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The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 1999 September;39(3):179-88

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Scientific facts behind creatine monohydrate as sport nutrition supplement

Silber M. S.

Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Washington State University, Pullman, USA

Cur­rent­ly, ­strong ­efforts are ­being ­made ­toward dem­on­strat­ing pos­sible ­risks of ­using ­pure crea­tine mono­hy­drate (Cr·H2O). In ­this arti­cle, sci­en­tif­ic ­facts and con­sid­er­a­tions are pre­sent­ed, ­which sup­port ­such con­cern. A fur­ther ­attempt is ­made to pur­sue the con­cept of pos­sible ­risks of uncon­trolled sup­ple­men­ta­tion in ath­letes ­with ­pure Cr·H2O. The prob­lem is ­viewed ­from the sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence ­that a high­ly con­ser­va­tive mech­a­nism of homeo­stat­ic ­feed-­back inhib­i­to­ry ­self-reg­u­la­tion of Cr bio­syn­the­sis in the ­body has ­been evo­lu­tion­ary devel­oped. It is ­shown ­that numer­ous fea­tures char­ac­ter­is­tic to Cr bio­syn­the­sis, metab­olism, and reg­u­la­tion ­allow to inter­pret its stim­u­la­to­ry ­action in the ­body as endo­crine hor­mone-­like. ­Based on ­this assump­tion, a prac­ti­cal ­approach for detect­ing ­altered ­links in Cr metab­olism and bio­syn­the­sis ­under con­di­tions of ­pure Cr·H2O over­dos­ing, is sug­gest­ed. Stra­te­gic con­sid­er­a­tions regard­ing ear­ly diag­no­sis, prog­no­sis, and cor­rec­tion of the ­down-reg­u­lat­ed endog­e­nous Cr bio­syn­the­sis in ath­letes on con­tin­u­ous ­pure Cr·H2O sup­ple­men­ta­tion, are dis­cussed. As a ­high effi­cient and ­safe alter­na­tive to ­pure Cr·H2O, a com­plex nutri­tion sup­ple­ment for­mu­la for ­elite ath­letes is pro­posed, ­which ­exploits nat­u­ral ­alpha-ket­o­glu­tar­ate as a vehi­cle for deliv­er­ing exog­e­nous low molec­u­lar bio­log­i­cal­ly-­active com­pounds, includ­ing Cr.