Of all the dietary supplements out there, creatine is perhaps the one with the most fervent fan base. Long a favorite among athletes looking for a workout boost, creatine has been credited with tamping down perimenopausal mood swings, controlling blood sugar and perhaps even helping recovery from concussions.
But what does the science say? It’s important to note that creatine is a dietary supplement, and it is not regulated in the same way as medications, which need to go through rounds of clinical trials to gain approval for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And the nutrition supplement market is notoriously rife with overblown claims and false advertising.
When it comes to creatine, however, experts say there is some solid evidence backing the supplement up.
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Creatine is generally considered safe, and unlike many supplements, it has been studied for decades, particularly for its role in boosting strength and power in athletics, says Katherine Basbaum, a registered dietitian at the University of Virginia Health. In more recent years, some studies have suggested that creatine may support brain and muscle health as we age, too.
But it’s far from a “magic bullet,” cautions Bonnie Jortberg, a professor of family medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine. “You’re not going to start taking creatine, then all of a sudden feel like a new person.”
To help sort the science from the hype, Scientific American spoke with health and nutrition experts about how creatine works and who might benefit the most from taking it.
What does creatine do to your body?
Creatine is a natural compound that your body produces and uses for energy, Basbaum explains. It’s made using three amino acids—arginine, glycine and methionine. You can also get creatine from your diet, by eating foods such as seafood and meats, or by taking a supplement, such as creatine monohydrate.
Once ingested, creatine gets converted into a compound called creatine phosphate (also known as phosphocreatine), which helps supply adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, to your muscles. “Your brain and your muscles need energy,” Basbaum says. Creatine helps provide a rapid-acting and immediately available source of ATP. That’s why creatine can help athletes: more ready-to-use energy means more power in the gym and potentially more muscle growth.
Is creatine FDA-approved?
Creatine monohydrate is the most-studied form of creatine. Still, the FDA doesn’t assess and approve dietary supplements in the same way as for drugs. Rather, the agency has designated creatine monohydrate as a “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) substance.
Decades of clinical evidence back that designation up. A 2025 analysis of more than 650 studies found creatine has no significant side effects compared with placebo. “The safety profile on creatines is very good,” says Richard Kreider, the first author on that paper and director of the Exercise & Sport Nutrition Lab at Texas A&M University.
Creatine is also among the most popular sports supplements in the world, and the tally of adverse events associated with creatine in international registries is “very tiny,” Kreider says—around 0.0007 percent of adverse event reports mentioned creatine, his team’s analysis found.
“There have now been, over the last 30 years, billions of servings, literally billions of servings, provided in dietary supplements. This is not new,” he says. (Kreider has conducted industry-sponsored creatine research and has served as an advisor for dietary supplement makers.)
What do we know—or not know—about creatine?
Overall, the strongest and most extensive evidence for creatine is as an “ergogenic aid” to support athletic performance, Basbaum says.
Research shows it may help you lift slightly heavier weights at the gym, for instance, or push out a few more repetitions or help your muscles recover faster afterward.
More recent evidence suggests creatine may help us stay healthy as we age, too. “What had started as a supplement for athletes and performance has now blossomed over the last 20 to 25 years into a supplement that clinical trials are showing efficacy in a number of therapeutic interventions,” Kreider says.
The most promising of these avenues is “active aging,” he says. As we get older, our muscles tend to get weaker. Research suggests creatine, when combined with resistance training, may help maintain strength and muscle mass and prevent falls and injuries such as hip fractures in older populations, Kreider says.
Creatine could also be helpful during perimenopause and menopause, when women may have a harder time building and maintaining muscle, Basbaum says.
There is also preliminary evidence to suggest creatine may help support brain cognition for women during this time of life, possibly by supplying more ATP to brain cells, Jortberg says.
“These are limited studies, but I think they’re promising. [Findings suggest] that creatine may be beneficial—‘may be’ is the keyword there—when it comes to mental cognition,” Jortberg adds.
To improve athletic performance, the International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends people take about three to five grams of creatine monohydrate per day. For more rapid results, some athletes might start with a “loading” period of about 0.3 gram per kilogram of creatine monohydrate for five to seven days, the organization says.
But the exact amount will vary based on your body’s needs.
Is there anyone who shouldn’t take creatine?
Experts were divided on this question. Creatine is generally considered safe, but Jortberg says that kidney problems could interfere with your body’s ability to process the supplement.
“People who might have any kind of a kidney issue or any kind of compromised kidney function should absolutely not be taking a creatine supplement,” she says.
Kreider, on the other hand, argues that those fears are overblown. “The fact is that there’s no evidence that creatine causes any adverse effect to kidney function, even in patients with kidney disease,” he says.
Still, the experts Scientific American spoke to agreed that if you’re interested in taking creatine, it’s best to consult a doctor first.
“Anytime you take a dietary supplement of any kind, it goes without saying that it’s good to check with your health care provider,” Basbaum says, “creatine or otherwise.”
