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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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27.04.2009 |
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Two years non-stop creatine without side effects
It's safe to take continuous not-too-high doses of creatine. Neurologists at the University of Munich conclude this from the longest-running, most comprehensive piece of research on the safety of creatine in humans published so far. The researchers gave their sixty-year-old test subjects – all suffering from Parkinson’s – four grams of creatine monohydrate for a period of two years.
The main fear with creatine is that it causes kidney damage. The fear is theoretical, however. Creatine is converted into creatinine, and a high creatinine level is a marker for kidney damage. No research has been done on whether this is also a good marker if you take creatine, but that hasn't stopped doctors from scaring the hell out of creatine users. Brazilian researchers, who were using cystatin C rather than creatinine as a marker, reported that creatine supplements improved kidney function.
Doctors don't actually encounter kidney damage very often in creatine users. The researchers in Germany found two cases in the literature, and one of these is questionable. If creatine users develop problems, they are nearly always also using other substances, such as dianabol. [Orv Hetil. 2003 Dec 7;144(49):2425-7.]
They started by giving their test subjects a daily twenty grams of creatine for a week. Then they reduced the dose to two grams per day for a period of six months. For the remaining eighteen months the subjects were given four grams of creatine per day. This regime was intended to increase the amount of creatine in the brain by ten percent, and so offer protection to the brain. cells.
The graph below shows what happened to the level of creatine over the two-year period. The control group – represented by black squares – had less creatinine in their blood than the creatine group – represented by the triangles. As time progresses, however, it seems that creatine users' bodies learn how to eliminate creatinine more efficiently from the blood.
The other marker for kidney damage, cystatin C, shows a different picture. From the start of the trial, the creatine users have less cystatin C in their blood than the control group.
The researchers also did more blood analyses to look for other kidney damage markers. The results are shown below. There was no significant difference between the creatine group and the control group.
If sixty-year-old Parkinson's sufferers can take creatine safely for two years, then super-healthy power athletes don't have to worry about the risks of creatine supplements. That doesn't mean to say though that continuous use is therefore useful. Going by unpublished research done by the nutritionist Luc van Loon in Maastricht, Netherlands, you'd have to conclude that it isn't. His research shows that muscle cells are only capable of retaining higher levels of creatine for two months, and no longer. If you continue taking the supplement, the creatine concentration starts to go down: probably the cells stop manufacturing creatine.
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