It's Saturday night out, you're with your buddies in a night club and they start ordering drinks. Before you order a thought crosses your mind that you just started using creatine 3 days ago and you've read that it's very bad to mix alcohol and creatine.
Now you order water or something like cranberry juice and everybody feels insulted and they think you're pretending something. 🙂
Next thing most of you have to do is explain to your buddies why you can't share a couple of drink with them, this is most likely to happen if you are out with people who aren't involved in fitness.
What is creatine anyway? It's not something artificially made, if you are healthy your liver will produce 2-3 grams of creatine each day depending on the amount you use up with physical exercise, also red meat and fish is rich in creatine (will animal meat has a lot more creatine content due to physical activity).
Scientists have realized the patterns in which creatine increases ATP energy transfer system in our muscles.
They came to the conclusion that by ingesting extra amounts of a artificially made creatine we can improve our athletic performance and that's a very short story how the world most effective dietary supplement was created.
Problem with combining Creatine and Alcohol
Problem with creatine and alcohol is that they in some way have opposite effects. While creatine attracts water in muscle s alcohol is one of the best diuretics.
When consuming large quantity of alcohol your body will need a lot of water to flush out the acetate which is a by product of alcohol metabolism.
This can potentially create problems as creatine also demands water to function so if you don't have sufficient water intake during the day it might cause dehydration if too much acetate needs to be flushed.
Alcohol Consumption Myth in Fitness Communities
Drinking alcohol has been a taboo in fitness community for a long time now. Every guy who's reading the famous fitness magazines think that having 1 glass of wine will eat you muscles and Lower your testosterone so much that you risk infertility.
It's ridiculous, alcohol has been marketed for years now as toxic to muscle building and fat loss.
The dose makes the poison, if you go get wasted and hospitalized 3 times a week from excess alcohol intake then it's safe to say that alcohol will destroy you.
And on the other hand having 2 glasses of dry red wine once a week probably has more health benefits than every supplement, Mineral and vitamin together.
Controlled moderate consumption of alcohol will actually lower fatty acid count,  improve insulin sensitivity and give more control of blood sugar levels. Statistics even show that those who have small amounts of alcohol on occasion live longer and have less health problems than those who avoid it completely.
I have personally never noticed any strength drops, endurance issues or fat gain from having 2-3 glasses of wine the night before. If anything I felt better and flushed some of the excess water and toxins from the body.
There's basically only 1 problem with alcohol and that is people can't control the amount they drink.
How to mix these without any side-effects?
- Stay properly hydrated during the day you are about to go out. To accomplish this you just need to drink more than 4 liters of water. Check out the urine chart mentioned and how Water helps you lose weight here.
- Don't drink too much alcohol, if you overdo the booze you lose all the health benefits from alcohol and risk dehydration when creatine levels are increased. It's very common to see guys pass out from dehydration so make sure you know when it's time to say NO.
- Drink some water with alcohol. Every 2-3 shots go have some water, this way you'll renew the body water supply and avoid any issues.
- Preferably take creatine it in the morning if you are going out that night.
- Have a bottle of water ready near bed so you drink first thing in the morning when you wake up.
Conclusion
Basically if you limit your drinking to social events and keep it in moderation I don't see why creatine presence would have any negative side-effects on your health.
As I've mentioned earlier the biggest problem with alcohol is the quantity, the combination between these 2 is harmless if you can control yourself without letting the environment and your friend make choices for you.
Remember before you decide to take creatine consult with your physician, it's always good to be absolutely sure there won't be any negative effects before taking a supplement. Don't think I'm cheering for everybody to get drunk but in my opinion the fitness industry has greatly exaggerated the negative effects of alcohol.
Of course not everybody responds the same way, I just know this works for me without problems. My point was just that things usually aren't bad by default, we can make it bad or good, same with alcohol.
IMPORTANT: If you had a history of liver, kidney or any other problems involving alcohol or creatine I strongly suggest you stay away from it.
Tell me your opinion in the comments section below, would love to hear from you.
Good luck with your fitness goals, see you on the dance floor! 🙂
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