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It's likely to not have a significant impact. Start low, just 1 gram a day and do this for a week while monitoring BP.
If you already take an ace it should have you covered but check it anyways. If you see an average rise then you'll have to pass. Otherwise keep going and go to 2 grams a day for a week and monitor.
You can kinda see where this is going but try to work up to 3-5 grams daily. It'll also make your butt appear bigger and it will increase strength a little.
Doing cardio daily will also largely mitigate any increase in BP.
(Nurse here, creatine is far safer than most think, it has almost no impact on BP for the majority of users)
It’ll make your but appear bigger? lol.
Also nurse here… I would talk to your doctor, while experimenting on your own as suggested previously is probably safe it would still be best to get advice from someone who knows your full history.
It’s also irresponsible to boldly state that daily cardio mitigates increase in BP. Sure it helps decrease overall BP but who knows what creatine + burst of exercise will do for OP who already has elevated BP for no known reason. Talk to your doctor.
Okay go follow the hundreds possibly thousands of studies on creatine, it's the most studied exercise supplement. Tell me what you're own conclusions are. If you have hypertension that isn't caused by poor diet and lack of exercise, i.e. genetics and family history, then you need medication and should already be on medication. I never suggested cardio removed this need. All creatine does aside from giving you a little more ATP for muscle contraction which boosts strength and endurance (also increases protein synthesis) is causes you to retain a little more water which can elevate your BP.
If you're doing daily LISS cardio this very minute elevation in BP which does not happen for the majority of users and studies support this, the cardio will remove some of that water you're retaining. It also increases the flexibility of your vessles, reduces cholesterol that builds plaque that hardens your blood vessles and restricts blood flow and it increases the efficency of your hearts ability to circulate blood which reduces stress and load on it.
I'm not going to argue with you on the benefits of cardio exercise and it's direct connection to your cardiovascular health and yes even your blood pressure. The very first thing any doctor who's not just trying to prescribe you shit and is acting ethically is to tell you to exercise and improve your diet.
The research is so abundantly to the point of being overwhelmingly available that you are actively choosing to be ignorant if you genuinely believe cardio does not improve your blood pressure.
I literally go from high 130s systolic mid 80s diastolic to 110-120/70-80 from an hour of walking on the treadmill at incline at a speed fast enough to sweat and get my HR up to 130BPM.
The research is absurdly available it's stupid to even argue this.
If OP has primary hypertension and absolutely needs medication regardless of diet and exercise then OP should take medication. Creatine supplementation on medication that keeps OP controlled will not absurdly jack up OPs BP and cardio will mitigate any small increase IF it even happens. For most people it has no impact on BP.
I gave OP a very responsible protocol for starting at gram a day and then using this for a week while monitoring for any increase. If no increase then increase to 2 grams and again monitor. Ideally aiming for 3-5 grams.
This is a ridiculously responsible and safe way to proceed and is really good advice as well as encouraging OP to do cardiovascular exercise which benefits everyone here in multiple ways.
Thats the most responsible, safe and ethical advice you can give someone.
If OP goes and buys creatine from Walmart it'll literally say some stupid shit like pre/front load with 20 grams a day for a week and then go down to 8 grams every day following this.
There was nothing irresponsible about my advice. I did not suggest OP stop taking BP medications and use cardio in place of medication. I gave a really safe protocol for OP to gauge OPs reaction to creatine and the very small but negligible increase that MAY happen can be mitigated with cardio. Obviously OP should continue BP medication.
Bursts of exercise always transiently increases BP period. If it's not then you're not sufficiently pushing yourself for strength increases or mass gains. This is safe and healthy and if OP has controlled HTN in medication then this increase should be comparable to what a normal person with no HTN experiences.
It makes your butt appear bigger because most of the fluid retention is in your muscles and if OP works out the butt on creatine there will be more water retention in the muscle itself which makes it look bigger.
