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Essay about Dietary Supplements Used by Athletes: Creatine

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Creatine (Cr) is a popular dietary supplement used by athletes to increase sports performance, muscle mass, and strength. Creatine was first discovered in “1835, when a French scientist reported finding this constituent of meat” (Demant & Rhodes, 1999). This organic compound is manufactured endogenously by the liver and kidneys “from the amino acids glycine, arginine and methionine” for energy stipulation during muscular contraction. (Arazi, Rahmaninia, Hoseini, & Asadi, 2011). Creatine is either converted into free form Cr or phosphorylated form as known as creatine phosphate (CP). The endogenous production and exogenous consumption of Cr yields about 1 gram a day for the average person (Cooper, Naclerio, Allfrove , & Jimenez, 2012). In …show more content…

The biological value in whey protein enhances the body’s ability to absorb essential amino acids after resistance training decreasing the athlete’s recovery time. When athletes combine whey protein and creatine monohydrate they expect “a greater increase in lean tissue mass and muscular strength than supplementations with whey protein alone” (Burke, Chilibeck, Davison, Candow, Farthing, & Smith-Palmer 2001, p 350). Exogenous Cr supplementation increases the body’s Cr levels until saturation occurs. This saturation of Cr increases the PCK shuttle continuum allowing training intensity, volume, and duration of the exercise the athlete is performing to continue at a maximum rate. Any excess Cr in the blood is cleared through sweat, urination or renal filtration. Measurements in strength and peak torques of athletes supplementing with whey protein and creatine monohydrate (WC), whey protein (W), and a placebo (P) were taken. According to Burke et al, (2001) “repeated measure analysis of variance was used to assess changes in body composition, strength, and peak torque for the three groups (WC vs. W vs. P) across time” (p. 354). A twelve week strength training program was constructed and consisted of a “4-day split routine involving whole body musculature” (Burke et al, 2001. p 352). Subjects used detailed training logs to compare progress over the 12 week experiment. The end result from this experiment shows that subjects who “supplemented with both creatine and whey

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