Creatine for Fatigue
Creatine is not a reliable remedy for fatigue. A few small, dated trials hint it may ease mental fatigue or short-term sleep-deprivation effects, but the evidence is thin and conflicting, and no health authority endorses creatine for fatigue.
Why this grade7-layer evidence engine
This earns a Weak (C), disputed grade because the human trials pointing toward a fatigue benefit are small and old. Early double-blind RCTs found creatine reduced mental fatigue during demanding mental work (PMID 11985880) and preserved skill performance after sleep deprivation (PMID 21324203), and a systematic review argued it helps states of brain energy shortage (PMID 31012130). But these studies enrolled only 10-14 people and date to 2002-2011.
The signal does not hold up consistently. A 2020 RCT found creatine improved grip endurance and Stroop accuracy yet failed to prevent the visuomotor decline caused by mental fatigue (PMID 31403610). The largest, highest-quality analysis (a 2024 meta-analysis of 492 adults, PMID 39070254) measured cognition—memory and processing speed—not fatigue itself, so it offers only indirect support.
Authorities and clinics back creatine only for muscle strength and power, not fatigue. The FDA accepts it as a food ingredient and EFSA confirms a strength benefit in older adults, but EFSA rejected the related cognitive claim, and NIH ODS, Mayo, Cleveland Clinic, and Harvard Health all limit its proven use to short, high-intensity exertion. None lists fatigue as an indication.
Scoring transparency
All scores computed by a 7-layer evidence engine — fully auditable▸View the full decision path (audit trail)
- compute_raw_score — 加權公式: L2×0.30 + L3×0.25 + L5×0.25 + L11×0.10 + L1×0.10 = 0.588
- tier_from_score — 依分數區間映射至 tier letter
- apply_hec_rules — 高階證據未達主導 (0 positive vs 1 negative)，由 raw_score 決定
- tier_strict_requirement_check — | B→C 因 scope.conflation_risk=true 且 L11 獨評較低 (B7-2 tier cap)
- detect_disputes — 偵測到 1 個 hard + 0 個 soft dispute
- decide_status — 依 tier + dispute 結果決定 status