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Creatine Online Super Feature Part 1: Introduction Daniel Gastelu
This Creatine Online Super Feature was written to help clear-up the misinformation surrounding this important bodybuilding and strength athlete sports nutrition product ingredient. In other words, there is a lot of BS about creatine in the ads and magazine articles, which makes it difficult for many people to determine if they need to take creatine, and if so what type, how much and for how long. To accomplish this education goal, this Super Feature is presented in the following Parts. Part 3: Creatine and the Muscle Fiber Connection Part 4: Creatine Research Overview Part 5 – Recent Creatine Research Reviews, Focus on Body Composition and Strength Part 6 – Recent Creatine Research Reviews, Focus on Improvements in Athletic Performance To get the most out of this information, I encourage you to read the entire article as it includes a diversity of extra information you will find useful for understanding the anatomy, physiology, and bio-energetics of muscles, in addition to being the most comprehensive review article every written about creatine. In addition to the massive amount of information for you to read, I also created two very useful summary tables: The Summary of Beneficial Effects of Creatine Monohydrate Supplementation table. This table includes a summary of the major conclusions about how creatine supplementation improves body composition, physiology, physical performance and athletic performance. It also reports on which sports creatine works best for. The Creatine Dosing & Use Guide Summary table contains information on using creatine based on what the research studies concluded. I encourage you to spread the good word about creatine, and let your friends and athletic associates know about this article. And most importantly, I hope you enjoy this unique learning experience. Part 1: Introduction Sitting back in my sports nutrition ivory tower, I frequently get outraged by the nonsense I encounter (non-science, that is) when it comes to the misinformation surrounding the various sports nutrition ingredients backed by science, but maligned by marketers and authors working with incomplete information. What people seem to forget, or put aside, is that what was proven to work in the past still works today. This is ever so true for creatine monohydrate supplements. However, it seems that what should be the simplest and most straight forward of sports nutrition supplements, has become surrounded by a quagmire of misinformation, controversy, and in some instances, outright lies. Not by the scientific community, but from superficial information found in the media and even some ads for products. The scientific community is onboard with recognizing the benefits athletes can experience from taking a creatine monohydrate supplement. In fact, creatine monohydrate has received more attention and has been subjected to more research studies then any other sports supplement being sold. Over 200 clinical studies have been conducted using creatine monohydrate in just over a decade. Not bad when you consider that the majority of the research was conducted at universities, without the mega-dollars from the pharmaceutical industry. By now, I think creatine monohydrate has as much research behind it as most of the billion dollar drugs. When you take a look at the science behind creatine monohydrate, there is little room for controversy. But somewhere along the way since creatine’s debut as a muscle building sports supplement, more controversy and confusion has arisen in the popular press, than has clarity of creatine’s purpose and proper use. From a sports scientist’s standpoint this is strange, because when you look at the trend in the scientific journals that have been reporting on the beneficial results of numerous research studies for over a decade, evidence is mounting to support the effectiveness of creatine monohydrate.By now you may have noticed by now that I have been stating that creatine monohydrate has the scientific proof behind it. And it does. Sure, there are other forms of creatine, and I will be reviewing information about them for you later in this special report. However, even though science concludes that creatine monohydrate is effective, most people want to learn more about it, learn why it works, who it works best for, who it does not work for, how much to take for best results, and why even think about creating other forms of creatine in the first place. So, when you read through this super feature article, you will discover it is part educational, part scientific review and part use guide. I wanted it to suit the needs of many. In my work I have found that there are some people who just want the at-a-glance use information, and there others who want to learn and get insights about the research, how the body works, and the about science of why creatine monohydrate works. Some of the creatine facts you will learn about include:
Want may
surprise you knowing is that the effects creatine has in the body is much more
than the cell volumizing effects it was first touted for. For example, in
addition to the findings of other research I review herein, one of the most
recent research studies concluded that the research subjects supplemented with
creatine monohydrate experienced an increase in the levels of mRNA for IGF-1 and
IGF-2. [Deldicque L, Louis M, Theisen D, Nielens H,
Dehoux M, Thissen JP, Rennie MJ, Francaux M. “Increased IGF mRNA in human
skeletal muscle after creatine supplementation.”
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2005
May;37(5):731-6.] Then, due to the fact that creatine works best for certain types of athletes, with certain types of muscle fiber development (primarily strength athletes), I included a section about muscle fiber anatomy and physiology. If this subject matter is new to you, you may have to read it a few times to catch on. The time spent will be worth it, because this knowledge will benefit your training and nutrition program in other ways, in addition to understanding what creatine works best for, and besides the muscle building benefits, what research studies discovered creatine can help significantly improve athletic performance. Yes, depending on the bio-energetic nature of your sport, you can improve your athletic performance starting in just a week or two of taking a creatine monohydrate supplement, and increasingly more benefits with continued creatine use. For the extremely inquisitive /scientific reader, I included research overview parts that contain key findings of the most recent creatine scientific research studies. So, in addition to a long list of references, I will take you through the highlights of these research studies, so you can get a glimpse in to how the scientific process works. Finally, after reading through all of this information, there is part that contains information about what the numerous research studies support the best way to take creatine, and what sports creatine is good for improving athletic performance for, in addition to creatine’s well know effects in improving the rate of muscle growth and strength in association with a resistance training program.
Part 3: Creatine and the Muscle Fiber Connection Part 4: Creatine Research Overview Part 5 – Recent Creatine Research Reviews, Focus on Body Composition and Strength Part 6 – Recent Creatine Research Reviews, Focus on Improvements in Athletic Performance
Copyright © 2005 by SUPPLEMENTFACTS™ International LLC www.supplementfacts.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.Notice: This article is not intended for use as a substitute for consultation with a qualified medical practitioner. If you have symptoms of any illness, it is essential that you see your doctor without delay.
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