Creatine Question
 

Back when I was fatter, I was diagnosed with High Blood Pressure. I remember reading somewhere that if you have HBP then you should steer clear of Creatine. Funny thing is, now I can't seem to find the article to find out why or if I misread it totally. Anyway, can anyone confirm whether or not it's okay to use creatine with HBP?

Thanks in advance

I have never heard that before. If you can find the article please post it because I ran a quick search of google using those keywords and nothing really popped up.

Okay, I think I found it.

Here's the link to the whole article
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/ConsSupple...reatinecs.html

and here is the portion that concerned me:

I hate it when an article like this gives a long list of sources at the bottom but doesn't provide any footnote numbers in the article text.

As far as I know the liver dysfunction and kidney damage thing is unsubstantiated and is based on faulty assumptions, i.e. standard liver value tests and their indications about liver dysfunction in bodybuilders, or people on high protein diets, supplemental creatine, or all of the above.

High blood pressure I've never heard and I, also, was unable to find anything on a search.

Several of the sources cited from the article were reviews concerning side effects. Some of those journals may be online and it may be possible to view free abstracts or even full articles, if you want to search through some of them and see if they concern high blood pressure.

If you can't find them, I'd keep looking for it elsewhere, but I wouldn't worry too much. Creatine is subject to a whole lot of unecessary abuse. At least until proven otherwise.

And remember, online articles are not to be considered reliable sources of info. No matter how good the writer's sources are, there is usually a slant, or some preconceived notions. You also have to consider the writer's interpretation of complicated data, and, quite frankly, their honesty.

I've read articles stating some "fact" based on a study, and upon reading said study in a journal found that the consclusions are the opposite of what the article's author stated!

You take as fact anything you read about a scientific study until you've seen that study yourself. Or, at least until you've seen the study cited several more times in a similar fashion.

Ok, I was able to find a great many abstracts for the sources cited in that article. The side effects ones were reviews of the availible ifo on studies into creatine safety.

Wasn't able to find anything about high blood pressure. The closest I could get was a story about a bodybuilder who had an ischemic stroke after taking Ma Huang, creatine and some other stuff like L-Carnitine for a while. Ma Huang = ephedra. I dont know of the guy had high blood pressure.

I found one study that examined the blood pressure of it's participants and found no effect.

If you google "effect of creatine on blood pressure" you'll get a lot of stuff.

Apparently there is no clinical evidence that creatine causes high blood pressure. Only anecdotal reports. The ideal that it might is based on the fact that it increases water retention and so may effect blood pressure in a similar way to sodium. Again, there is no evidence that this is true.

Good deal Eric...I think I will try out Creatine. I am going to do a little more research first though.....I always research the crap out of any product before I put it in my body. I know I am probably being a little too dramatic here but, heck I researched Whey Protien and L-Glutamine a month before I decided to start drinking the shakes lol. Go figure, I ate MRE's in the Marines without question for 4 years, and now I care what I put in my body.

Are you kidding? That's the smartest thing I've heard all day.:)