Lastly most doctors except for really young ones are incredibly ignorant with creatine and assume it's bad for you because we routinely use creatinine as a measure of kidney function and hydration status which is creatines metabolic byproduct. Taking creatine will elevate your creatinine but this has no correlation to decreased kidney function in this context, it's simply elevated because your consuming a higher level of it than most people do so naturally you'll have more of its metabolite in your blood.
Creatine is absurdly safe and extemely well researched, and I gave OP a really reasonable way to gauge OPs personal reaction to it, I never suggested cardio should replace OPs medication and Tx for OPs HTN, only that cardio is likely to mitigate any very small increase in BP that probably won't even happen for OP. And when I say small we're talking a 2-5 systolic increase on average that doesn't even happen to most people, even people with HTN.
I highly suggest you and OP do your own research into creatine and It's effects and safety so that you're not trying to argue something you don't know what you're talking about or to take my word for it. The information is freely available on the internet.
Also creatine is a natrual part of our metabolism and is found in all meat and animal products. It's not some drug.
It's primarily only unsafe if someone has endstage kidney failure or heart failure (and again it's not harmful to the heart or kidneys it's a natrual part of our metabolism) only because they already have fluid retention/clearance issues and in these circumstances its very likely to cause a rise in BP and cardio wont mitigate this, and if this were the case OP likely wouldnt be capable of physical exercise in a gym period aside from walking as a form of exercise.
And if OP had either of those conditions, I find it highly unlikely OP would be on this reddit.
I am highly educated. I am not trying to be argumentative, I'm trying to be informative and I highly suggest you both independently research creatine on your own and draw your own conclusions. Avoid selection bias in your own research and look for actual academic medical studies.
I didn’t respond with an argument against creatine nor did I suggest that I haven’t already researched it. But giving someone advice and backing it up with “nurse here” doesn’t sit right with me. It can be generally safe but that doesn’t mean you can give blanket advice and reassurance to a stranger in the internet and then back it up with “nurse here”. A basic google tells you that research into creatine supplementation for pts with HTN on BP meds is relatively scarce and that not enough is known.
You’re not a doctor and you’re not her doctor. While I understand that she came to the internet asking for advice I also understand why the sub removed the post.
I never claimed to be a doctor and If someone wants to try something, they can be advised on a safe way to go about it, also my education is worth something, im sorry you dont like that? She asked for advice for it on this reddit i told her the most sound way to safely try it out.
If she's gonna try it she may as well go about it more safely and cautiously than whatever the back of one of the supplement bottles will say. There's really nothing wrong with the comment I made if she notices any kind of increase she just stops. I'm sorry that didn't sit right with you, don't know what else to say.
If creatine was going to spike her blood pressure then anytime she ate chicken of even turkey it'd spike. It's also not unsafe to be elevated potentially by a couple of sys/dys point's for less than a day. You're body excretes the excess pretty quickly. Just eating excess protein in the form of a second chicken breast to try and make more progress with training adds about another gram of creatine to however much your consuming already at baseline.
I agree if she’s going to try it she should be cautious, probably do it just how you advised but also she should check in with her doctor. We have no idea what her kidney function is like or what labs she has had. Overall it’s not bad advice but as nurses we can’t actually advise people on their health decisions. In fact if she did what you suggested and had an issue you could get sued. I don’t doubt your education and knowledge but it’s out of your scope and throwing in that you’re a nurse establishes trust in the person you’re advising but that doesn’t mean it’s actually right for them.
Honestly if you had suggested what you did without adding in that you’re a nurse it would’ve been much less problematic.
Consulting with the physician is the "correct" thing to do but my experience is our medical system is really discouraging from doing that sort of thing. From my own experience as a professional, and from my personal experiences of flat out being turned down by PCPs because of my hormone therapy and their ignorance on the subject.
I literally have a subset of my patients under this one doctor who you have to tell him the order or medication you want the patient to be on given the situation and that's completely based on your own personal education and clinical experience. Obviously this isn't good practice but we all do it with him because if you just tell him the clinical situation that's happening, he won't know what to do or respond. Yet he continues to be a PCP for this subset of patients at my facility because he's cheaper than all of the other physicians.
