Day 31: Creatine

My first exposure to creatine was during the 1998 MLB season when Mark McGwire & Sammy Sosa were chasing the all-time homerun record & reports surfaced that McGwire was taking an ominous supplement called ‘creatine’ that gave him an uncanny ability to crush the long ball. While it turned out McGwire was in fact taking creatine at the time, it was not the supplement that the media should have vilified. Far more controversial was McGwire’s use of the anabolic steroid, andro, that McGwire later admitted to using.

The questions still remain however, what is creatine, how does it work, & what most people wonder – is it safe? Today I discuss the training & health benefits, as well as the potential risks associated with creatine.

What is creatine?

Creatine is a compound that our bodies create naturally, mostly in the liver, by combining 3 amino acids (arginine, glycine, & methionine). Creatine can also be found in small amounts in animal proteins such as steak, salmon, & tuna, however creatine is commonly destroyed during the cooking process.

         Creatine is used by the body to help regulate the energy cycle inside muscle cells which allows for increased muscular performance. Muscles power their contractions during physical exercise by using a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP), & creatine helps muscles regenerate ATP stores more quickly during intense efforts, allowing athletes to recover more quickly & achieve better results in short bursts of physical output. 

Creatine’s effect on athletic performance

As alluded to in the point above, more rapid regeneration of ATP between sets of lifting or physical exercise allows an athlete to train at a higher intensity than he or she could without creatine.

Many studies have been completed measuring creatines effect on different types of athletic performance, however recurring results seem to suggest that creatine supplementation can improve maximal power & strength between 5-15%, muscular endurance between 1-5%, sprint performance 1-5%, & repetitive high-intensity exercise between 5-15%. Additionally, creatine supplementation during training has been reported to promote significantly greater gains in strength, far free mass, & performance primarily of high intensity exercise tasks. 

Most specifically, creatine has been shown to have benefits for any sort of sport that involves repeated efforts of thirty seconds or less, or athletes that play sports with ‘intermittent work patterns.’ Additionally, creatine helps increase the glycogen stores in muscles that are important to endurance exercise, as well as possibly reducing oxygen consumption in submaximal effort.

In one particularly convincing 10-week study, female volunteers were given a load dose (20G) of creatine for 4 days, followed by a standard dose (5G) for the remainder of the 10-week period. During this period, the maximum strength of the muscle groups trained, maximal intermittent exercise capacity of the arm flexors, & fat-free mass were increased 60% more for those subjects supplementing with creatine versus those that were not. 

                In conclusion, creatine supplementation has been repeatedly shown to result in an increase in strength, fat-free muscle mass, & to enhance high-intensity exercise performance in young healthy men & women.

Creatine’s effect on the brain

                As research continues to be done on the effects of creatine in terms of athletic performance, some researchers are now looking to creatine to act as a neuroprotective agent. Creatine has demonstrated a neuroprotective effect in animal models of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, & after ischemia. The reason scientists believe creatine may have neuroprotective effects is that in each of the diseases listed, a low phosphocreatine concentration has been reported for those with neuromuscular disorders, a compound that creatine supplementation can increase.

                Further, recent experiments have demonstrated that use of creatine may help to repair brain tissue damage after traumatic brain injury. Results showed that creatine has reduce the extent of cortical damage by as much as 36% in mice & 50% in rats.

                While it is too early to draw conclusions on creatine’s ability to work as a neuroprotective agent, the preliminary research is very encouraging & provides yet another reason that you may want to consider adding creatine to the list of supplements that you are currently taking.

What are the risks of using creatine?

One of the major drawbacks of using creatine is that it can lead to water retention which can cause weight gain. This can be particularly problematic for athlete’s competing in sports where weight is an important consideration (wrestling, MMA, etc.). Aside from the effects of water retention, there have been very few health risks tied to either short-term, or long-term creatine use.

Common anecdotal citations are gastrointestinal disturbances & muscle cramps, but these effects remain simply anecdotal & have not yet been proven in any scientific literature. Liver & kidney dysfunction have also been suggested on the basis of small changes in markers of organ function & of occasional case reports, but well controlled studies on the adverse effects of exogenous creatine supplementation are almost non-existent. A recent study that investigated kidney & liver changes during short, medium, & long-term supplementation in young athletes did not find any adverse effects on renal function.

One commonly cited recommendation of researchers is to ensure that athletes using creatine hydrate properly to avoid any negative effects such as muscle cramping & gastrointestinal disturbances.

                In conclusion, while I am certainly in no position to be recommending anyone take any type of supplement, I believe that the case for using creatine is quite strong. As with any dietary supplement, you should consult your physician & conduct your own research prior toe use. That said, I was pleasantly surprised to discover all of the positive health benefits associated with this supplement that I have been taking for years. 

100 Day Spartan