| Family physician Dr. Randall M.
Suzuka is a Mililani resident. His office is in the Haleiwa Family Health Center, &
he's affiliated with Wahiawa General Hospital. In
the following article, Dr. Suzuka explains how creatine may help athletes.
CREATINE - THE EXTRA EDGE?
by Dr. Randall M. Suzuka
1998
Creatine is a substance needed by muscles.
Supplementation has been shown to improve performance in speed and power events. Most of
the creatine in the body comes from meat or fish in the diet and is stored in the muscle.
The creatine is formed from the amino
acids arginine, glycine, and methionine. The traditional way of loading the body with
creatine (similar to carbohydrate loading in endurance sports) is to take 20 grams per day
for 5 days. This usually means taking supplements since you would have to eat 2 pounds of
beef a day to get this amount of creatine (0.5 pound of raw beef has 5 grams of creatine).
A recent article in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
looked at the use of creatine in endurance exercise. The authors pointed out that in
endurance exercise such as triathlons
many of the athletes perform at similar levels and that the race is won on short bursts of
extra speed. In this article, the athletes were given 5 grams of creatine per day divided
into two doses. The test used was interval tests at top power during a 60 minute cycling
bout. There was an 18% increase in the number of intervals that the athletes could do. The
drop in blood glucose that occurs with exercise was also reduced.
The article raises the interesting possibility of
using creatine for other sports. Forwards and strikers in soccer, wide receivers and
running backs in football, and other athletes often need bursts of speed to have an edge
over their opponents. No answers for you right now, but I'll be looking for more research
on the subject.
Editor:
Dr Randall M. Suzuka is a graduate of the John Burns School of Medicine. He can be
contacted at 637-5087 or by email. |
