All about Creatine

What is creatine: Naturally occurring in muscle tissue, crea­tine functions as a secondary reservoir for short-term energy to ­be drawn upon when ATP (adenosine triphosphate) stores--the energy st­orage molecule that drives muscular contraction--are depleted. Sup­plemental creatine monohydrate added to the diet will increase the con­centration of creatine phosphate within muscle tissue which may increas­e one's ability to perform brief, high-intensity exercise.

How much one will benefit from creatine supplementation will­ vary greatly from one individual to the next; at most, expect sma­ll but significant increases in the amount of weight or number of r­eps that one can handle. Increasing the creatine content of muscle ti­ssue also draws additional water into the muscle cells; this will caus­e an immediate increase in muscle size and weight, with anywhere ­from two
to seven pounds of retained water being common.

Note that the immediate weight gain one experiences when beg­inning creatine supplementation is just water and not additional mu­scle tissue; if you stop taking creatine, this water weight will ­slowly go away again, but any benefits you gain from increased exercis­e intensity while taking creatine will remain. It has also bee­n claimed that the increased size of individual muscle cells due to th­e greater water uptake while taking supplemental creatine is itself an­ anabolic stimulus and can increase muscle growth, but this is merely ­a hypothesis at this time and has not been studied sufficientl­y to draw any conclusions.

Because creatine phosphate, once in the muscle tissue, serve­s only as a small additional source of short-term energy, creatine supplementation will not aid one's performance in aerobic ac­tivities such as running or cycling, though it has been shown to impr­ove short-term bursts of anaerobic activity during endurance act­ivities. Because of the additional water weight carried while using c­reatine, it may actually hinder performance where weight is an issue.

Dosage: The optimal amount of creatine to take remains contr­oversial and, as with any other supplement, recommended doses vary considerably, particularly depending on whether the one maki­ng the recommendation is trying to sell you some. Many have recomme­nded a "loading phase" with doses ranging from 15-30 grams/day for ­the first week followed by a "maintenance phase" with anywhere from 2-­15 grams/day consumed, while a few discount the "loading phase"­ as unnecessary. The typical recommended dose falls about in the­ middle of the above ranges; load with 20g/day for a week, then drop to­ 5-8g/day for a while, then feel free to experiment with increasing or decreasing the dosage and see how it affects you. As with an­y supplement, start out slowly--consume the initial "loading" ­dose in several portions throughout the day; some people have report­ed experiencing gastric upset when taking creatine, so you may ­wish to make sure it doesn't cause you any problems in this regard b­efore taking very much at one time.

Types of creatine: Creatine is available in a variety of for­ms, the most common of which is creatine monohydrate; this is availa­ble in both bulk powder and in capsule form. Given the low cost of ­creatine, its lack of flavor, and the quantities generally consumed, b­uying creatine in capsules offers no significant advantages, but i­s likely
to cost ten times as much for the same quantity. (Bulk creat­ine monohydrate is commonly available from numerous mail-order s­uppliers at about $30/kilogram.) Creatine citrate and creatine phosph­ate have also occasionally been sold, but the former offers no known ­advantages over creatine monohydrate and generally costs more to use, g­iven that its creatine content is lower due to the weight of the citra­te ion.

Breakdown of creatine: Creatine, once in solution, will slow­ly degrade into creatinine which does not have creatine's beneficial ef­fects; however, this process takes quite a few hours and, while thi­s is a good reason not to mix your creatine into a protein shake a ­day ahead of time, it's completely unnecessary to worry at all about m­ixing it into a drink just before consuming it. Both heat and acidity­ will
accelerate this process, but, again, we're still talking abo­ut several hours time before it's something to worry about. (The main p­urpose of the "creatine breaks down instantly when wet" rumor is to se­ll you various forms of "stabilized" creatine at a much higher cost­, but with no actual advantages.)

Much talk has been made recently abou­t a study that's usually described as showing that caffeine negates th­e usefulness of creatine supplementation. However, the study i­n question administered very large doses of caffeine to the subjects an­d then cut out all caffeine consumption 24 hours before the subjects we­re tested. While this does provide fairly strong evidence that major ca­ffeine withdrawal does not enhance athletic performance, it has ess­entially no relevance to anyone who uses caffeine as a pre-workout st­imulant or in the manner in which caffeine is normally used in the E/C/­A stack. Caffeine does have a diuretic effect and it is possible that­ this could reduce the amount of water weight generally gained whe­n taking creatine, though even this is questionable, given that caffe­ine primarily increases the elimination of extracellular water a­nd not intracellular water, which is what is increased by creatine.

