Creatine is one common supplement that you can use to achieve several benefits in your body if you are an athlete. It has been in use for a long time and as such, it exists in different forms that have evolved with time throughout its history. Creatine Pills & Powder is one most studied supplement used by athletes and that’s why there is sufficient information on it.
The two common forms that creatine supplement exists are the pills and powder forms. These have often lead to problems as people are not sure which form is the best for use. Since both forms exists in practically equal measures, this article highlights some important information on both forms with a stress on the pros and cons of both forms.
Creatine in details
In the body, creatine is a compound, which naturally produced from the amino acids. It also acquires from other sources other than the body’s amino acids for example the proteins of animal food. The creatine referred in this article however is the supplemented form that can be bought from different stores.
Dietary supplemented creatine that is bought ensures that you get as much creatine as much as possible and not only the minute amounts produced naturally in the body. Used this way, it has an impact on the performance of an athlete and also on the general health of the user. Just like many other dietary supplements, there have risen concerns about its use since it generally interferes with several physiological functions of the body.
Generally, for athletes, creatine is very important in ensuring that increase strength, increase muscles mass and performance as mentioned above. It is the most commonly used supplement because it is among the few supplements that prove to bring about the intended results.
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Benefits of using creatine as a supplement
Creatine has a wide range of benefits some of which we describe here:
1. Creatine increases your energy levels
Creatine has the effect of increasing the available energy. This means that when it comes to your workouts, you will work harder than ever before. Working out harder also leads to muscle hypertrophy. The reason behind the increase in the energy is because creatine increases anabolic responses as a result of increased hormones responsible for such activities in the muscle. A good example of such a hormone is insulin-like growth factor-1(IGF-1).
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2. Reduction of protein breakdown
Creatine has a great impact in reducing the breakdown of proteins in the body. This is advantageous to bodybuilders since it means that they will retain a lot of proteins some of which are a crucial part of the muscles.
3. Hydration
Creatine increases water concentration in muscles. This water is responsible for making your muscles stronger and bigger.
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4. Improving brain function
Aside from muscles and bodybuilding, creatine has been known to improve the functioning of the brain. The supplement when taken leads to increased brain creatine which may improve the function of the brain. The brain functions that have been noticed to improve include the short-term memory and reasoning.
5. Growth signaling
Creatine is also important in growth signaling. The growth signals are particularly meant to improve muscle hypertrophy through the action of satellite cells, which are responsible for sending the signals. The signals mainly stimulate muscle repair and growth particularly after your workouts and training sessions.
6. Reducing the levels of inhibitors
The major inhibitor for muscle growth is myostatin. When it is held back, muscle growth proceeds at a faster rate. Creatine is a very good inhibitor of this compound and the overall results is increase in muscle mass is at a faster rate.
Besides its use by bodybuilders, creatine has other applications especially for medical purposes. It has for instance been considered to be helpful in heart diseases, some form of cancer, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson disease among others.
Drawbacks of Creatine
Creatine has been referred to as the most safe supplement to be taken. This implies that it has very few if any drawbacks. Many researchers have looked into this area and have concluded the same way. The most important thing that needs the right dosage. As long as one is taking the right dosage, they can be sure to stay safe when using the supplements unlike other common supplements. There are however some few concerns that a few people have noticed when using creatine. These concerns include:
Cramps and dehydration
A few people who have used creatine supplements have complained of cramps and dehydration. This has not been proved and there exist no scientific explanation to it. It has actually been shown that creatine actually does the opposite of this health effects.
Bloating
Bloating is perhaps the most reported problem associated with taking creatine supplements. Also, Bloating results in discomfort especially when one is just beginning to take the supplements, a period called the creatine loading phase. Bloating comes as a result of increased water in the muscles leading to weight gain. The bloating seems to affect only a section of the people who can still avoid it by restricting themselves to a certain amount of the dosage.
Kidney problems
There are no problems that are caused by creatine on the kidney. People have associated creatine with kidney problems because increase creatine also leads to increase creatinine levels and creatinine levels are used as kidney markers. However, this may prove challenging if there already exist a kidney problem. People with such problems are advised not to use creatine before seeking advice from a medical specialist.
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Types of creatine supplements
It comes in different forms some of which are highlighted here.
Creatine monohydrate
Creatine monohydrate is the form of creatine which is commonly used in different studies. It is sometimes considered the standard creatine over which all the other forms are compared. It also the most potent form.
Creatine pyruvate
Creatine pyruvate has a major effect on increasing the blood levels of creatine. This however does not seem to have an influence over the performance.
