Creatine supplements do not damage your kidneys, Luke O’Neill has said. 

Many gym goers take supplements after they exercise in order to boost muscle gain. 

The scientific consensus is that the only supplement to work is creatine and the Trinity Biochemistry Professor said most people should have no problems taking it. 

“The worry was it would damage your kidneys,” Professor O’Neill told The Pat Kenny Show. 

“A lot of protein will damage your kidneys but creatine doesn’t seem to do that unless you take a huge amount of it. 

“On the other hand, if you have kidney problems, then you've got to be more careful because pressure is put on the kidneys if you’ve taken too many. 

“But in general terms, creatine isn’t that dangerous.” 

When the body is strenuously exercised, muscles get torn ever so slightly. 

The body then repairs these tiny tears and enlarges the muscles to better protect you in the future. 

“That’s how you build muscle mass,” Professor O’Neill said 

“So, the more exercise you do, the more repairs happen and you can bulk up basically through repeat exercise. 

“But there’s a couple of things of things going on that I find fascinating.

“One is, when the repair is happening, nuclei go in - nuclei are the control centres of cells in your body - they begin to go into the tear and patch it up. 

“The nuclei make new protein to fill in the damaged protein and the second is the immune system goes in and helps repair the muscle. That wasn’t known before.”

Natural protein

Supplements cannot, however, replace protein in your everyday diet. 

“Whole food protein is the best source of all - the natural type,” Professor O’Neill said. 

“We’re meant to have 0.8 per kilogram of body weight per day - that’s the recommended intake to keep it ticking over. 

“The truth is many of us eat too much protein and the average is even double that. 

“There’s no danger to that, of course.”

Main image: Luke O'Neill. 07/12/2023. Picture by: Newstalk