Saturday, April 23, 2011

Creatine

Creatine is mainly found in muscle tissue and is produced naturally in the body. It can also be digested through dietary in meats and fish. The levels of creatine vary from person to person. There are many companies that sell a creatine monohydrate supplement.
Creatine exists in the body as approximately 30% free creatine and 70% creatine phosphate. If you remember from the muscle chapter, ATP is used as energy during muscle contraction and then turns into ADP. When this occurs the creatine phosphate donates the extra phosphate that it held in reserve and ADP is rephosphorylates into ATP.  This increases energy for muscle contractions.
There has been much debate on whether creatine has a positive effect on the body during exercise. Studies have shown that taking creatine supplements or increasing the levels of creatine in the body have a positive effect on short durations of exercise and suppresses fatigue. However, long durations of exercise such as sprinting, there is little effect. For body builders, the extra energy from creatine releasing a phosphate helps in lifting more weight and building more muscle.
Though there have been few studies on long term effects of creatine supplement use, short term studies show virtually no physical side effects other than dehydration and muscle cramps. These side effects could be avoided with an increase in consumption of water and potassium.
Marketers do a great job by advertising their products. Just because they say “if you take creatine you’ll look like this” and show you some freaky Arnold, doesn’t mean that the supplement will make you like that. In fact, without exercise creatine will do very little for you besides a little weight grain from water retention in the muscle. Exercise is key for muscle development .

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/health_psychology/VD_creatine.htm

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