---
title: 'Cheap Creatine Isn''t Worth It: 2 Impurities May Surprise You'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=DWX8xS-a3-g'
video_id: 'DWX8xS-a3-g'
date: 2026-08-10
duration_sec: 517
---

# Cheap Creatine Isn't Worth It: 2 Impurities May Surprise You

> Source: [Cheap Creatine Isn't Worth It: 2 Impurities May Surprise You](https://youtube.com/watch?v=DWX8xS-a3-g)

## Summary

This video discusses the hidden impurities in creatine supplements, focusing on two specific compounds: dicyandiamide and dihydrotriazine. It explains how the source of creatine (Germany vs. China) affects impurity levels and why this matters for consumers, especially at higher doses.

### Key Points

- **Two impurities in creatine** [00:01] — Two impurities commonly found in creatine are dicyandiamide and dihydrotriazine. These can be present depending on the manufacturing source.
- **Minimum effective dose** [00:29] — The minimum effective dose of creatine is 2.6 grams, ranging up to 20 grams per day depending on the use case.
- **Impurity levels in Chinese creatine** [01:37] — Chinese-produced creatine has been found to contain up to 5.4% impurities, including up to 0.9% dihydrotriazine and up to 1.3% creatinine.
- **German creatine is recommended** [05:04] — German creatine is considered the primary recommended source for research and consumption due to its purity, achieved through a proprietary water-washing process.
- **Cost difference between sources** [06:15] — German creatine costs over $23 per kilogram, while Chinese creatine costs only $8 per kilogram, a 2.5x difference.
- **Industry profit motive** [06:44] — Most supplement companies choose cheaper Chinese creatine to maximize profit, even though it may contain impurities.

