| Creatine Monohydrate has reached
the point of being the most popular sports supplement after
protein powders, and that is because it fulfills its promise, is
safe, and increasingly affordable.
However, as the 4 links on the left attest, it
is now showing promised in other areas of alternative health. As with anything, once it reaches the point of
being "high profile", conflicting reports begin to emerge. On
the one hand, Blue Cross, Blue Shields Health Competition
Foundation is warning against the use of the supplement. They
describe Creatine as "an unregulated substance that is marketed and
used in large doses by teenagers without proper medical
supervision".
However, all they have to offer as an inducement
to abandon its use is "anecdotal, single-case reports and
preliminary evidence suggest that Creatine may be linked to
cramping, diarrhea, nausea. dizziness, dehydration, incontinence,
muscle strain, high blood pressure and abnormal liver and kidney
function. There is no conclusive scientific evidence suggesting that
Creatine use predictably causes any of these problems."
Probably
their attitude is influenced by three tragic incidents where young
wrestlers died during training. The FDA became aware that they had
been using Creatine to enhance their work-outs, and understandably
issued a warning about its use until the problem had been resolved.
The agency ultimately determined that Creatine had NOT been a factor in these
sad cases.
Additionally, a recent 6 week study at the University of
Nottingham Medical School concluded that rational use of Creatine at
recommended levels posed no risk to healthy athletes.
In another study, a research team (Med. &
Science in Sports & Exercise, 31(8):1,108-1,110, 1999)
compared 10 people in a control group who had never used Creatine to
a group of 13 football players who had used Creatine for periods
ranging from 3 months and 4 years. The highest amount used was
10 gms per day for 5 years. They did blood tests which showed no
difference in chemical markers of liver and kidney function.
Two studies at Arkansas State University tracked 61 Creatine using
baseball and football athletes , with a control group of 50
non-supplementing athletes, and found no difference in
incidents of muscle cramps, injury or illness. I want to point
out that this study and others determine Creatine to be safe in its
PURE form: as usual, when there is money to be made there are people
who try to profit unethically, and some Creatine on the market now
is cut with cheap fillers, or contaminated in other ways which are
bound to pose health risks. Make sure the product you buy is from a
reputable company: don't take risks with your health for the sake of
a few dollars, it just isn't worth it. Also, there is a possibility
that Creatine might be harmful to someone with a pre-existing kidney
condition or weakness.
The first time I heard Creatine mentioned in
connection with sports, some British friends of mine told me that
the British 1992 Olympic Gold medalist, Linford Christie, used
it to enhance his training. Soon thereafter, some Swedish and
British researchers collaborated on a number of studies published in
1993, and the rest is (for body builders and athletes, at least)
history. From the one company that first put Creatine on the market
we have reached the point where ALL the companies that promote
sports nutrition sell it! Does it deserve this intense interest? In
my opinion, yes.
Creatine is naturally present in our bodies, our
supplies coming mostly from meat and fish: since Creatine is stored
in muscle tissue, this makes perfect sense! It's main function is to
regenerate ATP, which feeds the energy cycle used to provide us with
short, sharp bursts of intense energy. When your muscles are in use,
they use approximately one hundred times more ATP than they do when
they are at rest. The more Creatine you have present in your body,
the more ATP can be regenerated, and the more extensive your
potential energy supply.
Does supplementing with additional Creatine
actually work? There can be no doubt. I do occasionally run across a
person who says that it made no difference to them, but almost
always this is because they have not used it in the most effective
way: Creatine needs help to be carried into the cells to do its
work, and this help is provided either by taking it in conjunction
with a simple carbohydrate such as can be found in fruit juice, or
by using it after a loading cycle has been carried out, where
greater than usual amounts are taken for a short period of time, and
then reduced to a maintenance amount. The dose usually recommended
is 20 grams to be taken daily in 4 divided doses for 5 days: after
that, a maintenance amount of 2 to 5 grams per day is usually
sufficient to keep the level in the body at optimum.
What results are people experiencing? Athletes
taking part in sports that require intense but brief spurts of
exertion, such as in martial arts, sprinting, cycling, tennis,
swimming, and perhaps boxing, report more explosive power and
endurance, and quicker reaction times. This is certainly supported
by Dr. Greenhaff's 1993 study, showing the benefits of Creatine on
intense exercise performance.
Bodybuilders report that they have more strength,
and greater lean body mass. The studies of Earnest in 1995 and of
Kreider in 1997 confirm this.
All athletes appear to feel that fatigue is staved
off by the use of Creatine, together with a decrease in muscle
soreness and stiffness, and Dr. Hultman's 1993 study agrees with
this claim.
Certainly a plus for some athletes - a
2003 Australian study found that it
increased intelligence significantly in young adult
vegetarians..
So, what of those who are neither boxers, cyclists
or body builders, but weekend warriors or would be workers-outers?
