What is Creatine? How Does it Work?

 If you ever searched for fitness supplements, there's a good chance that you've stumbled upon the supplement Creatine. From gyms, to magazines, to websites, and maybe even from your fitness buddies. The science of creatine deals with energy production, specifically in replenishing used energy.

Where do we get energy from?

As humans, we use the molecule ATP as our energy source. Unfortunately, your muscle cells want to keep the levels of ATP in the cell pretty low. Reason being is that if we use too much energy at once, it will cause cells to be acidic and muck up all cellular functions. In order to combat this, the muscle cells need a little help from creatine kinase. When ATP is used, creatine kinase helps keep the acid levels in check by taking out hydrogen ions. On top of that, creatine kinase also takes another byproduct from used ATP called ADP and brings it to its buddy phosphocreatine to replenish ATP. This system of energy production, known as the Phosphagen system, is the system used to produce energy for the first 10 seconds of intense physical activity before other energy production from other sources, such as sugar glucose and fat, is even utilized.

What Does Creatine DO?
Where creatine comes in is the production of phosphocreatine. Remember, your body doesn't like too many ATP molecules in cells, so whenever your body has excess ATP, ATP reacts with creatine to formulate phosphocreatine. The more creatine in your body, the more phosphocreatine produced, the more energy you can replenish. And this is where creatine supplementation comes into play.

Can’t We Produce Creatine in our Body?
Although your body can naturally synthesize creatine from the breakdown of the amino acids Glycine and Arginine, studies consistently show that taking creatine supplements can be beneficial, especially with increasing power output.

Any Studies That Prove Above Said?
A meta-analysis showed subjects improving power output by up to 26% after taking a Creatine Monohydrate Supplement. But one thing that creatine supplementation does not do which many people believes it does is increase muscle mass, well at least not directly. The two ways that muscle mass might increase with creatine is by providing more energy for higher power output, which then provides a greater stimulus for muscle protein synthesis, and by retaining water, which might make muscles seem bigger without adding actual muscle mass. And there's even more benefits. Creatine supplementation has also been linked to replenishing glycogen, which is also important for energy production, reducing depression symptoms, decreasing fatigue, and there's also even study that showed vast improvement on reducing headaches and dizziness from kids that suffered from traumatic brain injury.

What Is The Recommended Dosage?
As far as how and how much you should take, many manufacturers have recommended using a "loading" phase, where for the first week you take more creatine than you would for the following weeks, but the research shows that there's not really any significant benefit in doing so. The most typically recommended amount that has shown positive benefits is between 3-5 grams per day and you can decide to stop taking creatine whenever you want to.

 
How Much Time Does it Take to Show Results?
Instantly. You will notice the difference in your strength same day. You can take creatine anytime of the day, however I have felt best results taking it 30 minutes before workout. Make sure to take enough carbs as preworkout meal.

What About Side Effects?
But what about the dangerous side effects you've heard about creatine? There are definitely concerns in the case of what creatine does to your kidneys and liver, but, these concerns have either been debunked or lack any concrete evidence, especially in human trials. The only notable side effect is the retention of water in your cells, which might make you look a little bit plumper and a weigh a bit heavier, but if that's one of your goals to begin with, more power to you. Have more questions about other popular supplements? Leave your suggestions below! And don't forget to like and subscribe for more future content.