Comment by cj
4 months ago
Direct link to the study: https://jpbs.hapres.com/htmls/JPBS_1766_Detail.html
I wanted to check the dosages they used. Looks like the review includes studies ranging from 5g/day to 20-25g/day.
(Typical dosage you'll see for daily use is 5 grams)
Just in case anyone is thinking about trying it: 25g seems pretty high. It’s worth it to review what that means for the rest of your body before starting this regime. Kidneys are really useful organs to have working.
This is a myth, its not bad for your kidneys. The reason this gets spread is because you will have higher levels of creatine in your urine if your Doctor tests your urine for kidney function, which indicates kidney disease.
However, If you reveal to that doctor that you're supplementing Creatine it will not be concern them.
My dad's GP didn't know about this, and despite my dad saying "it's fine, I'm taking creatine", sent him for a kidney check-up. Then they found an unrelated tumor on the ultrasound. Seems to be benign and hopefully all will be well. If so, creatine saved his life ;)
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I've even had doctors unaware that the regular eGFR tests needs to be adjusted for body mass to be remotely accurate if you're bigger than average - e.g. lifting weights or obese. Couple that with creatine and you get some "fun" moments when your doctor tries to gently break to you how messed up they think your kidneys are. The first time I had that I'd warned my doctor ahead of time to expect elevated creatinine, and he still freaked out.
Creatinine not Creatine
This has been my understand as well. I have CKD and my doctors have always been chill about it as long as I stop taking it about a week before having blood work done.
EDIT: I don't do 25g though... sounds like a lot...
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At the risk of sounding stupid. Doesn’t this mean it would mask actual kidney disease? So you’d be ignoring potential warning signs.
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creatinine != creatine
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Careful.
Creatine metabolizes into creatinine which is major indicator of kidney function because not being able to clear creatinine means your kidneys aren’t working. Adding more creatinine to your system decreases your ability to clear it leading to fatigue, edema, high blood pressure etc.
So it isn’t bad for your kidneys: it is bad for everything else.
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I'm not aware of any evidence that creatine harms the kidneys if your kidney function is remotely normal. You'd probably want to check with your doctor if your kidney function is already compromised.
Creatine supplementation will freak out a lot of doctors if they're not warned of it ahead of time, though, and sometimes you'll even need to explain to them that they will see elevated levels of creatinine on the tests and it won't be an accurate predictor of kidney function.
If you're supplementing with creatine and need your kidneys tested it's easiest to stop a couple of weeks before, or ask for a Cystatin C test and make sure they use the relevant adjustments for body mass as well if you e.g. lift weights - I've more than once had doctors imply they were worried I had kidney disease because they were entirely unaware of the effects both creatine and large body pass has on the regular tests.
Yes, the labeling does caution against using it if you have kidney disease. Not sure how much of a risk there is if your kidneys are functioning normally. Maintaining good hydration is always a good idea.
I can second this, do NOT start at 25g of creatine. If you're too lazy to read the literature a friendly AI tool will summarize it.
If your intention is to take creatine long term, skip the loading phase.
It might take longer to see full effects, but who cares if you’re intending to take it indefinitely.
Most guidance I’ve seen says to start with a loading phase of 25-30g per day for several days, then go down to 5g per day maintenance.
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If you're too lazy to read the literature, then just don't take it.
Going to something that frequently hallucinates or misstates things to the point where it's "trust, but verify by reading the source" means you may as well just read the literature you'd have to verify the summary against anyway.
Also if you want to try creatine, after a week or so you'll probably gain 2-6 pounds of water weight. Don't be afraid of it, it's not real weight, and will go away within a week or two after stopping it.
if you take it right before bed it'll make you dreams loads and sleep haaard, if you can get to sleep; the restless legs are a motherfucker.
Hei more than that - as an avid weed consumer - drugs are not dangerous by themselves especially when you don't like them - they are dangerous when you create space for them and get along with them. I like to believe weed is my little "cheat" - but i'd argue that any product is an abuse on a daily basis - so taking creatine once in a while might be fun to try out - but i would warn about anything on the spectrum of "regime" that plan for a daily basis etc... especially as you rightfully justified, without a doctor or an expert being able to know what effect this is going to have on a said person.
You need creatine to live. Your body typically makes enough from protein to survive (vegetarians and vegans might need extra vigilance here).
This is just taking more to optimize performance.
It's not the same.
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I use it as a supplement because I do weightlifting. 5g/day. I did 20g/day for a week once, and didn't notice it made any difference, so I'm back to 5g now. In terms of stuff like memory, mood, etc. I can't say it's made any improvement but the idea that it might be helping prevent decline is nice.
I've found it helps cognitively if under a lot of stress and/or sleep deprived. If I'm not especially stressed and am well rested, I don't know that I notice any difference.
Its changed my life. Im also a long time vegan with MTHFR gene mutations and sleep issues though.
For vegans, creatine is among the recommended supplements, because the amount that is produced internally is insufficient for most people, so they need some extra amount in food. (The same is true for a few other substances, e.g. choline, taurine, menaquinone.)
I also take some creatine, for this reason.
I've heard others say it helps with mood, energy, depression, etc. and if that's the case for some people then great. I don't notice it myself but that's just me. Not everyone has the same body chemistry.
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I also have MTHFR gene mutations and sleep issues.
What exactly helped you?
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That’s a pretty amazing acronym if real
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For lifting you hit a saturation point quickly where your muscles will only hold so much of it. Not sure if there is an equivalent for any brain related effects.
I'm sure there's something for the brain too. The thing is, there's a floor for the brain. If your muscles aren't saturated already and you don't "megadose" (from a muscle perspective) then you won't see any cognitive effects it seems.
>CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
DC has conducted industry-sponsored research involving creatine supplementation and received creatine donations for scientific studies and travel support and speaking honoraria for presentations involving creatine supplementation at scientific conferences and on social media. In addition, DC serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Alzchem and Create (companies that manufacture creatine products) and as an expert witness/consultant in legal cases involving creatine supplementation. NF declares no conflicts of interest
A nice unbiased study, I may as well ask Exon Mobil for their opinion on climate change at this point
High dosage is not for your daily intake
It’s called a loading phase to quickly saturate the tissues i.e for a week or so for someone who never took the creatine. You can absolutely skip this.
I wouldn’t go higher than 10g daily on a regular basis.
I personally take 7.5g for the last couple of years.
The entire point is that >10G is justified if you're going for cognitive effects. For muscles you don't need to go above 5G. For brain, >15G.
For now there are zero studies that I know of that support this.
The only ones are for sleep deprived.
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