And away from the gym, there is a growing, but still relatively limited, body of evidence to suggest it can also help with our short-term memory, mood and focus.<\/a><\/p>\n Creatine supplements have become popular across different sports [BBC]<\/p>\n So, can this supplement improve our ability to think, remember and respond?<\/p>\n And for me, and many others, will it help clear our brain fog, a catch-all term that describes an inability to think clearly, string a sentence together, and remember the simplest of things?<\/p>\n For some people with serious post-viral conditions, brain fog can be longer term and potentially life-changing. If you have concerns, it is best to seek medical help.<\/p>\n For most, brain fog is usually temporary and can happen because of an illness or certain types of medical treatment. For millions of women, it can be a symptom of the perimenopause, due to hormonal fluctuations.<\/p>\n Katie Mansell believes creatine has helped in many parts of her life. The 46-year-old from Merseyside lifts weights, runs 30-40 miles a week, has a full-on job as the chief financial officer of a software company, and a busy home life with a teenage son and two dogs.<\/p>\n “A few months ago, I was out of sorts. I was finding training really hard work and I was struggling to focus on things,” she says.<\/p>\n “It was my friend who recommended it – she said it was a game changer.”<\/p>\n Katie, who is also perimenopausal, started taking six grams of creatine a day three months ago, and is beginning to feel a difference. Her mood feels a bit lighter, she can lift heavier weights and the fog that had descended on her brain has started to lift.<\/p>\n “I’ve got more motivation to do things, especially when it comes to training. I feel stronger when I’m lifting and bouldering, and I can also think more clearly.”<\/p>\n Katie does caveat this – she’s also on magnesium supplements and has started on hormone replacement therapy (HRT), but she’s confident that creatine is making an impact and will continue with her daily dose.<\/p>\n Katie Mansell says she has felt herself become stronger since she started taking creatine three months ago [BBC]<\/p>\n There are others who believe it’s made little difference and there is divided opinion on whether the majority of us get the amount of creatine we need through our diets. Katie, who is a vegetarian, says she was probably missing out. While it’s understood our bodies produce one gram of it naturally, the rest comes from high-protein food like meat and fish.<\/p>\n The supplement’s impact on male athletes has been documented since the early 1990s but, as with a lot of scientific research, female biology was missing from the equation.<\/p>\n “I used to have to guess what my female athletes needed,” explains Dr Susan Kleiner, a high-performance nutritionist from the US state of Washington. “All the research was based on men.”<\/p>\n It wasn’t until a few years ago that women’s hormonal fluctuations were taken into account, says Dr Kleiner, an adviser on the board of Creatine Health, a global initiative set up to promote research on the supplement. “And that was when scientists started to see a real impact in other parts of the body.”<\/p>\n Instead of just concentrating on how creatine interacts with our muscles in a sport setting, scientists have begun to discover how it could potentially affect reproductive health, bone health and brain function – all of which can be affected during perimenopause, she explains.<\/p>\n So does that mean that creatine can help my brain fog?<\/p>\n “That’s an interesting thought,” says Professor Emeritus Trevor McMorris. “It might do.”<\/p>\n Having been in the field for more than 40 years, he has carried out many studies into creatine supplementation.<\/p>\n He says perimenopausal brain fog could have a similar impact to sleep deprivation, something he has researched extensively, finding that high doses of creatine could mitigate the effects of too little sleep<\/a>.<\/p>\n When people use the supplement, the brain may – like other muscles in the body – increase its stores of creatine. This helps produce more energy, which could help improve memory and the ability to process information.<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/ffc44a78b6cd2bea8fa45e870ffbbc74.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Katie](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/debe1c800cb55dadb2580b964d92333b.jpeg\"\/)
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