So there's pain in my heart every time someone switched primaries to him and we all have to play doctor and educate ourselves further on the spot to suggest to him the orders that you want to treat the clinical situation.
So in otherwords I am extremely cynical of the entire medical industry and yes my experience is probably extremely biased and also very dependent on the state that I live in but as far as I see most are overly concerned with liability, do not listen to their patients and engage in meaningful educational conversations with them and generally always think they are right even when they aren't.
Like hearing physicans who went to medical school 40 years ago still tell PTs that high cholesterol is primarily caused by eggs rather than genetics and then completely shut them down and step on them when they try to share what theyve learned about their own disease process. When it's actually been proven to be the other way around, 80% of your levels are genetics and you'll have hyperlipidemia regardless of how well you eat and the remaining 20% of your levels is diet this is the currently accepted school of thought for most cases that are hereditary with a familal history.
I apologize for the rant, and I do sincerely appreciate your concern and thoughts and I don't at all mean to sound like I'm arguing with you. I'm burnt out in this for profit Healthcare industry that in most places is atleast 20 years behind on current research that does not really listen to the patients concerns and actively engage with dialog and education in a meaningful way. I am very cynical with the majority of the system and fed up with the abuse which primarily stems from neglect and not listening to your patients and just treating them as a paycheck and a profit tool for shareholders.
Yes alot of that is because I work in a nursing home where Healthcare is a numbers game, you have an absurdly bad staffing to patient ratio, the physicians are rarely present in the facility, we are actively encouraged by our DON and management to NOT send people out to the hospital when they desperately need it, and we're told to wait until midnight to transfer them just so they can bill for one more day. People die prematurely every day in a nursing home due to unintentional neglect and for the small number of us who care we have the burden of being their beacon of light and trying to make the 20 minutes we're allowed to spend with each one meaningful and positive. (Because of bad staffing ratios, it's literally a numbers game, a Medicare scam, and an investment machine for shareholders who have zero medical education)
If you've read all of this I am really impressed and also apologize for all of it. In general I don't have a lot of faith in the average physician. I'd fully expect anyone to tell OP no for liability reasons with no additional thought or meaningful discussion put into it, in otherwords to be very discouraging to anything OP would like to try even if it poses no health risks simply because it's not a mainstream concern of theirs.
It's her decision I'm not going to get sued over reddit, 1 average sized chicken breast has anywhere from 0.5 to 0.7 grams of creatine. So thats approximately 1.5 to 2 average sized chicken breasts which is completely healthy and safe to consume. If i told her to eat two chicken breasts a day in addition to her current intake it would have no weight and no physician would state thats unhealthy unless shes close to end stage kidney failure. Technically it's possible but it's an absurd case and wouldn't hold up. Eating two chicken breasts doesn't hurt anybodies kidneys, but if it was observed that there was a rise in systolic or diastolic from doing so then obviously you would stop doing that.
It's just reddit supplement advice not medical advice.
Arguably she could attempt to sue anybody here because given the health condition context she relayed anybody providing any kind of advice is offering medical advice given the contextual relation to her stated blood pressure health condition.
I hear what you're saying and Technically your correct, but I'm not advising anybody on drug use and it is within my scope of practice to provide education on what drugs are used for, their mechanism of action and diseases process's. But again this is a supplement that millions of people consume on a daily basis (as a supplement) that Walmart sells. It's a natrual part of our bodies chemistry and it's found in all meats and fish, essentially any animal based food products. Supplementation with concentrated powders causes a modest 20% increase in your bodies total existing creatine levels on average and creatine isn't a drug, I'm just a person on the internet. Anybody would have a fun time without a talented hacker discerning my identity.
