The Effects of Creatine Supplementation on Male Athletes Andrew Braker HUN 3800 11/20/12

Introduction: Male athletes are always looking for a supplement that can take their performance to the next level but still be able to pass drug test. Creatine is one of the most common supplements male athletes take. In fact creatine has only been a top seller for the past 5-10 years but has been around for over a century. It was discovered by Michel Eugene Chevreul in 1832. Creatine is very common for anaerobic athletes such as sprinters power lifters and boxers. The reason for these types of athletes to take this supplement, is because creations has claims that it will help increase muscle mass/growth, strength and recovery time combined with heavy resistance training.1 Creatine can be consumed by exogenous sources such as fish, red meats and some other animal products. The average person consumes around 1g per day of creatine through these sources. It can also be produced in your body by synthesizing three amino acids in the liver pancreas and kidneys. These three amino acids are arginine, glycine, and methionine and contribute 2 g of creatine per day. 2 Creatine Metabolism: 95 percent of creatine in the body is stored in skeletal muscle. Thus in an average male weighing 120 grams there is 70 kilograms of creatine found in his body. Of that 95 percent, about 40 percent is free creatine and 60 percent is phosphocreatine. Phosphocreatine can undergo reversible phosphorylation, making rapid ATP. This happens commonly while performing exercise, which the phosphocreaitne binds with adenosine diphosphate or ADP to produce energy. Since ATP is limited in the body taking a creatine supplement can help increase

creatine in the skeletal muscle, as a result increasing the amount of energy that can be formed. So the athlete can increase mass, strength, and recovery time.3 Muscle Mass/Growth: Muscle mass is important for athletes such as offensive linemen in football so it makes them more difficult to be pushed around. In a double blind study Olsen S, et al.4 did a study on muscle growth. The study had a total of 32 healthy males ranging from 19 to 28 years old. These subjects were broken into three different groups a creatine group, protein group and a placebo group. Table 2. Supplement regimes Group______All day supplement Creatine 6g creatine monohydrate + 14 g carbohydrate Protein Placebo 14 g carbohydrate 14 g carbohydrate 20 g protein +80 carbohydrates 80 g carbohydrate Supplement at training session 80 g carbohydrate

The study lasted a total of 16 weeks while doing resistance training three days per week. The resistance training consisted on only focusing on three leg exercising, leg press, knee extensions, and hamstring curls. Subjects were tested on weeks 0, 4, 8 and 16 before the start of that weeks training. They were tested to see if there was an increase in satellite cells and myonuclei concentration, which is found in the muscle and increases when muscle fibers grow. Each week that they were tested the creatine subjects obtained the most muscle mass by increase satellite cells and myonuclei increase.

Strength: Jager R, et al.5 designed a double blind, placebo controlled, randomized study involving 49 healthy males for a total of 28 days. The subjects were divided into 3 groups, a creatine pyruvate, creatine citrate and a placebo, and were giving 5g/d of their specific supplement. The type of test they performed was a simple handgrip exercise. The reason for a simple exercise is that so the subjects wouldnt have to rely on coordination and balance, which could affect the results. The groups would squeeze the handgrip as many times in fifteen seconds, resting for 45 seconds and doing this ten times. Data was taken on day one and compared to the final data in day 28. The results were that the creatine pyruvate subjects showed a three times increase in strength compared to the placebo and the creatine citrate subjects showed an increase of two times more than the placebo. Becque et al.2 performed a study with 23 highly trained male weightlifters, in a 6 week double blind, non randomized study. The creatine subjects consumed a loading phase of 20g/d for 7 days then a maintenance dosage of 2g/d, and the placebo group was giving sucrose. The test was done by comparing their one maximum repetition to each group. Though both groups increased in strength the creatine group had a greater increase. Recovery: Giving the chance for an athlete its increase recovery time gives them a huge advantage because, when increasing recovery time this means athletes decrease the amount of time that they have to recover between workouts. In a study by Cooke M et al.6 they look at the amount of damage males received after eccentric exercise, which causes increased soreness and impaired muscle function. The study consisted of 14 male subjects, half being in a creatine monohydrate

