Creatine Supplements

This article is designed to give some basic creatine information for those wishing to use it as a nutritional supplement. Like all artificial supplements, there are side-effects which will affect people to very different degrees. Some athletes will choose to live with these side-effects, others will abandon it's use should the side-effects be too severe.

However, since creatine is a naturally occurring compound, the vast majority of people will not notice any side-effects at all. Be aware that for certain types of athlete, creatine is not useful, and may even be counterproductive due to the way that it interacts with the body to provide it's key beneficial effect.

So, what is creatine? It is the name given to a naturally occurring compound with the scientific name methylguanidine-acetic acid. A healthy individual will have around 120g present in their body, 95% of it in the skeletal muscle.

One kind of creatine, called PCr, or phosphocreatine, is believed to boost available muscle energy, thus enabling the athlete to perform more intense workouts, with all the benefits that this would bring. Available creatine information seems to indicate that about 60% of creatine in the body is of this kind.

Studies have also shown that PCr in the muscles becomes depleted, and this is thought to be associated with fatigue during exercise that are of a short duration, but intense in nature.

While creatine is helpful for athletes needing short bursts of power, endurance athletes will find that use of creatine could be counterproductive. This is because one of the creatine side effects is to build extra muscle mass. This can increase weight and therefore contribute to lower endurance levels.

Other creatine side effects may include cramping and increased frequency of muscle strains, possibly due to swelling between the cells in the muscles as a direct result of creatine use. However, so long as recommended dosages are not exceeded, these side-effects should not affect the majority of users.

However, widely available creatine information covering its use in the general population seems to indicate that in 30% of cases no benefit was seen at all from it's use as a supplement. This is because some people can not absorb the additional amounts of creatine over and above what their bodies are producing naturally.

Taking all of the above creatine information into account, it is a substance that can provide great benefits to certain individuals involved in sports where muscle mass is important, and fatigue during short-term workouts is hampering muscle development.

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