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Creatine: A Supplement That Works | |
By IRA DREYFUSS WASHINGTON - The strength coach of the San Francisco 49ers believes in creatine. So do many scientists. Creatine does something that many other food supplements claim but few deliver on, they say: It works. It can help athletes build short-term performance power and long-term muscle. But the experts split on whether it's fair for athletes to use creatine for competition. And they say they don't know whether the supplement has any long-term risk. Creatine is a protein, produced in the body and obtained from food such as meat. It's stored in the muscle and is broken down in the early phase of exercise. Creatine releases its energy to let the muscle rebuild supplies of energy-rich adenosine triphosphate, ATP, the main fuel for sprinting or intense weight training. "I would say that anyone that is a serious strength-power athlete may benefit from creatine supplementation," said Michael Barnes, the 49ers strength development coordinator. "It could be a recreational athlete as well." Probably at least three-quarters of the 49ers have used it or are using it now, Barnes said. Saturating the muscle by supplementing with creatine gives the athlete a greater ability to recharge ATP, said researcher Richard B. Kreider of the University of Memphis. This lets sprinters keep going flat-out a little longer and recover from the stress of exercise a little faster, Kreider said. Supplementation may add another two seconds of full energy to a 100-meter run - which, for an elite athlete, can be enough to complete the entire race at peak performance, he said. Also, the additional energy stored can fuel more exercise, adding extra pounds of muscle, Kreider said. "There's pretty good evidence that when you include creatine in training, it gives you greater quality of training, and that may lead to greater mass gains as well as strength gains," he said. An athlete capable of 10 repetitions on a 275-pound weight without creatine supplementation might do 12 or 13 with it, Barnes said. But there are limits to creatine's benefits. It apparently can't help endurance events such as distance running, said Boyd Epley, athletic performance director at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. These aerobic activities rely on breaking down the sugar glycogen, not ATP, as their muscle fuel source. Another is that athletes with normally high creatine levels won't get as much benefit as athletes with low levels, Barnes said. However, most sprint or strength athletes can expect to see some improvements, he said. There is also an upper limit -once muscle cells are saturated with creatine, the need to take more diminishes, said researcher William J. Kraemer of Pennsylvania State University. An athlete can supplement with 20-25 milligrams a day for seven days, then cut back to a 3-5 milligrams maintenance level, he said. Some athletes have reported cramps while using creatine. But the cramps might have other causes, such as not getting enough water in hot weather, Kreider said. Some experts think the added pounds that result from creatine supplementation are largely water, he said. Athletes with kidney problems should play it safe by staying away from the supplements, because creatine is broken down in the kidneys, said researcher Gary I. Wadler, a supplement expert and an assistant professor of medicine at Cornell University Medical College. And the use of creatine supplements is relatively new, so the longterm effects are not known, he said. Although creatine supplements are legal and not regulated by sporting groups, there is the ethical question of whether sports should allow them, Wadler said. A case can be made that they give users an unfair advantage by artificially improving performance, he said. Kreider, however, disagrees. The powders and tablets are made from food sources, and therefore are no different ethically from high-carbohydrate food mixes for aerobic athletes, he said. Also, creatine supplements are medically safe, Kreider said. "We should emphasize that the alternative to creatine is steroids," he said. Copyright 1996 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | |