False Positive For Dillution? Issues with Creatine and Specific Gravity

Dear group,

I was hoping you could provide a friend with some advice. My friend is testing positive for dilution, even though heâ??s not intending to dilute. His creatine levels and specific gravity are coming back at very low rates.

As of today, he will have been clean for 61 days from marijuana and never did anything else. He took a cheaper home test at day 31, tested clean, and didnâ??t think much about it. About 1 and ½ hours before each test, he takes his daily load of vitamins which is a lot and drinks water. However, he has not been taking his B vitamin complex b/c he has read that this can cause false positives for marijuana.

At day 57 (Monday), he took a more expensive home test that checked for adulteration as well, just to be on the safe side. He was shocked when his test came back positive for dilution, since he had no intention of diluting, since he had been clean for so long. The test had strong negatives for all the drugs tested.

He responded by taking the advice on these forums and elsewhere. On day 57, he started taking creatine. For day 57 and 58 he only took 20 g in chewable form, because he didnâ??t really understand creatine loading. He drank a little Gatorade, limited his water intake, an took a Tums. He took an expensive test on day 59 and again had strong negatives but tested positive for dilution because of low creatine levels and low specific gravity. The levels had not changed. He did more research and started heavily loading creatine. On day 59 and 60 he took about 80-90 g of creatine, half in chewable form, half in dissolved form. He also checked for more advice on specific gravity and tripled the calcium supplements he had been taking and drank more Gatorade.

On the night of day 59 he really limited his fluid intake and on day 60 he only drank about 30 ounces of fluid between the time he woke up and the time of his home test at 8:30 p.m. About 1 ½ hours before his home test, he drank about 12 ounces of Gatorade (this was part of the total 30 fluid ounces and less than the other times) and took the vitamins he normally takes. Following advice he found on this website and others, he added one heaping teaspoon of salt to the Gatorade, one heaping teaspoon of a salt substitute that is a blend of sodium and potassium (it tasted terrible), and he also added one heaping tablespoon of creatine to the mixture for good measure. Heâ??s still taking triple his normal dose of calcium. The urine was a dark yellow color, not vitamin yellow, but dark yellow.

All tests came back negative, although the line for marijuana was fainter than the control this time (it still was a solid line but the other tests had the line as the same as the control). His creatine levels and specific gravity did not change one bit. They still listed him as being diluted and the amounts did not change at all.

He is worried that he is going to fail his official drug test which happens on day 64 (today, Friday, is day 61). His big concern is finding a way to raise his creatine and specific gravity. He is still going to creatine load, so hopefully that eventually has an effect. He doesnâ??t know what to do about specific gravity, other than to keep trying with the methods heâ??s already discussed. Rolaids are not available anywhere around where he lives; he guesses there is a recall or something.

As for his stats, as noted earlier, he has been clean for 61 days and will be clean for 64 days for the day of the test. He smoked a couple hitter rods of high quality stuff a night for about 9 months before quitting and was clean for a year before that. He is about 5â??8â?� tall and currently weighs about 131 pounds. When he quit he weighed about 135 pounds and got down to 124 pounds before gaining some weight back. For five months, he went to the gym 6-7 times a week and has spent about an hour doing cardio and an hour lifting while there. He stopped going to the gym on day 58 and only walked that day. On day 59 he stopped all forms of exercise, aside from walking to the grocery store for Gatorade, etcâ?¦ He has been a vegetarian for a long time, so that might be causing some of these issues.

Can someone please offer him some advice. This is for a job at a company he already works for, and if he fails heâ??s going to be unemployed. Heâ??s not really interested in substitution, since he doesnâ??t know anyone who doesnâ??t smoke and thinks that buying, etcâ?¦ would be too late in the game and too complicated for him. Heâ??s interested in what he can do to raise his levels and also wonders about the trade off of dilution versus non-dilution. If his test is going to show up as diluted anyway, maybe he should intentionally dilute, so that way thereâ??s a higher chance his results will be below 15.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope employers, etcâ?¦ donâ??t monitor these sites. Iâ??ve been so stressed out that Iâ??m planning to quit for good, but this experience has really taught me how horrible our drug laws are and how horrible testing is. Iâ??ll always be against those.

He stopped exercising which is good and now he should change to a high fat red meat diet to naturally get his creatine levels up naturally. Tell him to quit dilluting. Just drink a normal amount of fluids. This is why trying to dillute or getting clean naturally is always risky. Its never 100% foolproof. Subbing with synthetic urine is as close to 100% as you can get.
He's kind of short on time now but its possible he has a liver or kidney problem. Which is why anything other than subbing can be risky. But I suspect he was probably just over hydrating. He has a couple choices depending on how his employer reacts. Continue his dillution and supplements and if he pops negative dillute the employer may allow him to take another test, In that case he should definitely stop all dillution. He might mention to his employer that he maybe having liver problems. A simple blood test can determine that. Or if he's really doesn't want to lose the job go the subbing with synthetic route. Its not hrad at all ,its just stressful doing the first one.

Thanks for the input Killer!

My friend just took another test, His creatine levels are in the "normal" range at something between 100-200. Praise be to God! He's not going to start eating red meat. He's been a vegetarian for a really long time and even accidentally eating any meat or meat broth makes him sick, but it sounds like this issue has been solved and is on it's way to getting better!

According to the home drug test, his specific gravity levels are now borderline (too low), rather than bad (too low). However, he questions that. He realized that there is an inexpensive tool that you can buy at any pet store called a hydrometer to test the specific gravity of salt water for salt water fish. He bought one of those, and according to the hydrometer, he's at 1.027, which is on the high range (but still good). Also, for those curious, before testing his pee, he tested the specific gravity of gatorade, which was about 1.028-1.029. Perhaps this issue is more with the home test he is using than his own urine.

He also appreciates the feedback on stopping exercise. He wasn't sure if he should stop yet. Also, he's been taking your advice, Killer, and eating a lot of fatty things, eating crazy amounts of vegetarian protein supplements, and also taking oat meal, which he's heard has soluble fiber and is a good thing.

Another reason these results might be better is he ate some protein and oats before the test, rather than fasting.

Thanks so much for replying Killer and I hope others will give their opinion too! My friend is totally on the downlow about this and the job in general, so he doesn't really have anyone else to turn to!

Also, as a warning to others, my friend was not trying to dilute. He thinks that maybe he just drinks a lot more water than other people do, all of the time. That's why it's good to home test before the real test.

Also, as a warning to others, my friend was not trying to dilute. He thinks that maybe he just drinks a lot more water than other people do, all of the time. That's why it's good to home test before the real test. This is another reason why these tests shouldn't be used in the workplace. If people drank as much water as the NIH recommends we'd all test positive for over dilluted.
If your firend wants to continue to enjoy the benficial qualities of cannabis I still recommend he explore his options of subbing with synthetic urine. Its a pain in the ass to be held as a slave to your employer because of some false idea that Cannabis is bad. Its also why drug testing in the workplace should be illegal unless there ie reasonable suspiscion that he's under the effects of drugs at work. Any other drug testing is unconstitutional and violates both the 4th and 5th Amendment.

Just had my test. I home tested before and after. Both of those showed my urine to not be diluted and I tested negative for everything. Am I correct that I probably will not be called or notified of my results, as long as everything is okay?