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Currently, strong efforts are being made toward demonstrating possible risks of using pure creatine monohydrate (Cr-H^sub 2^O). In this article, scientific facts and considerations are presented, which support such concern. A further attempt is made to pursue the concept of possible risks of uncontrolled supplementation in athletes with pure Cr.H^sub 2^O. The problem is viewed from the scientific evidence that a highly conservative mechanism of homeostatic feed-back inhibitory self-regulation of Cr biosynthesis in the body has been evolutionary developed. It is shown that numerous features characteristic to Cr biosynthesis, metabolism, and regulation allow to interpret its stimulatory action in the body as endocrine hormone-- like. Based on this assumption, a practical approach for detecting altered links in Cr metabolism and biosynthesis under conditions of pure Cr.H^sub 2^O overdosing, is suggested. Strategic considerations regarding early diagnosis, prognosis, and correction of the downregulated endogenous Cr biosynthesis in athletes on continuous pure Cr-H^sub 2^O supplementation, are discussed. As a high efficient and safe alternative to pure Cr-H^sub 2^O, a complex nutrition supplement formula for elite athletes is proposed, which exploits natural alpha-- ketoglutarate as a vehicle for delivering exogenous low molecular biologically-active compounds, including Cr.
KEY WORDS: Creatine administration and dosage - Exercise physiology - Creatine biosynthesis - Creatine metabolism - Creatine alpha-ketoglutarate - Dietary supplements.
The extensive marketing of pure Creatine today has made it "one of the fastest growing sports nutritional supplements of the 1990. But creatine's status as the new muscle candy could soon change".1
Creatine (Cr) was discovered in 1832 by the French scientist Chevreul. It took about another hundred years before Eggleton and Eggleton discovered phosphocreatine (CP) in 1927, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) was identified by Lohman in 1929.2 3 Another seventy years was required to bridge the individual biochemicals into a logical system in order to eventually apprehend that Cr has some role in skeletal muscle cell metabolism other than just involvement in the energy supplying system.4 5 But it is this another particular role of Cr that is being vigorously exploited lately with commercial purpose worldwide.6-8
Compared with the long history of Cr supplementation in the Soviet and East Block sports, practical implementation of Cr in the US, both as a promoter of muscle growth and strength, and as...