It’s incredible to think about the event that first brought creatine monohydrate into the consciousness of the North American mainstream. In 1951, Roosevelt University doctor Andrew Ivy promoted Krebiozen — a chemical substance that had allegedly been developed by Yugoslavian physician Dr. Steven Durovic — as a cure for cancer.
Twelve years later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration completed its investigation into the contents of Krebiozen, and concluded in 1963 that the contents of each $9.50 Krebiozen capsule contained nothing but ordinary mineral oil and a smidgen of creatine monohydrate.
Discarding the false claim that creatine was a potential cancer cure, it would be another two decades before researchers at the University of Southern California School of Medicine unlocked creatine’s life-changing applications in muscle development and energy transfer.
That was all well and good for bodybuilders and world class athletes, but it would take more than a decade for the heated pursuit of Major League Baseball’s single-season home run record to cast creatine as a miracle supplement that could confer physical advantages upon athletes and fitness enthusiasts at any level of their development.
Now, creatine has come full circle, with the supplement being prescribed not necessarily as a wonder drug, but as a marvel of sports medicine that can improve and prolong the viability and functionality of both body and mind for populations that it traditionally hasn’t been marketed towards. And, with the broadening market appeal of creatine has come a diversification in the methods used to promote creatine to each audience.
Expanding the Consumer Base of Creatine
The days of creatine as a supplement that is only taken excitedly by male bodybuilders to gain size, or taken grudgingly by young athletes in order to maximize their potential in their individual sports, is a thing of the past. Creatine is now consumed by a diverse range of populations that includes all ages and genders, and even by people whose foremost goal in taking creatine is optimizing the productivity of their minds rather than their bodies.
This expansion of creatine’s appeal has been a meticulous, painstaking process resulting from countless studies aiming to identify every single way creatine can upgrade a person’s life. Simply put, the net result of all of those tests is that it’s difficult to find a physiological process that creatine doesn’t improve at least somewhat, and several that it enhances dramatically.
Creatine and Women’s Health
While men and women are more similar than they are different, there are certain anatomical differences that are exclusive to women — including reproductive organs and an assortment of female-specific hormones — that creatine uniquely affects. This is to say nothing of the common differences in gym behaviors between men and women that several supplement companies have clearly taken into account when advertising creatine.
Even aside from this, the advantageous properties of creatine have usually been touted in relation to weight room productivity, and the growth of large muscles, which have traditionally been the interests of a greater number of men than women. While men tend to have an advantage in the area of natural muscle growth due to higher average levels of testosterone, studies have revealed the benefits that creatine provides women with respect to a wide range of physical processes.
Women and Physical Health
The term bodybuilder was once isolated to a self-identifying group of amateurs and professionals who either went out of their way to compete in formal contests, or tried their hardest to look like they did.
Now the terms can apply more casually to anyone who exercises to upgrade the appearance of one or more parts of their anatomy, and women are a demographic that is more likely than men to limit the focus of their resistance training to a select few sections of their body, with a tremendous amount of effort focused on their lower bodies.
For women whose primary interest lies in producing a prodigious posterior, creatine offers the means to boost strength, maximize muscle growth, and accelerate recovery. This latter benefit prompts rapid returns to the gym for repeat sessions. As such, the focus on maximizing lower body muscle growth through accelerated means without harmful muscle damage or injuries can only be brought about naturally through the use of creatine.
Women and Reproductive Health
Fluctuations in the hormone levels of women throughout their reproductive cycles have been shown to correlate with changes in the synthesis, transportation, and expression of creatine in their bodies, including during pregnancy.
Research shows that women consuming less than 13 mg of creatine per kg of body mass per day had a higher likelihood of irregular periods, and increased risk of fetal macrosomia, pelvic infection, hysterectomy, and oophorectomy, and were also more likely to require hormone replacement therapy.
