Between 2021 and 2025, a group of sports nutrition researchers published detailed disclosures of their financial ties to AlzChem Group AG, the manufacturer of the Creapure and Creavitalis creatine monohydrate ingredients. In 2024, food safety regulators in the United Kingdom and the European Union concluded that a cause-and-effect relationship had not been established for AlzChem’s proposed cognitive health claim on daily creatine.
Consumer wellness brands citing those same researchers as scientific advisors have continued to market creatine gummies for memory and brain function. On the consumer product pages, the academic disclosures do not appear.
Data Manifest
- Primary Investigation: How academic disclosures, regulatory findings and consumer-facing cognitive claims about creatine appear across different parts of the public record between 2021 and 2025.
- Key Anomalies Documented: UK and EU regulators did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship for the proposed daily cognitive claim; Create Wellness markets numerical memory-performance claims whose specific clinical basis is unresolved on the reviewed product page; academic industry disclosures are not fully reproduced on the reviewed Create Wellness and Bear Balanced consumer pages.
- Primary Sources Utilised: JISSN creatine reviews from 2021 and 2024; UKNHCC and EFSA scientific opinions from 2024; AlzChem conference materials; reviewed Create Wellness and Bear Balanced consumer pages.
Glossary
- Article 13(5): The route used by AlzChem to apply for a new health claim based on newly developed scientific evidence.
- Scientific Advisory Board: The advisory bodies on which several researchers named in the article are listed by AlzChem or consumer supplement brands.
- Competing interests: Published academic declarations recording relationships such as research grants, travel support and scientific advisory roles.
Creatine Research Academic Disclosure Records
On 8 February 2021, the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition published ‘Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation‘. Its authors included Darren Candow, Scott Forbes, Bruno Gualano, Richard Kreider and Eric Rawson.
That paper carries a detailed competing interests section. Candow, Gualano, Kreider and Rawson each disclose research grants, travel support or Scientific Advisory Board membership at AlzChem. This declaration is not confined to a footnote or a single line, but runs to a full disclosure section at the end of the paper.
On 25 December 2024, Part II of the same review appeared in the same journal.
Candow, Forbes, Kreider and Rawson again logged their financial ties. Candow also disclosed grants and a Scientific Advisory Board seat at Create. Forbes disclosed creatine donations and a scientific advisor role with Bear Balanced.
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AlzChem Role in Creatine
AlzChem Group AG, based in Trostberg, manufactures the Creapure and Creavitalis creatine monohydrate ingredients used by downstream supplement brands. AlzChem also sponsors the ‘Creatine for Health’ Scientific Advisory Board, the entity that has organised the two international creatine conferences of the past four years.
The Creatine Conference 2022 ran from 16 to 19 May in Alpharetta, Georgia, hosted by the AlzChem-sponsored board in partnership with the Exercise and Sport Nutrition Laboratory at Texas A&M University and the Dynamical Business & Science Society. Richard Kreider and Jeffrey Stout later edited the proceedings.
The Creatine Conference 2025 ran from 12 to 15 March at the Meliá Hotel in Munich in hybrid format. AlzChem’s news release and the published proceedings record over 400 attendees from 35 countries and 29 speakers. Kreider chairs the Scientific Advisory Board. Candow and Stout are listed as active members. Cognitive function, female health and healthy ageing all featured on the programme.
UK and European Regulatory Findings
On 26 March 2024, AlzChem Trostberg GmbH submitted an application to the United Kingdom Nutrition and Health Claims Committee under Article 13(5) of retained Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006. The proposed claim was: ‘Daily creatine supplementation can contribute to improved cognitive function’. Conditions of use specified a dose of 3 grams per day. Healthy adults over 18 were the target population.
The UKNHCC met on 2 May 2024 to evaluate ten randomised controlled trials submitted with the application. A draft opinion followed on 9 July 2024, with the final opinion agreed on 30 July 2024.
Nine of the ten trials were rejected. Most had used loading doses of up to 20 grams per day, or had tested highly specific populations under acute stress, such as Muay Thai fighters exercising to exhaustion. The single accepted study, Rawson and others from 2008, showed no significant cognitive difference between creatine and placebo at 2.2 grams per day. The committee concluded that a cause-and-effect relationship had not been established for the requested dose.
In November 2024, the European Food Safety Authority published its own evaluation of the identical claim and reached the same conclusion.
