Health, fitness and the supplement aisle. An independent South African desk.
Supplements · Journal
It started as a bodybuilder's tub of white powder. Now it sits in the wellness cupboard next to the collagen. We sort the science from the sales pitch, for him and for her.
Walk into any South African pharmacy and the creatine shelf has quietly changed. The tubs with flexing torsos are still there. Beside them now sit pastel pouches promising "focus", "energy" and "healthy ageing". Creatine has crossed over from the weights room to the wellness aisle, so the fair question is whether the science made the trip too.
Short answer: mostly yes, with a few honest caveats.
Your body makes creatine from amino acids, and you also get it from meat and fish. Most of it sits in skeletal muscle as phosphocreatine, a fast-access energy reserve used to regenerate ATP, the molecule that powers muscle contraction. When you sprint for a taxi, grind out a heavy set of squats or chase a toddler up the stairs, that reserve does the first few seconds of work.
Take creatine as a supplement and those muscle stores rise. That lets you squeeze out an extra rep or two, or recover slightly faster between hard efforts. Over weeks of training those small extras add up to more strength and lean mass. The International Society of Sports Nutrition calls creatine monohydrate the most effective nutritional supplement currently available for increasing high-intensity exercise capacity and lean body mass during training.
The HN24 take creatine isn't a stimulant and you won't "feel" it work. Its effect builds up as you train, rather than arriving with each scoop.
For him
This is the bit Men's Health readers already know. Creatine is one of the very few supplements the Australian Institute of Sport puts in Group A, its "strong evidence for use in specific situations" category. The benefits show up in repeated, short, high-intensity work: lifting, rugby, sprint intervals, CrossFit-style sessions and the sled pushes and wall balls of hybrid racing.
What it won't do is turn a missed session into a good one. It amplifies training you're already doing. No programme, no payoff.
For her
The women's health case is where things have got interesting. A 2021 lifespan review in Nutrients (Smith-Ryan and colleagues) argues that women may have lower baseline creatine stores than men. It also points to research interest around the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and the post-menopause years, when muscle and bone loss speed up. The authors are clear that much of this is early-stage. The best-supported use is still creatine plus resistance training to build strength and muscle, and that matters more for women as oestrogen falls.
So the honest pitch for women isn't "creatine is a wellness elixir". It's this: if you're lifting to protect your muscle and bones through your 40s and beyond, creatine is a cheap, well-studied way to get more from those sessions.
You'll see creatine sold for focus and memory. There is real research on creatine in the brain, especially during sleep deprivation and in vegetarians, who start with lower stores. But it's a younger, more mixed evidence base than the muscle research. Treat cognitive claims on a label as promising, not proven.
This is the number one worry we hear, particularly from women. Creatine draws water into muscle cells, so the scale may creep up by roughly a kilo in the first weeks, especially if you load. That's intracellular water, not the puffy, under-the-skin bloat people fear, and skipping the loading phase keeps it minimal.
For healthy adults at standard doses, the ISSN position stand concludes that creatine is safe in both the short and long term, with no convincing evidence of kidney or liver harm. Two practical notes:
In South Africa most sports supplements are sold as health supplements or complementary products rather than evaluated medicines. That means label quality varies. Look for:
"It's a steroid." No. Creatine is a naturally occurring compound made from three amino acids, and it's present in every steak and piece of fish you eat. It has nothing to do with anabolic steroids or hormones, and it's permitted in sport.
"It makes you bulky." Creatine helps you train harder, and muscle grows only in response to the training you do. If your programme is two full-body sessions a week, you'll get stronger and firmer, not suddenly huge. The early weight change is mostly water stored inside muscle.
"It causes hair loss." This claim traces back largely to one small 2009 study in rugby players, which reported a rise in a hormone called DHT and never measured hair loss. It hasn't been convincingly replicated. If you're already prone to male- or female-pattern hair loss and you're worried, talk to your doctor. But the evidence doesn't support panic.
Creatine monohydrate is one of the most studied supplements in sports nutrition, which is exactly why you don't need to pay extra for a fancier version.
Endurance-only athletes, such as marathoners on steady long runs, get less out of it, and the extra water weight may not be welcome.
Creatine is the rare supplement that lives up to its reputation, for men and women. Pair 3 to 5 g a day with two or three resistance sessions a week, give it a month, and judge it by your training log, not the mirror.
Educational information, not medical advice. Speak to a doctor, pharmacist or registered dietitian before using supplements if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, under 18, taking medication, or living with kidney, liver or heart disease. Prices were observed in October 2026 and are not offers.