I’m a big guy. I don’t care where it comes from. I don’t want to take anything that makes me gain weight! 
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I did creative years ago when I was a gym bro. I was skinny and lean. I never got much weight gain and couldn’t tell you if I had noticeable strength gains bc I was in HS and getting stronger everyday anyhow. But I also was taking many different supplements too so hard to disentangle the effect of creatine. Just chiming in to say that not everyone experiences the water weight gain. I think I took 5-10mg a day, but that’s many years ago so it’s just a guess. Wasn’t on a crazy high dose tho
I stopped using creatine because I believe it causes headaches for me. From what I understood, creatine increases water accumulation not only in muscles, but also in the brain. I think over time the accumulation of water elevates inner skull pressure, which causes headaches.
I haven’t had that issue with creatine. I do feel it relieves my joint pain by reducing the inflammation. Before creatine supplementation my elbow joints would be really sore when bench pressing, now the pain in my elbows has gone away. Also, people worry about weight gain with creatine but I’ve been able to lose weight with my diet while taking 5 grams of creatine daily…started at 195 and I’m now down to 180.
I think creatine monohydrate is safe to take at ~5-10 grams/day. But if you observe dangerously high creatinine levels on your blood tests & think it’s related to taking creatine…just stop taking it & revisit the blood test after a washout period.
Number one, I don’t think the performance benefit you get from creatine is worth even a small health risk. Especially in an endurance sport.
Number two, maybe the bigger risk here is that your creatinine levels are high due to some other complication and you just assume it’s creatine, it’s GRAS, & just go on about your business. Meanwhile some other issue continues percolating in the background. So definitely figure out if it really is the creatine. Then decide whether it’s enough to make you care.
That’s incorrect. Creatinine production is supposed to be constant and clearance completely renal therefore Creatinine levels are a convenient marker for kidney function. It however does not take into account muscle mass, it underestimates GFR in the frail and underestimates in muscular or people exogenous creatine. Cystatin C is a better marker for GFR but more expensive
I have been taking creatine for a solid 1.5 years I was getting ready for a shoulder scope for OA of ac jt and got stopped because you guest it the antiquated lab test said I was having kidney problems lol. I educated the NP about my creatine supplement and why my labs were skewed. I sent her an article and she replied with denial for surgery and referral to a nephrologist’s. Quite simple our medical system sucks people are not educated to think only to follow old algorithms. I work as a PT in the same medical system. I guess I will play the game and maybe I can change the way things are done.
Cystatin C serum levels and Cystatin C GFR is the way to go….96.8% sensitivity
Does anyone know how long you would have to be off creatine to get your Cr levels back to normal and make the medical system happy.
I guess I would stop working out the week of my labs and chill on my protein intake….lol
I’m working from memory here, but IIRC your muscle creatine stores should drop back to normal after just a couple of weeks.
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Creatine can definitely cause mild elevations in creatinine levels (10-15% is what is most commonly described). However, it would be very unusual to cause your creatinine to be double the normal upper reference limit. Nonetheless, there are a few case reports of larger elevations like this in medical literature, but the fact that they were publishable as a case report should show you how unusual this is.
It should also not cause your BUN to rise, like yours has.
The pharmacokinetics of creatine absorption suggest that elevated creatinine levels due to creatine ingestion should be normalized within a few hours to maybe a day in normal situations. The case reports where a creatinine in the range of yours was due to creatine supplementation showed creatinine levels to return to normal within about a week of stopping supplementation.
Stopping creatinine supplementation for a week or so and then repeating your bloodwork is a pretty reasonable decision. However, given your degree of creatinine elevation plus the elevated urea, there remains a sizeable chance that you actually do have chronic kidney disease. Another explanation would be that you just really raise your creatinine in response to creatine supplementation, and then were really dehydrated when this bloodwork was done. Like you’re abusing diuretics, or have been having wicked vomiting for a few days with minimal oral intake. Lab error does happen sometimes too which given your anion gap appears to only be 4, is a reasonable consideration as well.
Anyways, the moral of the story is that your primary care provider is right to be concerned and I wouldn’t be so dismissive of them. No surgeon is going to do an arthroscopy on you with this unexplained bloodwork.
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I’ve been taking 5mg daily for approximately 25 years since age 15 with a few breaks here and there. I’m no rocket surgeon, basically floods “muscle cells” with water. Helps with strength. Drink lots of water. I’m usually 3-5lbs heavier on it on average I’d estimate. I lift x3 days a week and a stocky 5’6" 180-85lbs.
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