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[at-l] re: creatine

Hello all --

I've seen some discussion regarding creatine and possible side effects, its
use, etc.  Thought I'd delurk and shed some light on how it might work, and
then maybe speculate on side effects and such.  Pretty long post - hope its
worth it. 

For skeletal muscle to contract, a high energy phosphate bond must be broken
to help the contractile "machinery" to engage.  The source of high energy
phosphate bonds is  adenosine triphosphate (ATP).  When ATP is used, it is
converted to ADP.  To get more ATP, the muscle can make it "from scratch"
(aerobic and anaerobic metabolism) or ADP can get regenerated to ATP by the
phosphate carrier CREATINE phosphate (CrP).  Now, the CrP reserve is pretty
small, and therefore is only useful in very quick bursts of exercise such as
sprinting (10-20 sec) or maybe a brisk walk (1 minute).  From this, we might
conclude that by increasing the body's amount of creatine by taking a
supplement, we could increase the amount of creatine phosphate, and thus
increase the readily available energy reserve, thereby increasing muscle
performance.  Sounds great!!, but....

Creatine phosphate is only used in quick bursts of energy, right?  So, maybe
the bench press may get a little higher, but if you stop taking it, guess
what? -- it goes back down.  This may show that taking creatine does nothing
for muscle mass (long term changes, like those needed for hiking), but only
increases performance on the short term.  

Now the pharmacist in me has to speak out. I can't remember who gave the
bench press example (I read my e-mail at home, now I'm at work), but if I
recall, the individual saw a rapid increase in bench weight in one month,
then, when they stopped taking it, it went down.  Sounds very much like the
"placebo" effect to me:  they started taking it, and subconciously just
pushed their body to the limit (explains the plateau), thus they could bench
alot more.  Then, they stoppped taking it after a month, and it went back
down again.  Could have nothing to do with the drug, just all mental stuff.
Just a suggestion, but everyone has heard of "mind over body".  Regarding
safety and side effects, remember that creatine has not been clinically
tested or approved by the FDA (to my knowledge).  So, who knows what long
term damage it can do?  Some may say that since it is something that occurs
naturally in our bodies, it shouldn't be a big deal.  But testosterone is
natural too, but taking mega doses can can wreak havoc on your liver and
cause various types of cancer (Note: testosterone and creatine are in no way
chemically related, this was just an example).  However, there are ALOT of
non-regulated "drugs" out there that people swear by (garlic, ginseng,
Coenzyme Q10, etc).

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that, physiologically, creatine plays
a role in only short bursts of exercise (weight lifting), may have little or
no effect on long term activities such as hiking, could be a placebo effect,
and may be dangerous to take.  To finish up, I just want to say I know a
couple of pharmacsists who take it and have no problems and have gotten good
results in the gym.  

Quiz will be sent next week :-)

Bruce


            
Bruce A. Waldrop, RPh
College of Pharmacy
Division of Pharmacology and 	
   Experimental Therpeutics
Rose Street
Lexington, KY  40536-0082
Lab: (606) 257-2556
Fax: (606) 257-1460
e-mail: bawald0@pop.uky.edu

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