What is creatine, what is its importance, how is it taken, and what are its harms? You will find all the answers you need here.
Firstly, creatine is a non-essential amino acid, meaning it is synthesized inside the body's cells and is found in red meats and fish, but in small amounts. For example, one kilogram of meat contains about 5 grams of creatine, which shows the value of a 5-gram scoop. But do you really need 5 grams per day?
The truth is, human needs are about 30 mg per kilogram of body weight. So, if you weigh 100 kg, you'd need only 3 grams of creatine per day . I think that's good news and it will save you half your money because to maintain your creatine levels, you only need half the dose you're used to taking.
So, what's the importance of creatine anyway and why spend money on it? Creatine is one of the most researched supplements, specifically creatine monohydrate, which reigns supreme among supplements because:
It has unmatched ability to help muscles grow to their fullest potential, perform at maximum strength, and reduce fatigue and exhaustion, meaning it takes your performance to another level.
If we summarize its benefits, they would be:
- Increased muscle energy
- Enhanced endurance during exercise
- Increased muscle strength
- Reduced fatigue and exhaustion
- Increased blood flow to the muscles
- Muscle hydration
And another piece of good news is that creatine doesn't contain any calories despite aiding in increasing muscle mass.
The truth is, you will really feel a difference if you hadn't been using creatine before and start using it now, and this happens within two weeks to a month.
This makes some people opt for what's called a loading dose, meaning they increase the dose to 5 grams 4 times a day for a week to quickly saturate their body cells with creatine, thus feeling the difference quickly. Another way to reach saturation is to take 5 grams once a day for a month, and then maintain your creatine level with the previously mentioned dose.
There's no danger in increasing the dose, as studies have shown it can be taken at a dose of 10 grams per day for up to 5 years continuously without any harm, but you won't need all that. You'll feel the difference if you stop using it and when you start again, you'll need to do the loading dose from scratch...
So all this sounds great... but what are the harms?
There have been rumors that it causes kidney problems and causes baldness and other issues...
The only proven truth to date is that it makes you thirsty.. which is a good thing not a bad thing, as it helps maintain hydration👀. There's no link between creatine and baldness; if baldness isn't genetic, then it's due to changes in the body's hormone levels... so creatine is innocent in terms of causing your hair to fall out.
As for the kidneys, that's nonsense... Creatine, like anything else that enters your body, has to come out... and it exits the body through the kidneys.. and all studies conducted on it say that it's safe even during pregnancy and breastfeeding, so creatine isn't going to cause kidney problems.
But if, God forbid, there's renal failure, then that person shouldn't use creatine... because it simply won't be excreted from the body... and accumulation of anything or its waste in the body would cause poisoning.
All studies conducted on creatine were done on individuals over 18 years of age... simply because it's not permissible to conduct experiments on a minor... that's why any official statement will be directed at individuals over 18 years of age.
So, can those under 18 use it? We said it's safe even in pregnancy and breastfeeding but still, there's no study that says yes or no under 18 years of age."
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