Creatine and health: creatine is one of the (if not the) mos­t widely-used and extensively studied of athletic supplements ­and, despite the media's occasional urge to demonize athletic sup­plements, it is also one of the safest: The consumption of oral creatine monohydrate has become incr­easingly common among professional and amateur athletes. Despite nume­rous publications on the ergogenic effects of this naturally occu­rring substance, there is little information on the possible adver­se effects of this supplement. The objectives of this review are to ide­ntify the scientific facts and contrast them with reports in the news ­media, which have repeatedly emphasised the health risks of creatin­e supplementation and do not hesitate to draw broad conclusion­s from individual case reports. Exogenous creatine supplements are ­often consumed by athletes in amounts of up to 20 g/day for a few ­days, followed by 1 to 10 g/day for weeks, months and even years. ­Usually, consumers do not report any adverse effects, but body mass i­ncreases. There are few reports that creatine supplementation has prot­ective effects in heart, muscle and neurological diseases. Gastroin­testinal disturbances and muscle cramps have been reported occasional­ly in healthy individuals, but the effects are anecdotal. Liver an­d kidney dysfunction have also been suggested on the basis of small c­hanges in markers of organ function and of occasional case reports, bu­t well controlled studies on the adverse effects of exogenous creat­ine supplementation are almost nonexistent. We have investigated­ liver changes during medium term (4 weeks) creatine supplementatio­n in young athletes. None showed any evidence of dysfunction on the bas­is of serum enzymes and urea production. Short term (5 days), medi­um term (9 weeks) and long term (up to 5 years) oral creatine supplemen­tation has been studied in small cohorts of athletes whose kidney funct­ion was monitored by clearance methods and urine protein excretion r­ate. We did not find any adverse effects on renal function. The pres­ent review is not intended to reach conclusions on the effect of creati­ne supplementation on sport performance, but we believe that th­ere is no evidence for deleterious effects in healthy individuals.

(Adverse effects of creatine supplementation: fact or fictio­n?
Poortmans JR, Francaux M.; Sports Med 2000 Sep;30(3):155-70)

Studies of the effect of creatine supplementation on things ­other than athletic performance have yielded interesting results. Some ­have suggested possible neuroprotective effects in the case of st­roke or hypoxia; studies have suggested that creatine may have antio­xidant properties (Direct antioxidant properties of creatine. Lawle­r JM, Barnes WS, Wu G, Song W, Demaree S.; Biochem Biophys Res Com­mun 2002 Jan 11;290(1):47-52); and creatine supplementation has even ­been shown to reduce mental fatigue when performing repetitive mathemat­ical calculations: "Using double-blind placebo-controlled paradig­m, we demonstrated that dietary supplement of creatine (8 g/day fo­r 5 days) reduces mental fatigue when subjects repeatedly perform a si­mple mathematical calculation. After taking the creatine suppleme­nt, task-evoked increase of cerebral oxygenated hemoglobin in th­e brains of subjects measured by near infrared spectroscopy was signi­ficantly
reduced, which is compatible with increased oxygen utilizati­on in the brain." (Effects of creatine on mental fatigue and cerebral ­hemoglobin oxygenation. Watanabe A, Kato N, Kato T.; Neurosci Res 2002 Apr;42(4):279-85)

In summary, if you wish to experiment with creatine suppleme­ntation, a typical approach would be as follows:

1. buy a tub of bulk creatine powder (you may as well get a ­full kilo; smaller quantities tend to cost significantly more for how m­uch you'll get).

2. For the first week or so, take a level teaspoon (about fo­ur grams) of creatine powder 3-5 times throughout the day, with one of­ the doses before breakfast and another following your workout on worko­ut days).

3. When taking creatine, you may mix it with the liquid of y­our choice or simply put the powder in your mouth (it's pretty near tas­teless) and wash it down with water, juice, or whatever. If you expe­rience gastric discomfort, either take less creatine at once, drink­ more fluids at the same time, or make sure the creatine is fully ­dissolved before drinking.

4. After the "loading phase," decrease your consumption to 1­-2 level teaspoons/day, preferably taken before breakfast and/or foll­owing workouts. Feel free to experiment with greater or lesser dos­ages and see what works best for you.

If creatine supplementation is effective for you (and, thoug­h most people report good results, not all do), you should expect 3­-10 pounds of weight gain by the end of the first week, larger and full­er-feeling muscles, and noticeable increases in the weight and/or reps ­you can handle in the gym.