Two Years, 237 Women, and No Change in Bone Density
237 postmenopausal women. Two years of creatine, resistance training three days a week, and walking six days a week. The thing the trial was built to measure did not move.
This page promised that null results go up the same as wins. This is the first test of that promise, and it is a good one, because the honest answer here is not the flattering one.
THE STUDY
- Title: A 2-yr Randomized Controlled Trial on Creatine Supplementation during Exercise for Postmenopausal Bone Health
- Journal: Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2023, volume 55, pages 1750 to 1760
- Authors: Chilibeck PD, Candow DG, Gordon JJ, Duff WRD, Mason R, Shaw K, Taylor-Gjevre R, Nair B, Zello GA
- Design: Two year randomized, placebo controlled trial
- Read it: PubMed 37144634
WHO WAS IN IT
237 postmenopausal women, mean age 59, followed for a full two years. That length is rare. Most supplement trials run six to twelve weeks, which is long enough to move a blood marker and nowhere near long enough to move a skeleton.
WHAT THEY TOOK
Creatine monohydrate or placebo, every day for two years, on top of an exercise program everybody did: resistance training three days a week and walking six days a week.
Two things about the dose worth being precise about. It was 0.14 grams per kilogram of bodyweight per day, scaled to each woman rather than a flat scoop. For a 70 kilogram woman that works out to roughly 9.8 grams a day, which is our arithmetic and not a number the paper prints. Either way it is meaningfully more than the familiar 5 gram dose.
And because every participant trained, this trial asks "does creatine add anything to exercise," not "does creatine do anything." Those are different questions.
WHAT THEY FOUND
On the primary outcome, nothing.
- Femoral neck bone density, the primary outcome: no effect versus placebo
- Total hip bone density: no effect
- Lumbar spine bone density: no effect
Some secondary measures did move, and they are the interesting part.
- Bone geometry at the narrow neck of the femur: creatine maintained section modulus, which predicts bending strength (p = 0.0011), and buckling ratio, which predicts resistance to cortical bending under load (p = 0.011). Shape held up even though density did not
- Walking speed over 80 metres: the creatine group went from 48.6 to 47.1 seconds while placebo went from 48.3 to 48.2 (p = 0.0008)
- Muscular strength: no effect on one rep max bench press or hack squat. Both groups got much stronger; creatine did not add to it
- Lean tissue mass: higher with creatine (p = 0.046), but only in a subanalysis of valid completers, not in the main result
The authors' conclusion, in full: "Two years of creatine supplementation and exercise in postmenopausal women had no effect on BMD; yet, it improved some bone geometric properties at the proximal femur."
WHAT IT DOES NOT SHOW
- A null is not a disproof. Bone density did not move. Bone geometry did. The honest summary is "not the way people assume," not "does nothing for bone"
- The lean mass result is the weakest thing in the paper. It comes from a subanalysis of valid completers rather than the main analysis, which is a friendlier group than everyone who enrolled. We are flagging it rather than leading with it, and you should discount it accordingly
- This complicates the other entry on this shelf. The 2026 meta analysis we posted the same day reported leg press strength up 7.5 kg with creatine. This trial, the longest one in that literature, found no effect on one rep max strength at all. Both are real results. A pooled average can hide a big trial that disagrees with it, and this is what that looks like
- The dose does not read across. 0.14 g per kg per day is roughly double the familiar 5 grams for most adults. You cannot conclude anything about a 5 gram routine from a trial that used more and still saw no density change
- Everyone exercised. There was no sedentary arm, so this says nothing about creatine without training
- Funding not stated here. The PubMed record we read carries no conflict of interest statement, so we are making no claim in either direction about who paid for it
WHY IT IS ON THIS SHELF
Because a research page that only posts the wins is an advertisement, and we said so on this shelf before we had anything to lose by it.
The practical read: if you are taking creatine for bone density, this is the best evidence available and it did not find what you are hoping for. Two years, a good sample, a real training program, a dose larger than most people take, and the density numbers sat still. What did hold up was bone shape at the hip and how fast these women walked, which are not nothing at 59.
Each four gummy serving of Vybrance Labs creatine gummies delivers 5g of creatine monohydrate, and we are not going to tell you that buys you bone density. The research does not say that. Read this next to the meta analysis on lean mass and strength, where the picture is better, and take both.
For the wider view by life stage, The Lab has the complete guide to creatine for women.
see you in the wild!
-Lawrence
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Nothing on this page is medical advice. Reference: PMID 37144634, DOI 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003202.
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