• Daniel Miller
• Updated: Jan 16, 2023

Does Taking Creatine Help To Pass a Drug Test?

Yes, taking creatine will help you to pass a drug test. However, it does not work the way several sources on the internet presume.

Most people who have cheated the test using this method believe that taking several pills of this supplement helps mask the urine metabolites. This is very wrong.

On the contrary, creatine should be taken as part of the dilution method. Ingesting creatine a few hours to the test allows you to dilute your urine several folds without tampering with the normal creatinine values.

This article will explain when and how you should take creatine and use it to pass the test.

Creatine and Creatinine – Is it the same thing?

These two terms confuse most people a lot, especially when used in the same sentence.

Creatine refers to a substance found naturally in your muscles.

It works as fuel for the muscles, thereby increasing the amount of energy released during exercises.

This is why creatine supplements are so familiar to athletes, bodybuilders, and weightlifters.

What about creatinine?

After creatine has been metabolized in the muscles, a compound called creatinine is formed as a by-product.

Creatinine is released into the bloodstream for excretion through the urine.

Creatinine is one of the qualifying tests that labs carry out in your urine when testing for drugs.

Others include pH levels, specific gravity, color, and temperature.

Understanding the Creatinine level in your urine and its importance

The lab technician tests the amount of creatinine in your urine to identify whether you might have tried to cheat the test by drinking lots of water.

This explains why it’s advisable to understand the creatinine levels in your urine first before using the dilution method to skew the test results in your favor.

The normal creatinine levels in humans vary from one person to another, depending on the muscle mass.

More muscles mean that more creatine is metabolized into creatinine compounds.

This explains why people with higher muscle mass have higher creatinine levels.

The normal creatinine level in males ranges between 20ng/ml and 370ng/ml.

Females have a range of between 20ng/ml and 320ng/ml.

Most drug screening companies use a cut off of 20ng/ml (as specified by DOT and SAMHSA guidelines) when testing for the creatinine levels in your urine sample.

There isn’t an issue if your levels are so high. The problem sets in if your value is below the 20ng/ml mark.

This signifies that you’ve tried to water down the contents in your urine, including the drug metabolites, by drinking a lot of liquid some hours before the test.

In such a scenario, your sample may be flagged for dilution.

This may either trigger a failure, or you might be allowed to redo the test (if you are lucky).

To beat a urine drug test using the dilution method, you need to dilute the THC metabolites to below the detectable level while still maintaining the creatinine value at above 20ng/ml.

As you can probably imagine, if your creatinine level is at the lower end, let’s say, 24ng/ml, it won’t take a lot of dilution before it is below the normal range.

On the other, if your urine has a higher creatinine content, 100ng/ml, for instance, it becomes effortless for you to dilute several folds and remain safe.

Do you need to take a creatine supplement?

Whether you need to take these supplements depends on the amount of creatinine in your body at the moment.

Therefore, you’ll need to get some creatinine test strips and test yourself.

Of course, if your creatinine level is below or just slightly higher than the cut-off, you have no choice but to take the supplement.

Almost any creatinine test strips brand will do. But remember that accuracy is vital if you have to beat a test.

That’s why I recommend going for a brand that does more than simply indicating a Pass or Fail.

You want a brand that gives you a rough estimate of the creatinine in your urine.

Only then will you be able to determine how much water you can take without taking the creatinine value below the threshold.

How to take creatine supplements to beat a urine drug test

I should put it clearly that upping your creatinine level isn’t an easy task. There is no scientific proof of the number of creatine supplements you need to take to boost your creatinine levels.

All in all, it has been found that it might be possible to boost these levels by 20% by consuming 20 grams of creatine supplement daily for 5 days.

Creatinine supplement is sold in powder or pill form. If the pills weigh 2.5g, you’ll need to take 2 of them 4 times daily (2.5g x 2 x 4= 20g).

Other ways of boosting your creatinine levels

There is still very low information on how to boost low levels of creatinine today. However, I did find a few suggestions on how one could do it;

Gentle exercises

As a by-product of creatine metabolism, gentle exercises including jogging, swimming, and aerobics could cause your muscles to utilize more creatine.

As a result, this might help in boosting the levels of creatinine in your urine.

I’m yet to find out whether exercising the night before the test might boost these levels.

Although it seems possible, there’s still a lot of research that needs to be done concerning it.

Eating certain foods

Health experts claim that eating certain foods might be of great help if you are struggling with low creatinine levels. Certain meats such as lean and red meat (beef, poultry, salmon, and tuna fish) are rich in creatine.

For vegetarians, you might consider legumes, thanks to their high protein content.

However, although rich in proteins, legumes don’t offer so much creatine compared to meats. As such, it might be necessary to boost your intake with a supplement.

Conclusion

Simply taking a creatine supplement, whether in powder or pill form, won’t be of much help, especially if your body already has enough amount.

This is because creatinine does not mask the drug metabolites in your urine regardless of its amount in the body.

If what you are concerned about is how to reduce the drug metabolites’ concentration in your urine to below the detectable threshold, simply drinking a lot of water will help.

However, you must do it with diligence to avoid altering other essential urine components, including creatinine, specific gravity, and color.

Read more about passing a urine drug test using the dilution method here.

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