Myth 1: creatine damages your kidneys

This is the most persistent one, and it comes from a genuine misreading of a lab test.

Kidney function is commonly estimated by measuring creatinine in blood. Creatinine is a breakdown product of creatine. If you supplement with creatine, you produce more creatinine, so your measured creatinine level rises.

A raised creatinine level normally suggests the kidneys are not filtering well. In someone taking creatine, it usually just means they are taking creatine. The marker went up because the input went up, not because filtration went down.

The International Society of Sports Nutrition addressed this directly in its position stand on creatine safety and efficacy, concluding that creatine monohydrate does not harm kidney function in healthy people at recommended doses, across both short-term and long-term use.

Two practical notes that matter:

  • If you have existing kidney disease, or take medication affecting kidney function, talk to your doctor. This is a real exception, not a legal formality.
  • If you are having bloodwork done, tell whoever ordered it that you take creatine. Otherwise a raised creatinine reading can trigger a false alarm and unnecessary follow-up.

Myth 2: creatine causes hair loss

This one traces to a single study, and the gap between what it measured and what it is cited for is large.

In 2009, a small trial in college-aged rugby players found that creatine supplementation raised dihydrotestosterone, or DHT. DHT is a hormone associated with male pattern baldness in people genetically predisposed to it.

Here is what that study did not do: it did not measure hair. Not hair loss, not hair thinning, not follicle health. It measured a hormone that is associated with hair loss in susceptible people.

It also involved around twenty participants, and the DHT finding has not been reliably replicated in subsequent work. No study since has directly demonstrated that creatine causes hair loss.

The honest position: there is no good evidence that creatine causes hair loss, the mechanism is speculative, and it rests on one small unreplicated result. If you are already genetically predisposed to pattern hair loss and you want to be cautious, that is a legitimate personal call. It is not a finding.

Myth 3: creatine is a steroid

It is not, and the two are not chemically related.

Anabolic steroids are synthetic derivatives of testosterone. They work by binding hormone receptors and directly increasing muscle protein synthesis.

Creatine is a compound made from three amino acids. Your body produces it in the liver, kidneys, and pancreas, and you eat it in red meat and fish. It works by helping regenerate ATP, the energy currency your muscles use in short, hard efforts. That lets you do slightly more work in a session.

It is not a hormone, it does not bind hormone receptors, and it is not banned by any major sporting body, including the International Olympic Committee and the NCAA.

The confusion is mostly guilt by association. Creatine is sold in the same shops as things that are more aggressive, so it inherits the reputation.

Myth 4: it causes cramping and dehydration

Worth including because it was standard coaching advice for years, and it turned out to be backwards.

The theory was that creatine pulls water into muscle, leaving less available elsewhere, raising cramp and heat illness risk. Studies in athletes training in heat have generally found the opposite or nothing at all: creatine users showed equal or lower rates of cramping, dehydration, and heat illness compared with non-users.

Drink normal amounts of water. There is no special hydration protocol required.

What is actually true

Creatine does cause a small amount of water retention, mostly inside the muscle, arriving once in the first few weeks. That is a real effect and it is covered in more detail here.

Some people get gastrointestinal upset, and it is nearly always a function of taking too much at once. That is a loading problem, and loading is optional.

Beyond that, creatine monohydrate is about as well characterised as any supplement in existence, with decades of trials and no signal of harm in healthy people at 3 to 5 grams a day.

The bottom line

The kidney myth is a misread lab marker. The hair loss myth is one small study that measured a hormone rather than hair and was never replicated. Creatine is not a steroid and does not cause cramping.

None of that makes creatine essential. It makes it cheap, safe, and modestly useful if you are training. The larger lever is still eating enough protein consistently, which is the part most people actually miss. TrakMac exists to make that part take seconds instead of a database search.