Creatine Intolerance

[hankforce]

Hi, has anyone else had problems with creatine?

I started by buying the gritty powdered stuff a couple of years ago, mixed it up, felt awesome for about two days then was struck down with major stomach cramps, a serious case of the shites and an overall body ache that lasted a whole week, not fun.

About a year ago, I explained this problem to a dude at a health store who said that it was likely just crap gear and that the right stuff was NFS kre-alkaline, as it was pH correct and blah blah "that'll be $100 bucks" blah.

So, I bought it and even had the NFS NZ rep contact me to see if I could report back to him on how it all went. Again two days later I had the same problem and spent another week driving the porcalin bus. (full credit to NFS for refunding the coin though, very impressed).

A specialist then said it was simply that my body cannot process the excess creatine and that I should not ever take it again in any form other than natural foods, that advise wasn't a hard sell :?

Has anyone had the same problems? If so, did you find anything to use as an alternative or do you just get jealous of the dudes who use it effectively and cry too :cry:

[psi_brg]

i drink my creatine powder in warm to hot water so its soluble= no probs for me

sad to hear that you cant take it for some strange reason:S

[Foundation]

Geez that sucks man!!!!

Must be another way to provide you with the same effects of creatine, have you tried eating a shit load of red meat? maybe even chewing on raw good quality beef.

[hankforce]

Yeah I eat tonnes of red meat, always a serve a day so I guess I couldn't be deficient at least. But it does puzzle me and the NFS guys and everybody i mention it to.

Whats puzzles us, is that I can digest natural foods containing creatine but not an abundance with a suppliment. But.... creatine is creatine, no matter what so it shouldn't matter you'de think.

They think theres a certain enzyme or something that lets the digestion process down.

It definately works if I take it, it's the side effects that kills it.........

Maybe there is an alternative, thanks for the advice

[deeepsouth_nz]

I get an upset stomach with creatine but then I have a pretty sensitive stomach fullstop (hereditary).

I find rather than loading 4x5tsp for 4-5 days I just take a regular tsp a day and let the dose build up gradually in my body.

Still my guts is never as good when Im on creatine BUT it works so I just perservere and make sure I have appropriate time off the stuff also.

So I would be very interested to hear if there are any products out there that dont cause the same gut ache etc

[psi_brg]

i have a teaspoon of creatine monohydrate 1 hr before a work out and then another straight after along side with a 1/3 teaspoon of HMB twice also works for me

[hankforce]

Thanks everyone for the help. I may try to suppliment once more with a very small dosage and at least see if I can sneak it in very slowly with a lot of warm water and glucose, there may be some small gain as a result, better something than nuthin i guess..... well see. The second I feel like it's a no-go I'll stop and call it off.

I'll keep it posted up with a journal and use myself for a bit of an experiment for all to see.

Thanks again

[Lamborghinilova]

If you make sure the creatine is fully disolved before you have it it should cause less problems.

[startinfromscratch]

not tryna sell supps bro, but i tried a few crea monos, and definitly had cramps during loading. if your willing to pay a little more, try sizeon by gaspari, or bsn's cellmass. im using my second tub of sizeon, i rate it, no loading phase and ive had no sides. cellmass ive never personally tried, but a few senior members on here rate it highly. if poss try one of these mate!

[sponge]

i may sound negative but creatine doesn't do that much anyway so just don't have it

[Gym rat]

I have not had any problems with creatine expect for getting a dry mouth which can be a pain in the ass times but when I am on creatine I just have a couple of pices of gum in the afternoon meaning one after lunch and the other after afternoon tea and drink lots of water as well.

[Deburgh]

I stumbled upon some weird readings in my kidney, went off the creatine and they settled down, so staying right of the cellmass at mo.

Going to have kidney scans soon, hopefully explains all.

[Small]

how much were u taking? the loading or just 5g?

[hankforce]

The first time I loaded, the secong time I went in slow, same result....

[hankforce]

The first time I loaded, the second time I went in slow, same result...

Does anyone think it's worth the trouble? Doing half assed may just be a waste of time.

[Lamborghinilova]

well, you could just eat enough meat to get a maintenance dose of creatine. I do believe that android did/does this...

have you experimented with creatine gluconate or Creatine ethyl ester?