Kre-Alkalyn is the creatine form with the boldest printed claim on the shelf: that a gram and a half does the work of ten to fifteen grams of ordinary creatine. It is also the rare supplement claim that someone took into a laboratory with a biopsy needle, compared directly against the product it claims to beat, and published.
The amounts on this page are the ones printed on labels and given in the trial, each with its source and date. They record what was declared and what was administered to study volunteers; none of them is a suggestion.
What the product is
Kre-Alkalyn is ordinary creatine monohydrate mixed with an alkaline powder. The patent it is sold under — US 6,399,661, "Oral creatine supplement and method for making same", inventor Jeffrey Golini, priority date 26 June 2000 — describes combining creatine with an alkaline powder and a sweetening additive, then adding further alkaline powder until the mixture sits at a pH between 7 and 14. The patent filings, as summarised in the 2012 trial report, name soda ash, magnesium glycerophosphate and bicarbonate among the possible buffers.
Labels in the NIH database describe it the same way. A current Kre-Alkalyn EFX label calls it "the only creatine monohydrate product with a pH of 12", made with "buffering agents using a patented (#6,399,661) manufacturing process". NOW Sports' 750 mg capsule lists the ingredient as "Creatine Monohydrate, Buffered".
So the molecule is the same one in every other creatine tub. What differs is what it is mixed with, and the argument for why that should matter. The wider family of creatine salts and formats, and how much creatine each gram of them carries, is on types of creatine.
The claim, in the manufacturer's words
The 2012 trial report quotes the manufacturer's website at the time. The product was described as:
- "the only Creatine guaranteed to stay 100% stable all the way to the muscle cell"
- "up to ten times more powerful than ordinary Creatine"
- "1.5 grams of Kre-Alkalyn is equivalent to about 10–15 grams of ordinary Creatine"
- "an alternative to all the bloating, cramping, and other side effects associated with traditional creatine supplementation"
The mechanism offered was that stomach acid converts a large share of ordinary creatine into creatinine, its inactive breakdown product, before it can be absorbed — and that raising the pH prevents this. The trial's authors reported that the manufacturer cited several studies performed in Bulgaria, and that they could find no peer-reviewed paper on Kre-Alkalyn or buffered creatine in PubMed. A PubMed search on 2026-09-28 for either name in titles and abstracts returns one record: the trial itself.
What the chemistry literature says about stomach acid
The trial report sets out why the premise is weak. Creatine does degrade to creatinine — slowly, over days, and faster when warm and in solution, which is why creatine kept in liquid is a genuine stability problem and dry powder is not (does creatine expire). But the rate is not a simple function of acidity. At a very low pH, like the stomach's, the relevant part of the creatine molecule is protonated, and that blocks the internal ring-closing reaction that produces creatinine. Degradation is slowed at a pH below about 2.5 and again at a very high pH.
The report also cites a 2007 abstract presented at the International Society of Sports Nutrition's annual meeting: creatine monohydrate held at pH 1.0 and 37 °C converted to creatinine by less than 1% after 5, 30 and 120 minutes, and the buffered product converted 35% more under the same conditions. That abstract was never published as a full paper, so it carries less weight than the trial — but it points the same way, and nothing published points the other.
The trial
Andrew Jagim, Richard Kreider and colleagues at Texas A&M randomised 36 resistance-trained adults (average age 20, 82 kg) to three groups of 12 for 28 days, double-blind:
| Group | What was given | Amount (as reported) |
|---|---|---|
| CrM | Creatine monohydrate (Creapure) | 20 g/day for 7 days, then 5 g/day for 21 days |
| KA-L | Kre-Alkalyn at the manufacturer's recommended amount | 1.5 g/day for 28 days |
| KA-H | Kre-Alkalyn at monohydrate-equivalent amounts | 20 g/day for 7 days, then 5 g/day for 21 days |
Capsule contents were verified by an independent laboratory before the trial. Muscle biopsies from the thigh, fasting blood, DEXA body composition and a 30-second Wingate sprint were measured at days 0, 7 and 28; one-rep-max bench and leg press at days 0 and 28.
What it found.
- Muscle creatine rose in every group, with no significant difference between groups (p = 0.46; biopsies usable in 25 of the 36). Measured as change from baseline at day 28, mean ± SD: monohydrate +22.3, Kre-Alkalyn at monohydrate amounts +9.1, Kre-Alkalyn at 1.5 g/day +4.7 mmol/kg dry weight.
- The one comparison that approached significance went against the product. Pairwise, the 1.5 g/day group's muscle creatine tended to rise less than monohydrate's: −1.1 against +11.2 mmol/kg dry weight (mean ± SEM, p = 0.053).
- No group differences in body mass, fat-free mass, fat mass, body water, bench or leg press strength, or Wingate mean power, peak power and total work.
- Serum creatinine rose in all groups, more with the higher creatine amounts, by 0.1–0.2 mg/dL — within normal values for active people. What that blood marker does and does not mean is on what is creatine in bloodwork.
