Creatine Monohydrate and Intraocular Pressure

Hi Team,

I appreciate all the resources you put out and what you do. I have a question regarding creatine monohydrate and its effects on intraocular pressure. A little background on myself, I am 36 year old male and have been lifting on and off for a few years. I have been getting back into a good habit of training and doing some condition on an indoor bike lately. I have been trying to hit my calorie and protein goals for the day and have been thinking about adding 5g of creatine daily as well. My reason for asking this question is because I have slightly high intraocular pressure and don’t want to make things any worse. I am currently not on any medication for this. I visit a Glaucoma center near me every six months that does some tests and checks pressures. To my understanding mine are on the very high end of normal, or slightly above normal. They basically ruled out Glaucoma but would like me to continue getting checked yearly now instead of bi yearly. My mother suffered a detached retina in her late 30’s or earlier 40’s and I am just very worried about it. I have used creatine in the past but this was before I was aware my eye pressures. Obviously I would like those extra gainzzz but not if that comes with added risk.

In addition to that using creating, should I be limiting my caffeine intake? I have googled both questions but most information I find doesn’t seem to reliable.

Thanks
Phil

The majority of ophthalmology is outside of our scope of expertise. However, there is no evidence whatsoever on the relationship between supplemental creatine and intraocular pressure, so I have no data on which to base any specific recommendation. In general, I would not be concerned about this, though.

Evidence on caffeine is pretty mixed; from what I can tell, habitual caffeine intake at “normal” doses does not seem to confer significant risk here.

Thank you Austin!