What is creatine and when is the appropriate age to use it?
410290
At fifteen years of age, creatin will not help you, and using ANY "steroids" is not smart as your body is still developing NATUARALLY. Using anything similar to a steroid can actually hinder the "natural growth" of your body...\n\nBut here's the info you were looking for:\n\nCreatine is a nitrogenous organic acid that naturally occurs in vertebrates and helps to supply energy to muscle cells.\n\nIt is public knowledge that meat (which has a lot of creatine) enhanced performance long before modern science discovered creatine. The big winner in the 480 B.C. Olympic Games said he ate nothing but meat for 10 months prior to the Games to get ready.\n\nIn 1832, the French scientist Michel Eugène Chevreul discovered a component of skeletal muscle that he later named creatine after the Greek word for flesh, Kreas.\n\nIn 1912, researchers found that ingesting creatine can dramatically boost the creatine content of the muscle. In the late 1920s, scientists found that the intramuscular stores of creatine can be increased by ingesting creatine in larger than normal amounts, discovered creatine phosphate, and determined that creatine is a key player in the metabolism of skeletal muscle.\n\nThe Russians and other Eastern Bloc countries may have used creatine as a sports supplement as far back as the 1970s, although this is a matter of debate.\n\nWhile creatine's influence on physical performance has been well documented since the early twentieth century, it only recently came into public view following the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. An August 7, 1992 article in The Times reported that Linford Christie, the gold medal winner at 100 meters, had utilized creatine prior to the Olympics, and an article in Bodybuilding Monthly named Sally Gunnell, gold medalist in the 400-meter hurdles, as another creatine user. Several medal-winning British rowers also used creatine during their preparations for the Barcelona games.\n\nAt the time, low-potency creatine supplements were available in Britain, but creatine supplements designed for strength enhancement were not commercially available until 1993 when a company called EAS (Exercise, Atheletics, Strength) introduced the compound to the sports nutrition market under the name Phosphagen. In 1998, the launch of the first creatine-carbohydrate-alpha lipoic acid supplement, Cell-Tech, by another company called MuscleTech Research and Development, took place. Alpha lipoic acid enhances muscle phosphocreatine levels and total muscle creatine concentrations. This approach to creatine supplementation was validated in a study performed in 2003 by Burke et al., of the Department of Human Kinetics at St. Francis Xavier University. Another important event in creatine supplementation occurred in 2004 when the first creatine ethyl ester supplements were launched. To date, the most extensively researched brand-name creatine supplement is Cell-Tech, with three published studies on the actual product (Parise, G., et al. 2000,. Kalman, D., et al., and 2000 Tarnopolsky et al, 2001). Both Phosphagen and Cell-Tech still remain widely used by athletes around the world.\n\nCreatine Ethyl Ester (CEE) is becoming a widely used form of creatine, with many companies now carrying both creatine monohydrate-based supplements and Creatine Ethyl Ester supplements, or combinations of both. CEE is touted to have absorbtion rates tens of times higher than regular creatine monohydrate by several supplement companies. Creatine monohydrate ($400 million in annual sales in the United States alone) remains the most used form of creatine.\n\nSynthesis\nIn the human body creatine is synthesized mainly in the liver by the use of parts from three different amino acids - arginine, glycine, and methionine. 95% of it is later stored in the skeletal muscles, with the rest in the brain, heart, and testes.\n\nThe enzyme GATM (Guanidinoacetate N-methyltransferase, also known as L-arginine:glycine amidinotransferase (AGAT),
369563
Read the bottle or call a pharmacy and they can give you some advice. The label should tell you what the age recommendations are.
971226
More energy Creatine for sure.  But do you homework before you try it, Creatine is naturally produced in your body, It's the enzyme that breaks up ATP molecules, energy molecules.  In other words, its what give you energy.\n\nSo, I've heard not many really work, But No-Xplode is a type that I know actual people have tried and gotten real results.  All creatine is expensive tho <_<\n\nProtien shake is good for building mass, but when I was on it I noticed no difference in size or strength, but i Gained 10 pounds quick.  Try gettin protein shakes made of Whey or egg white
1144790
Three magic ingredients my friend: meat, eggs and beer. All types of meat are high in protein and beef actually has the highest level of naturally-occuring creatine. Egg whites have awesome levels of protein, and the grain in beer packs some super protein power. \n\nHere's a good routine. Drink plenty of water at night. Wake up early and have a banana before working out. Work out hard for about an hour, mostly free weights. After your workout, eat eggs for breakfast with some fruit to restore your energy. For lunch, have a tuna sandwich with peanut butter. Sounds weird, I know, but it works some magic. Do your cardio work in the late afternoon / early evening, when it's not too hot out. Eat meat, beans and veggies for dinner with a brew. Repeat that every day and you'll be a fierce mass of muscle.
