Health Supplement Information: Creatine

Everyone that lifts weights knows about creatine, it is another product that people are going crazy over. It has exploded in popularity over the last couple years, but creatine has been around for several years now. It is legal in both Canada and the US, but many people believe it will soon be illegal too. Creatine increases energy and improves performance for in certain sports.

In the same case as Androstenedione, creatine has not been around for very long, so the long term effects are still unknown. Long term effects will have to be found but simply waiting and seeing what happens in the future. Creatine is also produced in the body naturally, because of this, one of the long term side effects is believe to be that the body will stop producing creatine naturally and supplemented creatine will be needed. If the body stops producing creatine and creatine is not taken orally, researchers believe muscle will eventually turn to fat.

In most studies, athletes take 5-6 grams of creatine 4-5 times a day for at least 5-7 days. There have been improvements in knee extensions, bench press, cycle sprints, running sprints, and jumping. For every creatine user, there will be different results, there have been great results for some users, little results for others, and there are rare cases where creatine has absolutely no effect in the body. It has been estimated that 3 out of 4 athletes that participated in the last Olympic Games were taking creatine.

What is it? Creatine is produced naturally in our body and it supplies our muscles with energy. Creatine is composed of three amino acids, and is made in the liver. There are foods that contain creatine, so you can actually have an intake of it, without any supplements. Meat and fish are good examples. It is actually believed that creatine was first taken by men in the USSR in the early 1970’s.

Creatine is like all other supplements, they work, but not by themselves. As well as with steroids, weight training must be involved to get results. Creatine is key for athletes in sports which involve quick, short bursts of energy, such as, football, soccer, volleyball, baseball, etc.

What type of creatine are you looking for? There are several makers of creatine on the market today. Most of them are all pretty much the same, but in my opinion, I would purchase creatine by a trusted manufacturer. There are two different types of creatine, creatine monohydrate, and creatine citrate. The monohydrate is more popular and the better choice, it is more pure than the citrate. When purchasing creatine, there will be some brands twice as much as others and you might wonder why. Some companies make more pure creatine than others. There should be somewhere on the label saying how pure it is. Make sure it is atleast 99% pure creatine, and make sure there were some lab tests done or something similar to tests.

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