It is a good theory that diets or supplements that help athletes will also help brain function. Creatine has many beneficial effects. It directly increases neuron energy. Creatine is an antioxidant that crosses the blood brain barrier. Now we find that creatine increases oxygen to the brain.

Creatine has been used by athletes for over twenty years with no significant side effects. Creatine delays onset and symptom severity in HD mice. Questions sent to the HDL suggest that most HD affected have never heard of creatine. What a shame. --Jerry

Posted to HDLighthouse: 09-May-2002

Effects of creatine on mental fatigue and cerebral hemoglobin oxygenation While the role of creatine in preventing muscle (peripheral) fatigue for high performance athletes is well understood, its biochemical role in prevention of mental (central) fatigue is not.

Creatine is abundant in muscles and the brain and after phosphorylation used as an energy source for adenosine triphosphate synthesis.

Using double-blind placebo-controlled paradigm, we demonstrated that dietary supplement of creatine (8 g/day for 5 days) reduces mental fatigue when subjects repeatedly perform a simple mathematical calculation.

After taking the creatine supplement, task-evoked increase of cerebral oxygenated hemoglobin in the brains of subjects measured by near infrared spectroscopy was significantly reduced, which is compatible with increased oxygen utilization in the brain.

Source: Jerry Lampson 07-May-2001, updated 12-Nov-2001

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