Creatine citrate
This form is more water-soluble compared to the others and can help avoid clumping in the water.
Creatine magnesium chelate
When this form of creatine is used as a supplement, it tends to prevent the gain of water especially at low doses.
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Buffered creatine and creatine hydrochloride
These 2 forms are best known for their conversion back into their basic form by the stomach acid.
There are many other forms including:
- Micronized creatine monohydrate.
- Creatine ethyl ester.
Forms Of Creatine Supplements
Creatine supplements can come in form of pills, powders or capsules. Capsules contain the powder and therefore there are two major forms in which creatine can acquire, that is, the powder forms and pills forms. Each of these two forms have their own advantages and disadvantages, which clearly highlighted here below. Generally, people say that they are minor if any differences between the two forms. The most important thing to note here is that whether they are pills are the powder, the content of creatine is the same. Differences therefore come in in other aspects other than content of creatine taken in.
Creatine Pills
Creatine pills are usually taken together with fluids such as water orally. Taking creatine this way is the best way in which you can increase the levels of creatine in your body. Take creatine together with multivitamins without any problems.
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Pros of Creatine Pills
- Transportation – Transportation of pills is much easier instead of powders. This is because they are not likely to spill.
- Less wastage – When taking pills or tablets, you expect little wastage since tablets are not likely to be spilled while being consumed.
- Dosage – When it comes to dosage, pills ensure that you get the exact dosage as specified. Pills have that specific amount of monohydrate hence every pill will be the best for you.
Cons of Creatine Pills
- High Cost – Purchasing pills can be troublesome for some people because they have a higher purchase cost compared to powder forms of creatine. This will be particularly felt during the loading phase when you need more of the pills.
- Absorption is slower – Compared to powder, pills have a slowly effect after you take them. Attributed to their compact form, which means that they must first be digested before they take the effect on your body. To help minimize the problem, they are taken earlier so that they can be absorbed.
- Combining with other supplements is harder – Creatine can be a very good companion when combined with complementary supplements. The common supplements which are best combined include the carbohydrates and proteins. With pills however, it might be difficult to combine and only powder form can be useful.
Creatine Powder
Creatine powder is perhaps the most common form of creatine consumed, at least by bodybuilders and other people who like working out.
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Pros of Powder
- Cost effective – One can easily afford creatine powder as compared to pills.
- Absorbed More Readily – The form of powder as compared to the tablets s readily absorbed because there is no need of digestion.
- Combining with other supplements is easier – Creatine combines more easily with other supplements like mentioned above. The powder form will make it easier to combine unlike their counterparts the pills.
These pros have made many people like the powder as compared to pills. The fact that they are cost effective means that one will spend less on them and also the fact that they can be combined easily with other supplements means that one will get maximum benefits.
Cons of Powder
- Not easy to transport – Spills are common with powdered forms of creatine when transporting and this leads usually to great losses.
- Wastage – Apart from wastage due to transportation problems, powdered creatine is more likely to waste through other forms also. They may for example get stack around the corners of the containers.
- Incorrect dosage – One is more likely to get incorrect dosage when using powdered form of creation as compared to pills. This aspect also closely links to wastage because when the powder sticks on the vessel of taking the powder. Incorrect dosage may even lead to side effects being experience more often.
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Effectiveness Of Creatine
Whether in powder or pills form, creatine affects several physiological functions of the body and therefore leading to some effects. How effective creatine can be depends on several goals that one intends to achieve after having used creatine. Here is a clear overview of how effective the supplement can be in the line of what one needs to achieve.
Muscles mass
Creatine has effects on the muscles and several athletes and bodybuilders have been using it to gain muscle mass. With muscle mass, creatine is more effective compared to any other supplement known including the proteins. This will particularly be more pronounced if it is used in during resistance training. All of these arguments are a result of intense training in the area.
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Strength
You can increase Strength of the muscles through several processes by different supplements. There are those supplements that improve strength through water retention. For creatine however, it has its own way of improving the strength in the muscles. This is through increasing the energy of in the muscles, which means that the muscle cells have the energy needed for their actions. This is much way better than water retention and this makes creatine among the best supplement ever to bring about strength.
Performance
For performance, creatine is good in increasing performance especially when it comes to short burst exercises. It is ability to stimulate production of ATP in sufficient amounts in the muscles is the one responsible for increasing the performance. Creatine does not seem to extend this effectiveness to such activities that require long endurance.
