This seemed like the appropriate forum to ask for experiences with creatine supplementation in conjunction with high blood pressure and I’m hoping for personal feedback on any measured or felt effects.
I’m curious if creatine has had any negative effect on pressure numbers for anyone, and if you have labs drawn, have you seen any negative GFR effects?
Googling studies shows that creatine can make blood pressure worse and stress kidneys more intensely when hypertensive, and others show no effect. Not sure which to believe.
For context, I am 40 and borderline to barely stage one hypertensive. My numbers are around 135/85 to 140/90, and I’m on the lowest Lisinopril dose 2x daily plus hydrachlorothiazide 1x.
Don’t take creatine if you have hypertension, it causes your body to retain more water and will increase your BP. Doctors frequently prescribe diuretics in conjunction with BP meds to help the body reduce water retention. Your numbers are high, 140/90 over a period of years can cause damage to your body. The risk of taking creatine for someone with hypertension far outweighs the benefit of using it.
At 140/90 I wouldn’t consider risking it. Medicated I’m more like 120/80, give or take a few points sometimes. One of my medications is hctz, however. The water pill. I am especially curious how creatine in the mix would affect things considering.
It’s also the pill my doc threw in for good measure and said I could likely drop or substitute for something else if I don’t like it as it can push potassium out with salt.
See, I don’t get this. Creatine, from what I understand, increases intracellular fluid volume, not extracellular (it causes muscle cells to draw in more water). Therefore, it shouldn’t really increase blood pressure. But, of course, I may be wrong. Doesn’t look like there are any definitive studies.
I will note that I didn’t do well on this - it impacted my eGFR negatively (and I felt sore all the time). They’ll tell you to just drink more water, but I was unable to keep up with it. n = 1 and all that, but that was my experience
intravascular volume status refers to the volume of blood in a patient’s circulatory system, and is essentially the blood plasma component of the overall volume status of the body, which otherwise includes both intracellular fluid and extracellular fluid. Still, the intravascular component is usually of primary interest, and volume status is sometimes used synonymously with intravascular volume status.
Some key topics to keep in mind as you increase fat free mass / intravascular volume. That intracellular water has to be serviced by your bloodstream.
Big difference for young vs older with compomised vasodilation.
This is what I would think too. Most of the negativity I read was around extra volume and pressure on the kidneys, which would already be stressed by hypertension. So my curiosity is if the hypertension is medicated, in theory wouldn’t the kidneys be relaxed to a more normal state and able to process extra creatinine?
I suppose there is not an answer given lack of studies but in theory ai may try it out. If I notice a negative response, it’s easy enough to quit creatine.
Thank you for these links. I’ll have to dive in when I have time. I know my weight contributes, including lean weight, and creatine would exacerbate that, but I’m ok taking Lisinopril and creatine if it lets me build more muscle.
For the record, I’m currently 6ft and 255 lbs. I’m training for a powerlifting meet in November, then plan to cut down to 225-230 or so, which will be lean for me, but still possibly heavy enough for hypertension. Beach lean, not vein popping bodybuilding stage lean.
Yeah, my thighs are abnormally sore all the time. Like a deep soreness. I may see if the doc will let me drop. Intake hctz in the morning, use mineral drops in water through the day and take a mineral supp at night but it doesn’t seem to matter. I always wonder if I’m losing other trace minerals not normally tracked as well.
OK. So I am currently 1 month into my (relatively low) 10 week summer blast (plus TRT). Been taking 5G day creatine for approx 6 months. Blood pressure started moving up and hit 150/100 two days ago so I decided something has to go. So I stopped taking the creatine two days ago and other than watching my sodium intake a little closer nothing else has changed. Here are the average of three checks each day AM/noon/PM:
It’s really hard to believe that creatine (and a little less sodium) had this effect on my BP in such a short time! I will continue to monitor but…Has anyone else seen this?
Circling back here, my eGFR dropped significantly per most recent labs. Mid-high 90’s to 85. I’ve dropped hctz. The lingering muscle soreness is gone, curious to see how the next labs will look.