CREATINE MONOHYDRATE

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 reference form. Used in almost every published trial, and the cheapest per gram. Absorption: 88 per cent creatine by weight; raises muscle creatine reliably on the standard protocol. Typical use: 3–5 g daily 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 disperses without grit. Absorption: No absorption advantage is established. The difference is how it mixes, not what it does. Typical use: 3–5 g daily; the usual choice for anyone who dislikes the texture.
• Creapure (branded monohydrate). Best known for: German-made monohydrate supplied with batch purity documentation. Absorption: Chemically identical to any other monohydrate; the claim is manufacturing control, not bioavailability. Typical use: 3–5 g daily; chosen where documented raw-material purity is the priority.
• Creatine hydrochloride (HCl). Best known for: Marketed on higher water solubility and smaller serve sizes. Absorption: Dissolves more readily, but solubility 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 daily. 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 resistance-trained men it did not raise muscle creatine, body composition, strength or anaerobic capacity more than monohydrate. Typical use: 1.5 g daily 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 cell uptake. Absorption: Over 7 weeks it was less effective than monohydrate at raising serum creatine, with roughly three-fold higher serum creatinine. Typical use: Largely superseded and rarely stocked in Australia.
• Chewable tablets, capsules and gummies. Best known for: Format convenience. No scoop, no shaker, easy to travel with. Absorption: Same monohydrate inside; the practical issue is reaching a full 3–5 g. Typical use: Read grams per serve rather than units per serve, and check 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

This list is the part of the page we will not shorten. If any of it applies to you, talk to one of our naturopaths or your doctor before starting.

• Diagnosed kidney disease or reduced kidney function. Avoid; the safety meta-analyses did not analyse people with pre-existing kidney disease.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding. Avoid; safety has not been established.
• Any prescription medicine, especially diuretics or regular anti-inflammatories. Check with your doctor or pharmacist first.
• Diabetes, high blood pressure or any condition where kidney function is monitored. Tell the treating doctor you take creatine.
• Upcoming blood tests. Creatine raises serum creatinine and can be misread as impaired kidney function.
• Under 18. Professional supervision only; the evidence base in adolescents is limited.
• Weight-category athletes. Weight gain from increased body water is the most consistently reported effect.
• Tested athletes. Supplement batch contamination is a real anti-doping risk; follow Sport Integrity Australia guidance.
• Gastrointestinal upset. Nausea, cramping and diarrhoea are reported, usually with large single doses.
• Unexplained or persistent fatigue. Get it investigated rather than self-treating with a performance ingredient.
• If you take prescription medicines, check with your doctor, pharmacist or our naturopaths before starting.