Creatine Supplementation

Creatine Supplementation

Creatine Supplementation

 

What is Creatine?

Creatine is a natural source of energy that helps supply your muscles so that they can keep working especially when exercising (www.clevelandclinic.org). Creatine is a compound that comes from three amino acids, and it is mostly found in your body’s muscles.

 

Where do we get Creatine from?

We get creatine through our diet from sources such as:

 

  • Red meat

  • Seafood

  • Eggs

  • Your liver, pancreas and kidneys make about 1g of creatine a day

 

Creatine is found at much lower levels in these natural sources of creatine in comparison to synthetically made creatine supplements.

 

What do our bodies do with Creatine?

Creatine as a supplement is becoming increasingly popular with those who exercise regularly. People take creatine supplements to gain muscle, enhance strength and improve exercise performance.

 

Around 95% of the body’s creatine is stored as phosphocreatine in your muscles and the other 5% is in the brain and testes. When you take creatine supplements, you increase your stores of phosphocreatine which helps your body produce more adenosine triphosphate (ATP; the more ATP the better your body can perform during exercise).

 

Creatine Supplementation on Muscle Growth, Strength and Performance 

Many believe that creatine supplements have a positive impact on muscle growth, strength and performance. One study reported that short-term creatine supplementation leads to a 5-15% improvement in maximum strength during sets of maximal effort (Kreider, 2003).

 

Furthermore, a review of 16 randomised controlled trials (the gold-standard of medical science) looking into creatine supplementation concluded that creatine is an efficient and effective form of supplementation for muscle growth in those who are young and healthy (Wu et al., 2022). A review also investigated the potential benefits of creatine supplementation in those with muscular and neurodegenerative disorders. The review highlighted that creatine supplementation is important for muscle preservation which is essential to those with these conditions (Harmon et al., 2021).

 

Creatine supplementation has also been found to aid recovery from exercise-related muscle damage, the same study also found that creatine consumption was better for recovery than rest from looking at diverse forms of damaging and exhaustive exercise (Jiaming & Rahimi, 2021). Creatine also has antioxidant properties and can maintain mitochondrial activity which can help our stress response (Arazi et al., 2021).

 

Is Creatine Supplementation safe?

In the last 20 years, people have been unsure whether creatine supplementation is safe or not. In the late 1990’s scientists believed that creatine supplementation appeared to be safe when taking it for 8 weeks but at that time they could not comment on the safety of prolonged creatine supplementation (Williams & Branch, 1998).

 

Over a decade later in 2012, research suggested that the safety of creatine supplementation could not be guaranteed still as there was not enough research to confidently say creatine supplementation was safe over the long-term (Cooper et al., 2012). In 2022, a review of studies looking into creatine supplementation was carried out. The review suggests that creatine monohydrate seems to be the only creatine supplement that has high efficacy, bioavailability and is safe to consume (Kreider et al., 2022).

 

Creatine and Diseases

There is evidence to suggest that creatine supplementation can help alleviate symptoms of certain diseases and disorders. One study found that creatine supplementation can help attenuate degenerative states form muscle disorders, central nervous diseases and bone and metabolic disturbances (Gualano et al., 2010). Gualano also concluded from further research that creatine supplementation maintains an excellent safety profile through millions of people supplementing it for research and could help with diabetes, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases (Gualano et al., 2012).

 

Creatine and Cognitive Functioning

Creatine supplementation has been found to improve cognitive processing, especially in those with acute stress from exercise and sleep deprivation and those with mild traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s Disease as these conditions create a creatine deficient state (Roschel et al., 2021). A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials also suggested that creatine supplementation benefits cognition, specifically people who supplement creatine show better memory performance than those who had a placebo supplement (Prokopidis et al., 2023). Other areas of cognition that creatine supplementation can help with are information processing speed and attention time (Xu et al., 2024).

 

Conclusion

The research suggests that creatine supplementation has great benefits for healthy individuals including increasing muscle mass, power and muscle preservation and to individuals with various disorders and diseases. Research also highlights the positive impact creatine can have on your cognitive performance, enhancing memory, processing speed and attention.

 

Historically there has been some questions raised about whether creatine is safe to consume long-term however the most recent research suggests that it is safe especially if you use creatine monohydrate supplements.

 

 

 

 

References

Arazi, H., Eghbali, E., & Suzuki, K. (2021). Creatine Supplementation, Physical Exercise and Oxidative Stress Markers: A Review of the Mechanisms and Effectiveness. Nutrients, 13(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13030869

Cooper, R., Naclerio, F., Allgrove, J., & Jimenez, A. (2012). Creatine supplementation with specific view to exercise/sports performance: An update. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 9(1), 33. https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-9-33

Gualano, B., Artioli, G. G., Poortmans, J. R., & Lancha Junior, A. H. (2010). Exploring the therapeutic role of creatine supplementation. Amino Acids, 38(1), 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-009-0263-6

Gualano, B., Roschel, H., Lancha-Jr., A. H., Brightbill, C. E., & Rawson, E. S. (2012). In sickness and in health: The widespread application of creatine supplementation. Amino Acids, 43(2), 519–529. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-011-1132-7

Harmon, K. K., Stout, J. R., Fukuda, D. H., Pabian, P. S., Rawson, E. S., & Stock, M. S. (2021). The Application of Creatine Supplementation in Medical Rehabilitation. Nutrients, 13(6), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13061825

Jiaming, Y., & Rahimi, M. H. (2021). Creatine supplementation effect on recovery following exercise-induced muscle damage: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Food Biochemistry, 45(10), e13916. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfbc.13916

Kreider, R. B. (2003). Effects of creatine supplementation on performance and training adaptations. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, 244(1), 89–94. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022465203458

Kreider, R. B., Jäger, R., & Purpura, M. (2022). Bioavailability, Efficacy, Safety, and Regulatory Status of Creatine and Related Compounds: A Critical Review. Nutrients, 14(5), Article 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14051035

Prokopidis, K., Giannos, P., Triantafyllidis, K. K., Kechagias, K. S., Forbes, S. C., & Candow, D. G. (2023). Effects of creatine supplementation on memory in healthy individuals: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Nutrition Reviews, 81(4), 416–427. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuac064

Roschel, H., Gualano, B., Ostojic, S. M., & Rawson, E. S. (2021). Creatine Supplementation and Brain Health. Nutrients, 13(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13020586

Williams, M. H., & Branch, J. D. (1998). Creatine Supplementation and Exercise Performance: An Update. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 17(3), 216–234. https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.1998.10718751

Wu, S.-H., Chen, K.-L., Hsu, C., Chen, H.-C., Chen, J.-Y., Yu, S.-Y., & Shiu, Y.-J. (2022). Creatine Supplementation for Muscle Growth: A Scoping Review of Randomized Clinical Trials from 2012 to 2021. Nutrients, 14(6), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14061255

Xu, C., Bi, S., Zhang, W., & Luo, L. (2024). The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function in adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Frontiers in Nutrition, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2024.1424972

 

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