Optimum Nutrition Micronised Creatine Powder, 100% Pure Creatine Monohydrate Powder for Performance and Muscle Power, Unflavoured Shake, 93 Servings, 317 g

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Burke DG, et al. Effect of creatine and weight training on muscle creatine and performance in vegetarians. Medicine and science in sports and exercise. 2003; doi:10.1249/01.MSS.0000093614.17517.79. Kreider RB, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: Safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2017; doi:10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z. A 3-year study of college athletes found that those taking creatine had fewer cases of dehydration, muscle cramps, or muscle injuries than those not taking it. They also missed fewer sessions due to illness or injury ( 7).

Medical News Today has strict sourcing guidelines and draws only from peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical journals and associations. We avoid using tertiary references. We link primary sources — including studies, scientific references, and statistics — within each article and also list them in the resources section at the bottom of our articles. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy. Creatine kinetics may vary between healthy males and females [ 157]. Females may have higher intramuscular creatine concentrations [ 158] possibly due to lower skeletal muscle mass [ 159]. Potentially, the higher resting intramuscular creatine concentration in females (based on the upper limit of intramuscular creatine storage) may help explain some research showing diminished responsiveness and/or performance effects on females [ 160, 161]. Creatine supplementation can increase functionality (e.g., strength, activities of daily living, delay fatigue) and muscle mass in older adults [ 9, 10, 19, 87, 95, 109, 110]. However, the literature indicates that creatine alone (that is, without a concomitant resistance training program) is unlikely to result in substantial gains in muscle strength and functional performance [ 95, 111, 112, 113], although it does improve some parameters of muscle fatigue [ 114, 115, 116]. Likewise, most studies failed to show a beneficial effect of chronic creatine supplementation alone (≥ 30 days) on lean mass [ 98, 99, 113, 114]. For instance, we recently showed that creatine supplementation was not able to increase lean mass in postmenopausal women who supplemented with creatine (3 g/day) for 2 years, suggesting that creatine supplementation without exercise may be ineffective to prevent sarcopenia [ 99]. It is likely that increases in lean mass occasionally attributed to creatine supplementation in short-term studies (e.g., 7 days) are explained by increased body water, since creatine is osmotically active and it can sometimes induce water retention. The majority of available evidence does not support a link between creatine supplementation and hair loss / baldness. Finally, there is a misconception that creatine is suitable only for male athletes. Yet no research suggests that it is unsuitable in recommended doses for women or older adults ( 15).But this single case study is insufficient evidence. Numerous other factors, including additional supplements, were also involved ( 20). Preliminary studies show creatine may soothe muscle painof people with McArdle's disease. McArdle's disease is a genetic syndrome that stops a person's ability to break down the energy source glycogen. People with McArdle's disease typically have poor stamina and muscle pain.In a 2000 study of nine people with McArdle's disease, five people reported that creatine improved muscle pain and helped them tolerate exercise better, according to the paper published in the Archives of Neurology. IF YOU’RE LOOKING to gain muscle mass, you’ve probably been advised to do a couple things: lift weights, eat a lot of protein, and start taking a creatine supplement. One of the longest studies to date — lasting for 4 years — similarly concluded that creatine has no negative side effects ( 19). Cognition and brain health. Creatine supplementation might improve performance during cognitive tasks, especially in older adults.

Bongiovanni T, Genovesi F, Nemmer M, Carling C, Alberti G, Howatson G. Nutritional interventions for reducing the signs and symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage and accelerate recovery in athletes: current knowledge, practical application and future perspectives. Eur. J. Appl. Physiol. 2020;120:1965–96. To be safe, he recommends using creatine only if you are healthy and have no kidney problems. That’s because your kidneys excrete creatinine, a breakdown product of creatine.But them there's the not-so-great news: You can incorrectly take creatine (read: "user error"), which can result in side effects. Take creatine the wrong way and you won't experience the same benefits as someone who follows direction. In other words, you're wasting your money. (And, if you're buying the good stuff, creatine supplements aren't cheap.) DHT is a metabolite of testosterone, formed when the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase converts free testosterone to DHT [ 63]. In males, DHT can bind to androgen receptors in susceptible hair follicles and cause them to shrink, ultimately leading to hair loss [ 64]. However, in the van der Merwe et al. [ 61] study, no increase in total testosterone was found in the 16 males who completed the study. Free testosterone was not measured. Moreover, the increase in DHT and the DHT: testosterone ratio remained well within normal clinical limits. Furthermore, baseline (prior to supplementation), DHT was 23% lower in the creatine group (0.98 nmol/L) compared to the placebo group (1.26 nmol/L). Thus the small increase in DHT in the creatine group (+ 0.55 nmol/L after 7 days of supplementation and + 0.40 nmol/L after 21 days of supplementation), in combination with a small decrease in the placebo DHT response (-0.17 nmol/L after 7 days of supplementation and -0.20 nmol/L after 21 days of supplementation) explains the “statistically significant” increase in DHT noted by van der Merwe et al. [ 61]. While it is possible that creatine supplementation upregulated 5-alpha-reductase activity in these males (potentially leading to increased formation of DHT), no study has reported hair loss/baldness in humans. Creatine supplementation appears to be generally safe and potentially beneficial for children and adolescents. McMorris T, et al. Creatine supplementation and cognitive performance in elderly individuals. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition. 2007: doi:10.1080/13825580600788100. Nair, S., et al . (2014). Effect of a cooked meat meal on serum creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate in diabetes-related kidney disease.