulator of energetic margin. It increases the distance between the demand a system receives and the point at which that system gives way.

In muscle this idea is well confirmed. In the brain it is plausible and partly supported. In the psyche it is coherent as a hypothesis, but still incomplete.¹⁶⁹

It may work very well in strength and power sports, in resistance training, in some older adults, in part of the biological female population during peri- and postmenopause, and in some conditions of strong brain metabolic stress.

In the biological female sex, this is an especially interesting field precisely because science is finally beginning to stop treating the female body as merely a delayed variation of the male one.⁵

Neurophysiological explanations and limited studies

The central neurophysiological explanation remains the creatine-phosphocreatine system. This system functions like a rapid energy buffer. When a tissue immediately needs ATP, phosphocreatine helps regenerate it.

In muscle this is very well confirmed. In the brain the picture is more complex, but it follows a similar logic: neural networks that need to remain efficient under strain may benefit from better energetic buffering.¹

That is also what makes creatine interesting from a Bodymind perspective. When the energetic cost of functioning increases, concentration, initiative, capacity for movement, and stress resistance can all become more fragile.

Not all psychological suffering is an energy problem. But energy may be a much more concrete part of the problem than was long assumed.²⁹

What creatine might probably do

The most elegant hypothesis is that creatine changes not only performance, but the cost of performance. It may make it less costly to produce strength, sustain attention, train regularly, or stay organized under stress.

This is very Bodymind: many people do not lack abilities altogether, but pay too high a price for using those abilities.

Another interesting hypothesis is that creatine may work best not as the main protagonist, but as a support that allows other interventions to bear more fruit.

In the body this applies to training. In menopause it may apply to continuity of movement and preservation of lean mass. In the mind it may apply to cognitive fatigue. In the psyche, with great caution, it may help some people better sustain therapeutic work, routine, movement, or recovery. For now, however, this remains more a good theory than a final conclusion.⁵⁹

Conclusion

Creatine is not really a panacea. But it is a substance that forces less naive thinking. It concerns muscle, interests the brain, opens questions about women’s health, exhaustion, aging, and even some models of psychological suffering.

The scientifically honest version is this. For the body, the evidence is strong. For the mind, it is promising but irregular. For the psyche, it is interesting but still preliminary.

In the biological male sex, the historical evidence base is broader. In the biological female sex, the research developed later, but today it is showing ever more clearly that creatine deserves attention also, and especially, for strength, function, energy, and menopause.

Perhaps the real Bodymind lesson lies exactly here: body, mind, and psyche are not airtight compartments. When the energetic cost of living changes, the way a person moves, thinks, endures, and feels changes as well. And at that point creatine stops being only a gym supplement and becomes a serious question about embodied physiology.

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Notes

1. Kreider RB, Kalman DS, Antonio J, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. Reference position stand on creatine efficacy and safety.

2. Recent neurobiological reviews on creatine and cerebral metabolism together with the public communication work of Andrew Huberman, useful as a cultural bridge but always to be distinguished from controlled clinical evidence.

3. Chilibeck PD, Kaviani M, Candow DG, Zello GA. A 2-yr Randomized Controlled Trial on Creatine Supplementation during Exercise for Postmenopausal Bone Health. Nutrients, 2023.

4. Candow DG, Forbes SC, and colleagues. Recent reviews on creatine, aging, and age-related conditions, with an overall favorable picture especially for strength and muscular function.

5. Smith-Ryan AE, Cabre HE, Eckerson JM, Candow DG. Creatine Supplementation in Women’s Health: A Lifespan Perspective. Nutrients, 2021.

6. 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.

7. Gordji-Nejad A, Mertens LJ, Oltmanns K, et al. Single dose creatine improves cognitive performance and induces changes in cerebral high energy phosphates during sleep deprivation. Scientific Reports, 2024.

8. EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens. Creatine and improvement in cognitive function: Evaluation of a health claim. EFSA Journal, 2024.

9. Eckert I, Lima J, Dariva AA. Creatine supplementation for treating symptoms of depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis. British Journal of Nutrition, 2025.

10. Toniolo RA, et al. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, proof-of-concept trial of creatine monohydrate as adjunctive treatment for bipolar depression. Journal of Neural Transmission, 2018.