‘I couldn’t think straight’: Halle Berry, 59, swears this one supplement banished her brain fog

It’s not exactly easy to find parallels between my life experience and that of Halle Berry, the Oscar-winning, Los Angeles-dwelling multimillionaire. On one point, however, I can absolutely relate. Midlife brain fog.

‘Nobody ever talked to me about menopause,’ Halle has explained. ‘My ego made me think I was gonna skip it… [I thought] If I just exercise and eat right and stay conscious, I’ll just miss this menopause thing.’ When it did arrive, it blindsided her. She joined, in her words: ‘the millions of women who spent 4-5 years of their lives being misdiagnosed, or not diagnosed at all’.

That’s partly because the accepted script around the menopause revolves around night sweats and hot flushes – but for many women, that’s simply not how it manifests. When Dr Louise Newson, menopause specialist and author of The Definitive Guide To The Perimenopause & Menopause, surveyed nearly 6,000 women about their experiences, those most commonly reported weren’t about the body at all but the mind. Brain fog, low energy and memory problems came up again and again.

The science stacks up here. Oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone regulate mood, anxiety, stress response, memory and appetite as well as reproduction. Jill Goldstein, a professor of psychiatry and medicine at Harvard Medical School, has led groundbreaking research showing that menopausal declines in estradiol – a form of oestrogen – can significantly reshape the circuitry in our brains, affecting everything from memory to emotions.

Here’s where my path and Halle’s diverge, however. When I discovered that I just couldn’t think straight any more, my principle strategy was to stick ever-increasing numbers of sticky notes around my house, reminding me about everything from parents’ evenings to the location of the dog’s lead. Hers, on the other hand, has been to launch an entire health and wellness platform called Respin, devoted to exploring menopause and its care. And the most recent strategy she’s been championing is creatine.

Speaking to The Run-Through With Vogue podcast, she said the supplement had become a regular part of her routine, specifically to help her manage brain fog. ‘I thought, “Creatine? I’ll never take creatine. That’s going to blow me up.” No, a girl needs that for brain fog. It helps with brain fog,’ she said.

So is she right? Should I bin the sticky notes and take out a supplement subscription? Well… maybe. One thing that is clear is that during the menopause, falling estrogen and testosterone levels accelerate muscle loss – and that’s where creatine could be beneficial. ‘Creatine supplementation has shown promising benefits to potentially counteract menopause-related losses of bone and muscle,’ says registered dietitian Avery Zenker. Studies have found that postmenopausal women taking at least 5 grams of creatine per day while participating in regular resistance training gained more lean muscle mass, improved strength and performed better on functional tasks compared with training alone, without creatine supplementation.

Why? ‘Creatine supplementation increases natural phosphocreatine stores in the muscle, allowing women to perform slightly better during exercise, recover better between sets and potentially stimulate more muscle growth,’ explains Avery.

Declining estrogen also increases the risk of osteoporosis and, says Avery, ‘Some studies suggest that creatine supplementation, particularly when combined with resistance training, can improve bone density.’ That said: ‘The evidence for creatine’s muscle mass benefits post-menopause is stronger than the current evidence for bone health. Creatine is primarily a muscle supplement, not a bone supplement. For menopausal women who are resistance training, it can help preserve or build muscle and improve strength. The evidence that it directly improves bone density is weak and inconsistent.’

So what about brain fog – is Halle right about that? ‘There’s some limited research suggesting that creatine supplementation could help reduce brain fog around menopause,' says Avery, but more data is still needed. Some emerging evidence suggests the potential for cognitive benefits, like boosted short-term memory and reasoning, or even improvements in depressive symptoms, she says, and, ‘There’s currently better evidence that creatine can improve aspects of cognition, mental fatigue and mood.’

Overall? ‘If the goal is to improve bone, muscle mass, strength or performance, regular exercise should be paired with creatine,’ Avery says. Creatine alone – without the hard work – seems to have only modest benefits on physical health. On the flipside: ‘If the goal is to improve mood or cognition, creatine may have benefits on its own without exercise,’ she explains. But until more research is done, exercise, nutrition, sleep and meditation all have more solid scientific backing behind them when it comes to these symptoms.

So perhaps it’s not quite time to pack up my sticky notes, but I will be looking at the GHI's best rated creatine supplements – and their gym leggings, too.