ture search to determine the weight of the existing research in terms of the harmful side effects of creatine. Diverse types of athletes were examined in the reviewed research, including those involved in weightlifting and bodybuilding exercises. Based on her findings, Schnirring made several recommendations to physicians working with athletes taking creatine in order to protect their safety. These recommendations included: suggestions for appropriate dosage levels, examining purity test findings,, the possibility of weight gain, making sure to take the athlete's medical history and to monitor kidney, liver and cardiac functions. It was also recommended that physicians consider the many ethical issues involved in taking care of athletes who are taking creatine.
Noting that creatine appears to lead to increased muscle mass in resistance training, Parise, Mihic, MacLennan, Yarasheski and Tarnopolsky (2001) attempted to determine whether this increase was due to an increase in intracellular water or whether there were alterations in protein turnover. Subjects were healthy men and women engaged in aerobic and strength (weight lifting) exercises. All subjects took oral creatine. Men were found to show the increase in mass while women did not, leading the authors to conclude that short term supplements of oral creating may have anticatabolic actions in some proteins (in men), but overall does not increase whole body or mixed-muscle protein synthesis. One problem with this study was that the sample subjects taking creatine (n=7) or placebo (n=7) was relatively small which may not be sufficient to show an effect if one does exist. Therefore, before strong confidence can be placed in this finding, it should be replicated using a larger sample.
A small sample of young women (N-19) were studied for the effects of oral creatine supplementation of muscle phosphocreatine, concentration of muscle strength, and body composition during a three-...