Report / Paper metadata
Effects of six weeks of guanidinoacetic acid supplementation with and without creatine monohydrate on cognitive function and markers of health in healthy adults.
An exploratory trial in fifty-eight healthy, active adults tested guanidinoacetic acid, alone or with creatine, over six weeks. Some reaction-time measures changed, but most cognitive tests did not. The mixed results do not establish a general improvement in memory or thinking.
What did participants receive?
The double-blind randomised trial compared placebo, guanidinoacetic acid with placebo, and guanidinoacetic acid with creatine monohydrate. Participants completed cognitive tests and questionnaires, and provided fasting blood samples before and after six weeks. The population was healthy and active, not patients being treated for dementia or another cognitive disorder.
Which findings need to stay separate?
The abstract reports statistically significant results for some reaction-time measures. It reports limited or no effect in several other tasks, including delayed picture recognition, vigilance, spatial-memory testing and the Stroop task. It also describes some differences as approaching significance, rather than meeting its stated significance threshold.
Why does an exploratory trial need caution?
Many tests and questionnaires were examined, creating several opportunities to find a favourable result. The abstract does not establish how all these comparisons were controlled or which were primary outcomes. A result with an uncertainty range crossing no change cannot be treated as a confirmed benefit simply because the direction looks favourable.
What can be said about safety?
The authors report no clinically meaningful difference in the measured blood markers or self-reported side effects during this short trial. That observation does not establish long-term safety or rule out rare harms. Some sleep and quality-of-life findings were mixed. This abstract-based explanation supports further testing, not a supplement recommendation or a claim that the products treat cognitive disease.
- Journal
- Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition
- Kind
- Paper metadata
- Identifier
- PMID 42730704