Effects of six weeks of guanidinoacetic acid supplementation with and without creatine monohydrate on cognitive function and markers of health in healthy adults
Chun J, Babakhani K, Gonzalez DE, Dickerson B, Sowinski RJ, Rasmussen CJ, Kreider RB
Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 0 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Randomized controlled trial (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Possibly industry funded
- Nonprofit
- WoodNext Foundation
- Authors
- At least one author declares a financial tie to industry
Based on 1 listed funder(s) and full-text disclosure statement.
Publication
- Published
- 2026-09-12 · J Int Soc Sports Nutr · vol. 23 · issue sup1 · p. 2711032
- Publisher
- Springer Science+Business Media
- Cited
- 0 citations · more than 81% of similar papers · 0.0× the field average
- References
- 170 works
- Access
- Open access (journal) · CC-BY-NC
- Research areas
- Muscle metabolism and nutrition · Nutrition and Health in Aging · Biochemical effects in animals
- Keywords
- Creatine, Cognition, Univariate analysis, Multivariate analysis, Univariate, Analysis of variance, Clinical nutrition, Confidence interval
- MeSH
- humans, creatine, glycine, double-blind method, affect, cognition, reaction time, dietary supplements, adult, middle aged, female, male, young adult, biomarkers, sleep quality
7 authors
- Jisun Chun
- Khatereh Babakhani
- Drew Edward Gonzalez
- Broderick Dickerson
- Ryan J. Sowinski
- Chris J. Rasmussen
Abstract
Background
Guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) supplementation has been reported to increase brain creatine content more effectively than creatine monohydrate (CrM). However, the effects on cognitive function are unclear.
Purpose
The purpose of this proof-of-concept exploratory clinical trial was to determine whether GAA supplementation with and without CrM affects cognitive function and/or markers of health.
Methods
In a double-blind, randomized, and counterbalanced manner, 58 healthy and active adults (33 females, 35.5 ± 14 years, 76.2 ± 14 kg) ingested a PLA (PLA, 2 × 6 g/d maltodextrin), GAA (2 × 1 g/d) + PLA (2 × 5 g/d), or GAA (2 × 1 g/d) + CrM (2 × 5 g/d) for six weeks. The participants donated fasting blood samples and completed a battery of tests and questionnaires assessing various aspects of function, mood, stress, sleep quality, and markers of health at baseline and after six weeks of supplementation. Data were analyzed using General Linear Model (GLM) multivariate and univariate with repeated measures, and mean changes from baseline with 95% confidence intervals, and Chi-squared analysis, and considered significant when the probability of error was 0.05 or less, and approaching significance (p > 0.05-p < 0.10).
Results
GAA supplementation tended to improve overall reaction time (-241.8 ms [-533, 50], p = 0.10) while significant interaction effects were observed in overall reaction time (p = 0.031-330 ms [-629, -31]) and YES reaction time (-290 ms [-484, -96], p = 0.004) while recalled correct reaction time (-178 ms [-374, 21], p = 0.078) and recalled correct YES (7.4 % [-1, 15.8], p = 0.084) approached significance compared to PLA. Limited to no effects were observed on the Delayed Picture Recognition Task Test, Digit Vigilance Task Test, Corsi Block Task Test, or Stroop Color-Word Task Test. The amount of time engaged in moderate physical activity was significantly greater (p p = 0.036), and feeling like difficulties are mounting (p = 0.053) on the Perceived Stress Scale. Some positive and potentially undesirable effects were observed in sleep quality assessments. The quality of life assessment revealed that participants in the GAA group reported less frequent feelings of being worn out (p = 0.068) and that their health was excellent (p = 0.092) while those in the GAA + CrM group reported more frequent limitations when bending, kneeling, or stooping (p = 0.053), more often feeling full of life (p = 0.081), and less frequency in feeling downhearted and depressed (p = 0.066). No clinically meaningful changes were observed in blood markers or self-reported side effects among the groups.
Conclusion
Dietary supplementation with GAA (2 g/d) and the combination of CrM (10 g/d + GAA 2 g/d) for six weeks improved delayed verbal episodic recognition memory and retrieval speed and some measures of perceived stress, sleep quality, and quality of life. However, most cognitive tests were not affected, particularly when comparing the GAA to the PLA group; there were some inconsistencies in the findings, and several differences only approached significance. Additional research is needed before conclusions can be drawn. Clinical trial registration: ISRCTN68542582.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY-NC).
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