1101136
Creatine supplements are bad for you. Eat a steak.
386623
I take Creatine and praise this supplement!!!  Creatine definitely makes you stronger (bench press went to 275lbs. and I weight 150lbs.) and look "buff".  Reason why you look buff is because Creatine is a "water magnet" absorbing water into your muscles hence the term "muscle volumizer".  That is why you'll need to take in lots of water or it won't work.  Plus without enough water you will most likely have muscle cramps.  So take in the required water and more, or else you'll be in pain and not have the the full benifits of creatine.  Also you do not need to do a loading period.  It is just the manufacturors way of getting you to buy more of the product.
483710
glutamine PEPTIDES are ok to be taken with creatine.  L-glutamine (notice the L) such as gluFM should be taken by itself.  the glutamine and creatine do compete with each other and so one will win and the other will lose.  the peptides are more stable and more soluble (L-glutaminei s not soluble).\n\nso unless you have a product that has glutamine + creatine in it, you can take L-glutamine and creatine roughly 1-2 hours apart.
287124
creatine enables your body to retain water if you spike your insulin levels with grape juice this will increase the effect, grape out of all the juices is the best but others will work but not as well. if a person is using creatine with a good diet and moderate to heavy training the regimen will produce good results. good luck
435352
Stay away from Creatine!  The best thing you could use is amino fuel and lots of protein.  Creatine will eat away at your stomach and give you a gastric intestinal disorder.  Creatine does not give you muscle it just pumps up the fluids.  Unless Creatine has changed in the last few years; I am telling you this from witnessing it first hand.  My husband was in the hospital three times from abdominal pain and runny stools.  Just eat healthy and use more weights with less reps.
274204
creatine just causes your body to put water into the muscle....which makes muscles look bigger, but doesn't truely do anything for strength.
34376
Hard work.  Since this is a precursor (I think) to testosterone, it effects the hormones in the body.  However, something such as creatine has much evidence to enhance strength and edurance as well as give a pumped apperarance (usually due to water retention.  The adro can have nasty side effects such as "bacne" (pimples on shoulders and back) and gynocomasteia (bit** t*ts).
782980
C4H9N3O2\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatine
124449
my son is small in frame for his 19yrs. and he hates it so he went to the store..(Wall-Mart) and got some big giant jug of protien powder that taste like Bannanas and some vitamin energy bars...............and I promise 2 months later you can really tell a difference , He is also into working out and he still eats lot's of fruits and veggies. I don't think it's healthy for someone to overload on protien but and a bit extra maybe...
692050
they are all pretty competative. i used to use now sports micronized creatine. its 100% pure creatine powder and works pretty good. the time you take it also depends. take it just before your work out. dont take it unless your working out and definatley under no circumstances forget to drink plenty of water with this stuff. i mean at least a gallon a day 2 is more sufficient. and start off small.
562403
chances are you are simply wasting money \n\nyour creatine needs to be pure and mixed in an acidic solution and is effective if you use it around workouts \n\nonly about 60% of people respond to creatine so unless you are one of them you are wasting dollars\n\nnitrotech probalby does nothing more than a far cheaper whey supplement
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Creatine monohydrate is legal and probably safe.
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Your trying to compare apples and oranges.  They're two very different supplements with very different mechanisms in the human body.  \n\nWhey protein is loaded with both essential and non-essential amino acids and is primarily used to accelerate muscle development and aid in recovery.\n\nCreatine is designed to increase the production and availability of ATP, specifically for the first few seconds of intense activity.\n\nIt is probably the only supplement on the market that can actually help you increase your loads, power and size in a realtively short period of time. \n\nPROS\n- Increases the availability of energy for first 6-10s of power related movements\n- It increases muscle strength and power\n- May improve some endurance and delay fatigue. \n- Forces water into your muscles (cell volumization), making muscles bigger and firmer. Do not confuse this with water retention that happens outside the muscle cells, making the muscles look smooth. \n- Gain weight quickly (if that is a desired goal) 4-8 pounds is common in the first three (mostly due to increase of body fluids in the muscles). \n- Gain muscle faster since your able to lift greater loads longer due to reduced fatigue and leverage.\n\nCONS\n- Weight, strength and power gain are quickly lost approx 2-3 weeks after termination of last cycle\n- There have been some outrageous claims of Creatine causing everything from high blood pressure to cancer, but these have never been proven. There are no scientifically proven side effects from moderate Creatine supplementation.\n\nhttp://preventdisease.com/news/articles/creatine_and_teens.shtml\nhttp://preventdisease.com/news/articles/creatine_boosts_brain_power.shtml\n.\n.