It seems that my creatine post was quite a hit with you ladies with many of you telling me about your experiences with creatine, asking questions or even giving supplementation a go off the back of it! First of all, thank you so much for trusting me with your health. Secondly, if you have started supplementation give it some time, you are unlikely to see or feel noticeable changes right away but I promise you, the researched benefits are great.
One of the questions I was asked off the back of my creatine blog was around whether it is safe for individuals that have experienced cancer in their lives. I spent a number of years, as some of you will know, working with cancer patients on their prehabilitation and rehabilitation as a clinical exercise specialist. While I haven’t done it for a year or so now it is something very close to my heart, something I loved dearly and something I hope to pick back up in the not-too-distant future – it’s also something I keep my ear close to the ground with regarding emerging research.
A number of my clients come from backgrounds having lived with or are currently living with cancer BUT it is worth prefacing this blog with telling you that I am NOT a clinical nutritionist, specialist dietician or qualified to give cancer-specific nutrition advice. It is VERY important that if you are considering taking a new supplement or adding something that you are unsure about to your nutrition, that you consult with your medical team of professionals first.
What I can do to help answer questions around whether creatine is safe for those that have lived with cancer is to use my knowledge around how creatine works and to look at the most recent research done in the area to see if there are any conclusive answers, you can then hopefully go to your medical team informed when asking for their guidance.
Here is what I came up with.
I strongly suspected before looking that there wouldn’t have been much reliable or valid research done in the area around creatine and potential links or effects on cancer. Unfortunately, I was right.
There is very limited conclusive evidence to prove whether or not creatine supplementation is safe or effective for those that have lived or are living with cancer.
What I can tell you is that what creatine does, as we went into more detail with in the previous blog, is provide increased energy for processes within our cells, put very simply. That, of course, includes cell growth. Cancer forms and spreads by proliferation (multiplication) of cancer cells present within the body. Therefore, the only concern that I would have is if there are cancerous cells present, it could alter their cell metabolism or proliferation potentially influencing tumour growth in some way. Now of course that isn’t evidence or fact and I’m not a scientist per se, it’s just a concern from my informed point of view.
There is some research done in the area with animals although clinically, as I said, nothing conclusive. Animals research doesn’t always provide us with the most valid or reliable conclusions for obvious reasons. There issue with research in this area is not only that it isn’t a very widely researched area generally but also there is little to no research in the area performed on humans, understandably from an ethical perspective. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that we can’t be approaching people with cancer or those who have lived with cancer at some point and give them creatine to see if it makes it worse or influences their condition.
Interestingly, there does seem to be some research around creatine supporting cancer treatment in terms of minimising muscle wastage rather than the detrimental effects it might have on the cancer formation or development itself.
Generally, we know that creatine supplementation is safe and usually effective when used in general populations at recommended doses but the effect in those with a higher cancer risk are not very well known. There is no strong evidence to suggest its safety either way and as with everything nutrition or health related, it will be very individual dependent too!
I will reiterate that you must chat with your medical team before taking any supplements if this could be applicable to you. It’s also worth noting that if supplementation with just about anything is going to create understandable excessive anxiety, it might not be worth it anyway!
As always, so happy to receive any questions or chat about this stuff and if you would like to dive a little bit deeper into your nutrition with a coach, whatever your goals may be, I’m just a message away.
Peace and love, A x
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