EFSA noted that acute effects on working memory had been observed only at doses of 20 grams per day over 5 to 7 days. No effect was seen at 2.2 to 14 grams per day, nor at a continuous 5 grams per day for 6 weeks. Three studies on diseased populations did not support the effect. Evidence for a biological mechanism was assessed as weak.
The Creatine Cognitive Research Timeline
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8 February 2021
JISSN review published
The review lists detailed competing interests for several authors, including research grants, travel support and AlzChem Scientific Advisory Board relationships.
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16-19 May 2022
Creatine Conference 2022
The AlzChem-sponsored 'Creatine for Health' Scientific Advisory Board hosts the conference in Alpharetta, Georgia, with partner organisations including Texas A&M.
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26 March 2024
AlzChem submits UK health-claim application
The proposed claim states that daily creatine supplementation can contribute to improved cognitive function at 3 grams per day in healthy adults.
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30 July 2024
UKNHCC finalises its opinion
Nine of ten submitted trials are deemed not pertinent to the proposed conditions of use. The single accepted study shows no significant cognitive difference from placebo.
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November 2024
EFSA publishes its evaluation
EFSA also concludes that a cause-and-effect relationship has not been established for the proposed cognitive claim.
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25 December 2024
JISSN Part II published
Further disclosures record relationships involving AlzChem, Create Wellness and Bear Balanced.
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12-15 March 2025
Creatine Conference 2025
The Munich conference records more than 400 attendees from 35 countries and 29 speakers, with cognitive function among the programme topics.
Marketing Creatine Supplements
Create Wellness sells creatine gummies. Its website lists Darren Candow and Abbie Smith-Ryan on its Scientific Advisory Board. Product pages market a ‘+5-18%’ or, in another version of the copy, ‘+5-19%’ increase in memory performance, together with a ‘+5-15%’ figure for higher brain phosphocreatine stores.
A ‘Memory Improvement With Creatine’ chart on the Create Wellness site carries a citation to Volek and others, 1999. That study examined heavy resistance training and muscle fibre adaptations. It did not evaluate cognitive or memory outcomes. No study identified on the product page corresponds to the ‘+5-18%’ or ‘+5-19%’ memory figure.
Bear Balanced also sells creatine gummies. Its website lists Scott Forbes and Jose Antonio on its advisory board. The ‘Creatine+’ matrix is marketed as helping to ‘enhance brain health, cellular energy, and recovery’. Its Walmart product listing carries the same product claims.
On the reviewed Create Wellness and Bear Balanced consumer pages, those academic disclosures are not displayed.
Regulatory Findings and Consumer Claims
| Source | What the Public Record Says | Evidence Context |
|---|---|---|
| UKNHCC | A cause-and-effect relationship was not established for the proposed claim at 3 grams per day in healthy adults. | Nine of ten submitted trials were not considered pertinent. The accepted 2.2 gram-per-day study found no significant cognitive difference from placebo. |
| EFSA | A cause-and-effect relationship was not established for the same cognitive claim. | Working-memory effects were observed only in high-dose 20 gram-per-day protocols lasting 5 to 7 days. Lower or continuous doses did not establish the proposed effect. |
| Create Wellness | Reviewed pages advertise a '+5-18%' or '+5-19%' increase in memory performance. | The specific clinical study supporting that percentage is not identified on the reviewed page. A displayed memory chart cites a 1999 resistance-training study that did not evaluate cognition or memory. |
| Bear Balanced | 'Creatine+' is marketed as helping to 'enhance brain health, cellular energy, and recovery'. | The article records the consumer claim but does not identify it as the same claim evaluated by UKNHCC or EFSA. |
Researcher Industry Ties
Darren Candow. In the December 2024 Part II review, Candow discloses research grants and Scientific Advisory Board seats at both AlzChem and Create, together with expert-witness work in legal cases involving creatine. His biography on the Create Wellness site describes him as ‘Professor & Expert in Muscle, Brain, and Creatine Science’. Neither the AlzChem funding, the AlzChem board seat, the Create funding nor the expert-witness work appears on the consumer biography.
Scott Forbes. Forbes discloses creatine donations and a scientific advisor role with Bear Balanced in the same December 2024 paper. Bear Balanced lists him on its Scientific Advisory Board. His creatine donations are not disclosed on the consumer page.
Eric Rawson. Rawson discloses industry-sponsored research, travel support and AlzChem Scientific Advisory Board membership in both the 2021 and 2024 papers. Create Wellness cites his co-authored 2011 review on brain health and cognition without mentioning his AlzChem Scientific Advisory Board relationship.
