From Sports Performance to Healthy Aging, Creatine Finds New Momentum From phosphocreatine and athletic performance to brain bioenergetics, cellular resilience and muscle preservation during pharmacological weight loss

For several decades, creatine occupied a remarkably well-defined position in nutritional science: an ergogenic compound used primarily to support repeated high-intensity exercise, strength development and resistance- training adaptation. That description remains correct, but it is becoming incomplete. Contemporary research increasingly asks whether the creatine–phosphocreatine system may also be relevant in tissues and physiological states in which energetic reserve, functional capacity and resilience become limiting. This shift has brought creatine into research on sarcopenia and healthy aging, cerebral energy metabolism, cognitive performance under metabolic stress, neurodegenerative disease, and—most recently—the preservation of lean tissue and muscle function during the substantial weight loss produced by GLP-1 receptor agonists and related incretin-based therapies. The evidence, however, is uneven. Support for creatine monohydrate in muscular performance and resistance-training adaptation is extensive; evidence in older adults is increasingly persuasive, particularly when supplementation accompanies progressive resistance training. Brain bioenergetics is biologically plausible and supported by intriguing human experiments, but generalized cognitive claims remain unproven. Likewise, cellular-resilience and healthy-longevity narratives are mechanistically attractive but clinically immature. Finally, creatine as a strategy to protect muscle during GLP-1-associated weight loss has now entered dedicated prospective human testing, but efficacy data are not yet available. Creatine’s renewed momentum therefore reflects not the discovery of a new compound, but a broader understanding of physiological reserve, tissue quality and bioenergetic resilience across the lifespan.