That, to me, is the truly interesting part. As some of you may know,
I run. My aim, which I sometimes fall short of but usually fulfill,
is to run 2 miles or so about 5 times a week. Those of us who may be
getting older (which counts me out, of course!) may experience a
situation where exercise actually causes muscle loss - well, the
newest research is turning up really beneficial aspects of Creatine
for us. It enables the older physique to build muscle with exercise,
and I feel this finding will also have really exciting applications
for the truly Senior Citizens, who are experiencing wasting of their
muscles. At the present time, medical science is experimenting with
the use of steroids - growth hormone injections: but these have
major side effects, whereas Creatine does not. Perhaps even
MORE interesting for ladies of a certain age, like myself, worried
about osteoporosis, is that researchers in Tokyo are finding
preliminary evidence in rat studies that Creatine may promote
healthier bones: more calcium was absorbed from the gut, and
bone mineral density was found to be higher. It might be wise to
make sure you are getting adequate levels of calcium when using
Creatine, thereby turning this into a truly positive benefit.
Creatine is also present in heart muscle, where
its role in regenerating ATP could turn out to be of extreme
importance. Those of you who have been following my articles on the
importance of methyl donors to heart health via homocysteine levels
(recently, incidentally, also found to be a factor in Alzheimer's
Disease) will be interested to know that the chemical name for
Creatine Monohydrate is Methyl Guanidine-Acetic Acid. It
may certainly be worth adding to such supplements as CoQ10 and
L-Carnitine where cardiomyopathy or congestive heart failure is
present.
Does Creatine have any side effects? There have
been cases reported of athletes overexerting themselves to the point
of cramps and muscle tears, and using more of it than is recommended
has resulted in temporary diarrhea, which goes away when the dosage
is reduced. That is all. Creatine is, after all, a chemical
naturally present in the body and excreted routinely through the
kidneys on a daily basis. Certainly it is a essential to make sure
you are drinking a sensible amount of water when using Creatine.
If your workout is not giving you quite the
results you look for, or if working with weights is making you
smaller rather than bigger - Creatine may be the answer to your
problem. I use it before my runs, and have found it makes a big
difference!
Something new to athletes which may become a
"side-kick" for Creatine is D-Ribose. This is a simple sugar which
is needed to synthesize ATP, ADP and AMP, all energy nucleotides.
Trials are showing that the effect of ribose on human performance
and energy recovery are very positive, with increases of almost 10%
in mean power per kg of body weight, peak power per kg and total
power per kg for ribose users. So far, no side effects have been
noted for Ribose, and some interesting research is being done
on its supportive role in cardiovascular health and in suppressing
inflammation.
New research on Creatine is pretty impressive.
Supplementation with it is being used in cases of neurodegenerative
diseases, (one interesting study in Med. Sci. Sports
Exerc.,33:869-872, 2001, found it effective in myasthenia
gravis) in tumors, high blood glucose levels, congestive heart
failure and even a rare retinal atrophy that ends in blindness, and
most results show preliminary promise. In actual fact, it was
treating the eye disease with Creatine that led to its discovery as
a muscle supplement, since this was the side effect noted with
treatment. Perhaps the most exciting studies are indicating that
Creatine is protective against the risk of stroke-related
neurological damage . Granted
the first studies were in mice, but a 56% reduction in damage
related to stroke in Creatine supported rodents is very promising.
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke,
part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is conducting a
new clinical trial to examine Creatine as a treatment for
Parkinson's disease. Researchers believe that Creatine may act
as an antioxidant, preventing damage to brain cells.
The latest medication for diabetes is a biguanide
called Metformin, which increases tissue sensitivity to insulin,
allowing entry of glucose. Creatine also contains guanidine, and
experiments have shown that very high doses of Creatine can cause
low blood sugar. On this theory, fasting insulin dependent type 1
diabetics were given a 3 gram dose of Creatine, and it was found
that there was a significant reduction in blood glucose levels
without changing blood insulin. In 1999, the American Diabetes
Association got much the same results in type 11 diabetics.*
Now it seems that Creatine can also help control
cholesterol levels: At the Cooper clinic in Dallas, they put 34
patients who had blood levels of cholesterol (fasting) between 220
and 250mg/dL on 10-20 mg of Creatine a day, and after 8 weeks
discovered a 20% lowering of triglycerides and 5% of total
cholesterol. HDL was not affected, and these effects lasted for four
weeks after the study was finished. Dr. Almada, who was part of this
double blind, placebo controlled study, points out that the
Stockholm study in the 1980s showed that where triglycerides are
lowered by 30%, the risk of dying from a secondary coronary event
was halved. *
Hill RM. The effect of the
administration of creatine on the blood sugar. J Biol Chem
1928;78:iv.
Rocic B, et al. Effect of creatine on glycation of albumin in vitro. Horm
Metab Res 1995;27:511-2.
.Beisswenger PJ, et al.
Metformin reduces systemic methylglyoxal levels in type II
diabetes. Diabetes 1999;48:198-202.
Rocic B, et al. The effect of creatine on glycemic control in
NIDDM patients on sulfonylurea therapy. Diabetes 1999;48(Suppl.
1):A359.
| Keywords: creatine overview, creatine
monohydrate, safety of creatine monohydrate, efficacy of
creatine, creatine muscle wasting, creatine
energy, creatine diabetes, guanidine creatine,
creatine cholesterol, creatine healthy bones, creatine
protect stroke, creatine nerve damage, creatine
neurological damage stroke |
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