New forms of creatine in human nutrition

Abstract

© 2015 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Creatine is one of the best-known and most studied ergogenic supplements amongathletes. Besides its performance-enhancing power, creatine has significant clinicalpotential in patients with neurological and neuromuscular diseases. The most frequentlyused form of creatine is creatine monohydrate. The utilization of creatine monohydrateseems to be somewhat limited due to its physico-chemical characteristics such as poorwater solubility, instability in aqueous solutions (because of its tendency to cyclize intobiologically inactive creatinine), and finite capacity of creatine transporters. Therefore,the pharmaceutical industry strives to develop novel forms of creatine that will diminishor overcome aforementioned limitations. New formulations of creatine seem to appear inthe market on a daily basis while no sufficient research is conducted regarding theirphysico-chemical characteristics and safety in humans. In this chapter, authors reviewedrecent literature on advanced creatine formulations (e.g., creatine salts, chelates, estersand alkaline buffered forms). The purpose and goal for the use of new creatineformulations have been discussed as well as their advantages and disadvantagescompared to creatine monohydrate