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The truth about creatine
Research paper for creatine
The effects of creatine on sports performance
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Success From Creatine
Many people in athletics avoid using creatine monohydrate because they do not know much about it. They are convinced that something that can help athletes achieve such great results cannot be good for the body. This is not true if the supplement is taken correctly. Creatine is an excellent supplement. It is one of the only products on the market that has been proven to significantly enhance athletic performance in the areas of power, strength, and muscle mass. Creatine makes muscle cells retain water, then flushes out acid buildup when the muscles are used. This hydration process increases the amount of work individual cells can do and also aids in the recovery of muscle cells. Many people believe creatine supplements should be treated the same as steroids and banned from all sports. They assume creatine is not natural, harmful to the body and unfair in athletic competition.
Often, it is said that creatine supplements are unnatural. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people do not realize the human body produces creatine. It is an amino acid made in the liver and stored in muscles. It can also be obtained by certain foods in the diet. Milk, steak, and fish are the best sources of creatine. The daily recommended minimal dosage of this amino acid is about two grams. If dietary creatine is increased, it will augment the amount of stored creatine which will help athletic performance. Without the correct amount of any of the twenty amino acids, the body will not function to its fullest potential.
Although scientists have known of creatine for over one hundred years, studies on it have only been going on for the last decade. They have found it to be virtually harmless with very few drawbacks in their research. The most significant being abuse of the supplement. One example of this is to consume too much over a long period of time.
Some researchers fear that this could make the body stop producing creatine, then the body would rely only on the supplement. This is why creatine supplements should be taken in cycles. Another form of abuse is to ingest too much at one time. It is hard for the body to breakdown the granular substance, but if plenty of water is consumed this should not be a problem.
Many people believe that creatine supplements give athletes an unfair advantage and compare them to steroids. These supplements are most definitely an advantage, but not unfair. Even though the supplement may have similar results to steroids, it is only an
Creatine is one of the most popular sports supplements on the market and is used by bodybuilders, and athletes. It is an amino acid, like the building blocks that makes up proteins. It is also an important store of energy in muscle cells. Creatine is a natural nutrient found in our bodies and in the bodies of most animals. It can also be found in the form of a powder and sold as a supplement. Creatine is categorized as a food supplement by the Food and Drug Administration, like a vitamin and is available over the counter at drug stores and nutrition centers. Approximately 95% of the body’s creatine supply is found in the skeletal muscles. The remaining 5% of creatine is scattered throughout the rest of the body, with the highest concentration in the heart, brain, and testes. The human body gets most of the creatine it needs from food or dietary supplements.
The sellers of creatine and androstenedione (pronounced androe-steen-die-own) make these sorts of claims although there are no long-term studies of the effectiveness or safety of these drugs. Nevertheless, retailers can’t keep them on the shelves. Their popularity has been aided by high profile athletes. Both drugs are chemicals naturally produced in the body and found in minute amounts in food, mostly red meat. But that is where the similarities end.
Professional athletes, throughout history, have been exalted for their outstanding abilities and achievements in sports. Unfortunately, many athletes have turned to anabolic steroids in order to give them an edge, a boost their athletic performance. Starting with the 1954 World Weightlifting Championships, where the Soviets unexpectedly dominated their lifting classes with the use of steroids, it has become increasingly popular among athletes to cheat with the help of this drug. Although the appeal to steroid use is evident when observing how it increases someone’s athletic abilities, many users fail to consider the detrimental side effects of the drug. Also, in my opinion, athletes should be expected to perform based upon their natural abilities, opposed to abilities enhanced by anabolic steroids. Ultimately, anabolic steroids should continue to be illegal in professional sports due to their major health risks and the unfair advantage they serve players.
middle of paper ... ... I conclude that, as with other vitamins, minerals and medications, L-carnitine is as effective as the consumer's belief in the product. Works Cited:.. 1. What is the difference between a. and a. Decombaz J., Deriaz O., Acheson K., Gmuender B., & Jequier E. (1993).
Bill Romanowski, Shannon Sharpe, and Mark McGwire, are just a few of the professional athletes that use and endorse fitness supplements such as Androstendione, Creatine, and other products. Every on camera interview that you see Shannon Sharpe he is wearing an EAS mock turtleneck. EAS is one of the leading manufacturers of Creatine and other supplements. The hottest supplement in Hollywood is Ephedrine; an herbal based drug designed to increase fat loss. Why do so many athletes use supplements? Who is using the supplements? How can I get supplements? Those are a few of the questions I have tried to answer in this report. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to educate. To educate not only the athletes using the supplements such as Creatine and Ephedrine but to also educate the governing bodies of collegiate sports. Answers were sought to the following questions: 1. Who is using Creatine and/or Ephedrine based products? 2. Why are they using supplements? 3. Are these products easily available? 4. Should the NCAA increase regulations on supplemental usage? Methods and procedures used to formulate this report I used primary and secondary research methods. I used the Internet as a focal point for my research. There were many sites devoted strictly to supplement usage and education on subjects related to the supplements, Creatine and Ephedrine. I also used muscle magazines and books for research. For primary research I gave forty questionnaires (see appendix 2) to twenty women and twenty men from Husson College.
