Creatine and Acne

Diet and Nutrition
21

Tell you what. When a 35 yr old man begins to take creatine and then all of a sudden gets acne like crazy where he hasn’t had any for years, then maybe we can talk about this.

But, to say that creatine causes acne in teens is like saying soy causes women to have periods.

22

I am sure that the cause of your acne is puberty. Maybe something in your diet as well. Could very well be that your T levels naturally sit in the high normal range, and therefore all you need to do is bust your ass in the gym, and eat lots of healthy quality food to get you to your goals. You probably don’t even need creatine at the moment.

23

What teenagers don’t get acne?

24

Some fish oils might give you acne as some are pretty shit quality. Plus if you mess up the ratios of omega’s you are getting that might induce acne, who know’s. Some people may not need more Omega 3 is one of the points.

25

[quote]BigPaul wrote:

Yah, I’ll try to clarify.

  1. Where do you get your information that a correlation between creatine consumption and acne exists? Beyond anecdotal evidence from forums that is.
    [/quote]

this is just a terminology issue. i dont mean ‘correlation’ in any causal kind of way (although, a strict definition of correlation seems to imply a form of causation).

i should’ve said ‘supposed correlation’ because that’s what the OP did. he noticed a correlation between acne and creatine supplementation except that what he noticed wasn’t a real correlation (by strict definition, anyways).

so, what i meant by ‘correlation’ was that two things were noticed to be happening within the same time period without any causal relationship.

hope this clarifies.

26

Hey wufwugy - the type of relationship the OP was talking about is generally termed “association” in research circles, FWIW.

Good to see you posting on the P&B, by the way.

-Dan

27

[quote]buffalokilla wrote:
Hey wufwugy - the type of relationship the OP was talking about is generally termed “association” in research circles, FWIW.

Good to see you posting on the P&B, by the way.

-Dan
[/quote]
good to know.

28

I’m going to guess that when people start taking creatine, many of them change their dietary habits as well as do some serious lifting.

All of these things will have an impact on your system…

29

there is a correlation between creatine and acne… one of the reasons for creatine acne is lack of hydration of the skin internally… ’

creatine takes water from your body and brings it to your muscles… obviously it will have a greater effect on teens who are already vulnerable to acne however the way to avoid/control the creatine acne is drinking excess water…

one glass 15 minutes before and one glass right after supplemation… in addition as all bodybuilders should, drink water all day… .

for those who dont have creatine acne dont bother responding saying this isnt true because for those who do get these side effects this is the only “treatment” goodluck everyone.

30

I’m not being a jackass. If your getting creatine acne or just acne then you should use a facial cleanser. It should help prevent acne caused by anything.

31

You know, I haven’t mentioned this here, but when I take creatine I get really bad acne on my back. I certainly can’t say 100% for sure that it’s the creatine, but after rotating it in and out of my diet, I suspect it is the cause. And I’m a 36 y/o woman, so I don’t know what to make of it…

32

I don’t think think there is any scientific correlation between creatine and acne, but I have a theory. Maybe when you take creatine you are psychologically giving more effort in the gym and thus sweating more which aggravates your skin and there contributes to your acne? Who knows? It makes as much sense as anything else I think.

33

I once thought that taking creatine caused my acne to flair up (had cystic acne at 13 and have been on accutane 2 times) at the age of 30.

My dermatologist recommend that I drop dairy products instead, sighting an increased consumption of that as a PWO drink and a boost to daily calories.

It was a dietary issue for me, and I take creatine in my sports drink and haven’t had much issue aside from sweat pimples.

34

What is your intake? And is the creatine the only change in diet / lifestyle?

35

some people say its because an increase in testosterone and acne can be caused by testosterone because of oil production but theres
supplments you can take for acne caused by T, like saw palmetto, vitex and oregeno oil