Conversely, the consumption of creatine has been shown to lower the risks of reproductive issues in women, with increased regularity of menstrual periods, fewer obstetric conditions, and less likelihood of pelvic diseases or abnormalities. (1)

Women and Menopause
On the back end of a woman’s reproductive life cycle lie menopause and related difficulties, including a reduction of skeletal muscle and bone mass, and often a deterioration of mood quality. Fortunately, high doses of creatine have been shown to help women retain size in their skeletal muscle and bones, while also helping to improve mood. The improvement to mood is believed to occur due to creatine restoring the brain’s energy levels and creating a pro-energetic environment. (2)
Simultaneous to this, creatine has also demonstrated an ability during studies to restore the bone geometric properties of some parts of the anatomies of post-menopausal women, like the proximal femur. (3)
Aging Populations and Creatine
As we age, our muscles naturally lose their ability to grow or regenerate, and simply working out regularly and consuming nutritious food yields diminishing returns as time progresses. Moreover, it also starts to lake longer and longer to recover from each strenuous exertion.
Over time, this leads to muscles that are less capable of engaging in the challenging activities that can help to develop and preserve them, and fewer overall exercise sessions that are capable of slowing the decline. This is why the study of creatine’s effects on aging populations has been supremely valuable.
Muscle Strength and Growth
During studies involving older adults, creatine supplementation has been shown to conclusively increase lean muscle tissue and strength. (4) In fact, a comprehensive analysis of multiple studies has shown that short-term, high-dose creatine supplementation is capable of boosting the strength and muscle mass of older adults even when they don’t engage in any concurrent physical training. (5)
Bone Mass
There is evidence that creatine plays a role in the viability of osteoblasts, the cells involved in bone formation. (6) Study participants who took creatine while beginning a new round of resistance training experienced a 27% reduction in bone resorption over the course of an analysis of men between the ages of 59 and 77, in comparison with a 13% reduction in the bone resorption of those who resistance trained without consuming creatine. (7)
In addition, one study investigating creatine supplementation on older adults made a direct link between creatine supplementation and increased leg strength, noting the immense importance of maintaining leg strength for older adults. (8) This is because declining leg strength has been cited as one of the most frequent factors contributing to an increase in falls, which also results in an increased frequency of bone breaks and related injuries in aging populations.
Age-Related Diseases
It’s typical for human beings to experience deterioration on a number of fronts as they grow older. Aging adults lose 30 to 50 percent of their muscle mass by the time they reach 80 years of age, to say nothing of the increased susceptibility to illness, and seemingly inevitable cognitive decline.
Aside from creatine’s proven ability to boost the retention of muscle and bone mass in aging populations, it has also demonstrated antioxidant properties, with the added ability to reduce mental fatigue, protect the brain from neurotoxicity, and attenuate the symptoms of neurological disorders.
In addition, creatine is presently being studied as a potential solution to reducing the symptoms of age-related diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. Moreover, while creatine is not the anti-cancer wonder drug it was deceptively advertised to be during the 1960s, recent studies have shown creatine to boost anti-tumor immunity in mice, with future studies likely to involve human subjects. (9)
Brain Health
Moving beyond physical strength, the quest to maximize mental acumen and brain health has been ongoing, and creatine has shown that it’s a natural and reliable solution to enhancing and preserving brain health, and even more so than several of the most advanced medicines have demonstrated themselves to be.
Creatine Improves Memory
According to a meta-analysis of 23 different randomized controlled trials, creatine supplementation enhanced measures of memory performance in healthy individuals, and especially in older adults between the ages of 66 and 76. (10) Therefore, creatine is one of the safest interventions that many people can attempt if they find that their memories are failing them, or if they simply wish to boost their mental acuity.
Creatine Mitigates the Effects of Sleep Loss
Thus far, creatine has proven that it’s capable of inducing changes in the brain’s creatine levels while preventing a drop in pH level. These changes have been correlated with improved cognitive performance and processing speed, with researchers stating that these changes reflect how a single high dose of creatine can partially reverse metabolic alterations and fatigue-related cognitive deterioration. (11)
Creatine Has Antidepressant Effects
A seemingly definitive link has been established between creatine intake and markers of depression, with those ingesting the lowest amounts of creatine having the highest rates of depression. (12) Correspondingly, a host of studies exploring the intervention of creatine as an alternative to pharmacological treatments has shown positive effects that strongly suggest that increased creatine can attenuate the effects of depression, or alleviate depressive symptoms. (13)
Creatine May Help in Aftermath of Traumatic Brain Injury
Traumatic brain injuries are frequently accompanied by corresponding reductions of the brain’s creatine level. Accordingly, supplementation with creatine was shown to reduce or shorten several of the negative consequences of traumatic brain injuries.
