I’m 15 years old and am thinking about getting creatine. Can someone give me a list of all the possible short term and long term effects please.
Creatine is a chemical found in all vertebrates on earth (animals with spines). That means your body already has creatine in it. A creatine supplement just saturates the muscles with creatine to make recovery faster. There are no harmful side effects of taking it.
I read on a site that if you don’t cycle creatine it may cause your body to stop naturally producing it. Does anyone know if that it correct?
I also read that there may be some small side effects such as stomach pain and dehydration. Are those true as well?
Also, would too much creatine be bad for your kidneys?
[quote]michaelangelos wrote:
I read on a site that if you don’t cycle creatine it may cause your body to stop naturally producing it. Does anyone know if that it correct?
I also read that there may be some small side effects such as stomach pain and dehydration. Are those true as well?
Also, would too much creatine be bad for your kidneys?[/quote]
Yes, I get the runs when I start creatine - but it only happens for the first couple of days. The side effects are very mild-to-none from what I’ve seen and usually go away after a week.
Too much of anything can be bad for you, but taking 1tsp of creatine a day cannot harm you, provided you have no previous illnesses.
You can take creatine all year round, but I would give your body a rest from it at least 2 weeks every 3-4months of use.
Creatine causes your muscles to retain more water so the dehydration is most likely caused by not drinking an augmented amount of water to allow your muscles to retain the amount the creatine is trying to pump into them.