Are There Any Side Effects to Taking Creatine?
Is creatine bad for you? A misinterpretation of lab tests may explain concerns over kidney safety with creatine supplementation.
If you missed it, check out the previous video: What Is Creatine? Can It Treat Sarcopenia (Muscle Loss with Age)? ( ).
I first talked about the contamination issue a decade ago in Creatine Brain Fuel Supplementation ( ).
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-Michael Greger, MD FACLM
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Everyday a scoop of creatine after my breakfast 😃
For what reason?
Love seeing our plant based boss finally talk about creatine 🙏🏻
There is one other video from a couple years ago too , this one is much more detailed tho…
So does Dr Greger recommend we take creatine or not? Previous videos concluded the risk of adulteration tipped the balance against it. Has that advice changed?
I think he’s implying the evidence is in favor if you use a brand that has been recently checked for impurities by a 3rd party. (also elsewhere in another video he said it could be used when homocysteine were high despite getting enough B vitamins)
What I got out of this series so far:
– creatine supplements are useless if you are not exercising regularly.
– 2-3 g a day is adequate supplementation that poses almost no risk provided that the supplement source is not a fraud.
– Supplements are not necessary if you are taking in a large amount of protein (and that can be from plant protein which has all the essential amino acids).
– Supplements pose potential fraud/toxicity problems as products are not regulated or tested by government in the land of mass incarceration, mass shootings, and the creationists.
– The main cause of sarcopenia is not a lack of protein. It is lifestyle changes in the elderly due to degradation of hormone production and other age-related pathways.
And effect is only w serious max out resistance training for sarcopenia treatment or athletic muscle maxing. Otherwise the risks of contamination and lack of long-term data and cost may not be worth it. (And unknown risk of endogenous synthesis capacity suffering long-term)
Getting branded creatine such as Creapure (made in Germany) avoids the potential issue of quality, contamination, etc
@Davidexplain please. Is it third party tested?
Thanks doc! Is there even creatine though?
Does anyone know for sure if creatine breaks a fast? I’ve seen contradictory answers on the internet and from people in general. I’m guessing it does, but don’t know for sure.
it does
3 grams of amino acids (which is what creatine is made of) would not break a fast. I do wonder, however, if during the fasted state the body would just break it down and use it for energy rather than actually transporting it intact to the muscles.
@David Thanx! That makes sense. I work out fasted and am always tempted to take my creatine right after that, but I don’t want to break my fast.
Every time I take creatine I end up having a bad mood and have trouble sleeping. It does give me energy though.
I remember starting and loading on Creatine back in the late 1990’s and for a week my biceps almost doubled in size because of water retention. It looked awesome but I had trouble even bending my arms at the elbows because they muscle wouldn’t stretch.
I took it in my 20s while working out with no issues but tried it again in my 40s while losing weight with intermittent fasting and suffered from insomnia. Basically, I’d be wide awake by 3:30am no matter what I did which started when I started taking it and lasted until a week after I stopped. I had the same issue with the low/no calorie artificial sweeteners (or even natural ones).
I remember taking it in the 90s and it used to make the glands in my neck swell up and made me feel sick! Tried it again this time creapure from bulk starting about 6 months ago and as a man in my mid fifties is really helping with strength and muscle fatigue. I would say i am about 15% stronger when taking creapure. No percieved side effects this time either.
It gave me a painful outbreak of gout. It took me a few weeks to find out it was creatine.
5% just seems not worth the non-zero risk- especially taking it for life. Put the same effort into lifting harder. Almost everyone can do that and zero side effects.
As suggested in the video, the side effect I had is that it messed-up my creatinine bloodwork results, alarming my GP. I quit creatine and tested normal 4 weeks later. I’m not comfortable foregoing the creatinine metrics, so I’m staying away from creatine. Age 55 at the time.
I wonder what supplements Dr. Greger takes
I mix 3 g into my protein powder that I take every day. There are too many confounding variables in my life for me to say whether it’s had any benefit. I also take a dozen types of dietary supplements in pill form, so I can’t really associate cause and effect with any of them. But overall, it seems like a pretty good bet, and cheap compared to things like medical insurance and doctor’s bills.
I have gout and I saw a paper saying creatine can increase uric acid levels, did you find this when making this video? I am interested in creatine supplementation but will hold off if it means more gout flareups.
I take Creapure, made in Germany, which essentially eliminates the risk of contaminated creatine. It’s pricier but worth the piece of mind for such a great supplement.
Everything I start taking creatine, I get joint pain after a few days. Have tried several different brands, even increased the amount of water I take, but the problem still persists for me with creatine
I had the worst, most painful putbreak of gout I have ever had after being on creatine for a week or so. Threw the rest away.
Something that has mixed evidence and is one hypothesis as to how it can improve muscle mass with exercise is an increase in DHT without an increase in overall testosterone in men, especially with higher doses, which has an effect on different types of prostate cancer. There’s anecdotal evidence from many men who supplement with creatine that it can possibly increase the rate of androgenic alopecia, which would at least point in the direction of some change in androgens at larger doses when combined with strength based exercise.
I don’t know what it was, but I stopped taking it because it started to give me severe insomnia.
Haven’t taken creatine since. I started taking a natural extract of cordyceps mushrooms instead, it’s been great.