Could dietary creatine intake modulate overweight elderly's selective attention and inhibitory function?

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Nutrition Science
• Gerontology

Background:

• Aging and increased adiposity can affect brain creatine levels.
• Brain creatine is crucial for maintaining cognitive functions.
• Cognitive decline is a concern in the elderly population.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between dietary creatine intake and cognitive performance.
• To assess if creatine consumption impacts cognition in elderly women with overweight.
• To explore potential nutritional strategies for supporting cognitive health in older adults.

Main Methods:

• Twenty-seven overweight women over 60 years old participated.
• Cognitive performance was evaluated using the Eriksen Flanker Task (EFT).
• Dietary creatine intake was estimated over 5 days using nutritional recalls.

Main Results:

• Significant differences in EFT performance were observed between low and high creatine intake groups.
• Reaction time to incongruent stimuli showed a negative correlation with creatine intake (r = -0.383, p = 0.004).
• The percentage of correct answers strongly correlated with daily creatine intake (r = 0.743, p < 0.001).

Conclusions:

• Dietary creatine intake appears to influence cognitive ability in elderly women with overweight.
• Findings suggest creatine is an important dietary factor for cognition in older adults.
• This highlights the potential role of creatine supplementation or dietary adjustments for cognitive support.