Creatine: Effective or Not?

Nick Kersey

Because nearly everyone associates anything that improves performance with steroids, Creatine has gotten a bad reputation from people that don't understand it. Creatine is not even close to any steroid on a molecular level. It can also be found in meats, such as: steak, fish, pork, tuna, and poultry. Creatine has a few different roles in the human body. For example: Creatine helps replenish energy in the muscle cells, puts extra water into the muscle cells, and lets people lift weights with a higher intensity level. Creatine Monohydrate came out on the market first, then Kre-Alkalyn came out on the market when it was released by Sci-Fit. Kre-Alkalyn works differently than monohydrate. Finally, there is Creatine Ethyl Ester, which works differently than both monohydrate and kre-alkalyn.

The energy released from the reduction reaction of ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) to ADP (Adenosine Diphosphate) and the addition of another phosphate molecule onto the ADP molecule fuels everything your muscles, and almost anything else in your body. Creatine is stored in the form of Creatine Phosphate in the body. When ATP looses one of it's phosphates in the reaction to create energy, Creatine donates its phosphate to regenerate ATP so that it can break apart again to provide the muscles with energy. Whenever all the Creatine loses their phosphate, and that’s when lactic acid starts to build up inside the muscle cells. So, therefore, the more supplemented creatine there is, the longer the exchange can be sustained, and the longer maximal effort at resistance (weight training) can be exerted.

Monohydrate was marketed to be as the biggest bodybuilding breakthrough supplement ever created. Again, Monohydrate pulls water into the muscle cells. When on an on cycle, the muscle tends to look more swollen due to the extra water inside the cells. There is some evidence that suggests that creatine supplementation may actually reduce the risk of muscle cramping and injury. One downside of monohydrate is that the conversion rate of creatine monohydrate to creatnine goes up exponentially when added to any form of liquid. For example, the conversion of creatine to creatnine with juice (for the delivery system), is 43 seconds. That’s not even enough time for the stomach to start digesting the creatine so the body can absorb it.

Kre-Alkalyn is next on the list. Kre-Alkalyn is the “buffered” form of creatine. How Kre-Alkalyn works is that it is biochemically altered on the molecular level. It’s advertised as the only “stable” creatine supplement on the market. Kre-Alkalyn helps with the pumps in the trained muscle. Kre-Alkalyn is the only creatine that doesn’t convert over to the poison creatinine (due to the pH of the molecule) before it reaches the muscles. This helps the body absorb more creatine, thus lowering the dosages required for beneficial results. This results in an economic savings for the consumer as less creatine will be required for the same results.

Creatine Ethyl Ester is the last one that I’ll cover in this article. Creatine Ethyl Ester is Creatine monohydrate with an ester attached by mixing monohydrate with an acid (hydrochloric acid, mainly). What’s wrong with that? Creatine can’t be put to any liquid, due to the conversion rate. One effect of Ethyl Ester is that it crosses the lipid by- layer of the cell lining. By easily crossing over the lipid by-layer, the molecules make it into the muscle cells and you get all the benefits of the molecules.