IS CREATINE BAD FOR YOU?
Creatine is one of the most valuable supplements that you can take and it’s been around forever. For some reason there is still a lot of confusion on this topic and people call it a steroid or say that it’s not healthy to take. I’m here to clear that up!
If you don’t need much convincing, here are some main points below.
MAIN POINTS
-
Creatine is not a steroid.
-
Creatine is not bad for you.
-
Creatine is a health product.
-
Creatine is a performance product.
-
Creatine is more than just “water weight”.
-
You don’t need to “load” creatine.
-
Creatine should be one of your essential supplements for weightlifting.
If you’re still not convinced, keep reading…
Is creatine a steroid?
Steroids are hormones that bind to receptors in the body that have nothing to do with creatine. For example, testosterone binds to the androgen receptor. Creatine doesn’t affect testosterone levels to any effective degree. Creatine does increase performance so some have drawn a connection between steroids as a performance enhancer and creatine as a performance enhancer…but in the end creatine is not a steroid and doesn’t have any steroid like activity in the body.
Is creatine bad for you?
Creatine has far more health benefits than any potential negatives. Some people have said that creatine is hard on the kidneys and this is false. The unhealthiest thing that creatine can be associated with is water retention. If you are already holding excess water, and have high blood pressure, then maybe hold off on creatine until that is under control. That said, any water retention caused by creatine in an otherwise healthy person is not a cause for alarm. In fact, creating aiding in hydration of the muscle can actually be beneficial for performance and help reduce the likelihood of injury. Creatine has far more potential health benefits than any potential negative health effects
What are the benefits of creatine supplements?
Creatine can help the heart, brain, muscle, and more. Creatine should be considered a health promoting, anti-aging, performance supplement. Who doesn’t want that!? Creatine helps hydrate the muscle which can decrease the chances of injury. Creatine helps increase exercise performance and endurance. Creatine helps your brain and heart work better, so it’s health promoting, and creating be considered a nootropic in that it can improve cognitive function. This is just the beginning of creatine’s benefits. The more that you look, the more that you find! So, all this talk about creatine being bad for you is surely coming from people who have not been reading about the wide variety of health benefits that creatine gives to those who take it!
How is creatine good for weightlifting?
Creatine is a performance enhancer. It helps hydrate the muscle which decreases chance of injury and increases strength and endurance. Creatine loads in the body and, when energy is exhausted during exercise, creatine gives part of itself to spent energy which makes it active and available again. So, creatine is like putting a bigger gas tank on your car. If the car has more gas, then you can drive it longer and harder. If creatine gives the muscle more energy, then the muscle has more power output and endurance. Lastly, if the muscle has more energy, then recovery times are generally shorter as well.
Is creatine just all water weight?
It is true that creatine does cause water retention, but this is primarily in the muscle. Having more water in the muscle is a good thing! This increases performance and reduces the risk of injury. People have previously trashed creatine by saying that all it does is cause water weight and they act as if it isn’t increasing performance and helping you add muscle and strength. Unless you have a problem with water retention (like blood pressure issues) then you shouldn’t be worried about any water weight from creatine…and if anything, you should welcome it because it means more strength and bigger pumps in the gym!
How do you load creatine?
First, you don’t need to load creatine. Back in the day everybody had “loading protocols” that involved taking high doses with sugar to help “saturate” the muscle to get the performance benefits. There is nothing wrong with doing this as it will still help increase creatine levels faster. The sugars/carbs will cause a release of insulin which is helpful in loading the muscle with creatine as well. If you want to do this then there is no problem with that…however, simply taking 5g creatine monohydrate daily will solve your problem and levels will ultimately be high enough to yield benefits. No sugar and no loading required if you don’t want to, it’s simply an unnecessary method to try and rush the process of loading creatine into the muscle.
Is creatine essential?
We do get creatine from our foods (like red meat), but we typically don’t get enough from food to cause a performance increase. This is why supplementation is required. Creatine should be viewed as a dietary supplement in that you are taking it in supplement form because it’s hard/impossible to get a performance enhancing dose of creatine from foods alone. Creatine supplementation isn’t essential for everyday life, as you can survive just fine without a creatine supplement…but if you lift weights then I highly suggest you consider a creatine supplement unless you have some very specific health conditions that would be exacerbated from additional creatine in your body. Anybody spending a lot of time in the gym should view creatine as essential right behind your protein, fish oil, multi-vitamin, etc.
If you’re not convinced by now then I hope that this article has at least convinced you to do some further research. Creatine has been studied and proven to be one of the most cost effective, health promoting, performance enhancing supplements available. I highly suggest you dig a little further and give it a shot. You will be glad that you did!
