Powering Creatine Innovation in Your Products

Everything You Need to Know About Taking Creatine

Creatine stands out as one of the most well-researched, safe, and effective supplements available today. Trusted by the sports community for decades, its latest scientific breakthroughs reveal benefits that extend far beyond athletics, encompassing cognitive health, aging, women’s wellness, and rehabilitation.

At Jenerise, we help you harness creatine’s full potential as a functional ingredient, enabling your products to meet the growing demand for science-backed wellness supplements that your consumers want.

What Is Creatine

Creatine is a nitrogen-containing compound derived from reactions involving the amino acids arginine, glycine and methionine in the liver and brain. Though derived from amino acids, creatine itself is technically not one of the 20 amino acids that are the building blocks of all proteins.

Alternatively, creatine can be consumed in the diet, and is primarily found in animal-based foods like red meat, poultry and seafood, or through commercially manufactured supplement products containing chemically synthesized creatine monohydrate. 

While skeletal muscle does not synthesize creatine, it stores approximately 95% of the body's total creatine, with the remaining 5% stored in other tissues such as the brain and bone. 

How Creatine Works

Inside the cell, creatine becomes bound to phosphate and is stored as phosphocreatine. 

It is phosphocreatine that plays the pivotal role in the maintenance, optimization and regeneration of the ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the mitochondrial energy currency of your cells, especially during periods of physical and mental activity. 

Acting like a rapid recharge system, it enables harder training, faster recovery, and prolonged peak brain performance, whether in the gym, the office, or life.

Is Creatine Safe?

Creatine is one of the safest, most studied supplements on the market:

  • Daily doses of 3-5 grams are safe for healthy adults.

  • It poses no harm to the kidneys or liver.

  • Creatine is not a steroid, nor does it cause male pattern baldness.

  • Over 680 clinical studies confirm its safety for all ages.

The European Food Safety Authority Confirms Creatine is Safe

Adopted on February 2nd, 2016: Creatine in combination with resistance training and improvement in muscle strength. View →

Adopted on June 30th, 2011: Creatine and increase in physical performance during short-term, high-intensity, repeated exercise bouts, increase in endurance capacity, increase in endurance performance. View →

Creatine Has FDA Approval

Approved on March 5th, 2020: FDA classified creatine monohydrate as GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe), which means it can be used as a food and beverage ingredient without special approval.

Intended Use: Ingredient in energy drinks, protein bars and powders, milk shakes, meal replacement bars and powders, meat analogs, and dry powdered drink mixes at a level of 1.2 grams (g)/serving (equivalent to 1.0 g creatine/ serving). View →

Creatine’s Growing Demand in Health & Wellness Products

Your consumers want more than performance, they want energy, cognitive support, and overall health.

  • Enhanced athletic performance: More strength, power, and quicker recovery.

  • Cognitive benefits: Better memory, attention, and mental endurance.

  • Cardiovascular support: Increased energy production, improved oxygen efficiency, and hydration during exercise.

  • Age-related health: Combats muscle loss, supports brain health and improves bone density.

Who Should Take Creatine?

Creatine supports anyone looking to improve muscle mass, cognitive function, cardiovascular fitness, or overall vitality.

Who might be hesitant to consume it due to the current extent of scientific research?

  • Pregnant or breastfeeding women

  • Children

Potential Therapeutic Applications

Emerging research explores creatine’s role in conditions like dementia, muscular dystrophy, and rehabilitation, highlighting its promise beyond sports.

Potential Side Effects

  • Some may experience mild stomach discomfort during loading phases.

  • Staying well-hydrated is crucial.

Creatine in Your Products

Until today, creatine’s stability in liquid or moisture-rich formats has been a challenge due to its natural degradation into creatinine. Jenerise delivers breakthrough technology and innovative solutions that overcome this barrier, enabling creatine to be effectively added into ready-to-drink (RTD), ready-to-mix (RTM), and ready-to-eat (RTE) product formats without compromising efficacy or shelf life.

How is Creatine Monohydrate Manufactured?

Creatine monohydrate is synthesized by combining sarcosinate (N-methylglycinate) and cyanamide under heat and pressure in a controlled reactor. This process produces pure creatine crystals, which are carefully purified, dried, and milled into a fine 200-mesh powder to optimize solubility and performance.

The Jenerise Advantage

With thousands of scientific publications backing creatine’s benefits, Jenerise helps you access high-quality creatine monohydrate through trusted partners, paired with expert liquid stable formulation support and regulatory guidance to ensure you get the right ingredient, in the right format, to meet your customers’ evolving needs and bring your product vision to life.

This positions your brand at the forefront of functional ingredient trends while satisfying consumer demand for transparent, effective products.

