Key takeaways:
Creatine is a natural substance your body makes that helps your muscles produce energy during short bursts of intense activity. Creatine supplements may improve strength, power, and muscle growth when combined with resistance training.
Creatine may also help older adults maintain muscle strength and function. Other possible creatine benefits include supporting memory and brain health, although this evidence is less established.
Creatine is well studied and generally safe for most healthy adults. Side effects can include temporary weight gain from water retention and digestive symptoms.
You may know creatine as a workout supplement. But its role in your body goes beyond your muscles. For example, creatine helps supply energy to your muscles and brain. And researchers are exploring benefits beyond exercise performance, including memory and brain health in older adults. Here’s what to know about how creatine works, who might benefit, and its side effects.
What is creatine?
Creatine is a substance your body makes using amino acids. It’s mainly made by your liver, kidneys, and pancreas. Most creatine is stored in your muscles, with smaller amounts stored in your brain and other organs.
Creatine is also found naturally in certain foods and is available as a dietary supplement.
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What does creatine do?
Creatine helps your body make energy quickly. Your muscles store creatine as phosphocreatine, which helps your body make adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the main source of energy for muscle contractions.
Because of its role in energy and muscle function, creatine supplements may improve performance during short, intense activities, like sprinting and weightlifting. They may also increase strength and muscle mass when combined with resistance training.
Dietary sources of creatine
Creatine is found mainly in animal-based foods, including:
Red meat
Fish, such as herring, salmon, and tuna
Poultry, like chicken or turkey
Dairy products
Plant-based foods contain no creatine. So vegetarians tend to have lower creatine stores than people who regularly eat meat or fish.
Creatine supplements
Creatine supplements come in powders, capsules, and premixed drinks. Creatine monohydrate is the most widely studied form. Research hasn’t shown that other forms of creatine work better than creatine monohydrate.
Creatine benefits
Scientists have studied creatine for exercise performance, muscle health, and several other possible uses. The evidence is strongest for improving strength and athletic performance during short, high-intensity activities.
Here’s what the research shows about the benefits of creatine.
Exercise performance and strength
Creatine helps provide energy for your muscles when you exercise. Research suggests that creatine may:
Improve strength and power
Support gains in muscle mass when combined with resistance training
Help you do more repetitions or train at a higher intensity
Support recovery between intense workout sessions
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Creatine is less likely to improve performance during endurance training, like long-distance running.
Muscle strength and function with aging
Creatine may help older adults maintain muscle strength and physical function, especially when you combine it with resistance training. One meta-analysis found that older adults who combined creatine with resistance training had greater gains in lean tissue mass and upper- and lower-body strength than those who trained without creatine.
Scientists have also studied whether creatine benefits bone health. But the results are mixed. Some research suggests that creatine may support bone formation or lessen the risk of falls when combined with exercise. But studies haven’t consistently found improvements in bone density with creatine supplementation.
Memory and brain function
Your brain also uses creatine for energy. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis found that creatine supplements may slightly improve memory and certain measures of attention and processing speed. But most of the studies were small, and the results were inconsistent.
More research is needed to figure out who is most likely to benefit. So far, the strongest evidence suggests that if creatine is going to help with memory, adults over 65 would be most likely to see benefits.
Creatine deficiency disorders
Creatine supplements are also used to treat some types of creatine deficiency disorders. These are rare genetic conditions that affect how your body makes or transports creatine. They’re usually diagnosed in childhood and require care from a specialist.
Who might benefit from taking creatine?
You may consider taking creatine supplements if you:
Do resistance training or high-intensity exercise
Want to boost your strength or support muscle growth
Are an older adult looking to maintain muscle strength and function
Eat little or no meat or fish and want to boost your creatine levels
Some research also suggests that creatine may benefit women during perimenopause and menopause. Creatine levels may change as estrogen levels go down. This suggests that women may benefit from taking creatine during menopause, when estrogen levels drop significantly.
Not everyone needs to take creatine supplements. Your body makes creatine, and you can also get it from different foods. Talk with a healthcare professional before starting a creatine supplement, especially if you have kidney disease, take medications that affect your kidneys, or are pregnant or nursing.
Creatine side effects
Creatine is generally well tolerated when taken at the recommended dose. Some people report digestive symptoms, such as:
Nausea
Diarrhea
Stomach discomfort
Temporary weight gain is the most common side effect of creatine. This may be due to water retention when you first start taking it. Over time, creatine may also contribute to greater muscle mass when combined with resistance training. This can also lead to a higher weight.
Does creatine damage the kidneys?
Research hasn’t shown that creatine damages the kidneys of healthy adults who take the recommended dose. But creatine may cause a slight increase in blood creatinine, a waste product that healthcare professionals test to look at kidney function. This can make creatinine-based kidney test results seem out of range, even when your kidneys are working normally.