## Transcript

there's two impurities that are often found in creatine? And you should look out for these. We're talking about diocyan diamide and dihydrotriazine. These are impurities that depending upon where you get your creatine, whether
it's manufactured in Germany or manufactured in China, these can end up in your creatine. Now, why does this matter? Because when we take creatine, we're not taking 100 micrograms or 1 milligram. The minimum effective dose is
2.6 grams, ranging up to up to 20 grams per day, depending upon what you're using creatine for. So, for most people, if you're athletic, if you eat an meat and eggs and seafood and so forth in your diet, you can get away with just
having two to five grams of creatine per day, especially around exercise because when you move your muscle or if you have creatine in the post exercise window or with a meal, you can absorb and utilize a lot of that creatine and enhance the
absorption by about 25%. But if you're taking higher dosages of creatine such as during social jet lag or sleep deprivation or you work the night shift or you're traveling to Europe or you're trying to offset age- related cognitive
decline for example or you've been a vegan or vegetarian and so for there you in your diet and you want higher amounts. Well, then we need to consider some of the impurities because it turns out that as I mentioned there's two
commonly found impurities particularly with creatine that has been manufactured and I'll share with you from this paper here common questions and misconceptions of creatine the investigators say that particularly sources produced this is
creatine sources produced in China have been found to contain up to 5.4% 4% of impurities that you really don't want as well as up to.9%
of dihydroazine and up to 1.3% of creatinine. Now I know these words sound similar creatinine we often measure this in the blood to reflect kidney function and glale filtration and so forth but creatinine
is not the same as creatine. We'll talk a little bit more about um amino acid and nitrogen balance metabolism a little bit later. But these two compounds as I mentioned diocyan diamide and dihydrotriazine
are impurities that are often found in creatine depending upon where the source make a lot of creatine. A lot of companies that sell creatine raw material are buying the source either made in China or made in Germany. And
that's why it's important if you look at creatine and it doesn't say Creapure or Creovitalis on the label then it's probably made in China. And as we now know the diocyan diamide and dihydrotriazine
concentrations can be higher as well as higher concentrations of heavy metals like mercury uh as well as uh some of the chemical uh solvents that can be utilized in the process because uh the Chinese are doing it different from the
Europeans. And uh this is important because when we think about where the calcium carbide which is one of the the rate limiting raw materials to make synthesized creatine in the lab. Let me back up here. So creatine is made by
mixing calcium carbide from limestone uh with the amino acid sarazine. And so this is made in a in a you know syn synthetic organic chemistry uh type process. It's a distillation uh process.
in uh in Europe at least, the Germans have a proprietary water washing at the being utilized, and we don't really know what's going on uh in China, but that what's going on uh in China, but that limestone um is actually a byproduct of
the the coal burning uh process. And so we just we don't know the sourcing of of what's going on in China. And basically, you know, I have a relationship with one of the raw material suppliers, Alsam Biotech, over in Germany. I've had
multiple conversations with these folks and have seen multiple CFAs and have bit more about how this is made and how creatine is made and have uh dealt with manufacturing facility and I can tell you this stuff is really really
purified, very clean. Uh, I really like it. And so that's why I wanted to make super popular. And you know, if we were talking about say vitamin D3, right? When you take vitamin D3, you take, you know, maybe 2 to 600 micrograms, like
you're not taking a lot of vitamin D or let's say you buy vitamin B12, you're let's say you buy vitamin B12, you're taking maybe 1,000 or 2,000 micrograms, right? These are 1,000th of a gram. Whereas in contrast, as I mentioned
you're taking on the low end, the minimum effective dose is 2 and a half electrolytes, that seems to be sufficient for most people all the way up to 20 grams per day. And so if you're getting a creatine that does have
impurities, you might be running into potential problems because, as I the through this synthetic process, there can be mercury and other uh chemical precursors and contaminants that can be problematic. Now the one
that is most problematic tends to be the uh dehydrotriazine uh dehydrotriazine uh because it is structurally related to uh chemical carcinogens. And so the investigators say for this reason German
sources monohydrate has been primarily used in research to establish safety and recommended source of creatim monohydrate to use in dietary well of course you know most companies should be using this right? Well, here's
the rub. When you get creatine made synthesized in China, now most of dietary supplements are packaged in the US, but you get raw materials, you know, Canada or from Europe or from China or from India. Raw materials come from all
over the world and the products are packaged here, sold on Amazon or sold on websites and you buy them. So the raw materials made in Germany are considered materials made in Germany are considered to be the primary recommended source for
consumption as well as research. And that's why companies like Myioscience, we only use the German-made creatine, the micronized version or unmicronized version. But the reason why a lot of people don't do this is because of
dollars and cents. The German material cost north of $23 per kilogram. Okay. Now, the Chinese material costs only $8 per kilogram. Now, if you think about
that, the German material costs 2.5 times as much as the material made in China. Now, because most supplement companies, there's about 6,000 supplement companies in the US. There's maybe 100 to 150 manufacturers. So, most
marketing companies owned by private equity groups and investors and venture all this stuff. They're looking for a return on their investment. So if you have two materials that you can put on the label and say it's five grams of
creatine per dose, one costs two and a half times less than the other, you can see why most people are getting the creatine sourced in China and don't really care about the fact that it might contain dihydrotrizine or diocyan
diamide or other compounds. They just know that you're going to take creatine and other people are selling it too. So they're offering it to you as well. But again, because in toxicology, usually the dose makes the poison. If you're
doing higher dosages in particular, you should definitely be uh getting material that has been made uh in my opinion in Germany uh because it's super clean. It's some of the purest uh creatine that you can possibly buy and contains uh
extraordinarily low levels of these impurities, which is what you want to uh be looking out for. So uh very low levels of uh these impurities and uh as I mentioned it's washed with water and so you're not you know getting any you
know residual solvents or heavy metals uh the mercury levels cadmium lead are all extraordinarily low and so I think that is really important uh to consider. So, I wanted to share this with you all so you had a better idea of what's going
think a lot of people are just buying it and taking super high dosages of it. And I just want you to know that this is one of these raw materials that you want to know what you think in the comments section below, my friends. I appreciate
end. Hopefully, you enjoyed this video and got some useful nuggets from this. sure to share this with a friend and we'll catch you on a future video down we'll catch you on a future video down the