Creatine in Athletes

Creatine is a very controversial supplement on the market today. Many endorse the uses of creatine, but others are skeptical about the advantage a person receives from taking it and the dangers one inherits as a result of creatine consumption. The debate remains due to the short amount of time that creatine has been available. People base their opinions on preliminary studies that have been done but no one knows the long-term effects of creatine on the body. Many take the risk without vast knowledge, but others still remain skeptical based on preliminary evidence that discourages the intake of creatine.

Creatine is a supplement, creatine is the most popular supplement for improving your performance. Many studies have proven it to be useful for strength, muscle mass and performance. Many people believe it is bad for you and your liver but there are no proven studies showing this if creatine is used correctly. Creatine is a natural substance found inside your muscle cells which helps you gain muscle in several different ways, raise anabolic hormones, boost work load, increase cell hydration, reduce protein break down, lower myostatin levels, improve cell signaling and help strength. Creatine also is 100% legal and is very effective for short term and long term muscle growth. Creatine can also help certain diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. some people believe that creatine should be banned in sports and players caught using creatine should be punished, disqualified, or fined. This includes professional as well as semiprofessional and college athletes. These people believe that both the individual and team use of creatine should be illegal in sports. People who are for creatine believe that when used correctly creatine can be a healthy way to boost your athletic ability in a natural way. They believe creatine should not be banned and that players and teams should be allowed

     Creatine is one of the primary things an athlete will do to put supplements into their body. These supplements range from protein shakes to illegal anabolic steroids. Some sports supplements are incredibly safe and effective, yet others work for a while and then fizzle out, while others still work well but do more damage than good in the long run. In the past athletes had to turn to such things as anabolic steroids or blood doping (the process of taking out blood and adding oxygen to it and putting it back into your body in order to increase a persons endurance). However, these procedures have many drawbacks. Mainly, they are illegal. An athlete may be suspended from playing their perspective

Athletes are always searching for ways to enhance their performance. Recently, beginning in the 1950s, that search has included the use of illegal substances like steroids and growth hormones. Illegal substances have been used widely by athletes in hop es of achieving the desired Olympic gold medal or multi-million dollar contract. Some nations, for example the late East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, have mandated the use of steroids by their athletes. The downside of using those illegal substances is that because they are illegal, getting caught using them can lead to losing that coveted gold medal, a lifetime ban from sports, and a total loss of honor and dignity. This is why the search is now on to find some legal

Creatine is perhaps the best supplement ever to hit the sports nutrition market. Creatine is a

From the beginning of history, professional and amateur athletes have tempted to use legal or illegal drugs to enhance their performance (1). Athletes have used pharmacological agents, called Performance-enhancing drugs(PEDs), to enhance performance or to become leaner or more muscular (2). In sports, administration of drugs that are forbidden by international world anti-doping agency (WADA) is referred as doping (3). Anabolic androgenic agents (AASs) are the most popular agents that are abused by the athletes, especially bodybuilding athletes. Besides these agents, other classes of drugs such as stimulants and peptide hormones (growth hormone and insulin) are new PEDs that are abused by a lot of athletes in the different sports (1). Other than these compounds, athletes often use dietary supplements like creatine, protein, and vitamins to enhance strength and increase body mass (4-6).

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

Abstract:  With the increase of competition has also come the need to become bigger and stronger than the opponent.  The use of steroids among athletes has caused the focus of the game to change.  No longer does an athlete want to win by doing their best, but they want to become bigger and have an advantage over the opponent.  Ultimately, all athletes feel that they need to use performance-enhancing drugs to compete at the same level. Despite all of the warnings and information on performance-enhancing drugs, athletes continue to use them and overlook the potential health risks associated with steroids.

They measured muscular strength and anaerobic performance in trained athletes. 17 physically, active young men were selected for the study and the creatine group had 8 people and the placebo group had 9 people with average age of 23 and 26, respectively. The creatine group took 20 grams a day over the course of 4 servings and the placebo group received a carbohydrate mixture and both groups took it before meals. They trained on day 1 and 4, which included exercises that the whole body. They measured anaerobic power on a 30 second Wingate test, max bench press and squat, took blood and urine samples, and measured height, weight, and body fat. Using an ANOVA with repeated measures across time, the results demonstrated that there was an increase in anaerobic force (12%) and back squat quality (11%) when contrasted with the placebo group. With more creatine in the body than with the control group and the creatine group had lower body fat but more body weight because of increased muscle mass. Proper training and creatine led to power and force increases for these athletes, which is helpful to a running back in improving power, speed, and game

The evidence I will provide is strictly scientific, the information comes from the Journal of Sports Nutrition. The article is written by Richard B. Kreider, Exercise & Sport Nutrition Laboratory Department of Human Movement Sciences and Education The University of Memphis. The author has many credentials, such as his testing of finding the effects of six weeks of creatine monohydrate supplementation in male and female track athletes, which can be found in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning. All of his research is peer reviewed.

They came to the conclusion that almost half of the investigated individuals had at some point used creatine but almost none of them had used any other performance enhancing drugs. Almost 65% of the athletes that consumed creatine were between the ages of 17-19 years old. Most athletes using creatine as a performance enhancing drugs were found to be athletes competing in football, basketball, baseball, soccer and track with a substantial majority playing football.

athlete's career. Alex Rodriquez, a superstar in baseball who was caught using steroids, for example has lost a majority of his fan base For an athlete, the most important part of sports is being in top-notch physical shape. To achieve this kind of physicality, all competetent athletes must eat healthy, weightlift, and push themselves to their maximum ability every day. While training, athletes may need an extra jolt of power to push them beyond these limits. This is where supplements come in to play. The supplement Creatine produces chemical reactions in the human body that can improve the athlete’s muscular physique in a positive way.

In recent years, oral supplements of creatine monohydrate have become "increasingly popular among different athletes for use as a natural ergogenic aid (Stout et al., 1999). A surge in the use of creatine began in 1992, when "Harris et al showed that oral supplementation with high doses of creatine

Results: Surveys were obtained from 93% of eight hundred six eligible athletes. Overall, 68% of athletes had heard of creatine and 28% reported using it. Forty-eight percent of men reported having used creatine as compared with 4% of women. With two exceptions, the all men's teams had at least 30% of athletes who reported a history of creatine use. Of athletes that had used creatine, about one-third had first used it in high school. Friends and teammates were the most common sources of creatine information. Increased strength and muscle size were the most common effects the athletes expected and perceived from creatine use.

In today’s society, athletes are revered as heroes. There is immense pressure to be the best. Athletes are willing to do whatever it takes to gain an edge, even if it means compromising their health. For almost three decades, athletes have been supplementing their strength program with anabolic steroids to enhance their performance. To be sure, anabolic steroids are effective supplements to strength training programs, but there is no doubt that the consequences can be deleterious.