Creatine

Creatine is a combination of three non-essential amino acids. These are methionine, arginine and glycine. Creatine is used to produce adenosine triphosphate, ATP. ATP is the energy of the human body. Creatine is already in the body as a natural substance and in some food (for example beef). The body changes creatine to phosphocreatine. It is then stored as energy in the muscles. The energy systems of the body are: aerobic, lactate and phosphocreatine. Most of the creatine is used in the lactate system and the phosphocreatine system because these two systems need more energy than the aerobic system. They also take a part of the energy from the production or the absorption of creatine.

Chemical structure

Ball and stick structure

Effects on the human body

When someone eats creatine it can increase the size of their muscles and increase the amount of protein synthesis. The increase comes from the water retention of cells that store creatine. For protein synthesis, it is not entirely known, but creatine can help with the recovery of muscle. During the time a body recovers from training, the creatine gives extra energy so the cells of the muscle can speed up the protein absorption of the cells.

The creatine travels around the human body in the blood stream. The heart and the muscles are the main parts that use creatine cells. Most of the creatine production will be stored in the skeletal muscle because these muscles need a lot of energy and they need it quickly. The body produces about two grams of creatine per day. Only 90 to 95% of the human creatine production will travel in the blood stream. The 5% to 10% that is not used is lost.