With a new baby and another one on the way, it’s getting harder for me to get to the Gym. My wife needs more help from me, and with work, I’m getting much less than my needed amount of sleep. So I sacrifice my gym time. About a month ago, I stopped going. Now I want to start again, but I just don’t have the energy for a productive session.
So the guy at the GNC suggested that I use creatine. The only workout supplement that I’ve ever used in my life was protein powder. I asked the GNC guy if there were any negatives/side effects associated with using creatine. He said that there were absolutely none. But he also said to not use it for too long of a time period. These 2 statements are somewhat contradictory.
So are there any harmful effects from creatine? If not, why would he suggest that I not use it for “too long”? What is too long anyway?
There is some argument in the bodybuilding community that creatine shouldn’t be used too long and should be cycled so that the body doesn’t “get used to it” and have the positive effects be diminished. There is no evidence that creatine use is harmful, however, there is also no evidence that shows that it isn’t. It hasn’t been used long enough to see any long term negative results. I’ve used it in the past taken with my post workout shake and glutamine and had fantastic results.
I’m no expert, but from what I’ve heard is that creatine makes muscle tissue retain water better so you retain that “pumped” look. Side effects I’ve heard of are cramping if you don’t drink enough water.
Since creatine is a natural substance found in muscle tissue it is not immediately harful in any way. However, there was concern that if you took creatine supplements on a regular basis that your body may stop producing it for itself.
There is also the discussion that long term effects are unknown because it hasn’t been around long enough.
I can only speak anecdotally, and as a quickness-type athlete rather than a bodybuilder, but FWIW:
Back in about 1998 I was doing workouts emphasizing leg strength and quickness. I tried creatine for a few days. I had heard about possible dehydration problems, so I made sure to drink lots of water (which I usually did anyway). The next appointment with my trainer, I felt pretty tight, so I made sure to stretch. She had me do the same sort of short sprint that I was used to. I got about three steps into it and it felt like my quads had torn in half. I could barely walk for a week.
Maybe I just got a bad batch, or maybe I had an atypical reaction to it, but I won’t go near the stuff again.
I’m incredibly sensitive to drugs. I inherited this from my dad. I seem to get every side effect on the warning label. A couple of weeks on Metabolife, taking only half the recommended dose, landed me in the ER when I got a panic attack in the middle of college class and my heart rate went from 60 to 200. My eyes hemorrahage with pinkeye medication. Well, you get the point.
I’m a woman. I took creatine for months, had to stop when I stopped all exercise with a bad ankle. The only side effect I noticed was back acne (which I hadn’t suffered since I was a teenager). I felt a little funny the first few days, but that went away quickly. I think I had better progress in bodybuilding, but that’s quite subjective.
As far as I know, there are no side-effects besides possible acne. Go ahead and take it. If it won’t hurt me, it won’t hurt you.
DISCLAIMER: Agh. Bad choice of words there. I didn’t mean to imply that I’m a good barometer of what hurts you and what doesn’t, just that it’s very unlikely you’ll see any effects from it. If you’re that concerned about it, go see your doctor about it.
Quackwatch has an article on creatine from 1999. Although it doesn’t seem to actively bad, it doesn’t recmmend it, either. People in health food shops who are on comission might disagree.
Creatine monophosphate and creatine monohydrate are natural compounds found in your muscles, which are broken down to release the energy bound up in the phosphate groups during strenuous contractions. Your muscles take the used ADP (adenosine diphosphate) from the contractions and use the phosphate from the creatine to resynthesize ATP (adenosine triphosphate) for further contractions. The idea behind taking creatine is to increase the amount of it found in your muscles. This produces two effects: an increase in the water mass of your muscles, due to the influx of water bound up with the creatine, and an increased amount of phosphate for ATP resynthesis during exercise, allowing you to use more weight and/or squeeze out more contractions. This (theoretically) results in increased synthesis of new muscle, helping you get bigger, faster. The only unpleasant side-effects I am aware of are increased chances of bad acne, especially on your back.
Ilsa_Lund has explained the biochemistry behind creatine (in theory, anyway) well, but there’s something I’d like to add, which is that the creatine buffer is only significant in anaerobic exercise. Under aerobic conditions, the most efficient way to generate ATP is to convert NADH into NAD[sup]+[/sup]. Substantial amounts of NADH are generated in the citric acid cycle and glycolysis). NADH is converted back into NAD+ in the electron transport system, which is the most efficient way of generating ATP. But this process requires oxygen; when the cell’s oxygen supply is depleted, NADH builds up, ATP synthesis slows, and the cell cannot function.
However, there are ways of regenerating NAD+ from NADH even without oxygen (as occurs during anaerobic exercise). Bacteria which find themselves in an anerobic environment can produce ethanol (alcohol) to regenerate NAD+ from NADH. This obviously won’t work in multicellular organisms, so they generate lactic acid from pyruvic acid (an important intermediate in carbohydrate metabolism). In the process of generating a molecule of lactic acid, one molecule of NADH is reverted back to NAD+, and ATP synthesis can continue. But lactic acid builds up in the cell; it’s responsible for the burning sensation that occurs during anerobic exercise. (When the cell has enough oxygen again, the reaction is reversed and lactic acid is reverted to pyruvic acid.)
