Greater creatine absorbtion with an insulin spike

[garytheincubus]

I have heard that creatine absorbtion is linked to an insulin spike in the bloodstream. Insulin causes your blood cells to absorb sugar, so it makes sense for creatine to follow suit. Some creatine mixtures come with lots of sugar (for example cell-tech, which contains high quantities of dextrose) but others tell you to mix creatine powder with water. Does anyone know more about the science behind this, and which method is more effective?

[MiketheSwede]

I have heard that creatine absorbtion is linked to an insulin spike in the bloodstream. Insulin causes your blood cells to absorb sugar, so it makes sense for creatine to follow suit. Some creatine mixtures come with lots of sugar (for example cell-tech, which contains high quantities of dextrose) but others tell you to mix creatine powder with water. Does anyone know more about the science behind this, and which method is more effective?

"Insulin causes your blood cells to absorb sugar, so it makes sense for creatine to follow suit" is true.....
"but others tell you to mix creatine powder with water" - obviously you have to drink it down with something!! Bit of dextros with your creatine and was it down with a few mouthfulls of water.

But don't mix the water in untill you are ready to drink it, otherwise the creatine will turn into creatinine. (which isn't good)

[Psycho445]

Spiking your insulin DOES improve creatine absorbtion, but it is also way overrated. It will not effect things as much as celltech would lead you to believe.

Also, don't worry about creatine turning into creatinine in water. Even if you heat the creatine and put it in something acidic, it will still convert slowly. Just consume on the order of 6-8 hours from the time you mix it.

[Drumkid20]

Not this again....Creatine wont turn into creatinine in almost anything. Some people say to avoid any juice because the extremely weak acids will turn it into creatinine. NOT TRUE. I Always take my mono with grape juice or orange juice (my fav juices). It's basic acid/base chemistry-now your stomach acid would have a much better chance of hydrolyzing creatine to creatinine, but thats because its freaking like 6 molar HCl a STRONG ASS acid- go ahead at school pour it on your skin and try it!

[Psycho445]

6 molar HCL is no joke. That will burn through any glass and destroy creatine more quickly than you could drink it. 6 molar HCL ~= -1 pH (yeah....negative). Good thing grape juice is only about 3.5 pH ~= .0003 molar [H+] and we don't have to worry about creatine converting to creatinine

[bodybuilder420]

To answer the original posters question, no, an insulin spike will not cause greater absorption of creatine. Creatine has an absorption rate of 99% by the utilization of a naturally occuring bodily transport mechanism known as the creatine-transport system. This acts independently from insulin, there is no interaction between the two.

[bgates1654]

6 molar HCL is no joke. That will burn through any glass

Lol no it wont.

[GeneGnomeX]

To answer the original posters question, no, an insulin spike will not cause greater absorption of creatine. Creatine has an absorption rate of 99% by the utilization of a naturally occuring bodily transport mechanism known as the creatine-transport system. This acts independently from insulin, there is no interaction between the two.

hm...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...ct&dr=abstract

etc

[bodybuilder420]

I could post abstracts too, but it would be easier to read a biochemistry book. The trick is to post abstracts that are relavant to the point you are trying to make.

The first abstract you posted is a study I actually cited when writing a comprehensive review on creatine for the Journal of Hyperplasia Research.

The mechanism does not lie in insulin spiking, rather it has everything to do with the sodium-potassium pumps in the muscle fibers. Increasing the activity of these pumps MAY (key word) increase the PASSIVE (not active) transport of creatine into skeletal muscle. So how can you increase the activity of these pumps? Eat a regular, well balanced meal. In fact, protein intake alone (from whey) is most likely more than enough to open the pumps. And FYI, the CHO mix they used also contained 12.5 g fat, 450 mg sodium, 750 mg potassium, <675 mg chloride, 750 mg calcium, 300 mg magnesium, 500 mg phosphorous, and 15 mg iron. One could easily say that the fat content increased sodium-potassium pump activity, or that it was the sodium itself, which has also been shown to produce those results. So it does not appear to be a particularly well controlled study.

The second abstract does not deal with creatine absorption at all.

And the thrid abstract I've actually quoted several times in some of my articles as a case for loading creatine, but not using carbs to increase absorption. If you read the whole study, you would see that he does not recommend using glucose in conjunction with creatine for two reasons:

1. Glucose uptake pre-workout is not a generally accepted protocol.
2. The higher levels of creatine uptake may have been skewed by the already elevated levels of plasma creatine concentrations at baseline in the participants in that group.

So you see, sometimes you have to look past the abstracts to get to the real idea of what they are talking about. Often times the researchers don't even write the abstracts themselves, so some of their more important findings may not be represented in the abstract. Even if they do write the abstract themselves, the journal publishers often cut it down to fit in their journal (I've seen abstracts cut in half before). This especially happens in the JAP journal