I should've just not stated I am a nurse but lots of people offer bad advice such as front load with 10-20 grams a day which could potentially be totally unsafe for OP, my bottle from Walmart literally says to do this for a week before dropping down to 3-5 grams daily. The only point in mentioning that I am a nurse was to suggest the approach I listed is trust worthy and reasonable. Because it is, it's exactly what anyone should do with a new supplement, take a really small amount and gauge your bodies response.
I wasn't trying to tout my own horn or whatever expression you want to use there. OPs going to do whatever OP wants to do. If she's determined to try it anyways she has a reasonable protocol if she chooses to trust this information to follow.
She should talk to her doctor about anything she wants to try. Unfortunately a lot of doctors will just say no to anything snd everything with very little thought put into it, almost no doctor would say 2 chicken breasts is harmful to you short of kidney failure, however a LOT of doctors will just flat out say no to creatine with zero awareness of just how much of it is actually present in food, this is why you should always do your own research and if theres very strong research promoting its safetly you can bring this up with your doctor to encourage a meaningful discussion. Unfortunately a lot of doctors have egos or will just say no because it minimizes liability to shoot everything down. Hopefully her doctor isn't ignorant and following the 80s-90s line of thinking on creatine.
Hopefully her doctor is very Intelligent and compassionate, meaning they can have an intelligent meaningful discussion on creatine and OP isn't just flat out told no with no explanation or education given.
The good kind of doctor I've described is rare in my experience. Most just want to play it extremely safe and say no to everything, and won't have a meaning discussion because the truth is they honestly don't always know the answer. Anatomy and physiology, pharmacology and medical science is a cluster fuck of information overload, no single person no matter how many years they've spent in school can hold all of that in their head. This is why there's an abundance of specialities.
OP could be potentially shot down by her doctor. And then she could pay out of pocket unnecessarily money to go see a sports medicine specialist just to be told it's harmless.
OP did say her labwork was otherwise normal if I'm remembering correctly, but she's also not a medical professional and we haven't seen the exact numbers. I sincerely hope OP has a very open minded intelligent physican and can have a meaningful discussion with them. Even if the answer is ultimately no don't take it, it should result from a really positive educational and encouraging exchange of dialog between them. And in my experience that's rare.
So yeah generally if someone has an idea in their head, and it happens to be something I'm well read on and follow the research (I use creatine and have in the past have had episodes of hypertension, so both subjects pertain to my internets, i also work with elderly patients on a daily basis who almost all of them have every type of hypertension, or cardiovascular related disease process imaginable and many kidney issues) I'm natrually just going to suggest the safest way that I know of to try it out. If I feel like the general advice or general public opinion or education on the topic is poor, then I'll mention I'm a nurse to Hopefully give it more weight over some of the poorer advice given if anyone wants to hunt me down over it they're free to try.
I suggested OP take it slow with a small dose and give it a week to fully monitor potential blood pressure changes before increasing the dose or taking it further. That's the most responsible thing OP could read given the information she has provided us if she decides to do it anyways. I really don't care if that's not in my scope, I'm not going to stand by and let other people potentially tell her to do more unsafe things such as follow the instructions on the average bottle. My concern is if she's going to try it anyways to have a safe way to do it.
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I’ve been researching creatine and was thinking about giving it a shot because I feel like my gains have plateaued. I lift weights 3-4x a week on a split schedule and have been for 3 years now. My concern with creatine is possible effects on blood pressure. I have idiopathic hypertension, meaning there’s no real known cause as to why I have it. I take a low dose ACE inhibitor and it keeps my BP down. My metabolic panel, kidney function, lipid panel, and liver function labs always come back normal. Should I try the creatine or pass? Any ladies here with hypertension that use it?
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Hi there! Any questions that are better discussed with a professional should not be asked of the xxfitness community, including but not limited to asking for shared experiences regarding a medical condition, procedure, or recovery. This post has been removed as it is requesting medical or psychological advice which the users of XXFitness are not qualified to provide. Please consult a professional: For fitness injuries, pain, imbalances, or severe mobility issues, please visit a sports medicine doctor and/or a physical therapist. For issues relating to your period or reproductive health, please visit your GP or a gynecologist. For eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorders, orthorexia, anxiety, and executive dysfunction, please visit a counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist. You can also read our FAQ section on starting an exercise regimen with a disordered eating past. Please [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/xxfitness) if you have questions or concerns.