- No side effects were reported in any group — including the monohydrate group during its week at 20 g a day.
The authors' conclusion: neither the manufacturer's recommended amount nor monohydrate-sized amounts of the buffered form "promoted greater changes in muscle creatine content, body composition, strength, or anaerobic capacity" than creatine monohydrate, and there was "no evidence" of fewer side effects.
Who paid for it. The study was funded by AlzChem AG, the German company that makes Creapure — the brand of monohydrate used as the comparator. The authors state they collected, analysed and interpreted the data independently and had no financial interest in the outcome. The funding does not undo a double-blind biopsy design, but it is part of the record and belongs beside the result; what Creapure itself is sits on Creapure explained.
What it could not show. Twelve people per group over four weeks is enough to detect the large advantage the product claims — a tenfold potency difference would not hide in a sample this size — but not a small one. The trial also used capsules, so it says nothing about taste or mixability, and it was one trial, never replicated.
What 31 current labels declare
The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements' Dietary Supplement Label Database held 53 labels with Kre-Alkalyn in the product name on 2026-09-28, 31 of them on the market, from brands including EFX Sports (the manufacturer's own line), True Athlete, NOW Sports, Pure Encapsulations, Universal and Labrada.
Most declare 1.5 g per serving, split across two or three capsules; a few powders declare 1 g or 3 g. What has changed is the daily total the directions add up to:
| Label (DSLD id, entered) | Per serving | Daily total the directions describe |
|---|---|---|
| All American EFX, pH-Correct Creatine (625, 2011) | 1.5 g in 2 capsules | 2 capsules a day — 1.5 g |
| Kre-Alkalyn EFX (259297, 2022) | 1.5 g in 2 capsules | 1.5 g; "175 lbs. & above" 2 before and 2 after training — 3 g |
| Kre-Alkalyn EFX (270924, 2023) | 1.5 g in 2 capsules | 2 before and 2 after training — 3 g |
| Pure Encapsulations (204684, 2019) | 1.5 g in 3 capsules | 3 capsules a day — 1.5 g |
| NOW Sports, 750 mg (314373, 2024) | 1.5 g in 2 capsules | 2 capsules 2–4 times a day — 3 to 6 g |
The original claim was that 1.5 g replaced 10–15 g. The most recent labels in the set describe daily totals of 3 g and up to 6 g — amounts in the range of the 3–5 g of plain monohydrate that the trial literature uses for maintenance (how much creatine should I take). The labels do not explain the change. It is consistent with the trial finding that 1.5 g a day raised muscle creatine least.
Two more things from the label text, as printed. Several labels still call the product "multi-patented" and cite patent 6,399,661, which Google Patents lists as expired. And NOW Sports' label repeats the original mechanism — that the buffered formula "may prevent its breakdown" in the gut, "effectively eliminating the uncomfortable stomach distress, gas, and bloating" — a claim the trial tested and could not support, because no one in any group reported either.
How the arithmetic compares
A gram of creatine monohydrate is about 88% creatine by mass; the rest is the water of crystallisation (creatine HCl sets out the molecular weights). Kre-Alkalyn is monohydrate plus buffer, so a gram of it carries less creatine than a gram of plain monohydrate, not more — the labels do not state the ratio, which is itself an omission worth noting. At the manufacturer's original 1.5 g a day, the creatine delivered is under a third of what a 5 g monohydrate serving provides. Closing that gap would require the buffered form to be retained several times better, and the biopsies showed the reverse trend.
What is established, and what is not
- Established: in the one randomised biopsy trial, Kre-Alkalyn did not raise muscle creatine, lean mass, strength or sprint capacity more than creatine monohydrate, at either the manufacturer's amount or monohydrate-sized amounts.
- Established: the trial recorded no side effects in any group, so it gives no support to the claim of less bloating or cramping.
- Not established: that stomach acid destroys a meaningful share of ordinary creatine. The published chemistry says the opposite, and the one direct acid test is an unpublished abstract that found the buffered product degraded more.
- Not tested: long-term use, women, older adults, or any population other than young trained adults.
The head-to-head trials for every salt — ethyl ester, nitrate, HCl and this one — are collected on types of creatine. None found a form that raised muscle creatine more than monohydrate.
Sources
- Jagim AR, Oliver JM, Sanchez A, et al. A buffered form of creatine does not promote greater changes in muscle creatine content, body composition, or training adaptations than creatine monohydrate. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2012;9:43. PMID 22971354 · full text (read 2026-09-28, including the introduction's quotation of the manufacturer's claims, the 2007 abstract it cites, and the funding statement).
- US Patent 6,399,661 B1, Oral creatine supplement and method for making same, Google Patents, status and priority date read 2026-09-28.
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, Dietary Supplement Label Database: 53 labels with Kre-Alkalyn in the product name, 31 on the market, read via API 2026-09-28; labels 625, 259297, 270924, 204684, 314373.
- PubMed search
"kre-alkalyn"[tiab] OR "buffered creatine"[tiab], 2026-09-28: 1 record.