Good news on the creatine front!

In October of 2010, I reported a study which found that creatine supplementation improved cognition in vegetarians and vegans (Creatine Improves Cognition in Vegetarians). A few months later, in December of 2010, I reported a study that found creatine supplementation in vegetarian and vegan women boosted their cognition to beyond that of omnivores who also supplemented (Creatine Improves Cognition to Beyond that of Omnivores).

Today I’m reporting on a 2013 study from Brazil that measured the brain creatine content of vegetarians and found it to be the same as for omnivores (1).

They compared the creatine content of the posterior cingulate cortex between vegetarians (6 women and 8 men) and omnivores. The posterior cingulate cortex was chosen because it is related to emotion formation and cognitive function (processing, learning and memory).

Although the vegetarians ate much less creatine than the omnivores (.03 vs. 1.34 g, respectively), they had similar brain creatine levels (6.0 vs. 5.9 IU, respectively). The authors say:

“It has been shown previously that oral [creatine] intake can have beneficial effects on cognitive function in vegetarians rather than in omnivorous individuals, suggesting that the former may show some deficit in brain [creatine] content. However, the present study refutes this hypothesis, reinforcing previous experimental data suggesting that brain [creatine] content relies primarily on local endogenous synthesis rather than on [creatine] dietary intake.”

I have updated the VeganHealth.org article Creatine.

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References

1. Yazigi Solis MY, de Salles Painelli V, Artioli GG, Roschel H, Otaduy MC, Gualano B. Brain creatine depletion in vegetarians? A cross-sectional 1H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) study. Br J Nutr. 2013 Nov 29:1-3. | link

I just added to the creatine section of VeganHealth.org and am reproducing the addition below.

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A 2010 study of 121 young women (71 of whom were vegetarian or vegan) had the subjects supplement with either 20 g of creatine per day (four doses of 5 g throughout the day) or placebo for five days. At baseline, the vegetarians had similar memory to the meat-eaters, but after supplementation, the vegetarians who supplemented with creatine had better memory than the meat-eaters in either group. This study found that vegetarians were more sensitive to supplementation with creatine than meat-eaters. There were only minor side effects reported by some of the subjects.

If you plan to supplement with creatine based on this study, realize that it is not recommended to take 20 g of creatine past an initial loading phase, which is typically one week or less. After that, 5 g per day or less is recommended.

Source:

Benton D, Donohoe R. The influence of creatine supplementation on the cognitive functioning of vegetarians and omnivores. Br J Nutr. 2010 Dec 1:1-6. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 21118604. (Link)

Breaking news…from 2003!

I recently became aware of the following and updated the VeganHealth.org page on creatine with it:

A 2003 study of 27 lacto-ovo vegetarian and 18 vegan college students found that supplementing with 5 g of creatine per day for six weeks increased their mental capacity (1). You can get a free copy of this study at the link below under References.

There was no omnivore group so it is not clear if the supplementation would have also worked for omnivores. But in other studies on omnivores:

– Six weeks of creatine supplementation of .03 g/kg body weight per day did not improve cognitive function in a group of young adult omnivores, but the amount of creatine was only about 1 to 1.5 g/day (2).

– In elderly omnivores, four doses of 5 g of creatine per day for one or two weeks increased their cognitive function in some but not all measurements (3).

References

1. Rae C, Digney AL, McEwan SR, Bates TC. Oral creatine monohydrate supplementation improves brain performance: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial. Proc Biol Sci. 2003 Oct 22;270(1529):2147-50.

2. Rawson ES, Lieberman HR, Walsh TM, Zuber SM, Harhart JM, Matthews TC. Creatine supplementation does not improve cognitive function in young adults. Physiol Behav. 2008 Sep 3;95(1-2):130-4. Epub 2008 May 15.

3. McMorris T, Mielcarz G, Harris RC, Swain JP, Howard A.Creatine supplementation and cognitive performance in elderly individuals. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn. 2007 Sep;14(5):517-28. (Abstract)