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Creatine - FACTS
No one really invented creatine. More precisely, creatine was discovered. In 1835 a French scientist named Michel-Eugene Chevreul discovered a component of skeletal muscle that he later named creatine after the Greek word for flesh, or Kreas. A few years later (1847), a German scientist named Justus von Liebig observed that physical activity increases the amount of creatine contained within the muscles of animals. Liebig's finding led him to advance the hypothesis that muscular activity utilizes certain nitrogenous molecules as sources of energy. These nitrogenous molecules later became known as amino acids, of which, creatine is one.
Intriguingly, as an extension of his findings, Liebig helped formulate an extract of meat, which he asserted would help the body perform extra "work". In fact, "Liebig's Fleisch Extrakt" could quite reasonably be considered the original creatine supplement. Therefore, although creatine may seem like something new to the world, the scientific community has recognized it as a natural constituent of muscle for over 150 years.
Near the turn of the century the first studies examining the effects of creatine feeding were conducted where it was noticed that not all the creatine fed could be recovered in the urine. This result indicated that the body (i.e., skeletal muscle) was retaining most of the ingested creatine. In fact, skeletal muscle, as well as being the largest sink for dietary creatine, is also the richest natural source of the nutrient. Thus, whenever we take a bite of steak (skeletal muscle) creatine is made available to our muscles for absorption from the blood stream.
It is estimated that those eating a normal omnivorous diet (non-vegetarians) receive approximately one gram of creatine each day from their diets. In essence, creatine supplementation simply takes this natural process of creatine ingestion one step further.
When dietary intake if creatine is insufficient to meet our daily energetic needs, the body can also produce its own source of creatine. The body produces creatine from three amino acids, arginine, glycine and methionine. The first step in creatine synthesis primarily takes place in the kidneys with the union of arginine and glycine to produce guanidinoacetic acid or GAA. GAA is next transported through the blood stream to the liver where it is converted into creatine with the addition of a methyl group from a version of methionine known as S-adenosylmethionine. From the liver, creatine is again transported in the blood stream to the tissues of our body-principally skeletal muscle. Importantly for this discussion, excessive creatine ingestion inhibits creatine production by the body.
In conclusion, creatine is nothing new to this world. Creatine is, and always has been, a natural constituent of skeletal muscle used in energy production. In fact, naturally found conditions of creatine deficiencies give rise to states of disease. By the way, those of you looking for creatine in a pharmaceutical catalogue will find it under the scientific designation of a-methyl guandinoacetic acid (a methylated version of guanidino-acetic acid). As you can see, there's absolutely nothing mysterious about creatine...
What is creatine monohydrate?
Given the previous historical perspective, the notion of enhancing physical performance by ingesting synthetically produced creatine was an idea whose time had come with the development of a cheap and efficient way of producing creatine in the laboratory. Prior to this advance creatine was either isolated directly from skeletal muscle or collected from the urine of animals. These approaches were expensive, laborious and yielded very little creatine in the end. With the advent of synthetic production, however, creatine was then readily available for widespread use in the athletic arena and for scientific investigation.
The most commonly used form of synthetic creatine is the monohydrate salt, creatine monohydrate. Creatine monohydrate is simply a molecule of creatine accompanied by a molecule of water for added stability.
The first study that clearly demonstrated an effect of creatine monohydrate in humans was conducted in the lab of Dr. Eric Hultman of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. This study found that ingesting 20 grams of creatine monohydrate daily for 4-5 days increased muscle creatine content by approximately 20%. An increase in muscle creatine content of this magnitude is more than sufficient to notice an enhancement in exercise performance during explosive bouts of exercise.
Therefore, exercise tasks that benefit most from creatine supplementation are sprinting events of less than 10 seconds duration and repetitive maximal effort movements. Oh, by the way, the year this pivotal study appeared was 1992, the same year creatine made its controversial public debut in the Barcelona Summer Olympics. During these games the success of the British track team was allegedly due to the use of creatine; partly scandal and partly truth.
Modern Dosing Regimen
LOADING PHASE:
In accordance with this dosing protocol most athletes commence creatine supplementation with a loading phase. The purpose of the loading phase is to quickly fill one's creatine stores in a matter of just a few days. A typical loading phase might be 20 grams of creatine monohydrate daily for five days. The loading phase should not exceed the time it takes our muscle creatine stores to saturate, usually under five days.
MAINTENANCE PHASE:
Following the loading phase a maintenance phase should then be implemented with the sole purpose of "maintaining" our creatine stores full. The maintenance dose should just cover the amount of creatine degraded on a daily basis; equivalent to about 2 grams for a normal sized male. It is recommended that the maintenance phase not extend beyond 6-8 weeks. The reasons for this will become clearer below.
Calculating Creatine Needs
Obviously, an individual's capacity to store creatine should ultimately depend on the amount of muscle mass they possess. For this reason exactly you should adjust your creatine dose to match your bodyweight (a rough approximation of muscle mass). According to Hultman et al. during the loading phase take 0.3 grams of creatine monohydrate for each kilogram you weigh. The maintenance dose is 10-times less, or 0.03 grams of creatine monohydrate per kilogram of body weight. To calculate you creatine dose in pounds simply divide your bodyweight in pounds by 2.2; 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds. In other words, an "average" sized male of 154 pounds, weighs 70 kilograms, or 154 divided 2.2. The next step is to multiply your weight in kilos by the appropriate dose. For example, our average person would load with 21 grams of creatine monohydrate per day (0.3 x 70 = 21) and maintain with 2.1 grams of creatine monohydrate daily (0.03 x 70 = 2.1).
Click here to use our exclusive Creatine Dose Calculator
Clean Out Phase
Today it is frequently advised that a washout-out phase be incorporated following the maintenance phase. The wash out phase is an addendum to the original supplementing method of Hultman, Greenhaff and colleagues and is merely a precautionary measure just in case there are any adverse consequences to creatine use. We personally recommend that you wash-out for one month following every three months of supplementation. This amount of time should be sufficient to allow your system to return to normal after ceasing supplementation. After wash out supplementing can commence anew with a loading phase. Well, so much for the basics of creatine supplementation. We'll next discuss why creatine works.
Why does creatine make us stronger?
Any activity a cell undertakes is paid for with molecules of Adenosine TriPhosphate, or ATP. This is true whether the creatine was produced in a test tube or in the the kidneys and liver. Simply, ATP is a molecule of adenosine attached to three phosphates molecules. Through the ages the cell has learned to store energy in the bonds between phosphate groups. ATP pays one phosphate group for just one tiny part of a single muscle fiber to move. Large, multi-joint movements can cost millions of phosphate groups! After being spent ATP becomes ADP, Adenosine DiPhosphate, which has much less spending power, energetically speaking.
This is where creatine comes in... Creatine quickly replaces ATP's spent phosphate group. Think of this as a loan. Creatine accomplishes this by obtaining a phosphate group of its own to become PhosphoCreatine, or PCr. It is this phosphate group that PCr later donates to ADP to recreate ATP. The end result is that ATP is recharged to power muscular activity with the help of PCr.
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