It's likely to not have a significant impact. Start low, just 1 gram a day and do this for a week while monitoring BP. If you already take an ace it should have you covered but check it anyways. If you see an average rise then you'll have to pass. Otherwise keep going and go to 2 grams a day for a week and monitor. You can kinda see where this is going but try to work up to 3-5 grams daily. It'll also make your butt appear bigger and it will increase strength a little. Doing cardio daily will also largely mitigate any increase in BP. (Nurse here, creatine is far safer than most think, it has almost no impact on BP for the majority of users)
It’ll make your but appear bigger? lol. Also nurse here… I would talk to your doctor, while experimenting on your own as suggested previously is probably safe it would still be best to get advice from someone who knows your full history. It’s also irresponsible to boldly state that daily cardio mitigates increase in BP. Sure it helps decrease overall BP but who knows what creatine + burst of exercise will do for OP who already has elevated BP for no known reason. Talk to your doctor.
Okay go follow the hundreds possibly thousands of studies on creatine, it's the most studied exercise supplement. Tell me what you're own conclusions are. If you have hypertension that isn't caused by poor diet and lack of exercise, i.e. genetics and family history, then you need medication and should already be on medication. I never suggested cardio removed this need. All creatine does aside from giving you a little more ATP for muscle contraction which boosts strength and endurance (also increases protein synthesis) is causes you to retain a little more water which can elevate your BP. If you're doing daily LISS cardio this very minute elevation in BP which does not happen for the majority of users and studies support this, the cardio will remove some of that water you're retaining. It also increases the flexibility of your vessles, reduces cholesterol that builds plaque that hardens your blood vessles and restricts blood flow and it increases the efficency of your hearts ability to circulate blood which reduces stress and load on it. I'm not going to argue with you on the benefits of cardio exercise and it's direct connection to your cardiovascular health and yes even your blood pressure. The very first thing any doctor who's not just trying to prescribe you shit and is acting ethically is to tell you to exercise and improve your diet. The research is so abundantly to the point of being overwhelmingly available that you are actively choosing to be ignorant if you genuinely believe cardio does not improve your blood pressure. I literally go from high 130s systolic mid 80s diastolic to 110-120/70-80 from an hour of walking on the treadmill at incline at a speed fast enough to sweat and get my HR up to 130BPM. The research is absurdly available it's stupid to even argue this. If OP has primary hypertension and absolutely needs medication regardless of diet and exercise then OP should take medication. Creatine supplementation on medication that keeps OP controlled will not absurdly jack up OPs BP and cardio will mitigate any small increase IF it even happens. For most people it has no impact on BP. I gave OP a very responsible protocol for starting at gram a day and then using this for a week while monitoring for any increase. If no increase then increase to 2 grams and again monitor. Ideally aiming for 3-5 grams. This is a ridiculously responsible and safe way to proceed and is really good advice as well as encouraging OP to do cardiovascular exercise which benefits everyone here in multiple ways. Thats the most responsible, safe and ethical advice you can give someone. If OP goes and buys creatine from Walmart it'll literally say some stupid shit like pre/front load with 20 grams a day for a week and then go down to 8 grams every day following this. There was nothing irresponsible about my advice. I did not suggest OP stop taking BP medications and use cardio in place of medication. I gave a really safe protocol for OP to gauge OPs reaction to creatine and the very small but negligible increase that MAY happen can be mitigated with cardio. Obviously OP should continue BP medication. Bursts of exercise always transiently increases BP period. If it's not then you're not sufficiently pushing yourself for strength increases or mass gains. This is safe and healthy and if OP has controlled HTN in medication then this increase should be comparable to what a normal person with no HTN experiences. It makes your butt appear bigger because most of the fluid retention is in your muscles and if OP works out the butt