USN Creatine Anabolic all in One Creatine Amino Muscle Building Stack, Cherry, 900 g (Pack of 1)

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Farshidfar F, Pinder MA, Myrie SB. Creatine Supplementation and Skeletal Muscle Metabolism for Building Muscle Mass- Review of the Potential Mechanisms of Action. Curr. Protein Pept. Sci. 2017;18:1273–87. Lyoo IK, Kong SW, Sung SM, Hirashima F, Parow A, Hennen J, Cohen BM, Renshaw PF. Multinuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of high-energy phosphate metabolites in human brain following oral supplementation of creatine-monohydrate. Psychiatry Res. 2003;123:87–100. Poortmans JR, Francaux M. Adverse effects of creatine supplementation: fact or fiction? Sports Med. 2000;30:155–70. If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you may see more significant muscle gains by taking creatine supplements because you don’t get creatine through animal-based sources. However, building up creatine levels in your muscles may take longer. Stout JR, Sue Graves B, Cramer JT, Goldstein ER, Costa PB, Smith AE, Walter AA. Effects of creatine supplementation on the onset of neuromuscular fatigue threshold and muscle strength in elderly men and women (64 - 86 years). J. Nutr. Health Aging. 2007;11:459–64.

Pioneering research in the early 1900’s using animal models showed that creatine supplementation could augment creatine content by 70% [ 101, 102]. Decades later, Harris et al. [ 60] published a seminal paper which showed that ‘loading’ with creatine increased skeletal muscle creatine stores, as evaluated from muscle biopsies collected from the vastus lateralis in young, healthy human participants. This research sparked incredible interest in studying creatine supplementation strategies that would increase intramuscular creatine content, helping shape current recommendations. Creatine supplementation can increase functionality (e.g., strength, activities of daily living, delay fatigue) and muscle mass in older adults [ 9, 10, 19, 87, 95, 109, 110]. However, the literature indicates that creatine alone (that is, without a concomitant resistance training program) is unlikely to result in substantial gains in muscle strength and functional performance [ 95, 111, 112, 113], although it does improve some parameters of muscle fatigue [ 114, 115, 116]. Likewise, most studies failed to show a beneficial effect of chronic creatine supplementation alone (≥ 30 days) on lean mass [ 98, 99, 113, 114]. For instance, we recently showed that creatine supplementation was not able to increase lean mass in postmenopausal women who supplemented with creatine (3 g/day) for 2 years, suggesting that creatine supplementation without exercise may be ineffective to prevent sarcopenia [ 99]. It is likely that increases in lean mass occasionally attributed to creatine supplementation in short-term studies (e.g., 7 days) are explained by increased body water, since creatine is osmotically active and it can sometimes induce water retention. Creatine is an osmotically active substance. Thus, an increase in the body's creatine content could theoretically result in increased water retention. Creatine is taken up into muscle from circulation by a sodium-dependent creatine transporter [ 1]. Since the transport involves sodium, water will also be taken up into muscle to help maintain intracellular osmolality. However, considering the activity of the sodium-potassium pumps, it is not likely that intracellular sodium concentration is dramatically affected by creatine supplementation [ 39]. In skeletal muscle, both creatine and PCr are degraded non-enzymatically to creatinine, which is exported to the blood and excreted in the urine [ 1]. Healthy kidneys filter creatinine, which would otherwise increase in the blood. Therefore, blood creatinine levels can be used as a proxy marker of kidney function. However, the amount of creatinine in the blood is related to muscle mass (i.e. males have higher blood creatinine than females) and both dietary creatine and creatinine intake [ 35]. Both blood and urinary creatinine may be increased by ingestion of creatine supplementation and creatine containing foods, such as meat. Creatine is normally not present in urine, but can reach very high levels (>10 g/day) during creatine supplementation [ 49]. There appears to be an unsubstantiated perspective that if the kidneys are “forced” to excrete higher than normal levels of creatine or creatinine, some sort of kidney “overload” will take place, causing kidney damage and/or renal dysfunction. In reality, transient increases in blood or urinary creatine or creatinine due to creatine supplementation are unlikely to reflect a decrease in kidney function. Additionally, one must exercise caution when using blood creatinine and estimated creatinine clearance/glomerular filtration rate in individuals who consume high meat intake or supplement with creatine. In a review of creatine supplementation studies, Persky and Rawson [ 50] found no increase in serum creatinine in 12 studies, 8 studies showed an increase that remained within the normal range, and only 2 studies showed an increase above normal limits (although not different from the control group in one study).

