I’m not saying people don’t experience cramps, but I don’t believe it can be very common," Greenhaff says. "If there were any major adverse side effects, we would have seen them by now."

That said, you can't take creatine, not workout, and expect to gain muscle. It just doesn't work that way. What Are the Best Forms of Creatine? In fact, research has shown positive health benefits in athletes who took daily supplements of creatine for long periods of time ( 2). Summary

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Here's a buyer's guide for what to look for in a high-quality, effective creatine supplement. How Much Creatine Do I Need Per Day?

However, the fact that creatine raises creatinine levels does not mean that it is harming your liver or kidneys ( 15). Kreider RB, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: Safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 2017; doi:10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z.This review also compared the world’s most popular sports supplements and concluded that creatine is the best one available. Its advantages include being less expensive and far safer than most other sports supplements ( 27). Creatine supplementation appears to be generally safe and potentially beneficial for children and adolescents. Smaller, daily dosages of creatine supplementation (3-5 g or 0.1 g/kg of body mass) are effective. Therefore, a creatine ‘loading’ phase is not required. Some people suggest that creatine can lead to compartment syndrome, a condition that occurs when excessive pressure builds inside an enclosed space — usually within arm or leg muscles. Since this case study was reported in 1998, experimental and controlled research trials investigating the effects of creatine supplementation on kidney/renal function has substantially increased [ 50, 56, 57, 58]. Overall, in healthy individuals, there appears to be no adverse effects from consuming recommended doses of creatine supplements on kidney/renal function [ 50, 56, 57, 58]. Interestingly, Gualano et al. [ 58] reviewed a small number of case studies which reported renal dysfunction in individuals who were supplementing with creatine. Similar to the case report by Pritchard and Kalra [ 51], these additional case reports were confounded by medications, pre-existing kidney disease, concomitant supplement ingestion, inappropriate creatine dosages (e.g., 100 X recommended dose), and anabolic androgenic steroid use.