overloading with creatine

[faz]

i take 5gms a day all year round and dont take a break even though on the tub it recomends that you do but just read this on another forum and i was thinking maybe we should take a break what do you guys think.

The body can only absorb so much creatine, dictated by the number of creatine receptors you have. Net creatine turnover is only about 2g per day. Many people are already 'full', or nearly so, therefore will not respond to additional creatine in any form (food or supplement) - that's what 'non-responder' means.

Because creatine is also produced in the body (which is how vegetarians manage without it in their diet), over time your own production will tail off if you take in more than enough. this is why you should cycle it. There is anecdotal evidence that endogenous creatine production can take a while to be switched back on, the theory being that the longer you take creatine without a break,the longer it will be before you make your own.

I must stress that this is anecdotal evidence, but it certainly won't harm you to have regular breaks from supplementing with creatine, and this is usually recommended on the packaging, whichever brand you're using.

 

[Tcup]

Where is your evidence? There are no proofs that long term intake of creatine is harmful. Also your own creatinen production will not be impaired by any means.


Int J Sports Med. 2005 May;26(4):307-13.

Few adverse effects of long-term creatine supplementation in a placebo-controlled trial.

Groeneveld GJ, Beijer C, Veldink JH, Kalmijn S, Wokke JH, van den Berg LH.

Department of Neurology, University Medical Centre Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Although oral creatine supplementation is very popular among athletes, no prospective placebo-controlled studies on the adverse effects of long-term supplementation have yet been conducted. We performed a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of creatine monohydrate in patients with the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, because of the neuroprotective effects it was shown to have in animal experiments. The purpose of this paper is to compare the adverse effects, and to describe the effects on indirect markers of renal function of long-term creatine supplementation. 175 subjects (age = 57.7 +/- 11.1 y) were randomly assigned to receive creatine monohydrate 10 g daily or placebo during an average period of 310 days. After one month, two months and from then on every fourth month, adverse effects were scored using dichotomous questionnaires, plasma urea concentrations were measured, and urinary creatine and albumin concentrations were determined. No significant differences in the occurrence at any time of adverse effects due to creatine supplementation were found (23 % nausea in the creatine group, vs. 24 % in the placebo group, 19 % gastro-intestinal discomfort in the creatine group, vs. 18 % in the placebo group, 35 % diarrhoea in the creatine group, vs. 24 % in the placebo group). After two months of treatment, oedematous limbs were seen more often in subjects using creatine, probably due to water retention. Severe diarrhoea (n = 2) and severe nausea (n = 1) caused 3 subjects in the creatine group to stop intake of creatine, after which these adverse effects subsided. Long-term supplementation of creatine did not lead to an increase of plasma urea levels (5.69 +/- 1.47 before treatment vs. 5.26 +/- 1.44 at the end of treatment) or to a higher prevalence of micro-albuminuria (5.4 % before treatment vs. 1.8 % at the end of treatment).

Eur J Nutr. 2005 Jun;44(4):255-61. Epub 2004 Aug 11.

Risk assessment of the potential side effects of long-term creatine supplementation in team sport athletes.

Schroder H, Terrados N, Tramullas A.

Lipids and Cardiovascular Epidemiology, Unit Institut Municipal d'Investigacio Medica, IMIM, c/Doctor Aiguader 80, 08003, Barcelona, Spain. hschroeder@imim.es

BACKGROUND: Use of creatine has become widespread among sportsmen and women, although there are no conclusive evidences concerning possible health risks of long-term creatine supplementation. THE AIM OF THE STUDY: To investigate long-term effects of creatine monohydrate supplementation on clinical parameters related to health. METHODS: Eighteen professional basketball players of the first Spanish Basketball League participated in the present longitudinal study. The subjects were ingesting 5 g creatine monohydrate daily during three competition seasons. Blood was collected in the morning after an overnight fast, five times during each of the three official competition seasons of the first National Basketball League (September 1999-June 2000, September 2000-June 2001 and September 2001-June 2002) and the European League. Standard clinical examination was performed for 16 blood chemistries. RESULTS: The plasma concentrations of all clinical parameters did not alter significantly during the analyzed time frames of creatine supplementation. All of these parameters were, with the exception of creatinine and creatine kinase, within their respective clinical ranges at all time points. CONCLUSION: Our data shows that low-dose supplementation with creatine monohydrate did not produce laboratory abnormalities for the majority of

 

[Jester]

Quote[/b] ]There is anecdotal evidence that endogenous creatine production can take a while to be switched back on, the theory being that the longer you take creatine without a break,the longer it will be before you make your own.

But what is the effective difference, if indeed this DOES exist (which I really don't think is likely)...?

If you have XXX amount of creatine from exogenous, or XX from endogenous....exo seems better to me.

 

[BIZ]

Endogenous creatine production would likely resume fairly quickly in order to facilitate normal function of the human body. It hasn't been studied likely because it is a non-issue. The adverse events reported would sky rocket if this weren't the case. And as far as creatine being available in food source, this is true, but most of the meat it is in gets cooked and degrades the creatine into its cousin creatinine. So, if one wanted to increase creatine stores above normal, it would most likely HAVE to be supplemented. I would take the whole dosing thing to task because I am not sure loading is necessary. It gets you saturated a bit quicker, but the cost financially may not be worth it.

 

[colby2152]

From what I remember, doesn't the body take in creatine at about 2.6 or 2.9 g/day? If that's the case, wouldn't taking 5g four days a week be the ample amount? I guess taking 5g every day would work too as the leftover creatine that isn't absorbed would leave the body via urine.

-Colby