Following brain injuries, creatine was shown to decrease the duration of post-traumatic amnesia, and shorten the length of time patients were required to remain intubated, or to stay in the hospital at all. Moreover, creatine takers also had greater improvements in measures of physical movement, cognitive ability, and social and behavioral restoration within the first three months after surgery than those who didn’t take creatine. They also had greater rates of self-care after six months than non-creatine-takers.
In addition, amongst the same patients involved in the study, follow-up checks indicated that creatine takers also had fewer post-traumatic headaches, less dizziness, and less fatigue. (13)

How brands are positioning creatine for different demographics.
The changing consumer base for creatine has resulted in significant changes in the way different brands have positioned themselves to reach new sets of customers. Clearly recognizing that a flexed, veiny, brawny set of biceps was not necessarily the most appealing image to attract women interested in safe childbirth or elderly individuals keen on preserving their cognitive functions, some supplement brands have deviated from the traditional approach to attract these growing market segments.
Creatine Brands Targeting Women
The fact that a creatine brand is primarily targeting women will usually be evident right off the bat based on the name on the label. Brands like “Peach Perfect,” “Shelf Builder,” and the far more direct “Creatine Monohydrate for Women” make it clear by their names and pink-colored labels that they have been developed with the interests of women in mind.
Just in case the names weren’t clear enough in expressing their intentions, both Peach Perfect and Shelf Builder directly promote their ability to promote “glute gains” through their advertising, with Peach Perfect proudly proclaiming to be a “booty builder” right on its label. Creatine Monohydrate for Women similarly claims that its creatine component contributes to “booty gains.”
Aside from the focus on women’s backsides, these creatine brands make their intentions clear through their other areas of focus, including hormonal balance and minimal bloating. Beyond that, these particularly female-friendly versions of supplements are combined with other ingredients that are known to extend other benefits to women, including collagen for improved skin health, or vitamin infusions in ratios consistent with female multivitamins.
Creatine Brands Prioritizing Brain Health
It’s virtually unheard of for a creatine supplement to only promote the boost it can provide to the brain without acknowledging the user’s body. However, there are several creatine supplements that place considerable effort behind highlighting their cognitive advantages.
Brands like Rho and Gold Label both prioritize cognition right on their packaging, with Gold Label’s advertising adding that creatine “may also support brain health.” Meanwhile, the Amino Lean brand — which targets female customers while being less directly focused on the bulk of their backsides — also lists “brain health” on the label alongside the ordinary advantages of improved muscle performance and recovery.
Creatine Brands and Aging Populations
Most creatine brands catering to aging populations simply downplay the focus placed on increasing muscle size or athletic performance. Without including any images of young, exceedingly fit or muscular fitness models or athletes, the advertising of these brands focuses on easy consumability, and rapid boosts to strength, cognition, and overall physical function.
This is especially the case with BrainMD’s Smart Creatine+. Coming from a brand that prioritizes “brain-directed nutrition,” Smart Creatine+ leans heavily into its ability to provide a “Brain & Memory Power Boost to supercharge brainpower and amplify mental performance.”
In addition to stressing “healthy memory and cognition” as direct effects of taking Smart Creatine+, advertisements for the supplement also promote its easy solubility and digestibility, and its capacity to reduce the frequency of injuries, which are areas of focus that aging populations tend to take more of an interest in.
The Ever-Growing Appeal of Creatine
Without a doubt, creatine is a supplement whose popularity is on the rise. As the number of proven creatine benefits continues to be proven, and new populations whose lives can be improved from creatine supplementation continue to be discovered, it may soon be the case that creatine’s benefits become so widely known that the frequency and universality of its use is soon on par with that of ordinary multivitamins.
If that ever becomes the case, expect supplement companies to come up with an increasing number of creative brands and nutrient pairings to get their particular creatine offerings to stand out from the pack. After all, as creatine becomes appealing to a growing number segments within the supplement market, the efforts each brand takes to attract customers are likely to grow in their intensity right alongside the demand for creatine.
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