re: Teen supplements & creatine use

Can you elaborate on the studies you’ve found regarding this and what type of dosage? I’ve been trying to research but not finding much when it comes to preteen adolescents. Extremely interested in the brain health portion but also for athletic benefits. This would be for a 12yo it it matters.

All I'm going to say is that unless a kid has some underlying health issue, there's really no reason to be concerned about giving them creatine.

As everyone noted, it's the most researched supplement ever and they are still learning about positive benefits of taking higher doses.

While 5g will be enough performance wise, the higher dose benefits for bone and brain health are being noted. While more studies are needed, creatine supplementation is showing signs of improving cardiovascular health, too. It's also being studied for slowing the progression of Parkinson's.

All that to say, give those kids some creatine. And encourage your parents to take it, too.

Skip the gummies. Just get creatine powder.

Electrolytes are only needed when you are sweating a ton and you are having to drink sever liters of water to stay hydrated.

Proper fueling before, during, and after workouts isn't just about performance but aids in recovery.

going to give a run down on all of this quickly, sorry for late response, i dont get on here really outside of working hours

performance & cognitive in relation to sport

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Elite Youth Soccer Study: A study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition by Yáñez-Silva et al. (2017) tracked elite youth soccer players taking a low dose over a short period. It demonstrated substantial increases in maximal muscle power output.

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Adolescent Basketball Players: A randomized, open-label trial by Vargas-Molina et al. (2022) observed young basketball players during an 8-week strength and conditioning program. The creatine group showed significantly improved vertical jump tests and scoring efficiency over the control group with zero negative side effects.

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Technical & Cognitive Skills in Basketball: A 2025 trial looking at acute creatine loading in adolescent basketball players found that it significantly improved sports-specific technical skills (like dribbling and passing accuracy) and reduced internal fatigue under complex, dual-task conditions.

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Swimmers and Rugby Players: Multiple smaller randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving youth swimmers and rugby players have documented a 5% to 15% improvement in short-burst sprint times, repeated-sprint power, and anaerobic exercise capacity

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Safety

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The 13-Study Systematic Review: A comprehensive review highlighted by Nationwide Children's Hospital analyzed 13 distinct publications tracking 268 adolescent subjects (mostly soccer players and swimmers). The analysis found that concerns regarding acute adverse effects in healthy youth have largely been eliminated.

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The Renal and Hepatic Safety Review (2026): A systematic review published in Cureus examined randomized trials and long-term cohort studies tracking adolescents taking 2g to 10g daily for up to 32 weeks. The data showed no clinically meaningful adverse changes in serum creatinine, kidney filtration rates (eGFR), liver enzymes, or blood pressure.

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Physiological Markers: Two key clinical evaluations led by Deminice et al. investigated blood oxidative stress markers and metabolic adjustments in young athletes, concluding the supplement does not trigger systemic cellular stress

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Thank you. That's the kind of thing I'm looking for, better information than some random guy posting on YouTube.

you are welcome


for future reference the easiest way for most that are not use to search for studies to find them is

ask ai

please give me summaries and links to studies on the effects of ______ on teens in terms of _____ and ______. please summarize any health concerns or any particular items we should be watching in terms of side effects




so you could ask...

please give me summaries and links to studies on the effect creatine has on teen boys in terms of performance, muscle growth and cognitive effects. Please give me a summary of any concerns and a summary of any side effects I should be watching for. After you have reviewed all of the available literature, can you please give me a recommendation if you feel I should give it to my 16 year old athlete who is currently 5'10 205 lbs.

and it will give you all the info. i prefer grok or claude then chatgpt or gemini.

another good resource is examine.com

but in general to summarize creatine.... it is the most studied supplement in history and we are still finding benefits of taking it everyday.

its safety profile is unmatched and despite 30 years of research, unfortunately myths like it causes dehydration, it can cause kidney issues etc still persist. Also its not something you really feel working other than the first time usually, it just kind of works in the background building muscle and replenishing ATP. so you will have guys on X say i noticed nothing and most of those guys are juiced to the gills or peptided out so kind of hard to notice

Nothing of value to add to the "creatine is safe, effective, and desirous" as those are my beliefs.

But my 18-year-old just got diagnosed with testicular cancer (and had to have one removed), and the amount of people (including my wife) telling me that it might be due to him being on creatine from a young age is about to drive me up the wall.

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But my 18-year-old just got diagnosed with testicular cancer (and had to have one removed), and the amount of people (including my wife) telling me that it might be due to him being on creatine from a young age is about to drive me up the wall.

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sorry to hear about your kid and yea that would drive me up the wall too.

god forbid you have enough and ask them to show the mechanism in which creatine can cause cell proliferation in the testes. then they are going to get mad at you.

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Yes, there is a limited study that indicates that some creatine users (who were also using a ton of other supplements besides creatine) have had higher incidents of cancer... but the study repeatedly says that there's no causal link between actual creatine use and cancer.

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https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4575580/

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This study provides compelling evidence that both low and high doses of creatine supplementation, given either acutely or chronically, did not cause increases in the carcinogenic HCAs PhIP, 8-MeIQx, IFP and 4,8-DiMeIQx in healthy subjects. These findings challenge the long-existing notion that creatine supplementation could potentially increase the risk of cancer by stimulating the formation of these mutagens.

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This experimental condition effectively allowed us to distinguish any potential effect of creatine supplementation (low/high and acute/chronic regimens) from that of the regular diet on HCA formation. Interestingly, HCAs were detected at quantifiable levels in six participants only. Since these cases were evenly distributed among treatments (each intervention arm), we can safely conclude that supplementary creatine does not contribute to HCA synthesis in humans. These results directly contrast with the recently suggested biological plausibility for the association between creatine use and risk of testicular germ cell cancer (Li et al. 2015).

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I’ve read the study you are talking about and basically they lumped creatine in with other MSB’s (Muscle Building Supplements). It was like 30 different supplements, including androstenedione. This is the type of crap that gives you google search results like this:


Most people don’t bother to read any further than that and draw conclusions from it, unfortunately.

I am sincerely hoping for the best outcome for your son. I am sorry to hear of it. He will be in my prayers.

I agree. Powdered creatine is the way to go, creapure is best. Like I said in my original post. As why anyone would go the gummy route, it's on them. Perhaps they hate the grittiness of creatine monohydrate, or the acidic taste of creatine HCl and prefer the gummies. As long as your getting 5-10 grams a day, on average, the manner in which a person consumes it is their own preference.