Are you creatine-ing a cancer problem for yourself?
Here’s the study/media release reporting that use of muscle-building supplements (MBS) like creatine or androstenedione increase the rate of testicular cancer among men who began use prior to age 25, used multiple types of MBS or used MBS for more than three years.
Here are shortcomings of this study:
- The study is very small. The risk ratios are based on relatively few cases of cancer — e.g., only 67 among ever users of MBS.
- Volunteer bias. Only about one-half of the eligible study population participated in the study. It’s possible that given the relatively few participants, results could be influenced by volunteers, for example, looking to attribute their cancers to MBS.
- Self-reported data/recall bias. MBS use was self-reported and so is unreliable. People tend to forget what they used, how long they used and how much they used.
The purpose of the study is ostensibly to explain the folowing reported increase in testicular cancer since the 1970s.
It is quite possible that the reported increase in testicular cancer, however, is due to increased awareness, detection and diagnoses as opposed to new causes.
As someone who had testicular cancer it seems to be linked to heavy lifting. Mine came from being a household goods mover. The physical stress also led to a hernia. So maybe the weight lifters are developing testicular cancer because they are lifting heavy weights rather than using pump up drugs.