Creatine Monohydrate » guanidino http://www.creatine-monohydrate.org/blog A Blog all about fitness and bodybuilding supplements like creatine. Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:19:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Use of Creatine in Neuromuscular Disease http://www.creatine-monohydrate.org/blog/creatine/use-of-creatine-in-neuromuscular-disease http://www.creatine-monohydrate.org/blog/creatine/use-of-creatine-in-neuromuscular-disease#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:23:59 +0000 editor http://www.creatine-monohydrate.org/blog/creatine/use-of-creatine-in-neuromuscular-disease Creatine is a guanidino compound that is found in meat­containing products and produced endogenously by the liver and pancreas. Creatine is transported into a variety of tissues via a sodium-dependent transporter. The major stores for creatine include brain, heart, and skeletal muscle. Creatine functions as an energy buffer during periods of increased metabolic demand, and as an energy shuttle between mitochondria and cytosol, and may have a role in protein synthesis. Studies in young, healthy males have shown an increase in muscle creatine content by 10-20% following a creatine loading protocol (approximately 20 g/day X 5 days). This has resulted in an increase in high-intensity exercise performance and an increase in fat-free mass after 3 to 7 days of loading. The performance effects are greatest in those who have the lowest intramuscular creatine concentrations. Patients with muscular dystrophy, inflammatory myopathies, and mitochondrial cytopathies have been shown to have low total creatine and phosphocreatine concentrations. Muscle weakness and fatigue are common symptoms in these patients. Studies have shown an increase in high-intensity exercise performance and total body weight in patients who have mitochondrial cytopathy and neuromuscular disorders following creatine loading. Longer-term studies are required to measure the impact of this on functional activities of daily living. Two recent animal studies have provided fascinating insight to the potential for creatine to attenuate neurodegenerative disorder progression. In one study, rats were poisoned with 3-nitro-proprionic (NP) acid (complex 2 inhibitor), which resulted in degeneration of the corpus striatum (Huntington’s disease model). In those rats treated with creatine and 3Np, there was an attenuation of neural drop-out and lesser oxidative stress compared with those receiving only 3NP. This research group later showed a neuroprotective effect and survival benefit from creatine administration to mice with the G93A FALS mutation (a model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [ALS]).

The aforementioned study suggests that creatine may be a useful adjunctive treatment in neuromuscular and neurometabolic disorders. However, long-term studies with objective outcome measures and functional measures are required to explore the therapeutic potential of this compound.

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