Can you tell me why you should not take creatine? Aside from the cost, I suppose. I heard that there were health reasons to avoid it. But it is one of the more popular body-building supplements. Creatine is one of the better studied supplements, with decades of research. It improves production of energy sources for muscles during bursts of activity, but it doesn’t improve endurance or muscle growth. I heard that it improves muscle bulk. Creatine increases muscle mass because it attracts water. In fact, you may want to stop creatine before a competition so that the water weight doesn’t interfere with your lines. That’s a minor side effect. It can give you an upset stomach, nausea and diarrhea. Those are major side effects. No one looks cool if doing squats gives you squirts. Creatine can cause muscle cramps. So can working out. It can cause water weight gain. And you’ll tax your kidneys if you try to use diuretics and creatine at the same time. That’s why quitting it before competition is better. Using creatine causes the body to store water, which puts you at greater risk of dehydration. That I know puts stress on your body. And dehydration makes it harder to lose fat. Taking too much creatine can damage your liver and kidneys. I’ve heard of people dying from steroid use, but never creatine. It just doesn’t happen much, though creatine does cause asthma like symptoms in a minority of users. Talk about having the wind taken out of your sails. Furthermore, creatine is broken down into formaldehyde by the body when taken in large doses. That stuff is so toxic that it is used to preserve the dead. That’s not what a body builder usually wants in his system, and they’ll eat and drink almost anything to get a good body.