A 2025 meta-analysis didn’t find a significant change in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) with creatine supplementation. GFR is a measure of how well your kidneys filter waste from your blood. The analysis did find a small, temporary increase in blood creatinine, which suggests a change related to creatine metabolism rather than kidney damage.
There’s less safety information for people who already have kidney disease. If you have kidney problems, talk with your healthcare team before taking creatine.
Does creatine cause muscle damage?
You may have heard that creatine can cause muscle damage or rhabdomyolysis. But research doesn’t support this claim. Intense physical activity can strain your muscles, so staying hydrated during hard workouts or in the heat can help you stay safe. That said, creatine hasn’t been shown to raise your risk of cramps or dehydration.
Is creatine safe?
Creatine is among the most studied sports supplements. Research suggests that standard doses are safe and well tolerated by healthy adults.
Good to know: The FDA doesn’t review the safety of dietary supplements in the same way it reviews medications. When buying a supplement, look for a product that has been independently tested by an organization such as the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) or National Sanitation Foundation (NSF).
Is creatine safe in children and adolescents?
The American Academy of Pediatrics advises children and teenagers to avoid taking performance-enhancing supplements, including creatine. Although small studies haven’t found major safety concerns, there’s limited information about the long-term effects in children and teens.
This recommendation doesn’t apply to creatine taken under specialist care to treat a diagnosed medical condition.
Creatine interactions
There aren’t well-established medication interactions with creatine supplements. But there’s limited safety data for some people with kidney disease or people taking medications that may affect the kidneys.
Before taking creatine, share a full list of your medications and supplements with your healthcare team. They can help you figure out whether creatine is safe for you.
Creatine supplement dosage
A common maintenance dose of creatine monohydrate is 3 g to 5 g once a day.
Some people begin with a “loading” dose of about 20 g per day, split into 4 smaller doses throughout the day, for 5 to 7 days. Then they switch to a maintenance dose. But a loading phase isn’t necessary. Starting with a maintenance dose can increase muscle creatine stores to a similar degree. It just takes a bit longer.
Taking a large dose at once may be more likely to cause digestive problems, like diarrhea or stomach discomfort.
Frequently asked questions
Creatine supplements don’t seem to affect glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in most healthy adults. But they may raise the level of creatinine in your blood. This can make a creatinine-based estimated GFR seem lower than it actually is. Tell your healthcare team if you take creatine so they can interpret your kidney test results accurately.
Most creatine supplements contain lab-made creatine monohydrate. While creatine naturally occurs on some foods, the creatine in supplements usually doesn’t come from meat. Some supplements may contain other ingredients, such as added flavors or sweeteners.
Taking more than the recommended dose of creatine is unlikely to provide extra benefit. Large doses may cause digestive symptoms, like diarrhea, nausea, or stomach upset. They may also lead to more water retention and temporary weight gain.
Creatine supplements don’t seem to affect glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in most healthy adults. But they may raise the level of creatinine in your blood. This can make a creatinine-based estimated GFR seem lower than it actually is. Tell your healthcare team if you take creatine so they can interpret your kidney test results accurately.
Most creatine supplements contain lab-made creatine monohydrate. While creatine naturally occurs on some foods, the creatine in supplements usually doesn’t come from meat. Some supplements may contain other ingredients, such as added flavors or sweeteners.
Taking more than the recommended dose of creatine is unlikely to provide extra benefit. Large doses may cause digestive symptoms, like diarrhea, nausea, or stomach upset. They may also lead to more water retention and temporary weight gain.
The bottom line
Creatine helps provide energy to your muscles during short, intense activities. Creatine monohydrate supplements can improve strength, power, and muscle growth when combined with resistance training. They may also help older adults maintain muscle strength and function. The benefits for bone and brain health are less certain.
Creatine is safe for most healthy adults at a standard dose of 3 g to 5 g per day. Side effects can include temporary weight gain from water retention and digestive symptoms.
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References
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Candow, D. G., et al. (2019). Effectiveness of creatine supplementation on aging muscle and bone: Focus on falls prevention and inflammation. Journal of Clinical Medicine.
Chilibeck, P. D., et al. (2017). Effect of creatine supplementation during resistance training on lean tissue mass and muscular strength in older adults: A meta-analysis. Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine.
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Naeini, E. K., et al. (2025). Effect of creatine supplementation on kidney function: A systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Nephrology.
National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2024). Dietary supplements for exercise and athletic performance, fact sheet for health professionals.
National Kidney Foundation. (2026). Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).
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Prokopidis, K., et al. (2023). Effects of creatine supplementation on memory in healthy individuals: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Nutrition Reviews.
Smith-Ryan, A. E., et al. (2021). Creatine supplementation in women’s health: A lifespan perspective. Nutrients.
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