Is It Safe to Drink Alcohol While Taking Creatine? A Sports Dietitian Explains

But creatine does not act in a vacuum. Its absorption can be impacted by other substances going into the body, including another popular “enhancer” of sorts: alcohol.

We spoke with Kylene Bogden, RDN, a sports dietitian and co-founder of FWDfuel, to see if supplementing with creatine while drinking might be harmful to your health.

How Alcohol Affects Your Muscles

While creatine promotes lean muscle growth and strength gains, alcohol can adversely affect your body’s ability to build new muscle.

Your body needs fuel to perform at its best and build muscle, and it gets this essential energy through proper nutrition. But drinking can disrupt your body’s absorption of these necessary nutrients, Bogden says.

“Unlike food, alcohol is not digested but rather absorbed directly into the bloodstream,” Bogden says. “But this decreases our body’s natural secretion of digestive enzymes and prevents us from properly utilizing specific nutrients.”

A nutrient deficiency has a damaging domino effect on your muscles.

“When our body is unable to properly digest and absorb critical vitamins, minerals, and especially macronutrients like protein, we are unable to build muscle or recover post-workout,” Bogden says.

Alcohol’s impact on nutrient absorption can also reduce the quality of your recovery and increase risk of injury.

“When our body is unable to take nutrients and plug them into our cells, we’re unable to perform optimally,” Bogden says. “This means that everything from sleep to recovery can be impaired. And when this occurs, especially on a routine basis, it puts us at a major risk for injury,” she says.

What Are the Effects of Combining Creatine and Alcohol?

On its own, alcohol can minimize muscle function, recovery, and safety. But putting alcohol and creatine into your system around the same time can have unique effects.

Here’s what you should know about combining the two:

Drinking Can Affect the Organs That Absorb Creatine

“These are the organs most directly impacted by excess alcohol intake," Bogden says. “If your organs are working overtime to process alcohol, a substance like creatine will not be as efficiently digested and absorbed.”

Dehydration

“Proper hydration makes a big difference when it comes to the absorption of creatine,” Bogden says. And if you're urinating a lot on account of drinking, you can lose a lot of fluids and disrupt your body’s balance of sodium.

“Sodium serves as a transporter of creatine into muscle tissue, so when we are poorly hydrated, creatine is not as effectively transported and absorbed,” she says.

It Can Potentially Harm Kidney Function in Some People

Tips for Combining the Two Safely

If you’d like to keep taking creatine and continue drinking alcohol, follow Bogden’s tips to do so in the safest way:

• Make sure your creatine supplement is NSF Certified for Sport. “This means it does not contain banned substances and is produced by a trusted manufacturer,” Bogden says. This certification is especially important, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t regulate nutritional supplements. So, the quality and purity of ingredients in creatine products can’t be guaranteed.

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• Look for creatine monohydrate. This is the supplement most readily absorbed and recommended in sports medicine.
• Stay properly hydrated and fueled. “The worst thing you can do is under-fuel and under-hydrate [when taking creatine and alcohol],” Bogden says. Your body needs adequate water and macronutrient intake to support training demands.
• Drink in moderation. Whether you’re supplementing with creatine or not, limit your liquor for the good of your overall health. Limit yourself to no more than one to two drinks daily.

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The Takeaway

• Drinking alcohol can impair your body’s ability to absorb essential nutrients and can keep organs like the liver and kidneys (which process creatine) overworked. That makes creatine less effective for muscle growth and recovery.
• Combining creatine and alcohol can worsen dehydration, potentially intensifying hangover symptoms. And it may put extra stress on the kidneys, especially if you have preexisting kidney issues.
• To minimize risks, ensure your creatine is NSF Certified for Sport, stay well-hydrated and fueled, and drink alcohol in moderation, regardless of creatine use.