The Dangers of Creatine – Side Effects and Risks to Know.

The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs released a report yesterday citing that use of supplements such as creatine had a direct correlation to alcohol and drug abuse. The study referenced some big myths that proponents and opponents of creatine have been arguing over for years:

Until now, it had been unclear whether college athletes who use performance enhancers might have any higher risk of misusing other substances. On one hand, Pandina explained, many athletes might avoid habits that could threaten their performance on the field. On the other, athletes drawn to performance-enhancing substances might have certain traits — such as a propensity toward “sensation seeking” — that make the misuse of alcohol or other drugs more likely.

The numbers speak for themselves.

As a group, athletes who used performance-enhancing substances reported higher rates of drug and alcohol use. SEVENTY PERCENT said they had used marijuana and one third admitted to cocaine use, versus 22 percent and 3 percent of athletes who did not use performance enhancers. They also had higher rates of smoking, binge drinking and prescription-drug misuse.

You can read the full press release here.

I’ve spoken to several health scholars (students not doctors) about the topic of creatine and have received numerous instances of negative feedback from them. I always ask for complete evidence to offer information on the truth and I have yet to receive this. However one person mentioned to me once that they have read in several journals that creatine has been related to disease susceptability. I have yet to find any documents relating to this, but then again I don’t have access to health journals, doctor’s notes, etc. This afternoon though I came across an interesting blog post on Pediatric SuperSite.

Dangers of Creatine, H1N1 Virus

The post is directly about the H1N1 virus and some studies being performed on it, but there was one interesting tidbit that sounds like a potential danger of creatine.

The mortality rate was 41.4% (95% CI, 28.9%-55.0%) by the 60-day point. Factors associated with mortality included initial severity of illness, worse hypoxemia, higher creatine kinase levels, higher creatinine levels and ongoing organ dysfunction.

!!! So does this mean that athletic enthusiasts who utilize creatine are more susceptible to H1N1?!? It certainly doesn’t say that at GNC! This is a very interesting reference and I would be interested in seeing any followup references that clarify this. My questions would be:

• Are the studied individuals with the higher creatine levels creatine users?
• Are the higher levels a result of the virus or a pre-virus condition?
• Is creatine dangerous to your health by making you susceptible to viruses?!?

I was recently talking with some friends at the gym and we were discussing our own hesitencies to supplementing anything besides protein. One of my friends saw a bottle of NO Explode sitting on the counter where you check in. He referenced that “that stuff is awesome!!” Me and another friend both looked at him and said, “have you tried that?”

He let us know that hes been using it for a few weeks and LOVES IT! We then jokingly asked him “do you want some creatine before your work out?” he immediately responded “NO!”

We began laughing again. My friend is completely surprised why we are laughing at him.

We then explained that NO Explode has creatine in it. He almost fell over…. “WHAT?!?”

What a lot of people don’t get is that a TON of supplements that aren’t labeled as Creatine Monohydrate Xtreme and the likes still do have Creatine in them. Are they better or worse, more effective or more dangerous? Who knows. A lot of these new supplements look like the old ones in a new wrapper. If you are cautious about taking creatine for whatever reason then you should be sure to read the ingredients before taking other supplements. Basically anything that says ATP in it has creatine.

Before Creatine

Today’s post I want to talk about a thread that I read on T-Nation.com. Read the full thread here.

The user posting has been trying to bulk up for about 2 months now. His main addition to his diet has been creatine. You can see the before and after pics in the thread or to the right.

Now obviously as mentioned in the posts 2 months is really not a long enough period for results. The user has put 14 pounds, no idea if this is just water weight from the consumption of creatine or actual muscle bulk. All the same this point is irrelevant to me here.

What I want to focus on is the responses the user got. If you read the post you can see all the negativity going on. People continually call the user names like, ‘Kid’ in a degrading fashion. In addition they continually stress how he is foolish for even asking for results after 2 months, etc.