Primarily lifters and athletes take creatine to get ahead of the competition. In an article written by Nancy Ling, she mentions how in the Olympic games from 1964-1994 Soviet Union powerlifters consumed creatine to get an edge on the competition and had great success from it. ("Creatine? Is It Worth the Risk?"). Also in the article, Nancy stressed the importance of taking the correct amount of creatine because it can help prevent kidney and liver problems. On the other side, consuming creatine can be dangerous if you are prone to having seizures, blood clots, or cardiac
Creatine serves as an energy reserve in muscle cells. Muscular contraction is powered by the breakdown of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) to ADP (adenosinediphosphate). When all the ATP is broken down, creatine phosphate in the muscle donates a phosphate group to ADP, and further energy reactions can occur. Creatine monohydrate is a precursor to creatine phosphate. By supplementing with CM, CP levels in muscle apparently are maximized, and more muscular work can occur, since there are greater energy reserves to use.
Creatine has been used in sports throughout time. Athletes have always had a fascination with being excellent at what they do. With the banning of steroids from competitive sports and the implementation of random drug testing in most sports, most athletes are still somehow hoping to gain an edge on their competition. This edge that they are using is creatine.
Abstract: Since the beginning of sports competition, athletes have always looked for some kind of an edge over their competitors. They will do whatever it takes to be one of the elite and that includes injecting supplements into their bodies to make them bigger, stronger, and faster. Steroid use is probably one of the most common drug misuses in sports competition. Athletes found that with anabolic steroids one could become a better athlete twice as fast. Not until 1975 was the drug first banned from Olympic competition because of the health risks it produced. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the sports world did not allow anabolic steroids as well. With the use of steroids no longer permitted athletes began to look for other alternatives. On the rise is two substances called creatine and androstenedione, both of which are sold over the counter. These two performance enhancers have only had minimal testing done on them, excluding the long-term effects, simply because they haven't been around long enough. Creatine and androstenedione have been said to produce results like steroids without the side effects. The truth is they do produce side effects and irregular muscle growth. By banning the use of performance enhancing drugs, just like steroids, sports competition will have a much healthier and fairer environment to participate in.
the resulting amino acid would be sodium glycinate (see fig. 3), an example of a
Amino acids are considered the building blocks of proteins. Breaking down protein will yield 22 known amino acids. There are three types of amino acids. These are indispensable(essential), conditionally dispensable, and dispensable. Conditionally dispensable amino acids can be synthesized from other amino acids by our bodies. Dispensable amino acids are considered non-essential. Amino acids are "one of the six basic nutrients our body needs". Essential Amino Acids acids are central to our discussion with regards to their use in weightlifting and training.
Creatine is one of the most beneficial substances that aid and help athletes improve performance. Creatine was first discovered back in 1832 when researcher Michel Eugene Chevreul “isolated it from the basified water-extract of skeletal muscle. He later named the crystallized precipitate after the Greek word for meat, κρέας (kreas)” (Creatine Wikipedia). Even though creatine was discovered back then, it was dropped and then picked back up in 1912, when Otto Folin and Willy Glover Denis from Harvard University discovered that creatine supplementation significantly enhances the amount of creatine in our skeletal muscles. Although, creatine has been known for the way it helps us for many years now, it was not commonly known till after the Barcelona
Amino acids can play an important role in exercise, especially the branched-chain amino acids; valine, isoleucine and leucine. The branched-chain amino acids are unique because they are not metabolized in the liver but in the muscle instead, hence the name, ‘muscle aminos’.
Creatine has been known to provide additional energy for your muscles. Our body has a compound called ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate), which is an energy-containing compound. The ATP reaction releases energy in the body very quickly. This is a good thing, especially during an intense work out, when your body needs the most energy. Carbohydrates can give you energy, but it comes at a slower pace. When the muscles are using ATP for energy, a chemical process occurs where the ATP is broken down into two simpler chemicals, ADP (adenosine did-phosphate) and inorganic phosphate. This process of ATP turning into ADP releases the energy, which ...
According to the book “Understanding normal and clinical nutrition”, the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein intake is, 0.8g/kg of body weight for non-athletes; according to nutrition professionals this amount can be achieved through a healthy diet (Rolfes, Pinna, & Whitney, 2012). It is well known that athletes, due to their high energy expenditure, need to ingest a greater quantity of nutrients with the purpose of repairing and building muscle cells, besides reestablishing energy storage; The International Society of Sports Nutrition (2007) states that athletes and exercising individuals amount of protein to be consumed depends on the intensity of the exercise training sessions, the quality of the protein ingested in their whole foods diet, besides their carbohydrate intake. Meanwhile, athletes’ protein needs should be about 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg of body weight, and even though dietary supplements are a safe way to meet protein requirement, it would be healthier to obtain the necessary nutrients ingesting high quality foods as part of a daily diet (Campbell et al, 2007).