It is very clear that creatine is a perfect supplement that you can count on to help get the best effect ever as seen above. All the information on creatine has been supported by great research and there is therefore no doubt about its effectiveness.
How to take Creatine supplements?
Creatine is an orally taken supplement. Different ages can take in creatine as follows depending on their needs and goals.
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Children and teenagers
Creatine supplements are not good for children. Sometimes however, they may take them for medical purposes although it is very rare. Requires advice from medical specialist.
Adults
Doses for adults vary from person to person and with the intended effects. For example, the loading dosage requires in exercise performance take 5 g of creatine monohydrate 4 times in a single day for a period of not more than 5 days. One can also take 2 g of the creatine monohydrate each day as part of the maintenance dosage in exercise performance. Something that has been researched and found to be good when taking in creatine is combining it with carbohydrates. The carbohydrate make absorption better.
The Right Time to Take Creatine
Whether you are taking the powder or pills, creatine needs to be taken at the right time. This will depend on which activity you are engaging in during the day. Basically, take creatine during the day when one plans on Exercising.
On the day when you plan to carry out your exercises, you can take creatine in three different way according to how you may like it.
Shortly before exercising
You can take 5g about 30 minutes before you start your exercises. This means that you are going to supply your muscles with creatine instantly and will increase your performance.
Shortly After Exercising
Take creatine Within 30 minutes after your exercises in which you should take just 5g of the creatine. Creatine is good when it comes to muscles recovery therefore people who take creatine after exercises usually have this in mind.
Mornings And Evenings
Take your creatine some few hours before or after the exercise. This is not however justified and may not be good. Using creatine this way produces the least effects as compared to the other two ways. When not on your exercises, you can still supplement your creatine without any bad health effects. This is mainly to ensure that you have high levels of creatine in your muscles all the time. Just ensure that your doses are a little less as compared to when you are going to exercises.
Interactions of Creatine with Other Compounds in the Body
Creatine interacts with several compounds that may also ingeste. These are particularly drugs and therefore when one is taking certain medication, they should be careful not to include creatine as well because it may lead to some unwanted health effects. Some of the drugs that interact with creatine in the body include:
Caffeine
Caffeine interacts with creatine in the body and results may not be good to the user. First, caffeine has the effect of reducing the effect of creatine in the body. It also possess the risk of dehydration. When used together with ephedra, the effect may be disastrous since there is the risk of developing stroke.
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Diuretics
Diuretics or what some people call water pills, also interact with creatine leading to harmful effects on the body. Like caffeine, they also lead to dehydration in addition to increasing the chances of kidney damage.
Probenecid
Probenecid is a drug used to treat a condition called gout. It interacts with creatine leading to increased chances of kidney damage.
NSAIDs
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs interact with creatine and also usually increases the risk of kidney damage. They are some of the most used pain relieving drugs and so one is likely to use them and still use creatine. Great care should therefore take a while.
Creatine Loading
Creatine loading is another good aspect that directly or indirectly relate to whether one uses the creatine powder or pills. It is a phase where one tries to maximize as much as possible the available creatine in their muscles. It basically involves taking in more creatine at the shortest time possible so that the muscles saturate faster.
Necessity Of Creatine Loading Phase
Creatine loading serves to immediately boost your creatine levels at once so that your main task after the phase is to maintain the levels. However, it is not purely necessary that one undergo this phase. This is because even taking smaller doses can eventually bring the levels up and only time makes the difference here.
How Can Creatine Loading Be Beneficial?
Creatine loading is all about maximizing the muscular creatine levels at the shortest time possible and this can be beneficial. Some of the crucial benefits include the following:
- Accelerate Muscle Gain.
- Strength and power also increases up to as much as 5 to 25 %.
- Performance too increases during high intensity exercises.
- Creatine loading is also important in preventing injury such as strains, muscle tightness and other types of injuries common in sporting activities.
Side Effects
Generally, creatine loading is safe and can be used over both the long and short-term periods without many issues. However, it has its own side effects:
Gastrointestinal related issues
Gastrointestinal issues are sometimes experienced but it is very rare for one to experience them. These problems include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Weight Gain And Bloating
Generally, creatine associates with weight gain and bloating. With creatine loading, this seems to be accelerated.
Conclusion
Whether you want to use pills or the powder is up to you. It all gets down to what you do every now and then. For example, if you are a person who likes moving from place to place, then you will probably have to settle for pills to avoid losses. Just keep in mind that powders and pills contain the same substance which is equally beneficial and only minor differences comes in.