After Creatine

It’s never made much sense to me why people on forums get so upset at people asking for feedback. The user obviously was asking if he was doing it correctly and if the creatine was working the way it should. He probably has no experience with it and just wants to make sure everything is going properly. Why would people get so angry at him?

Things like these now create another danger of creatine, peer pressure. People refused to offer constructive advice and just cut him down… hopefully he doesn’t feel the need to fight back against these posters by taking additional creatine to bulk even more. Everyone starts somewhere, please remember that if anyone asks you for advice with supplements!

Cincinatti Reds’ pitcher Bronson Arroyo was interviewed by USA Today recently. A major part of the discussion is how Arroyo admitted to taking now banned substances for years and still would take them today if they were allowed. In the interview Arroyo says that he knows there are risks but his and other major league players are willing to take that risk for the reward. Among several things that Bronson takes that are not yet banned or approved are ginseng, energy drinks, caffeine pills, and creatine.

Arroyo is quoted as saying “I have a lot of guys in (the locker room) who think I’m out of (my) mind because I’m taking a lot of things not on the (MLB-approved) list,”  “I take 10 to 12 different things a day, and on the days I pitch, there’s four more things.”

That is a lot of supplements! Arroyo admits that he is unaware of several of the full dangers of the drugs but also admits that he doesn’t think the fans care. He says they care about performance not health.

Bronson should read our dangers of creatine section before he takes his next shake, I’m sure he is already aware of the benefits of creatine. Of course he apparently has already weighed the options, and money wins!

Read the full article HERE.

mLive.com had a story this week about Joe Brodski. Joe has done the amazing feat of winning a power lifting class at the age of 63!! Most suprising was how energetic Joe is about the whole thing. What I loved about the article is once again we get to see the impact Creatine has on the sports lifting world. In this article Joe is quoted as saying “But I don’t do any Creatine, or stuff like that. Whatever God gave me, that’s what I use.” Another person who clearly referenced in an interview that they DON’T use Creatine. What is the reasoning behind this?

Joe also mentions how he feels great, and believe that lifting has helped his health. If thats how he feels does that imply that he believes Creatine to be dangerous? Be sure to check out the story and let me know if you think Joe just doesn’t want to be associated with Creatine because of what people think, or because he thinks there are dangers with creatine.

The Maple Ridge News had an interesting article about a local cop that decided to follow her dreams and enter a body building competition. Good for her! Suprising enough was how the article referenced how the woman Meriam Booth didn’t even need Creatine to do this. They news agency references “Her physique is 100 percent natural, she says, and even legal supplements like creatine and thermogenics are out.”

Here you can see how even authoratative sources don’t consider many supplements to be good for you or natural (even though Creatine does occur naturally). This is once again a seen dispute on the safety and dangers of creatine. This news agency obviously has a negative light on creatine, however they don’t reference any facts on if it is dangerous or not. Interesting!

Over the years I’ve heard a lot of people discussing how dangerous creatine is. Often times a determinate of how dangerous something is, is whether it can kill someone or not.

This is partially a loaded question though. Creatine although naturally occuring in the body (mostly from the digestion of meats) is being referenced here as a supplement. So let’s rephrase that question, can a Creatine Supplement be dangerous enough to kill? In theory yes.

However that has yet to be proven or tested on humans for obvious reasons.

The standard supplement of Creatine has 20 grams of creatine in it. To achieve that naturally you would most likely have to eat somewhere in the range of 8lbs of meat. However this is the point of a supplement, to get the good stuff without having to ingest all that food. All the same this 20g dose has been debated a lot. Some people say it is too much of a recomendation for amateurs to handle.

That being said, this is the biggest problem with Creatine, not following the directions with it. When someone takes a supplement without following the proper guidelines, you are asking for disaster. This is where dehydration and the various other side effect referenced in our What are the Dangers of Creatine section come into play. These side effect definitely CAN kill if not addressed immediately. So please remember be safe with your supplements!