The emerging and evolving evidence supporting creatine as an ergogenic aid: history and applications.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review summarizing existing literature without systematic search or meta-analytic methodology.
PubMed 41870601 · doi:10.1080/15502783.2026.2646627
What was done
This narrative review synthesized over three decades of research on creatine supplementation, examining its historical development, physiological mechanisms, safety profile, and efficacy across strength, endurance, team-sport, and tactical (military and law enforcement) populations.
What was found
The abstract provides no specific quantitative effect sizes or statistical metrics. It qualitatively reports that creatine enhances phosphocreatine resynthesis and cellular energy availability, leading to consistent gains in high-intensity exercise performance, strength, power, and lean body mass. It also notes benefits for exercise recovery, muscle damage mitigation, repeated-sprint ability, glycogen resynthesis, and cognitive/occupational readiness in tactical settings. Pooled analyses from hundreds of clinical trials cited in the text showed no higher rate of adverse events relative to placebo.
Why it matters
It provides an updated synthesis of creatine's expanding scope beyond traditional resistance training, highlighting potential applications in endurance, tactical readiness, neuroprotection, and recovery.
Limits
As a narrative review, it lacks a systematic literature search, standardized risk-of-bias assessment, or quantitative meta-analysis. The abstract reports no numerical effect sizes or confidence intervals, and findings span highly diverse populations and dosing protocols without individual-level data.