What is Creatine Monohydrate?

Creatine Monohydrate is used by athletes and bodybuilders to help build and repair muscle. Creatine Monohydrate is also known as creatine and can be purchased over the counter at any health food and supplement store.

Creatine occurs naturally within humans and vertebrates and helps to supply energy to muscle and nerve cells.

For any activity that is considered anaerobic, (weightlifting, swimming, sprinting, etc) creatine can be a good way to supply the muscles with the extra energy they need to continue the workout.

Potential Side Effects:

Short-term use of creatine in healthy individuals is generally considered safe. For those who consistently take creatine can experience diareah, increased water retention and the possibility of the body no longer generating natual creatine.

According to the opinion statement of the European Food Safety Authorities (EFSA) published in 2004 it was concluded that “The safety and bioavailability of the requested source of creatine, creatine monohydrate in foods for particular nutritional uses, is not a matter of concern provided that there is adequate control of the purity of this source of creatine (minimum 99.95%) with respect to dicyandiamide and dihydro-1,3,5-triazine derivatives, as well as heavy metal contamination. The EFSA Panel endorses the previous opinion of the SCF that high loading doses (20 gram / day) of creatine should be avoided. Provided high purity creatine monohydrate is used in foods for particular nutritional uses, the Panel considers that the consumption of doses of up to 3g/day of supplemental creatine, similar to the daily turnover rate of creatine, is unlikely to pose any risk”.