10/12/2026
The people have spoken. The first topic on the chopping block is creatine.
When you hear the word creatine, do you immediately picture a bodybuilder?
Creatine is best known for supporting muscle energy, strength, power, and exercise performance. But your muscles aren’t the only place your body uses creatine.
Your brain also relies on creatine to help maintain cellular energy.
Because of this, researchers have been studying creatine beyond athletic performance, including its potential effects on memory and cognitive function. Some studies have found benefits in certain populations.
So does everyone need to take creatine?
Not necessarily.
Creatine is naturally produced by the body and is also obtained through food. Supplementation may be useful for some people depending on factors such as diet, activity level, age, health status, and individual physiology.
At Root Function Health, we look at those individual factors alongside genetic SNPs to help us understand how someone’s body may handle and utilize nutrients.
There is also a practical consideration: creatine commonly increases water stored within muscle cells. For some people, that can show up as a small increase in scale weight or a feeling of looking slightly “fuller” or puffier. That’s not the same thing as gaining body fat, but it is something to consider depending on someone’s goals.
And what about safety?
For healthy adults, creatine is generally considered one of the better-studied sports supplements, particularly at commonly studied doses. More is not necessarily better, though, and supplementation isn’t automatically appropriate for every person or every situation.
So while creatine isn’t simply a “bodybuilding supplement,” that doesn’t mean everyone needs to be taking it.
The more useful question is: could creatine serve a purpose for you?