Abbie Smith-Ryan. Smith-Ryan discloses scientific advisor roles for both AlzChem and Create in the December 2024 paper. Her Create Wellness biography describes her as ‘Professor & Expert in Exercise Physiology and Women’s Health’. Her AlzChem advisory role is not displayed on the consumer biography.
The record establishes that disclosures present in the academic record are not fully reproduced on the reviewed consumer pages. It does not establish who drafts the consumer biographies, who signs off on the product-page copy or at what stage the academic disclosures cease to appear. Internal contracts, brand marketing guidelines and any communications between AlzChem and the consumer brands after the 2024 regulatory rejections are not on the public record.
The Disclosure Record Across Two Domains
The public record shows different levels of disclosure. It does not establish who decided what appeared on the consumer pages.
Academic Publications
Discloses research grants and Scientific Advisory Board relationships involving AlzChem and Create, plus expert-witness work involving creatine.
Discloses creatine donations and a scientific advisor role with Bear Balanced.
Discloses industry-sponsored research, travel support and AlzChem Scientific Advisory Board membership.
Discloses scientific advisor roles involving AlzChem and Create.
Reviewed Consumer Pages
Candow and Smith-Ryan are presented through professional biographies, but the AlzChem relationships recorded in the academic disclosures are not displayed there.
Forbes is listed on the Scientific Advisory Board, but his disclosed creatine donations are not displayed on the reviewed consumer page.
Rawson's co-authored brain-health review is cited without his AlzChem Scientific Advisory Board relationship being displayed alongside it.
The public record does not establish who drafts or approves these pages, or at what stage the academic disclosures cease to appear.
Source Box
Sources include: the 2021 JISSN review ‘Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation: what does the scientific evidence really show?’ and its 2024 Part II follow-up; the UK Nutrition and Health Claims Committee’s 2024 ‘Scientific Opinion for the substantiation of a health claim on creatine supplementation and improved cognitive function’; the EFSA Journal 2024 opinion ‘Creatine and improvement in cognitive function’; AlzChem’s Creatine Conference 2025 materials; Create Wellness’s ‘The Science of Creatine’ and ‘Our Quality Promise’; Bear Balanced consumer and advisory-board material and its Walmart product listing.
Claim-Source Matrix
| Core Finding | Primary Source Document | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Researchers disclosed financial and advisory relationships with AlzChem and, in some cases, consumer supplement brands. | 'Common questions and misconceptions about creatine supplementation', JISSN, 2021; Part II, JISSN, 2024 | Confirmed |
| The UKNHCC concluded that a cause-and-effect relationship had not been established for the proposed 3 gram-per-day cognitive claim. | UKNHCC scientific opinion on creatine supplementation and improved cognitive function, 2024 | Confirmed |
| EFSA reached the same overall conclusion on the proposed cognitive health claim. | EFSA scientific opinion on creatine and improvement in cognitive function, 2024 | Confirmed |
| Create Wellness publicly markets numerical memory-performance claims while the specific clinical basis for those figures remains unresolved on the reviewed page. | Create Wellness consumer pages, including 'The Science of Creatine' | Claim confirmed; basis unresolved |
| Reviewed Create Wellness and Bear Balanced consumer pages do not display the full academic industry disclosures recorded in the cited journal papers. | Create Wellness and Bear Balanced consumer and advisory-board pages | Confirmed |
What We Still Do Not Know
- The terms of reference and contractual structure of AlzChem's 'Creatine for Health' Scientific Advisory Board, including how members are compensated.
- The reviewed public record does not establish whether researchers on the Create Wellness and Bear Balanced advisory boards reviewed, edited or approved the biographies and cognitive claims appearing on those consumer pages.
- The reviewed record does not establish whether absent academic conflict-of-interest disclosures reflect written marketing or compliance policies, or an informal industry practice.
- Create Wellness's specific clinical basis for the '+5-18%' or '+5-19%' memory-performance figure remains unresolved on the reviewed product page.
- Any communications between AlzChem and the consumer brands after the July 2024 UKNHCC decision and November 2024 EFSA decision were not identified in the reviewed public record.
- AlzChem’s internal rationale for submitting a 3 gram-per-day cognitive claim using a study set drawn largely from higher-dose loading protocols and specialised populations is not established in the reviewed public record.
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