Creatine and Acute Compartment Syndrome

[vision]

My gf has been on me for years about all the supplements I take. She has a doctoral degree in psychology and is highly involved in all sorts of research and in contact with a lot of medical professionals. She has always been on my case about creatine and early on tried to point out cases about people who have been hospitalized and died from creatine use. I've always been able to refute any argument she has thrown at me because those people were using an excessive amount of creatine.

Now she says that long term use of creatine has been linked to Acute Compartment Syndrome. She was at a convention when she heard about this from other medical professionals. I did a search on google and only found one case study and again the lifter was using an excessive dose of 25g/day for about a year. However, I was wondering if anyone here has ever experienced this or heard of this new development?

I have been using creatine for 10 years now, cycling responsively and have never experienced any side effects that I know of, except extreme disappointment in my self for trying all the different types of creatine. Yes they got me on almost all of them. Any feedback or thoughts on this topic are greatly appreciated including any other long term side effects anyone may have experienced from using creatine.

Creatine Monohydrate rules!!

 

[yeahright]

My gf has been on me for years about all the supplements I take. She has a doctoral degree in psychology and is highly involved in all sorts of research and in contact with a lot of medical professionals. She has always been on my case about creatine and early on tried to point out cases about people who have been hospitalized and died from creatine use. I've always been able to refute any argument she has thrown at me because those people were using an excessive amount of creatine.

Now she says that long term use of creatine has been linked to Acute Compartment Syndrome. She was at a convention when she heard about this from other medical professionals. I did a search on google and only found one case study and again the lifter was using an excessive dose of 25g/day for about a year. However, I was wondering if anyone here has ever experienced this or heard of this new development?

I have been using creatine for 10 years now, cycling responsively and have never experienced any side effects that I know of, except extreme disappointment in my self for trying all the different types of creatine. Yes they got me on almost all of them. Any feedback or thoughts on this topic are greatly appreciated including any other long term side effects anyone may have experienced from using creatine.

Creatine Monohydrate rules!!

Never heard of it. It would be helpful if your GF could give a citation to a medical journal article or something definitive. She may have a point. Just because something is generally safe doesn't mean we should be ignorant of possible negative outcomes (even if those outcomes come from extreme use).

 

[yeahright]

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=155408

 

[vision]

She was at a conference and somehow she found herself in a conversation with some medical professionals about the topic. She was informed by them that studies were underway.

 

[yeahright]

She was at a conference and somehow she found herself in a conversation with some medical professionals about the topic. She was informed by them that studies were underway.

Well, from this study:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=155408

....it appears to be a rather exotic but real issue. I can't imagine that it's actually happening much in the real world (unless it's being misdiagnosed) because millions of people are taking creatine and they're essentially having to create the problem in the lab (as opposed to reporting emergency room admission/diagnosis data for example). As an aside, it can't be that serious of a problem for the individual or there would be profound ethical problems with the study I cite above. No human subjects review committee would approve the study if the effects were serious and not reversable.

 

[ItsHectic]

I did a search on google and only found one case study and again the lifter was using an excessive dose of 25g/day for about a year.

Aparently each gram of kre-alkalyn is equivilent to 10 grams of creatine. Meaning each capsule = 7.5grams of creatine, and the recomended dosage is upto 4 a day, thats as high as 30grams of creatine per day, plus it says it doesnt need to be cycled. Will be interesting to see what happens in the years to come with creatine.

These are one of those things I didnt want to know, how about we just dont train calves while were on creatine???

 

[ItsHectic]

Heres a more recent indepth study:
Creatine Supplementation and Anterior Compartment Pressure During Exercise in the Heat in Dehydrated Men

Which I am too tired to read right now.


http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/405772 - Google Search
And this is the guy who was taking 25g a day, he trained his legs for 3 hours. I cant believe all that happened from creatine. :jaw:

 

[bioman]

I believe the latter study was done on a young man who had undiagnosed rhabdomyalisis, but I might be wrong.

In any case there is a fairly well reported on case where some guy got severe compartmental syndrome and had to have lots of muscle tissue removed and all sorts of nasty things. The newspapers were all over it and reported creatine as the cause, but the guy had a pre-existing kidney problem that likely gave him excessively high creatinine levels to begin with. Creatine use didn't help that, but it likely was not the ultimate cause of his condition.

I never got anything all that amazing out of creatine once I hit my max natural weight. I only use it now on wo days.

 

[DeerDeer]

It is very rare, if ever happens - especially if linked to creatine.

I think she is trying to make it seem as though it is more common than it really is to yank your chain and get you to stop taking it.