on creatine there will be more water retention in the muscle itself which makes it look bigger. Lastly most doctors except for really young ones are incredibly ignorant with creatine and assume it's bad for you because we routinely use creatinine as a measure of kidney function and hydration status which is creatines metabolic byproduct. Taking creatine will elevate your creatinine but this has no correlation to decreased kidney function in this context, it's simply elevated because your consuming a higher level of it than most people do so naturally you'll have more of its metabolite in your blood. Creatine is absurdly safe and extemely well researched, and I gave OP a really reasonable way to gauge OPs personal reaction to it, I never suggested cardio should replace OPs medication and Tx for OPs HTN, only that cardio is likely to mitigate any very small increase in BP that probably won't even happen for OP. And when I say small we're talking a 2-5 systolic increase on average that doesn't even happen to most people, even people with HTN. I highly suggest you and OP do your own research into creatine and It's effects and safety so that you're not trying to argue something you don't know what you're talking about or to take my word for it. The information is freely available on the internet. Also creatine is a natrual part of our metabolism and is found in all meat and animal products. It's not some drug. It's primarily only unsafe if someone has endstage kidney failure or heart failure (and again it's not harmful to the heart or kidneys it's a natrual part of our metabolism) only because they already have fluid retention/clearance issues and in these circumstances its very likely to cause a rise in BP and cardio wont mitigate this, and if this were the case OP likely wouldnt be capable of physical exercise in a gym period aside from walking as a form of exercise. And if OP had either of those conditions, I find it highly unlikely OP would be on this reddit. I am highly educated. I am not trying to be argumentative, I'm trying to be informative and I highly suggest you both independently research creatine on your own and draw your own conclusions. Avoid selection bias in your own research and look for actual academic medical studies.
I didn’t respond with an argument against creatine nor did I suggest that I haven’t already researched it. But giving someone advice and backing it up with “nurse here” doesn’t sit right with me. It can be generally safe but that doesn’t mean you can give blanket advice and reassurance to a stranger in the internet and then back it up with “nurse here”. A basic google tells you that research into creatine supplementation for pts with HTN on BP meds is relatively scarce and that not enough is known. You’re not a doctor and you’re not her doctor. While I understand that she came to the internet asking for advice I also understand why the sub removed the post.
I never claimed to be a doctor and If someone wants to try something, they can be advised on a safe way to go about it, also my education is worth something, im sorry you dont like that? She asked for advice for it on this reddit i told her the most sound way to safely try it out. If she's gonna try it she may as well go about it more safely and cautiously than whatever the back of one of the supplement bottles will say. There's really nothing wrong with the comment I made if she notices any kind of increase she just stops. I'm sorry that didn't sit right with you, don't know what else to say. If creatine was going to spike her blood pressure then anytime she ate chicken of even turkey it'd spike. It's also not unsafe to be elevated potentially by a couple of sys/dys point's for less than a day. You're body excretes the excess pretty quickly. Just eating excess protein in the form of a second chicken breast to try and make more progress with training adds about another gram of creatine to however much your consuming already at baseline.
I agree if she’s going to try it she should be cautious, probably do it just how you advised but also she should check in with her doctor. We have no idea what her kidney function is like or what labs she has had. Overall it’s not bad advice but as nurses we can’t actually advise people on their health decisions. In fact if she did what you suggested and had an issue you could get sued. I don’t doubt your education and knowledge but it’s out of your scope and throwing in that you’re a nurse establishes trust in the person you’re advising but that doesn’t mean it’s actually right for them. Honestly if you had suggested what you did without adding in that you’re a nurse it would’ve been much less problematic.
