Creatine supplements, when combined with an appropriate workout routine, can help enhance high-intensity exercise performance and build lean body mass. Their popularity has grown on social media, where fitness creators often promote the supplement for daily use.

We asked Pieter Cohen, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and general internist at Cambridge Health Alliance, if creatine supplements are safe to use in the long run.

*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Q: Is creatine a safe supplement for long-term daily use?

Cohen: Let’s take a step back. Before even starting a creatine supplement, you need to make sure you have the right ingredients and dose.

Unlike over-the-counter medications like Tylenol, aspirin, and Prilosec, there are no controls over the quality or quantity of dietary supplement ingredients before they’re sold. There are no checks on these things. Study after study has shown that the products that are sold as supplements are not accurately labeled. 

If you’re thinking about creatine, you need to do some research to decide exactly how much you’re going to take and then find a product that is reliably labeled.

How Can I Pick a Safe Creatine Supplement?

If the supplement company hired a certification nonprofit to take a deep dive into their manufacturing, and they get a stamp of approval, then you know what’s on the label matches what is in the bottle.

You can use the NSF or USP websites to research which brands are certified. Then, find that brand, and purchase only that brand. That’s a lot of hard and complicated work to make sure your supplements are accurately labeled.

If you are an adult and complete those steps, you’re good to go, and it’s safe for long-term use. But, creatine doesn’t work for everyone. We don’t exactly know why, but research has shown that, for one in three people, it doesn’t have muscle benefits. If it’s not helping you build muscles after a few weeks or a month or two, then I would stop, because it just might not work for you. 

Will Long-Term Creatine Use Harm My Kidneys?

If your kidneys are healthy, you should have no problems with long-term use. If you have kidney damage or a kidney condition, then I would not recommend supplementing with protein powder, amino acids, or creatine regularly.

When people have chronic kidney damage, too much protein is not good. Creatine is like a micro-protein—it’s a few amino acids—so I could see where that would be a concern.

I would not recommend creatine for adolescents because we are not sure how this supplement affects the growing body.

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

  1. Kreider RB, Kalman DS, Antonio J, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. J Int Soc Sport Nutr. 2017;14(1):18. doi:10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z

  2. Syrotuik DG, Bell GJ. Acute creatine monohydrate supplementation: a descriptive physiological profile of responders vs. nonresponders. J Strength Cond Res. 2004;18(3):610-617. doi:10.1519/12392.1 

Stephanie Brown

By Stephanie Brown

Brown is a nutrition writer who received her Didactic Program in Dietetics certification from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Previously, she worked as a nutrition educator and culinary instructor in New York City.

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