Rule 1 Creatine

Creatine has some of the deepest research of any supplement, but it still isn't for everyone. These are the questions our naturopaths ask in store.

A good fit if

• You're a healthy adult doing weights, sprints or team sport, where short repeated efforts matter
• You eat little or no meat and fish, so you get little creatine from food
• You're in your fifties or older and training to build or keep strength
• You'd rather take the simple form with the most research than the newest one with the loudest marketing
• You're happy to take it daily for a few weeks and judge it by your training results, not how you feel on day three

Check with us first if

• You take any prescription medicine, especially diuretics, regular anti-inflammatories, or anything your doctor checks your kidneys for.
• You have diabetes, high blood pressure or another condition where your kidney function is checked. Creatine slightly raises a kidney marker called creatinine, so your doctor needs to know when reading your results.
• You have a blood test coming up, especially a kidney test (eGFR). Tell your doctor you take creatine.
• You're under 18. Some evidence suggests creatine is safe for children and teenagers, but it's limited, so decide with a health professional, not off the shelf.
• You compete in a weight-category sport. Creatine usually adds some weight from extra water in your muscles, which matters at weigh-in.
• You're a tested athlete. Contamination is a risk with any sports supplement, so follow Sport Integrity Australia's current guidance and choose batch-tested products.
• Creatine has upset your stomach before. That's usually from taking a large dose at once, and splitting it up often helps.

• Creatine monohydrate (standard powder). Best known for: The standard form, used in almost every published trial. Absorption: 88 per cent creatine by weight. It reliably raises muscle creatine on the standard routine. Typical use: 3–5 g a day in water, juice or a shake, with or without a loading week.
• Micronised creatine monohydrate. Best known for: The same molecule milled finer so it mixes in without grit. Absorption: No absorption advantage has been shown. The difference is how it mixes, not what it does. Typical use: 3–5 g a day. The usual choice if you dislike the texture.
• Creapure (branded monohydrate). Best known for: Monohydrate made in Germany and supplied with purity paperwork for each batch. Absorption: Chemically identical to any other monohydrate. The point is manufacturing control, not better absorption. Typical use: 3–5 g a day. Chosen when documented purity of the raw material matters most.
• Creatine hydrochloride (HCl). Best known for: Marketed on dissolving more easily in water and smaller serves. Absorption: It dissolves more easily, but dissolving in a glass is not the same as more creatine reaching muscle, and head-to-head loading data is thin. Typical use: Often labelled at 750 mg to 2 g a day, well below the researched monohydrate dose.
• Buffered creatine (Kre-Alkalyn). Best known for: Marketed as pH-buffered, so no loading phase is needed. Absorption: Over 28 days in 36 men who did resistance training, it did not raise muscle creatine, body composition, strength or anaerobic capacity more than monohydrate. Typical use: 1.5 g a day on the label. The trial found no advantage over 5 g of monohydrate.
• Creatine ethyl ester. Best known for: An older form marketed on better uptake into cells. Absorption: Over 7 weeks it raised blood creatine less well than monohydrate, with roughly three times higher blood creatinine. Typical use: Largely replaced, and rarely stocked in Australia.
• Chewable tablets, capsules and gummies. Best known for: Convenience. No scoop, no shaker, easy to travel with. Absorption: The same monohydrate inside. The practical issue is getting a full 3–5 g. Typical use: Check grams per serve rather than pieces per serve, and how many pieces that takes.

Reference values. None. Your body makes its own creatine, so it isn't an essential nutrient and the NHMRC sets no recommended intake for it.

Typical supplemental range. Australian labels almost always suggest 3–5 g of monohydrate a day, usually one level scoop. You can choose to load with about 20 g a day, split into four 5 g serves, for five to seven days to fill your muscles faster. Or go straight to 3–5 g a day and you'll reach a similar point in three to four weeks. By body weight, that's 0.3 g per kg while loading and 0.03–0.1 g per kg after.

Upper level. There's no NHMRC upper limit, because there's no recommended intake to set one against. Australia's permitted ingredients list (Schedule 1) doesn't set a daily maximum either.

Worth knowing. Timing doesn't seem to matter much, but taking it every day does, because the benefit comes from keeping your stores topped up. Large single doses are the usual cause of an upset stomach, so split a loading dose across the day. What you need depends on your age, diet and health, so talk to one of our naturopaths.

Food first, where the diet allows it.

• Beef: about 2 g per pound (roughly 0.45 g per 100 g), raw weight
• Pork: about 2.3 g per pound, raw weight
• Salmon: about 2 g per pound, raw weight
• Plant foods (grains, legumes, vegetables, nuts): essentially none: dietary creatine comes from animal muscle tissue

If any of these sound like you, talk to one of our naturopaths or your doctor before you start.

• You have diagnosed kidney disease or reduced kidney function. Don't take it. The safety reviews did not include people with existing kidney disease.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding. Don't take it, because safety has not been established.
• You take any prescription medicine, especially diuretics (water tablets) or regular anti-inflammatories. Check with your doctor or pharmacist first.
• You have diabetes, high blood pressure or any condition where your kidney function is monitored. Tell your doctor you take creatine.
• You have blood tests coming up. Creatine raises blood creatinine, which can be misread as poor kidney function.
• Under 18. Only with professional supervision, because the evidence in teenagers is limited.
• You compete in a weight category. Weight gain from extra body water is the most consistently reported effect.
• You are a tested athlete. Contaminated supplement batches are a real anti-doping risk, so follow Sport Integrity Australia guidance.
• Stomach upset. Nausea, cramping and diarrhoea have been reported, usually with large single doses.
• Tiredness you cannot explain, or that will not go away. Get it checked rather than treating it yourself with a performance ingredient.
• If you take prescription medicines, check with your doctor, pharmacist or our naturopaths before you start.