For years (centuries), people have resisted change. Whether it was giving up your favorite boot-legs on audio tapes for the seamless sound of digital music on CDs, or replacing the classical movies on video cassettes for the crisp clear picture of DVDs, and finally retiring your big-bulky 35 millimeter camera for the ease and convenience of shooting and uploading images from a new fancy pocket-sized digital device.
Well, human nature stays consistent, and this hesitation to accept change may be what's been happening in the sports nutrition industry over the past few years, with people continuing to use the same familiar creatine supplements that have been available.
But some people are discovering the benefits of a new more efficient creatine molecule that does not present the negative side effects of previous creatines. They are seeing positive outcomes from embracing change.
What is Creatine?
Many people know the multiple benefits that creatine supplements can offer athletes and bodybuilders.
The most commonly used creatine supplement has been creatine monohydrate (CM) and it has been a long-standing legal supplement in the sports nutrition industry for years, mainly because nothing else has been shown to deliver better results (even though many claims of improvements have been made by other products).
The biggest problem with creatines to date has been the high doses required for efficacy, along with significant gastrointestinal discomforts. Recent studies have proven that the number one factor for creatine supplement efficacy is aqueous solubility, meaning the creatine must be in solution to be absorbed into the bloodstream.
Creatines vary in performance largely based on solubility. Creatine monohydrate has always required that the athlete take high doses (5-30 grams daily) to get any benefits.
This indicates that the oral bioavailability is low and that higher doses are needed in order to see any positive results. But these high doses also lead to many negative side effects for the athlete, such as water retention, bloating, cramps, dehydration and GI stress.
Click Image To Enlarge. Creatine Monohydrate Has Always Required That
The Athlete Take High Doses To Get Any Benefits.
Creatine Studies
As part of on-going creatine studies, researchers from The University of Nebraska looked closely at the aqueous solubility of various creatines by saturating large amounts of the creatine powders with fixed amounts of temperature controlled water. Each sample was filtered and analyzed for remaining residue.
The study found that among the results, they observed that a significant difference in solubility had occurred between one particular new creatine molecule (concentrated creatine) in comparison to creatine monohydrate. The data showed a more than 30 fold increase with the concentrated creatine.
Other trials looked at plasma uptake of creatine absorption in the bloodstream of healthy human volunteers. Researchers from The University of Nebraska Medical Center and The University of Manitoba compared this new concentrated creatine supplement to creatine monohydrate and found the results to be remarkable.
For the first time in 20 years of formal academic creatine research, the study showed convincing evidence of a significant improvement in plasma uptake of a creatine product when compared to creatine monohydrate (and also when compared to other popular creatine products).
Peak creatine plasma concentrations and plasma area-under-curve (AUC) results were significantly greater in the concentrated creatine treatment phase. The assessments were done using the FDA method for assessing relative bioavailability, and the concentrated creatine formulation was approximately 70% greater than that of creatine monohydrate and even higher verses the other products.
Together these studies demonstrate that concentrated creatine provides a more effective dosage form of creatine that comes from improved solubility and results in dramatic oral absorption properties.