Creatine

Aguiar, A. F.; Januario, R. S.; Junior, R. P.; Gerage, A. M.; Pina, F. L.; do Nascimento, M. A.; Padovani, C. R.; Cyrino, E. S. Long-term creatine supplementation improves muscular performance during resistance training in older women. Eur. J. Appl. Physiol. 2013, 113, 987-996. Kuehner C. Gender differences in unipolar depression: an update of epidemiological findings and possible explanations. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 2003;108:163–74. Lobo DM, Tritto AC, da Silva LR, de Oliveira PB, Benatti FB, Roschel H, Niess B, Gualano B, Pereira RM. Effects of long-term low-dose dietary creatine supplementation in older women. Exp. Gerontol. 2015;70:97–104. Ribeiro AS, Avelar A, Kassiano W, Nunes JP, Schoenfeld BJ, Aguiar AF, Trindade MCC, Silva AM, Sardinha LB, Cyrino ES. Creatine Supplementation Does Not Influence the Ratio Between Intracellular Water and Skeletal Muscle Mass in Resistance-Trained Men. Int. J. Sport Nutr. Exerc. Metab. 2020:1–7. Kersey RD, Elliot DL, Goldberg L, Kanayama G, Leone JE, Pavlovich M, Pope HG. National Athletic Trainers' Association National Athletic Trainers' Association position statement: anabolic-androgenic steroids. J. Athl Train. 2012;47:567–88.

Gualano B, de Salles Painelli V, Roschel H, Lugaresi R, Dorea E, Artioli GG, Lima FR, da Silva ME, Cunha MR, Seguro AC, Shimizu MH, Otaduy MC, Sapienza MT, da Costa Leite C, Bonfa E, Lancha Junior AH. Creatine supplementation does not impair kidney function in type 2 diabetic patients: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial. Eur. J. Appl. Physiol. 2011;111:749–56. Rawson ES, Wehnert ML, Clarkson PM. Effects of 30 days of creatine ingestion in older men. Eur. J. Appl. Physiol. Occup. Physiol. 1999;80:139–44.In summary, there is accumulating evidence that creatine supplementation has the potential to be a multifactorial therapeutic intervention across the lifespan in females, with little to no side effects. Are other forms of creatine similar or superior to monohydrate and is creatine stable in solutions/beverages? Branch JD. Effect of creatine supplementation on body composition and performance: a meta-analysis. Int. J. Sport Nutr. Exerc. Metab. 2003;13:198–226.

Wallimann T, Riek U, Moddel M. Intradialytic creatine supplementation: A scientific rationale for improving the health and quality of life of dialysis patients. Med. Hypotheses. 2017;99:1–14. Cooke MB, Brabham B, Buford TW, Shelmadine BD, McPheeters M, Hudson GM, Stathis C, Greenwood M, Kreider R, Willoughby DS. Creatine supplementation post-exercise does not enhance training-induced adaptations in middle to older aged males. Eur. J. Appl. Physiol. 2014;114:1321–32. Bourgeois JM, Nagel K, Pearce E, Wright M, Barr RD, Tarnopolsky MA. Creatine monohydrate attenuates body fat accumulation in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia during maintenance chemotherapy. Pediatr. Blood Cancer. 2008;51:183–7.JA is Chief Executive Officer of the ISSN, an academic non-profit that receives support and/or sponsorship from companies that manufacture and/or sell creatine or creatine-containing products.