Creatine Resources

Reading

For a comprehensive deep dive into creatine, we can highly recommend the book ‘Creatine For Human Health: A natural substance and its benefits for muscle metabolism, fitness, health & longevity’ by Dr. Robert Percy Marshall and Dr. Jürgen Giessing, published in 2024.

Creatine For Human Health provides an easy-to-understand explanation of the various health benefits of creatine and summarises the latest scientific evidence. These include;

  • Muscle metabolism

  • Performance enhancement

  • Physiological regeneration

It also explains the many health-promoting effects that go far beyond sport, such as its potential in longevity medicine, its effects on the growing and ageing body, and its therapeutic and preventive use in acute emergency situations, chronic diseases, and much more.

The entire book is available to read online at Creatine for Health. View →

Trusted Research and Studies

Last edited: July 15th 2025

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  4. Forbes, S.C.; Candow, D.G.; Ostojic, S.M.; Roberts, M.D.; Chilibeck, P.D. Meta-Analysis Examining the Importance of Creatine Ingestion Strategies on Lean Tissue Mass and Strength in Older Adults. Nutrients 2021, 13, 1912. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13061912

  5. Harris R C, Söderlund K, Hultman E. Elevation of creatine in resting and exercised muscle of normal subjects by creatine supplementation. Clin Sci (Lond). 1992 Sep;83(3):367-74. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1327657/

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  12. Ostojic SM. Dietary Creatine Intake and All-Cause Mortality among U.S. Adults: A Linked Mortality Analysis. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2025-000

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  14. Ribeiro, F.; Longobardi, I.; Perim, P.; Duarte, B.; Ferreira, P.; Gualano, B.; Roschel, H.; Saunders, B. Timing of Creatine Supplementation around Exercise: A Real Concern? Nutrients 2021, 13, 2844. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13082844

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  17. Bredahl, E.C.; Eckerson, J.M.; Tracy, S.M.; McDonald, T.L.; Drescher, K.M. The Role of Creatine in the Development and Activation of Immune Responses. Nutrients 2021, 13, 751. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13030751

  18. Tarnopolsky MA, MacLennan DP. Creatine monohydrate supplementation enhances high-intensity exercise performance in males and females. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2000 Dec;10(4):452-63. doi: 10.1123/ijsnem.10.4.452. PMID: 11099372. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11099372/

  19. Devries MC, Phillips SM. Creatine supplementation during resistance training in older adults: a meta-analysis. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2014 Jun;46(6):1194-203. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000000220. PMID: 24576864. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24576864/

  20. Gordji-Nejad A, Matusch A, Kleedörfer S, Jayeshkumar Patel H, Drzezga A, Elmenhorst D, Binkofski F, Bauer A. Single dose creatine improves cognitive performance and induces changes in cerebral high-energy phosphates during sleep deprivation. Sci Rep. 2024 Feb 28;14(1):4937. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-54249-9. PMID: 38418482; PMCID: PMC10902318. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38418482/

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  22. Muccini, A.M.; Tran, N.T.; de Guingand, D.L.; Philip, M.; Della Gatta, P.A.; Galinsky, R.; Sherman, L.S.; Kelleher, M.A.; Palmer, K.R.; Berry, M.J.; Walker, D.W.; Snow, R.J.; Ellery, S.J. Creatine Metabolism in Female Reproduction, Pregnancy and Newborn Health. Nutrients 2021, 13, 490. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13020490

  23. Xu C, Bi S, Zhang W, Luo L. The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Nutr. 2024 Jul 12;11:1424972. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1424972. PMID: 39070254; PMCID: PMC11275561. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39070254/

  24. Balestrino M. Role of Creatine in the Heart: Health and Disease. Nutrients. 2021 Apr 7;13(4):1215. doi: 10.3390/nu13041215. PMID: 33917009; PMCID: PMC8067763. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33917009/

  25. Harmon, K.K.; Stout, J.R.; Fukuda, D.H.; Pabian, P.S.; Rawson, E.S.; Stock, M.S. The Application of Creatine Supplementation in Medical Rehabilitation. Nutrients 2021, 13, 1825. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13061825

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  31. van der Veen, Y.; Post, A.; Kremer, D.; Koops, C.A.; Marsman, E.; Appeldoorn, T.Y.J.; Touw, D.J.; Westerhuis, R.; Heiner-Fokkema, M.R.; Franssen, C.F.M.; Wallimann, T.; Bakker, S.J.L. Chronic Dialysis Patients Are Depleted of Creatine: Review and Rationale for Intradialytic Creatine Supplementation. Nutrients 2021, 13, 2709. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13082709

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For more information or with questions, please contact rachael@jenerise.com