Cycling creatine

[Slugger]

I heard it's best to cycle creatine 2 months on 1 month off. What would happen if you took 5g of creatine for lets say 6 months straight? Would there be irreparable damage to your body?

[realityarts]

My understanding is that you must keep yourself hydrated throughout the use (which is good advice anytime). There are many people who have used creatine, safely, for more than 6 months.

[Aragorn]

I haven't read any medical reports that would state otherwise, I've used it religiously for awhile now...haven't seen any problems.

Aragorn

[Slugger]

So basically you can use creatine non stop your whole life without stopping? 2 questions:

1) Will doing this shut down your natural production of creatine?

2) Will your body become used to the creatine and after a while it no longer benefits you?

3) Will there be damage to your kidneys, liver etc. if you continuously use creatine?

[DBarcelo]

No, no and no.

There is no production of creatine as there is a production of say insulin. Creatine is a combination of three amino acids: arginine, glycine, and methionine. The three aminos are combined in the liver to produce methyl guanidine acetic acid. So your body produces creatine by either combining amino acids or by getting it from your diet, such as from suppliments and foods like steak.

Your body doesn't have a threshold for creatine sensativity, but the bigger you are and the more muscle mass on your body, the more creatine your body will store, because creatine is stored primarily in the skelital muscles. I should point out that this is just a theory. If you don't have enough creatine, your body will combine the aminos needed to create more creatine, if you have too much creatine in your body, it will turn the creatine into creatinine and get rid of it.

Only if you have kidney failure is creatinine really a problem. Your kidneys have to get rid of the creatinin through the urinary tract and it doesn't hurt your kidneys to get rid of it, but it will be very hard to get rid of it if your kidneys don't work. Hemo dialysis can dialize creatinine pretty well, as does peratineal dialysis but not quite as well as your kidneys. Your liver creates creatine and if you're supplimenting creatine then your liver won't have to produce any creatine, but the liver never loses it's ability to combine aminos to create creatine. Your liver is still busy combining aminos for other uses, that's why it never loses the ability.

Hope that helps.