Dr. Darren Candow

So this is by far the biggest myth.

And there's been randomized control trials for several years showing that creatine causes no detrimental effects to the kidneys.

Yes.

And if you're also, creatinine can be elevated if you're on a high meat diet, a little bit dehydrated.

So those that are exercising is very, very elevated.

So always tell your doctor you're on creatine supplementation because your creatinine could be a little bit higher.

Yeah.

Myth number two, creatine makes you retain water.

So this is really important.

And I think this is one of the main reasons females were really hesitant to take creatine.

If you take too much too soon, it can lead to an increase in water retention.

So you've probably heard of the creatine loading phase.

This is where supplement companies want you to take about 20 or 30 grams a day for about five or seven days.

That has been shown to increase water retention acutely.

So maybe it'll reside there for about three to five days.

But after that, when you go on a maintenance phase of about three to five grams a day, that water retention goes away.

So in the initial stages, if done improperly or too much, it can cause a little bit of water retention.

The good news for everybody watching is after about the first week, that water's inside our muscle.

So now we're volumizing the size of our muscle, sort of like a balloon here.

It's full of water.