Creatine is one of the most widely researched sports supplements, recognized in research for its ability to improve strength, power and training performance, the audience heard during the recent webinar, “The Young Athlete and Creatine: Safety, Science and Smarter Choices,” hosted by creatine education and supplement company Jenerise.
However, participating experts told the audience that despite strong scientific evidence supporting its safety and effectiveness, it is often misunderstood and surrounded by myths—especially online.
Creatine myths spread faster than facts on social media
Donald Hooton, founder of the non-profit Hooton Foundation, noted that social media and AI are exposing young people to unprecedented levels of misinformation about performance-enhancing drugs and supplements.
Creatine is one example of how misinformation fuels unnecessary concern about supplements, Hooton explained, noting that his organization, which educates young athletes, parents, and coaches about the risks of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances through evidence-based prevention programs, gets constant questions around dietary supplement safety, most of which are related to creatine.
This, he noted, shows the need for evidence-based education to correct myths for both parents and young people.
“Creatine is culturally everywhere now, even beyond fitness, and while young people are often educating their parents about it, there’s still outdated information circulating,” Hooton said.
One main issue is the speed at which misinformation can spread through social media influencers, Hooton noted, adding that if it is a competition between social media influencers and trusted adults or health organizations for young people’s attention, “social media influencers are winning.”
“Someone can make a post and within a day have a million views,” Hooton said. “Organizations like ours would have to multiply content across platforms to get anywhere near that reach.”
Creatine’s growing safety evidence
Dr. Blaise Collins, exercise physiologist and creatine researcher, noted that decades of research now support creatine’s safety across the lifespan. However, he noted that myths linking creatine to steroids, dehydration, stunted growth, hair loss, and kidney damage continue to persist despite a growing body of evidence to the contrary.
“Creatine is one of the most extensively studied supplements available,” he said, pointing to decades of research and studies that found no clinically meaningful changes in kidney function in healthy adults and adolescents.
Collins explained that while creatine supplementation can increase creatinine—a marker commonly used to assess kidney function—that change does not necessarily equate to kidney damage. He noted that clinicians should evaluate kidney health using complete clinical workups that include cystatin C, blood urea nitrogen, hydration status, blood pressure and muscle mass.
Rather than discouraging creatine use based on a single laboratory value, he argued, physicians should consider the full clinical picture.
Collins also highlighted the expanding role of creatine beyond sports performance, pointing to emerging research in Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, women’s health and fertility.
According to Collins, in the early 2000s, creatine became the “bad guy” in the media, largely being blamed rather than proven to be the cause for multiple athlete fatalities. Reflecting on the changing perception of the supplement, he said it was “really exciting” to have witnessed creatine evolve from being “basically demonized” to becoming a promising area of therapeutic research.
Creatine education needs to replace social media myths
With so many young people able to access to the internet and interested in supplementation, Dan Richardson, performance nutrition practitioner, said conversations around creatine must focus on whether an athlete is ready, rather than whether they are old enough.
“The question really is not, ‘can they take creatine?’ but, ‘is it the right time?’” he said. “That’s how we need to be framing creatine when we’re speaking to the younger population.”
He explained that creatine is generally more appropriate for older adolescent athletes who have consistent training and nutrition habits, supportive parental involvement in the decision-making process, and a realistic understanding of what creatine can—and cannot—do.
“It’s not some magical miracle powder that’s going to fix all of your problems, but it’s certainly going to have a positive effect on performance and health,” he noted.
Richardson also stressed that education is critical to addressing common misconceptions. He noted that parents frequently ask whether creatine is safe, whether it is appropriate for their child’s age, whether it could damage the kidneys, or whether it causes hair loss. Athletes, meanwhile, often feel they need creatine simply because “everyone else is taking it.”
“Most concerns are driven by the uncertainty rather than the evidence itself,” he said, noting that rather than allowing decisions to be shaped by social media, peer pressure, or anecdotal stories, athletes, parents, and coaches should be supported with evidence-based education so they can make informed decisions for the right reasons.
“From a coaching and applied perspective, it always comes down to individual needs,” he said. “Parents often want a simple age-based rule—like caffeine restrictions under 16 in the UK—but creatine doesn’t fit into that kind of framework.
“It’s much more individual and context-dependent, which is where practitioners are comfortable operating, even if parents want a black-and-white answer.”
To combat the challenge of supplement misinformation on social media, he said health professionals must avoid glamorizing supplement use because doing so would be neither ethical nor appropriate, even though influencers are rewarded for creating engaging content that attracts views, clicks and followers.
Although he believes experts are fighting an uphill battle against misinformation, Richardson stressed that they remain committed to sharing accurate, science-based information wherever possible.
“The key is continuing to share accurate information and getting the right message into the right hands wherever we can,” he said.
