Hey {{ first_name | Reader }},
I take a lot of supplements. I'd defend almost none of them to you.
Most of the supplements aisle relies on hope and good-looking labels. That’s the sort of thing I spend my days pulling apart.
But there is one exception: Creatine.
Creatine is the exception to my general thoughts on supplements. And the reason I keep coming back to it has changed. For years, it was purely physical benefits, but lately the more interesting evidence is about the brain.
So before you categorize creatine as something for gym rats only, read this:
Let’s start with the study that made me look twice. Researchers gave 52 women with depression a standard antidepressant, then added either five grams of creatine a day or a placebo (Lyoo et al., 2012).
The creatine group improved faster and further, with the gap opening as early as week two. Then a national health survey of more than 22,000 US adults found that people eating the least creatine had almost double the depression rate of those eating the most, 10.2 against 6.0 per 100, an association strongest in women and the under-forties (Bakian et al., 2020).
Now the caveats, because this is where the marketing sprints ahead of the science. That survey is a correlation, not proof creatine lifts mood.
Low-creatine diets track with a dozen other things. And the trial added creatine to treatment; it didn't replace it.
So here’s how I interpret this: creatine looks like a promising thing to take alongside proper care, not instead of it. If you're struggling with depression, start a conversation with a professional about adding creatine to your treatment.
Why would a muscle supplement affect your mood?
Creatine isn't really a muscle supplement. It's an energy one. Your brain runs on the same fast-energy system your muscles do, and creatine tops up the buffer that system draws on.
A systematic review found creatine may sharpen short-term memory and reasoning while doing little for other mental tasks, and crucially, it did nothing for young, rested, well-fed people (Avgerinos et al., 2018). It earns its place under strain. Vegetarians, who start with lower stores, gained measurably on memory and reasoning after six weeks of creatine (Rae et al., 2003). And when German researchers gave sleep-deprived volunteers a single large dose during a night awake, their thinking held up better than on placebo, though that dose ran five times the normal amount and the same team noted the brain usually takes weeks to absorb enough (Gordji-Nejad et al., 2024).
None of this is a reason to buy a tub of anything, {{ first_name | Reader }}. The molecule is cheap, so the real question is what else is in most tubs of creatine.
This is a category with a documented history of products that miss their label or carry contaminants the buyer never sees. That's the whole reason independent testing exists. When you pay up for a branded creatine, what you're really buying is proof of what's inside.
There is one creatine supplement I trust and point people to: Momentous.
Momentous just released their Signature Spec creatine, and it's built around exactly this problem. It's made in a pharmaceutical facility, micronised to an ultrafine powder so it mixes well in coffee, and put through a six-stage testing protocol across four independent partners, from raw material to finished tub.
Personally, I like that it’s NSF Certified for Sport and screened further for heavy metals, PFAS, and microplastics that most other players never test for. Take 5 grams a day, no loading phase, nothing else in it.
Full disclosure: I'm a Momentous partner and proud of it, so I earn a small commission if you buy through my link. I'd tell you to buy tested creatine either way.
Try the Signature Spec creatine below and use code BLAKE to save 15% at checkout
The muscle benefit is the boring part. Take it for your brain and let your legs get the bonus.
Hold steady,
Richard
P.S. The single biggest mistake people make with creatine is treating it like pre-workout. It doesn't work like that.
The brain and mood effects, such as they are, come from saturation, which means committing to five grams every single day is important, training or not. Consistency beats dose every time.
Hit reply and tell me what supplement you're stacking it with. I read every reply.
References
References
Avgerinos, K.I., Spyrou, N., Bougioukas, K.I. and Kapogiannis, D. (2018) 'Effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function of healthy individuals: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials', Experimental Gerontology, 108, pp. 166-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2018.04.013
Bakian, A.V., Huber, R.S., Scholl, L., Renshaw, P.F. and Kondo, D. (2020) 'Dietary creatine intake and depression risk among U.S. adults', Translational Psychiatry, 10(1), 52. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-0741-x
Forbes, S.C., Candow, D.G., Ostojic, S.M., Roberts, M.D. and Chilibeck, P.D. (2021) 'Meta-analysis examining the importance of creatine ingestion strategies on lean tissue mass and strength in older adults', Nutrients, 13(6), 1912. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13061912
Gordji-Nejad, A., Matusch, A., Kleedörfer, S., Jayeshkumar Patel, H., Drzezga, A., Elmenhorst, D., Binkofski, F. and Bauer, A. (2024) 'Single dose creatine improves cognitive performance and induces changes in cerebral high energy phosphates during sleep deprivation', Scientific Reports, 14(1), 4937. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-54249-9
Kreider, R.B., Kalman, D.S., Antonio, J., Ziegenfuss, T.N., Wildman, R., Collins, R., Candow, D.G., Kleiner, S.M., Almada, A.L. and Lopez, H.L. (2017) '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, 14, 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z
Lyoo, I.K., Yoon, S., Kim, T.-S., Hwang, J., Kim, J.E., Won, W., Bae, S. and Renshaw, P.F. (2012) 'A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial of oral creatine monohydrate augmentation for enhanced response to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor in women with major depressive disorder', American Journal of Psychiatry, 169(9), pp. 937-945. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.12010009
Rae, C., Digney, A.L., McEwan, S.R. and Bates, T.C. (2003) 'Oral creatine monohydrate supplementation improves brain performance: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial', Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 270(1529), pp. 2147-2150. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2003.2492