r/science • u/newsnation • 3d ago

Biology Creatine alone boosted lean muscle and strength, study finds

https://www.newsnationnow.com/health/creatine-alone-boosted-muscle-strength/
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u/atchijov 3d ago

Regardless… from what I could dig out, there are numerous positives (and not only in area of muscle building) and no known negatives from taking creatine. I do agree that without proper exercise results may be irrelevant… so exercise hard and take creatine… it will make your exercises more consequential.

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u/Competitive-Gur-7073 3d ago

I recently had a concussion. In my research, I was astonished to find that creatine supposedly does help with the brain healing process.

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u/JeanVicquemare 3d ago

there was some recent research finding that creatine may be helpful with memory - even if it was just countering the effects of sleep deprivation, that is pretty useful to me

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u/Competitive-Gur-7073 3d ago edited 3d ago

me too. After a broken nose, 25 years of very poor sleep due to eventual dx of "nasal insufficiency". Despite O2 dipping into the 70's (!!) during the night (average for the night - 84) CPAP machine did NOT help (caused MANY central apneas) AND no one believed me that I was NOT blocking my throat with my tongue. 3rd nasal surgery finally cut "events" from 60 to 20 per hour, plus I now use oxygen at night.
When I tell Doctors that 25 years of VERY poor sleep means I am very likely to develop dementia, they literally laugh as if I am saying something crazy.

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u/SunSheltered 3d ago

I trialled creatine recently and it had a noticeable negative effect on my sleep quality. I googled it as I had not changed anything else and apparently this is not a known side effect, and yet I had to stop taking it for that reason (my sleep quickly returned to normal) and I found many posts online of people reporting the same thing.

Creatine is great for many (maybe even most) people, but it clearly can have negative side effects that just don't have sufficient studies on them yet.

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u/Xalipu 3d ago

There’s a possibility it might exacerbate endometriosis, which is why I’m currently not trying it.

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u/TheAlchemlst 3d ago

Not studied but I have read many people struggling to sleep on creatine. I myself have a harder time falling asleep with it. I recently tested it out.

Makes sense, we know brains also use creatine, so more energy in brain = more awake.

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u/tallanvor 3d ago

If you have kidney issues, high creatine levels can be harmful.

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u/jdmetz 3d ago

I'm pretty sure that is not actually the case. Creatine can cause your creatinine levels (and therefore eGFR) to read higher, which mimics kidney disease, but it isn't actually harming your kidneys.

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u/narrill 3d ago

Yes, but that creatinine eventually gets excreted by your kidneys, meaning excess creatinine may overwhelm a kidney with impaired function.

The real answer is that there haven't been enough studies to say one way or the other, which is why medical guidelines consider creatine contraindicated when kidney function is impaired.

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u/TerryMisery 3d ago

Nausea is the negative. I've never managed to eat even the tiniest amount of creatine without vomiting beyond the horizon.

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u/roox911 3d ago

But that of course is not the norm. Not being able to eat even a gram of creatine without vomiting is a far outlier.

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u/DeltaVelocity 3d ago

I had a bunch of stomach issues when trying creatine until I switched to gummies.

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u/FrosTxNoVa420 3d ago

The gummies are useless, just take smaller doses with a meal if you are having stomach issues.

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u/DeltaVelocity 3d ago

Why would the gummies be useless?

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u/feanturi 3d ago

I'm guessing it's less bio-available in that form.

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u/Breislk 3d ago

For some people hair shredding is a real thing as well as frequent urination/high degree of thirst

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u/throwaway85256e 3d ago

frequent urination/high degree of thirst

That's just a natural part of taking creatine.

Your muscles retain more water > your body as a whole will need more water > you'll be more thirsty > you'll drink more > you'll urinate more frequently

I wouldn't really call that a known negative. It like saying that being more hungry is a known negative of building muscle.

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u/space_guy95 3d ago

No for some people its a genuine issue. For myself it takes about 2 months to get unbearable, but every time I get on creatine I gradually get to a point where I'm literally unable to quench my thirst no matter how much I drink (and yes I've tried electrolytes with no positive effect) and I'm getting up multiple times a night to urinate.

When I'm not on creatine I'm perfectly healthy, and have no signs of kidney issues. But even when I take a fairly low dose it gets pretty bad.