If you ever search for fitness supplements there’s a good chance that you stumble upon the supplement creatine. From gyms to magazines to websites and maybe even from your fitness buddies.

The science of creatine deals with energy production, specifically in replenishing used energy. As humans we use the molecule ATP as our energy source. Unfortunately your muscle cells want to keep the levels of ATP in the cell pretty low. Reason being is that we use too much energy at once it will cause cells to be acidic and muck up all cellular functions. In order to combat this the muscle cells need little help from creatine kinase. When ATP is used creatine kinase helps keep the acid levels in check by taking out hydrogen ions.

On top of that creatine kinase also takes another by-product from used ATP called ADP and brings it to its body phosphocreatine to replenish ATP. This system of energy production known as the phosphagen system is a system used to produce energy for the first 10 seconds of intense physical activity, before other energy production from other sources such as sugar glucose and fat is even utilized. Where creatine comes in is the production of phosphocreatine. Remember your body doesn’t like too many ATP molecules in cells, so whenever your body has excess ATP, ATP reacts with creatine to formulate phosphocreatine. The more creatine in your body the more fossil creatine produced and the more energy you can replenish.

And this is where creatine supplementation comes into play. Although your body can naturally synthesize creatine, from the breakdown of amino acids glycine and arginine, studies consistently show that taking creatine supplements can be beneficial, especially with increasing power outputs. Emitted analysis showed subjects improving power output by up to 26 percent after taking a creatine monohydrate supplement.

But one thing that creatine supplementation does not do, which many people believe it does, is increase muscle mass. While at least not directly. The two ways that muscle mass might increase with creatine is by providing more energy for higher output, which then provides a greater stimulus for muscle protein synthesis and by retaining water which might make muscles seem bigger without adding actual muscle mass. There’s even more benefits.

Creatine supplementation has also been linked to replenishing glycogen which is also important for energy production reducing depression symptoms decreasing fatigue and there’s also even a state that showed vast improvement on reducing headaches and dizziness from kids that suffer from traumatic brain injury.

As far and how much you should take many manufacturers have recommend using a loading phase, where for the first week you take more creatine than you would for the following weeks. But the research shows that there’s not really any significant benefit in doing so. The most typically recommended amount that has shown positive benefits is between three to five grams per day and you can decide to stop taking creatine whenever you want to.

But what about the dangerous side effects you’ve heard about creatine. There are definitely concerns in the case of what creatine does to your kidneys and liver but these concerns have been either debunked or lack any concrete evidence especially in human trials. The only notable side effect is the retention of water in your cells which might make you look a little bit more plump and weigh a bit heavier but if that’s why your goes to begin with more power to you.

If you have more questions about the subject leave your suggestions below.