Creatine monohydrate

For most adults. It helps most with strength training, but you don't have to train to take it.

At a glance

Our verdict	3–5 g a day for most adults with healthy kidneys. Adds muscle and strength with training; small benefit without.
Best use	Muscle and strength
How sure the evidence is	Moderate with training; Low without
Cost a month	About $10 to $20

Written for adults in Canada. It explains the evidence; it is not advice for you personally. Last reviewed 20 October 2026.

Supplement Check

Is it right for you?

Creatine suits most adults, but not everyone: kidneys, pregnancy, some medicines and bipolar disorder all matter. We check each one. Our Supplement Check looks at:

Kidney disease, kidney function below normal (eGFR under 60), one kidney, or a kidney transplant
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
Bipolar disorder
During chemotherapy that can harm the kidneys, or with cirrhosis of the liver
Every medicine you take

Coming soon. The Supplement Check and the Online Health Assessment open once our safety testing is complete.

$59 when it opens, paid once. Adults 18 and over, anywhere in Canada. While the service is new, Dr. French reads every report himself, and your report arrives within 3 working days. More about the Supplement Check

Tell me when it opens

What it is

Creatine is made in the body from three amino acids (arginine, glycine and methionine), about 1 g a day, and eaten in meat and fish, about 1 g a day more in people who eat them. Creatine monohydrate is the form studied in trials, and the only form we use.

Structure of Creatine monohydrate — Structure: PubChem (public domain).

How it acts

Creatine raises the store of phosphocreatine in muscle by about 20 to 40%. Phosphocreatine refills ATP, the muscle's immediate fuel, during short bursts of hard work, so you can do a little more in each training session; over weeks, that extra work becomes extra muscle and strength. It may also raise brain creatine modestly.

Outline of a person showing where Creatine monohydrate acts in the body

What it is used for, and what the evidence says

Use	What the trials found	How sure we are
Older adults doing strength training	357 people over about 13 weeks: more muscle (fat-free mass), more chest-press and leg-press strength, and better chair-stand performance than training alone. [1] A 2025 review of 8 trials in 482 older adults found a small gain in leg strength. [2]	Moderate
Young men, with and without training	39 trials. With training: fat-free mass 3.4 kg higher and lean mass 2.7 kg higher. Without training: no significant gain in lean mass. Peak power rose by about 71 watts in both. [3]	Moderate
Memory	8 trials found a small improvement, larger in people aged 66 to 76, but the trials disagreed with each other and were small. [4] The European food-safety authority rejected a memory claim in 2024: the effect appeared only at 20 g a day for 5 to 7 days. [5]	Low
Kidneys	Creatine raises the creatinine blood test slightly (about 0.07 to 0.13 mg/dL), but kidney function measured other ways (eGFR, cystatin C, urea) did not change in randomised trials. [6–8] The trials were short and in healthy people.	Moderate

How sure we are: High means further research is very unlikely to change the answer; Moderate, it might; Low, it may well change; Very low, we are very unsure. These follow the GRADE method that guideline panels use.

Benefits

With training: about 1 to 3 kg more lean mass and modestly more strength over 8 to 16 weeks than training alone.
Without training: a small gain in power, no gain in lean mass. It helps, but the gain is small.
Memory: small and uncertain.

Risks and side effects

Weight gain of 1 to 2 kg, mostly water held in muscle.
Stomach upset with large single doses.
A small rise in the creatinine blood test that is not kidney harm. Tell whoever checks your kidney function; cystatin C is the better test while you take creatine.
Case reports of mania in people with bipolar disorder.
No good evidence that it causes cramping, dehydration or hair loss. [9]

Interactions with medicines

Creatine does not change how the liver clears medicines. The caution is the kidneys.

Medicine	What can happen	What to do
Lithium	Lithium is cleared by the kidneys; the combination has not been studied	Not offered
Anti-inflammatory painkillers on most days (ibuprofen, naproxen, diclofenac)	Both affect kidney measurements; the combination is untested	Held for a doctor
Ciclosporin, tacrolimus, aminoglycoside antibiotics, cisplatin, tenofovir disoproxil	Medicines that can harm the kidneys; combination untested	Held for a doctor
Caffeine	May blunt the effect in some studies	Noted (low certainty)

Who should not take it

Kidney disease, kidney function below normal (eGFR under 60), one kidney, or a kidney transplant.
Pregnancy and breastfeeding: no human safety data.
Bipolar disorder.
During chemotherapy that can harm the kidneys, or with cirrhosis of the liver.
Under 18: outside the Supplement Check.

Our check offers creatine to adults whose kidney function is known to be normal, or who have no kidney history and are under 65.

Dose and timing

Creatine monohydrate 3 to 5 g once a day, at any time, with food or a drink. No loading phase is needed. Take it every day.
Strength training 2 or more days a week is recommended, because that is where most of the benefit comes from, but it is not a requirement.
Store the powder dry at room temperature; it breaks down in liquid over days, so mix it when you take it.
If you can be drug-tested in sport: NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Sport products only (your report names certified creatine products sold in Canada).
How to tell it is working: a training log, grip strength, or a chair-stand test at the start and at 12 weeks.

What we know about Canadians

There are no Canadian data on how much creatine people eat. The body makes about 1 g a day and an omnivorous diet supplies about 1 to 2 g more. A 2026 proposal for the first creatine reference intake put need from food at about 400 mg a day for a 75-kg man and 240 mg for a 60-kg woman, met by most meat, fish and dairy eaters. [10] Vegetarians and vegans get almost none from food; in 2015, 1.3% of Canadians were vegetarian, 0.3% vegan and 0.7% pescatarian. [11]

Most likely to eat little: vegetarians and vegans, and older adults who eat little meat or fish.

How sure are we: very low. No Canadian intake data; the reference intake is a proposal by one author, not an official value.

An honest comparison: muscle and strength

Option	Effect	How sure we are	Cost a month (CAD)
Creatine 3 to 5 g with training	About 1.1 kg more lean mass than training alone; part of it is water	Moderate	$10 to $20
Creatine without training	No significant lean-mass gain; a small gain in power	Low	$10 to $20
Strength training 2 to 3 times a week	Older adults: about 1.1 kg more lean mass and 24 to 33% more strength. Nothing else comes close. [12]	Moderate to High	Bands $3 to $5; budget gym about $21
Enough protein from food (to about 1.6 g per kg a day), with training	About 0.3 kg more lean mass and 2.5 kg more on a one-repetition lift	Moderate to High	$20 to $30 of extra food
None	No medicine is approved in Canada for age-related muscle loss	—	—

Our verdict

Creatine monohydrate 3 to 5 g a day for most adults with healthy kidneys. With strength training it adds muscle and strength; without training the benefit is small, but you don't have to train to take it. It is cheap, well studied and safe for the people it suits.

Not for kidney disease, pregnancy or breastfeeding, bipolar disorder, or with lithium.

Creatine is one of the best-studied supplements, it is cheap, and in randomised trials it did not harm kidney function in healthy people. Dr. French's ruling is that strength training is not a requirement: "it helps, but you don't have to". With training the gain in muscle and strength is clear; without training it is small, and we say so. The exclusions (kidney disease, pregnancy, bipolar disorder, lithium) come from the evidence review.