Since muscle cells can be expected to function anerobically much more often than other cells, they have a second way of generating ATP in the absence of oxygen, which is the phosphocreatine buffer that Ilsa_Lund explained. The phosphocreatine buffer provides an ‘emergency’ method of generating ATP from ADP without oxygen, and without producing lactic acid. In theory, having a larger pool of creatine phosphate might enable cells to function anaerobically longer, which would be beneficial for certain athletic activities such as weightlifting and sprinting. However, it remains to be definitively shown whether creatine supplements actually increase the phosphocreatine pool. The increase in muscle size appears to occur because of creatine’s osmotic effect (it draws water into the cell by increasing the amount of stuff-that’s-not-water) rather than by water bound to the creatine as water of hydration.
Correlation is not causation. That list includes bad things that happened to people who were taking creatine. Unless a specific reason why a drug causes a certain adverse effect can be found (or at least a placebo-controlled test between people who are otherwise similar except for their use or non-use of creatine), it’s not possible to determine that that drug caused the reaction, nor is it possible to determine that it did not. So, the adverse effects listed don’t mean creatine is deadly, nor do they mean it is necessarily safe. Very large doses, of course, have a greater potential to be harmful.
In the first place, the particular supplement(s) may not have been pure. Creatine is a supplement and does not undergo the strict supervision that drugs do. Also, there may be some metabolic pathway in which excess creatine in the body may produce the deadly effects. The heart is, after all, a muscle. Hey, but it’s your call. If you feel the evidence is not there, go take the creatine. Personally, balancing the risks with the gains, I’d stay away from it.
I’ve used Creatine on and off for about 2 years. I gain a very minimal boost in power when on it, roughly 10 lbs to bench and maybe 20 to my squat. There are reports of a higher rate of sprains and muscles strains. Although I’m not entirely sure if its the result of creatine or individuals doing more than they are supposed to because of the fact that they are on creatine. I stopped doing it because it really didn’t justify the 10 lbs of water weight that I would invariable gain.
Correct. It is entirely possible that those patients were also consuming illicit products such as anabolic steroids, or quasi-legal prohormone effectors.
Correlation is not causation. True. Merck took an enormous financial hit withdrawing Vioxx from the market, but I don’t think it has been shown to cause heart problems, it just has a high correlation. Same thing with Aspirin and toddlers and Reye’s syndrome. When you’re dealing with your health, you would be foolish to brush off strong statistical correlations – causation is pretty hard to prove. But taking these without weighing the risks and benefits is foolhardy. It’s not like you can’t gain strength and definition without supplements. It’s not like people selling these supplements give unbiased advice. And plenty of supplements once thought to be safe have been shown to be dangerous. But so what, man, it’s a short cut and my buddy has never had problems.
Creatine is natural and may well be harmless. Or not. I wouldn’t take it, and I eat peaches and don’t measure life out with coffee spoons.
After reading the responses, I’ve decided to skip creatine. I’ll continue with my protein powder. I’ve seen big guys at the gym with disgusting-looking acne on their backs. Now I know how they got it. Thanks for the responses. It’s just not worth the potential risks.
I used to read up on that kind of stuff a lot a few years back…
Creatine is credited (by muscle-mags) as to giving the “pumped” look, as it’s supposed to be a cell “volumizer” … puts water in the cells… and it’s supposedly supposed to give a little boost to power/endurance/etc…
there were a few widely reported cases of kids dying who were using it… but the case I remember the most was a h.s. wrestler who would fast/dehydrate himself to make weight…
the papers of course tried to place all the blame on creatine as the “evil” of weightlifting…
however, anyone with a brain should be able to figure out that a “cell-volumizer” probably isn’t the best thing to take when you are trying to lose mass amounts of weight in order to be in the lowest weight-class humanly possible. I think it was much more the case of a kid going to extremes and prodded by his coach to loss too much weight. Much the same as Gymnastics coaches/athletes who are subjected to very unhealthy and even dangerous regimines in order to be as light as possible.
Bottomline, IMHO… Creatine is probably NOT going to make you a Superstar athlete… but it ~could~ give you a little boost. (and it’s not likely to kill you… but maybe yer wallet)
May I suggest you stay away from the GNC protein powder. It’s horrible tasting crap that won’t disolve in water. I prefer “Optimum 100% Whey”. It has a higher percentage of protein as well, and is cheaper online (well, everything’s cheaper online, I guess). I buy it at www.global-nutrition-inc.com, but I’m sure it’s available many other places.
I have nothing scientific to add to your OP, but when I was really surprised to hear concern about harmful side-effects to creatine. I’ve read a bunch of stuff about it here and there, and have never heard of problems before. I’m a tiny sample-size of one, but I take the stuff, seem to lift more, and don’t seem to have any bad effects from it.