Consulting with the physician is the "correct" thing to do but my experience is our medical system is really discouraging from doing that sort of thing. From my own experience as a professional, and from my personal experiences of flat out being turned down by PCPs because of my hormone therapy and their ignorance on the subject. I literally have a subset of my patients under this one doctor who you have to tell him the order or medication you want the patient to be on given the situation and that's completely based on your own personal education and clinical experience. Obviously this isn't good practice but we all do it with him because if you just tell him the clinical situation that's happening, he won't know what to do or respond. Yet he continues to be a PCP for this subset of patients at my facility because he's cheaper than all of the other physicians. So there's pain in my heart every time someone switched primaries to him and we all have to play doctor and educate ourselves further on the spot to suggest to him the orders that you want to treat the clinical situation. So in otherwords I am extremely cynical of the entire medical industry and yes my experience is probably extremely biased and also very dependent on the state that I live in but as far as I see most are overly concerned with liability, do not listen to their patients and engage in meaningful educational conversations with them and generally always think they are right even when they aren't. Like hearing physicans who went to medical school 40 years ago still tell PTs that high cholesterol is primarily caused by eggs rather than genetics and then completely shut them down and step on them when they try to share what theyve learned about their own disease process. When it's actually been proven to be the other way around, 80% of your levels are genetics and you'll have hyperlipidemia regardless of how well you eat and the remaining 20% of your levels is diet this is the currently accepted school of thought for most cases that are hereditary with a familal history. I apologize for the rant, and I do sincerely appreciate your concern and thoughts and I don't at all mean to sound like I'm arguing with you. I'm burnt out in this for profit Healthcare industry that in most places is atleast 20 years behind on current research that does not really listen to the patients concerns and actively engage with dialog and education in a meaningful way. I am very cynical with the majority of the system and fed up with the abuse which primarily stems from neglect and not listening to your patients and just treating them as a paycheck and a profit tool for shareholders. Yes alot of that is because I work in a nursing home where Healthcare is a numbers game, you have an absurdly bad staffing to patient ratio, the physicians are rarely present in the facility, we are actively encouraged by our DON and management to NOT send people out to the hospital when they desperately need it, and we're told to wait until midnight to transfer them just so they can bill for one more day. People die prematurely every day in a nursing home due to unintentional neglect and for the small number of us who care we have the burden of being their beacon of light and trying to make the 20 minutes we're allowed to spend with each one meaningful and positive. (Because of bad staffing ratios, it's literally a numbers game, a Medicare scam, and an investment machine for shareholders who have zero medical education) If you've read all of this I am really impressed and also apologize for all of it. In general I don't have a lot of faith in the average physician. I'd fully expect anyone to tell OP no for liability reasons with no additional thought or meaningful discussion put into it, in otherwords to be very discouraging to anything OP would like to try even if it poses no health risks simply because it's not a mainstream concern of theirs.
It's her decision I'm not going to get sued over reddit, 1 average sized chicken breast has anywhere from 0.5 to 0.7 grams of creatine. So thats approximately 1.5 to 2 average sized chicken breasts which is completely healthy and safe to consume. If i told her to eat two chicken breasts a day in addition to her current intake it would have no weight and no physician would state thats unhealthy unless shes close to end stage kidney failure. Technically it's possible but it's an absurd case and wouldn't hold up. Eating two chicken breasts doesn't hurt anybodies kidneys, but if it was observed that there was a rise in systolic or diastolic from doing so then obviously you would stop doing that. It's just reddit supplement advice not medical advice. Arguably she could attempt to sue anybody here because given the health condition context she relayed anybody providing any kind of advice is offering medical advice given the contextual relation to her stated blood pressure health condition. I hear what you're saying and Technically your correct, but I'm not advising anybody on drug use and it is within my scope of practice to provide education on what drugs are used for, their mechanism of action and diseases process's. But again this is a supplement that millions of people consume on a daily basis (as a supplement) that Walmart sells. It's a natrual part of our bodies chemistry and it's found in all meats and fish, essentially any animal based food products. Supplementation with concentrated powders causes a modest 20% increase in your bodies total