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  • If you ever searched for fitness supplements, there's a good chance that you've stumbled

  • upon the supplement Creatine.

  • From gyms, to magazines, to websites, and maybe even from your fitness buddies.

  • The science of creatine deals with energy production, specifically in replenishing used

  • energy.

  • As humans, we use the molecule ATP as our energy source.

  • Unfortunately, your muscle cells want to keep the levels of ATP in the cell pretty low.

  • Reason being is that if we use too much energy at once, it will cause cells to be acidic

  • and muck up all cellular functions.

  • In order to combat this, the muscle cells need a little help from creatine kinase.

  • When ATP is used, creatine kinase helps keep the acid levels in check by taking out hydrogen

  • ions.

  • On top of that, creatine kinase also takes another byproduct from used ATP called ADP

  • and brings it to its buddy phosphocreatine to replenish ATP.

  • This system of energy production, known as the Phosphagen system, is the system used

  • to produce energy for the first 10 seconds of intense physical activity before other

  • energy production from other sources, such as sugar glucose and fat, is even utilized.

  • Where creatine comes in is the production of phosphocreatine.

  • Remember, your body doesn't like too many ATP molecules in cells, so whenever your body

  • has excess ATP, ATP reacts with creatine to formulate phosphocreatine.

  • The more creatine in your body, the more phosphocreatine produced, the more energy you can replenish.

  • And this is where creatine supplementation comes into play.

  • Although your body can naturally synthesize creatine from the breakdown of the amino acids

  • glycine and arginine, studies consistently show that taking creatine supplements can

  • be beneficial, especially with increasing power output.

  • A meta-analysis showed subjects improving power output by up to 26% after taking a creatine

  • monohydrate supplement.

  • But one thing that creatine supplementation does not do which many people believes it

  • does is increase muscle mass, well at least not directly.

  • The two ways that muscle mass might increase with creatine is by providing more energy

  • for higher power output, which then provides a greater stimulus for muscle protein synthesis,

  • and by retaining water, which might make muscles seem bigger without adding actual muscle mass.

  • And there's even more benefits.

  • Creatine supplementation has also been linked to replenishing glycogen, which is also important

  • for energy production, reducing depression symptoms, decreasing fatigue, and there's

  • also even study that showed vast improvement on reducing headaches and dizziness from kids

  • that suffered from traumatic brain injury.

  • As far as how and how much you should take, many manufacturers have recommended using

  • a "loading" phase, where for the first week you take more creatine than you would for

  • the following weeks, but the research shows that there's not really any significant benefit

  • in doing so.

  • The most typically recommended amount that has shown positive benefits is between 3-5

  • grams per day and you can decide to stop taking creatine whenever you want to.

  • But what about the dangerous side effects you've heard about creatine?

  • There are definitely concerns in the case of what creatine does to your kidneys and

  • liver, but, these concerns have either been debunked or lack any concrete evidence, especially

  • in human trials.

  • The only notable side effect is the retention of water in your cells, which might make you

  • look a little bit more plump and a weigh a bit heavier, but if that's one of your goals

  • to begin with, more power to you.

  • Have more questions about other popular supplements?

  • Leave your suggestions below!

  • And don't forget to like and subscribe for more future videos!

If you ever searched for fitness supplements, there's a good chance that you've stumbled

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