Fitness influencers are often seen promoting a wide range of supplements with a variety of uses. While they can have great health benefits for the majority of people, many of these supplements should be taken under advisement from a doctor. If you don't seek advice, you could end up causing odd results on your blood tests.
Dr Karan Rajan, of the University of Sunderland, even made that mistake himself with a popular health supplement and has now taken to social media to make sure the public doesn't do the same. Creatine is commonly used as a dietary supplement to improve athletic performance, increase muscle mass, and enhance strength. It supports energy production during high-intensity, short-duration exercises like weightlifting and sprinting by replenishing ATP, the energy currency of cells, thus aiding in quicker recovery between sets.
However, using the supplement could lead to false diagnoses in blood tests. In the video, which gained more than 35,000 likes, the medic explained: "If you use creatine. Watch out for this.
This is what it did to my kidney function January 2024. I had some routine blood tests and it showed creatinine, a chemical waste product, was high. Not ideal.
"The EGFR, a marker of kidney function, was in the low to normal range, far lower than what you'd expect for a person in their 30s with no medical conditions. I did some research and found the problem with my creatine supplements. "You see, creatinine is a breakdown product of creatine.
The more c.