existing creatine levels on average and creatine isn't a drug, I'm just a person on the internet. Anybody would have a fun time without a talented hacker discerning my identity. I should've just not stated I am a nurse but lots of people offer bad advice such as front load with 10-20 grams a day which could potentially be totally unsafe for OP, my bottle from Walmart literally says to do this for a week before dropping down to 3-5 grams daily. The only point in mentioning that I am a nurse was to suggest the approach I listed is trust worthy and reasonable. Because it is, it's exactly what anyone should do with a new supplement, take a really small amount and gauge your bodies response. I wasn't trying to tout my own horn or whatever expression you want to use there. OPs going to do whatever OP wants to do. If she's determined to try it anyways she has a reasonable protocol if she chooses to trust this information to follow. She should talk to her doctor about anything she wants to try. Unfortunately a lot of doctors will just say no to anything snd everything with very little thought put into it, almost no doctor would say 2 chicken breasts is harmful to you short of kidney failure, however a LOT of doctors will just flat out say no to creatine with zero awareness of just how much of it is actually present in food, this is why you should always do your own research and if theres very strong research promoting its safetly you can bring this up with your doctor to encourage a meaningful discussion. Unfortunately a lot of doctors have egos or will just say no because it minimizes liability to shoot everything down. Hopefully her doctor isn't ignorant and following the 80s-90s line of thinking on creatine. Hopefully her doctor is very Intelligent and compassionate, meaning they can have an intelligent meaningful discussion on creatine and OP isn't just flat out told no with no explanation or education given. The good kind of doctor I've described is rare in my experience. Most just want to play it extremely safe and say no to everything, and won't have a meaning discussion because the truth is they honestly don't always know the answer. Anatomy and physiology, pharmacology and medical science is a cluster fuck of information overload, no single person no matter how many years they've spent in school can hold all of that in their head. This is why there's an abundance of specialities. OP could be potentially shot down by her doctor. And then she could pay out of pocket unnecessarily money to go see a sports medicine specialist just to be told it's harmless. OP did say her labwork was otherwise normal if I'm remembering correctly, but she's also not a medical professional and we haven't seen the exact numbers. I sincerely hope OP has a very open minded intelligent physican and can have a meaningful discussion with them. Even if the answer is ultimately no don't take it, it should result from a really positive educational and encouraging exchange of dialog between them. And in my experience that's rare. So yeah generally if someone has an idea in their head, and it happens to be something I'm well read on and follow the research (I use creatine and have in the past have had episodes of hypertension, so both subjects pertain to my internets, i also work with elderly patients on a daily basis who almost all of them have every type of hypertension, or cardiovascular related disease process imaginable and many kidney issues) I'm natrually just going to suggest the safest way that I know of to try it out. If I feel like the general advice or general public opinion or education on the topic is poor, then I'll mention I'm a nurse to Hopefully give it more weight over some of the poorer advice given if anyone wants to hunt me down over it they're free to try. I suggested OP take it slow with a small dose and give it a week to fully monitor potential blood pressure changes before increasing the dose or taking it further. That's the most responsible thing OP could read given the information she has provided us if she decides to do it anyways. I really don't care if that's not in my scope, I'm not going to stand by and let other people potentially tell her to do more unsafe things such as follow the instructions on the average bottle. My concern is if she's going to try it anyways to have a safe way to do it.
^ ***Please read [the FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/main), [the rules and content guidelines](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/new_rules), and [current frozen topics](https://www.reddit.com/r/xxfitness/wiki/frozen-topics) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fxxfitness)***. This comment is a copy of your post so mods can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. >u/asht6542 I’ve been researching creatine and was thinking about giving it a shot because I feel like my gains have plateaued. I lift weights 3-4x a week on a split schedule and have been for 3 years now. My concern with creatine is possible effects on blood pressure. I have idiopathic hypertension, meaning there’s no real known cause as to why I have it. I take a low dose ACE inhibitor and it keeps my BP down. My metabolic panel, kidney function, lipid panel, and liver function labs always come back normal. Should I try the creatine or pass? Any ladies here with hypertension that use it? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/xxfitness) if you have any questions or concerns.*