REF-352 · Kreider et al., 2017 (ISSN creatine position stand) [+ Forbes 2022 — DOI needs clarification] · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 14, · Paper
Creatine monohydrate — ISSN position stand: safety and efficacy in exercise, sport and medicine
Key Findings (evidence summary)
Creatine supplementation consistently raises intramuscular creatine, which helps explain improved high-intensity exercise performance and greater training adaptations
Beyond performance, research shows creatine may enhance recovery after exercise, thermoregulation, rehabilitation, injury prevention, and neuroprotection after concussion and/or spinal-cord injury
Clinical applications studied: neurodegenerative disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, ageing, brain and heart ischaemia, adolescent depression, pregnancy
The evidence base shows creatine can improve exercise performance, help prevent or reduce injury severity, aid rehabilitation and help athletes tolerate heavy training loads
Safety: taken short- or long-term (up to 30 g/day, for 5 years), creatine is safe and well tolerated both in healthy people and in patient groups ranging in age from infants to older adults
Habitual low dietary creatine intake (e.g. 3 g/day) throughout the lifespan may carry health benefits
Loading and maintenance protocols (full text, checked 2026-09-27): the classic loading phase followed by a lower daily maintenance dose, or a low daily dose taken for several weeks that raises muscle creatine more gradually and may do less for performance until stores are saturated; the exact grams are not reproduced here
Practical Application
The ISSN position stand concludes that creatine reliably raises muscle creatine, improves high-intensity performance and training adaptation, helps athletes tolerate heavy training, and is safe long term (up to 30 g/day for 5 years in the studies reviewed); an intake around 3 g/day is the everyday level it names. For an endurance athlete the payoff is in the gym and in repeated hard efforts, not in steady aerobic pace.
Not from this paper; the base's own practice: on strength-training days, pre- or post-session timing is secondary; consistency of daily intake is what saturates the muscle
Not from this paper; the base's own practice: expect some water-weight gain on starting creatine and tell a weight-conscious athlete it is water, not fat; monohydrate is the form with the evidence — novel forms have no demonstrated advantage
Not from this paper: glycogen-retention and cognitive-fatigue benefits are discussed elsewhere in the base (REF-370 for mental fatigue); they are not claims of this abstract
Limitations
A position stand summarises many trials; effect magnitudes for specific outcomes are not given in the abstract and are not stated here
Endurance-specific performance RCTs are few; the stand's performance claim is about high-intensity exercise
Non-responders exist but the proportion is not given in the abstract
Water-weight shift can be misread as "fat gain" by body-composition-focused athletes → educate
Audit note (2026-07-06)
DOI: 10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z | PMID: 28615996 [DOI CORRECTED 2026-07-09]
Action: removed the incorrect Forbes 2022 attribution. For the KB owner: either provide the correct Forbes/Candow DOI (e.g. Candow et al. 2022 Bone "Creatine for older adults", DOI 10.1016/j.bone.2022.116467), or keep the entry on Kreider 2017 ISSN (DOI 10.1186/s12970-017-0173-z ✓), which independently justifies Level A (strength) / B+ (endurance).
Level A / B+ unchanged (justified by the confirmed Kreider 2017 ISSN position stand).
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level
(for strength/power); B+ (for endurance)
Content correction 2026-09-27
"ES 0.20-0.40 on max strength; 5-10% training volume", "1-2 kg lean mass over 8-12 weeks", "5-15% repeated-sprint output", "glycogen retention 10-20% higher", "20 g/day × 5-7 days then 3-5 g/day, or 3-5 g/day × 4 weeks", "safe up to 5-10 g/day", "20-100 g CHO", "non-responders ~20-30%", "+1-2 kg water" -> none in the abstract; removed or reduced to unlabelled qualitative statements. The abstract's own safety figures (30 g/day for 5 years; 3 g/day habitual) added.
"Women respond identically (ISSN 2021 female stand)" -> not this paper; removed. Sport "team-sport, strength, sprint" -> strength, general.
Lines labelled "full text; not checked" were read against the open-access full text (PMC5469049): 1 corrected to what the paper says; 1 not in the paper — removed or relabelled as the base's own practice.
2026-09-28: added Journal line from the Europe PMC record (Europe PMC/PubMed PMID 28615996).