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Originally Posted by pumper  Does anyone on this thread use bodybuilding supplements? and which ones?
In the next few days, I'm going to start taking a "home-made" creatine stack composed of the following (from supphead on the bodybuilding.com forums):
German Creatine Monohydrate -5g pre -2g post
Beta-Alanine -1.5g pre-1.5g post
Bcaa -5g pre-5g during-5g post
Arginine-AKG-3g pre-1.5-post
Glutamine-5g pre-5g post
Caffeine/Tyrosine tabs 200 to 300mg caffeine-250 to 375mg tyrosine pre
Any of you guys ever used any of these? and if so, did they work? Any other supplements that I should also be considering? What about blood sugar effects? |
I'm not into supplements generally. But recently I noticed that my lab results are showing a creatinine trend. I'll be asking my doctor soon what she thinks about supplementation to keep my numbers from falling below the bottom of the 'normal' window. I'm not even sure if this makes sense which is why I'll check with my doctor first, and do it based on actual blood test results.
My creatinine lab results:
0.90 11/2005 (when I had my laparascopic appendectomy)
0.84 08/2007 (just prior to Dx of T2, tweaked exercise & diet)
0.74 04/2008 (continued diet and exercise improvement)
The normal range is 0.70 to 1.50, so I'm trending out of bounds. I need to learn if supplementing is the right thing to do and if so, how much and what kind. If I get up closer to 1.50 with supplementation, can I expect to build muscle faster? I'm just not sure about all this yet.
Anyone considering supplemention should read up on the controversy and side effects like those listed here (
link)
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Controversy
While creatine's effectiveness in the treatment of many muscular, neuromuscular, and neuro-degenerative diseases is documented,[6] its utility as a performance-enhancing food supplement in sports has been questioned[7] (see creatine supplements for more information). Some have even proposed that its use as a performance enhancer should be banned.[8] [9] [10] Despite this, creatine remains very popular.[11]
Side effects
Short-term use of creatine in healthy individuals is generally considered safe (see Creatine supplements#Safety). Continuous intake of excessively high dosages of creatine may lead to any of several possible side effects. It has been hypothesized that consistently high doses could lead to hypertension due to increased water retention [12].
Creatine supplementation utilizing proper cycling and dosages, however, has not been linked with any adverse side effects beyond occasional dehydration due to increased muscular water uptake from the rest of the body.[13]
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".[14]
This opinion is corroborated by the fact that creatine is a natural component in mothers' milk and that creatine is absolutely necessary for brain development in the human embryo and the baby, as well as for optimal physiological functioning of the adult human body, especially the brain, nervous system, the muscles and other organs and cells of high energy expenditure, where the creatine kinase (CK) system is highly expressed and creatine levels are high.
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