The Top 5 Strangest "Benefits" Of Creatine

By Dan Boyle

1. Does not increase muscle mass

So this is a hidden benefit because this proves that creatine is not a drug. What really happens in the real world to your body when you take creatine... the energy source your body uses for fast muscle movements like weight training is called ATP-CP. What happens is you body breaks down ATP and the breaking of those bonds releases energy for you to use.

Creatine naturally occurs in the body, but when you put more into your system, you are allowing your body to take ADP, the resulting amino acid from the break down of ATP, and turn it back into ATP. This simply gives your muscles more energy.

Muscle mass increase not from creatine, but because of the extra energy that creatine is allowing your body to produce. This lets you complete more reps and sometimes heavier weights.

2. Creatine gives you brainpower

Say what? More energy to grow your muscles and now increased brainpower? This creatine is beginning to seem like a miracle supplement.

Researchers at the University of Sydney and Macquarie University ran a study that found increased brain capacity. The test included an IQ test and things like remembering numbers chains. They used vegetarians because creatine is produced in the muscles of animals as well, they didn't want those dosages of creatine to affect their results.

However, they found that in the short-term the people that received creatine were able to perform better at each test. Dr. Rae, a doctor at the University of Sydney, was quoted as saying... "creatine supplementation give a significant measurable boost to brain power." Pretty cool huh?

Dr. Rae drew the conclusion that creatine was able to provide the brain with more energy to use for computational tasks. Make sense because creatine is all about creating more energy for your muscles!

3. Creatine can combat cancer

Now this is sounding a little too good to be true. However tests have been run and there is a connective tissue disorder called Dermatomyositis. This is a connective tissue disease that is marked by inflammation of the muscle and the skin. Up to 50% of the cases of Dermatomyositis actual contain the presence of cancer.

The muscles with this condition get so weak that you will actually have trouble moving, getting out of chairs, raising your arms, and even trouble holding your head up. You neck muscles can actually be that weak. So you can see this is a serious condition. Good news is that is very rare.

Creatine was introduced in two different studies, one in the UK and one in Sweden. The studies only worked with around 37 people, so as with all studies... further studies are required. However, creatine plus exercise according to this study showed a muscle strength increase in the subject that received the creatine.

4. Creatine fights the progression of Parkinson's Disease

Chalk another incredible benefit for creatine!

Studies have shown that creatine has severely slowed the progressive nature of Parkinson's Disease. Dr. Dian Murphey at the Nation Institutes of Health, commissioned a study of 200 patients in the early stages of Parkinson's.

These particular patients have not received any prior medication for the condition. So in these early diagnoses of PD (Parkinson's Disease), the speed at which the brain degenerates was slowed down.

Similar studies have found when creatine was tested on mice, I know not the best comparison, but... when tested on mice, the creatine acted as an antioxidant that prevented damage from compounds that are harmful to brain cells. Also the mice experienced no loss of the cells that are typically affected by PD.

5. Overall health in middle to older age men and women gets better

I am beginning to wonder how creatine ever got a bad name to begin with. This last "strange" benefit deals more with the normal affects of how creatine is typically used.

As the human body grows older the natural aging process will naturally deteriorate the muscle mass in your body and increase the amount of body fat. Unless you do something about it, you are looking for a painful number of the golden years.

To help middle to older aged men and women, a study was done to find out the affects of using creatine to help with their resistance training and muscle building. Surprising enough the men and women saw greater muscle benefits from taking the creatine.

They had increased endurance and muscular strength. This alone reverses the natural progression of the body and these subjects say body fat go down the muscle mass go up!

Dan Boyle has been weight training for the last 7 years and decided to wake up and start teaching the real results that come from a true weight training lifestyle. Supplements are a big part of the weight trainers life and the correct choices mean everything to your health and results. To better understand the personal benefits of creatine to you and your weight training, visit The Lifting Revolution at http://www.liftingrevolution.com/blog

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