Creatine Dosing: Symptoms and Safety

September 19, 2017   |   Evidence in Integrative Healthcare

Medline Plus (a service of the US National Library of Medicine) offers a compilation of several research projects on the safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation dosing with patients. Creatine has been used as an athletic performance enhancing supplement for years, and is approved for use by the International Olympic Committee, National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and many professional sports. The NCAA no longer allows colleges and universities to supply creatine to students with school funds. Students are permitted to buy and use creatine on their own. This article answers the following questions:

• What is creatine?
• How effective is it? (Citing several disease states and performance enhancing scenarios.)
• What are the food, herb and drug interactions?
• What are the safe and most effective doses?
• What are the most important safety concerns when recommending creatine?

There are many new findings for integrative providers to consider before using this supplement on either healthy athletes, or patients with disease states.