Does creatine make you smarter?

Summary

Is creatine a weird steroid-like hormone or drug? No. Creatine is a nutrient. Most omnivores eat a gram or two per day from meat. Your body also synthesizes a gram or two per day. You need creatine to deliver energy inside of cells. It is normal and non-weird. Does creatine increase testosterone? Unlikely. This concern comes from one study in 2009 on 16 male rugby players. But that study is considered extremely suspect. There have been at least twelve other studies that all found no change or physiologically irrelevant changes. Beyond that, it’s implausible that creatine would increase testosterone, because we know what creatine does and it has nothing to do with hormones. Does creatine make you go bald? No. Or, rather: No study ever reported that. One study reported the opposite. There is no mechanistic reason to think that would happen. There are good mechanistic reasons to think that would not happen. These rumors all trace back to speculation built on top of that same single 2009 study. But that study is contradicted by later research, and anyway didn’t measure hair. Anything is possible, but as far as I can tell, it’s equally plausible that creatine would increase hair growth. And if you’re really worried about this: Are you going to stop eating meat? Is creatine safe? Probably. The International Society of Sports Nutrition says: Available short and long-term studies in healthy and diseased populations, from infants to the elderly, at dosages ranging from 0.3 to 0.8 g/kg/day for up to 5 years have consistently shown that creatine supplementation poses no adverse health risks and may provide a number of health and performance benefits. It’s been studied extensively, and no risks have been found. The way it works doesn’t suggest any risks. And supplementing a few grams per day doesn’t put you far outside the range that people get from normal food. Does creatine make you stronger? Yes. It’s very rare for a supplement to have such strong and consistent evidence. A ...