group the others in a placebo group, and lasted 14 days. The methods used for testing were that subjects would work out legs with leg press, extensions and flexions. After the workout they would take blood samples, testing for plasma creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase. These blood markers are used to see how much muscle damage is accumulated after resistance training. The lower the creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase the faster the recovery. The results were that the levels of these two blood markers were lower in the creatine group subjects 48 hours to seven days after training. Performance: Scientists do many experiments to see if creatine helps with anaerobic and aerobic exercise, such as sprinters versus long distance runners. A pervious systematic review did a study to see the effects on sprinters. The results were that sprints compared to a placebo, the creatine subjects had a 7 percent increase in faster time then placebo when performing sprint lasting 0 to 15 seconds. Five different studies took long distance runners taking creatine compared to a placebo. All five studies had the same results that were no difference in the results. This would recommend that creatine is best used for anaerobic sports lasting 0 to 15 seconds or approximately a 100 meter sprint. 1,2 Effectiveness: Creatine comes in all different types, such as creatine monohydrate, creatine pyruvate, creatine citrate, creatine, and ethyl ester to name a few. Many companies come out with different types because they believe that the most popular creatine (creatine monohydrate) doesnt absorb well in the body and is urinated out. Companies say that their form of creatine will be better absorbed. Jagim A et al.7 did a double blind study to compare if the effects of creatine

monohydrate and a companys buffered creatine called Kre-Alkalyn. The study concluded that the buffered creatine did not perform more effective than creatine monohydrate, when compared to testing on strength, body composition, or muscle creatine composition. Side Effects: There have been numerous amounts of concerns that relate creatine to many health problems. The French Sanitary Agency has even banned the right to buy creatine because they said that creatine produces heterocyclic amines that cause carcinogenicity and mutagenicity, even though these claims are unverified. Other health concerns are negative effect on renal, kidney and liver function but once more theses claims remain false. Dehydration has been a conversation when talking about creatine. It was believed that creatine would cause athletes dehydration but in reality it increases total body water, therefore this decrease the risk of dehydration, lowering core body temperature, reducing the sweat rate and heart rate. For people wanting to take creatine for the long term, it is still unclear whether or not it is safe to consume for long periods due to the lack of studies. There have been a small number of reported problems with renal health. These rare reports are usually caused by the individual consuming more that the recommended amount, or if they already had an ongoing condition. 1 Conclusion: These tests concluded that creatine does in fact increase muscle growth/mass, strength, and recovery time. It is only effective during anaerobic exercise lasting between 0 and 15 seconds and has no effect on aerobic exercise. Even though creatine is not a banned supplement college schools attempt athletes to stay away from this supplement. It is a safe supplement but since there are still many concerns surrounding this supplement it should be consumed with

awareness. The recommended dosage is to take a loading phase of 25g for five days then a maintenance phase of 5g per day. Further research will be done on creatine to keep making the supplement more effective and increase athletic performance since this is a top seller.

References

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Williams M, Branch D. Creatine supplementation and exercise performance: an update. Journal of the American college of Nutrition 1998,17:3 216-234
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Spillane M, Schoch R, Cooke M, et al.

Olsen S, Aagaard P, Kadi F, et al. Creatine supplementation augments the increase in satellite cells and myonuclei numbers in human skeletal muscle induced by strength training. J Physiol 573.2 2006, 525-534
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Jager R, Metzger J, Lautmann K, et al. The effects of creatine pyruvate and creatine citrate on performance during high intensity exercise. JISSN 2008, 5:4
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Cooke M, Rybalka E, Williams A, et al. Creatine supplementation enhances muscle force recovery after eccentrically induced muscle damage in healthy individuals. JISSN 2009, 6:13
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Jagim A, Oliver J, Sanchez A, et al. A buffered form of creatine does not promote greater changes in muscle creatine content, body composition, or training adaptations than creatine monohydrate. JISSN 2012, 9-43