What does Creatine do to your heart?

[skierdude1000]

I've been reading up on creatine and all of the articles seem to say the same thing: we don't know the long term effects and we don't know what it does to your heart.

So I was just curious if anyone here could explain in theory what would happen to your heart if it is enlarged and the water intake of your heart increases (as happens to muscles with creatine)?

I know it's easy to believe there's nothing wrong with creatine, but I'm curious what could happen to my heart.

[nitrored]

Creatine is basically the oldest 'supplement' there is... we know plenty about it... it is safe as can be. Even in non-supplement form creatine has been in meat since the dawn of time.

Creatine effects skeletal muscle and probably has little to no effect on your heart.

[nooner]

I've been reading up on creatine and all of the articles seem to say the same thing: we don't know the long term effects and we don't know what it does to your heart.

So I was just curious if anyone here could explain in theory what would happen to your heart if it is enlarged and the water intake of your heart increases (as happens to muscles with creatine)?

I know it's easy to believe there's nothing wrong with creatine, but I'm curious what could happen to my heart.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...e+side+effects

[nooner]

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a full info sheet for you.

[nooner]

Great value CEE - $36.95 400 servings.

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[utjock12]

ive had 8 heart attacks since i got on it.

but seriously it wont do anything, stuff has been around for a while, it's very well documented, especially for a supplement.

[muscleric]

Skier, check out BodyfortheAges.com Great stuff on creatine and the heart.

[DRP7]

1.)
First, orally ingested creatine does indeed lead to higher inracellular creatine levels in various organs, including heart, sceletal muscle, lungs, kidneys and liver.
the lower the intial creatine levels within an organ, the higher the relative increase of creatine level upon creatine supplementation.

Life Sci. 2001 Aug 31;69(15):1805-15.

Changes of tissue creatine concentrations upon oral supplementation of creatine-monohydrate in various animal species.
Ipsiroglu OS, Stromberger C, Ilas J, Hoger H, Muhl A, Stockler-Ipsiroglu S.
Department of Neonatology and General Pediatrics, University Hospital of Vienna, Austria.

Creatine is a nutritional supplement with major application as ergogenic and neuroprotective substrate. Varying supplementation protocols differing in dosage and duration have been applied but systematic studies of total creatine (creatine and phosphocreatine) content in the various organs of interest are lacking. We investigated changes of total creatine concentrations in brain, muscle, heart, kidney, liver, lung and venous/portal plasma of guinea pigs, mice and rats in response to 2-8 weeks oral creatine-monohydrate supplementation (1.3-2 g/kg/d; 1.4-2.8% of dietary intake). Analysis of creatine and phosphocreatine content was performed by high performance liquid chromatography. Total creatine was determined as the sum of creatine and phosphocreatine. Presupplementation total creatine concentrations were high in brain, skeletal and heart muscle (10-22 micromol/g wet weight), and low in liver, kidney and lung (5-8 micromol/g wet weight). During creatine supplementation, the relative increase of total creatine was low (15-55% of presupplementation values) in organs with high presupplementation concentrations, and high (260-500% of presupplementation values) in organs with low presupplementation concentrations. The increase of total creatine concentrations was most pronounced after 4 weeks of supplementation. In muscle, brain, kidney and lungs, an additional increase (p<0.01) was observed between 2-4 and 2-8 weeks of supplementation. Absolute concentrations of phosphocreatine increased, but there was no increase of the relative (percentual) proportion of phosphocreatine (14-45%) during supplementation. Statistical comparison of total creatine concentrations across the species revealed no systematically differences in organ distribution and in time points of supplementation. Results suggest that in organs with low presupplementation creatine levels (liver, kidney), a major determinant of creatine uptake is an extra-intracellular concentration gradient. In organs with high presupplementation total creatine levels like brain, skeletal and heart muscle, the maximum capacity of creatine accumulation is low compared to other organs. A supplementation period of 2 to 4 weeks is necessary for significant augmentation of the creatine pool in these organs.

PMID: 11665842 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

2.)
And here is some real bad news. This study claims that creatine supplementation does not only not enhance heart function but that it even decreases it.

J Surg Res. 2002 Mar;103(1):1-7. Links
Effect of creatine monohydrate on cardiac function in a rat model of endotoxemia.Vona-Davis L, Wearden PD, Karne NH, Hill RC.
Department of Surgery, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, USA. lvdavis@hsc.wvu.edu

BACKGROUND: Reports have attributed cardiac failure during acute models of endotoxemia to a lack of high-energy phosphates. This study was undertaken to investigate whether creatine (Cr) administered during perfusion could enhance myocardial protection and improve recovery of cardiac function in a rat model of endotoxemia. METHODS: Acute endotoxemia was induced in rats by a bolus injection of Escherichia coli endotoxin (LPS: 4 mg/kg, ip) while control rats were injected with an equal volume of 0.9% normal saline. To assess the adequacy of energy metabolism, freeze-clamped hearts were obtained from animals to study the concentrations of endogenous ATP, phosphocreatine (PCr), inorganic phosphate (P(i)), and intracellular pH by (31)P-cryomagnetic resonance spectroscopy. In a separate experiment, isolated hearts were perfused via a Langendorff column with Krebs-Henseleit buffer containing different concentrations of creatine monohydrate (1, 3, or 10 mM). Cardiac performance was evaluated via a paced (300 bpm) isovolumetric balloon preparation. Measurements of cardiac function including left ventricular developed pressure (LVDP), the maximum rates of ventricular pressure rise (LV +dP/dt) and fall (LV -dP/dt), and coronary flow were made for both LPS and saline-treated animals. RESULTS: High-energy phosphate ratios of PCr/ATP and PCr/P(i) in hearts declined significantly at 4 h after endotoxin treatment. As anticipated, LVDP and LV +dP/dt(max) at a given preload and heart rate were significantly (P < 0.05) lower at 4 h when measured at the same time point. The functional recovery of these parameters was not improved by the addition of creatine monohydrate to the perfusion buffer. Creatine produced a significant (P < 0.05) negative inotropic effect in hearts from saline-treated animals. The LVDP was reduced by 30% at the lowest concentration and by 50% at the highest concentration of creatine monohydrate. Furthermore, creatine significantly (P < 0.05) reduced LV -dP/dt(max) in both saline and LPS-treated rats. These data demonstrate that exogenous creatine does not contribute to myocardial preservation in endotoxemia. CONCLUSIONS: Energy stores in the rat heart decline early in endotoxemia accompanied by reduced myocardial performance, suggesting that the ability of the heart to perform mechanical work is impaired. Cardiac dysfunction in an acute model of endotoxemia was not improved with exogenous creatine during perfusion. Creatine's effects were primarily lusitropic by delaying the onset of myocardial relaxation in all hearts. The deleterious effects of exogenous creatine monohydrate in normal hearts should be examined in future experimental studies.

PMID: 11855910 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

I think that there is some need for further discussion on this!!!

[skierdude1000]

Interesting stuff.... I don't think there will be much discussion about the possible harmful effects of Creatine on your heart on here.... it'd screw up a lot of people's belief systems and supplementation

[Kreig]

We'll know when a million people drop dead of heart attacks in their 40's and 50's.

I think any significant long term problems that result from regular creatine mono will be due to misuse or rare genetic problems.

More people seem to have problems with CEE though. Who knows...