Creatine MagnaPower

Creatine continues to make inroads in the sports nutrition market, showing potential for maximizing performance and enhancing skeletal muscle. As a supplement, it is believed to exert its influence by increasing muscle creatine and phosphocreatine concentrations, creating a higher rate of ATP resynthesis, resulting in a delay in the onset of muscle fatigue and facilitating more rapid recovery.

In specific areas of muscle energy biochemistry, particularly in the generation of ATP, magnesium has overlapping effects with creatine. In fact, magnesium is intimately linked to the metabolic cycle of ATP production, and creatine requires magnesium for its energy producing cycle. Creatine MagnaPower™, developed by Albion Laboratories, is the first ingredient to link the two molecules together, creating a bioavailable chelate.

Magnesium and creatine are intimately intertwined in the energy producing CPK reaction (see figure 1). The majority of energy required for high intensity, anaerobic activity is derived from the CPK and the Myokinase reactions. The formation of ATP via the Myokinase reaction needs magnesium to catalyze the ATP formation and the CPK reactions require creatine and magnesium as well to cycle formation of the ATP needed for muscle contraction.

Supplementation with creatine has been shown to increase muscle creatine levels, making more creatine available for ATP production and energy demands. In the muscle, creatine is reversibly converted to phosphocreatine, which is the chief store of high-energy phosphates in the muscle. Studies have shown a more rapid resynthesis of phosphocreatine following exercise in athletes who are supplementing their diets with creatine, due to creatine's ability to increase overall phosphocreatine levels and stimulate its regeneration. It has been found to be most effective as an ergogenic aid for athletes engaging in repeated bouts of brief, strenuous, high-intensity, maximal exercise. It may enhance strength and power performances, leading to increased repetitions and power output.

While creatine has been shown to be very effective, it is also susceptible to transformation into creatinine through acid hydrolysis. A great deal of creatine can be thus transformed in the stomach's acidic conditions. By chelating creatine with magnesium, the creatine can be protected from the cyclization, making higher quantities of the physiologically active form of creatine available to the body. This chelation also provides more bioavailable magnesium, which has its own energy benefits.

There have been several studies on the cardioprotective, antiarrythmic or positive ionotropic benefits of magnesium. The heart, the body's hardest working muscle, has high energy demands. Research has shown that magnesium supplementation can help normalize the heart's mechanical function and favorably adjust its activity.

The combination of creatine and magnesium is being studied for its specific physiological effects, but one controlled animal study indicates the great potential of the chelated Creatine MagnaPower. In this study, Creatine MagnaPower was compared to creatine monohydrate, creatine monohydrate plus magnesium oxide, and creatine monohydrate plus magnesium amino acid chelate. The animals were given equal doses of creatine; a control group received no supplemental creatine or magnesium.

The animals in each group swam until exhaustion, were rested and then swam to exhaustion a second time. Researchers hoped to evaluate the improvement seen in the endurance of the subjects via the various supplement regimens. The Creatine MagnaPower group outperformed the other groups by a wide margin on the initial endurance test and then widened that margin on the second swim test.

Data is still being analyzed, but there are three possibilities as to why the new chelate performed the other supplement regimens. First, the magnesium creatine chelate may protect the creatine from the cyclization of creatine to creatinine in the stomach, making more bioactive creatine available to the body. Second, Albion has developed a patented technique of chelation that combines the right mineral and ligand components to target tissues for greater accumulation of nutrients. The performance of the new compound in the animal test suggests that it may be such a chelation. Finally, the magnesium and creatine in the chelate may be more bioavailable than the supplements taken separately, or they may be retained better than the separately administered equivalents.

Toxicology studies have shown there are no side effects in animals when they receive magnesium creatine chelate supplemented up to 2,000 mg of this compound per kg of body weight. The product also carries kosher approval. The combination of magnesium and creatine joins two nutritional forces that have been shown to have positive effects on the heart, energy and muscular performance.

Water vs. Sports Drinks

Every facet of sports and fitness has come under the keen eyes of analysis by medical and sports nutrition experts, not the least of which is what to drink during exercise or competition. Water, once the only advisable beverage for consumption during workout, is getting quite a jolt from sports drinks, which offer beneficial levels of nutrients and a light taste profile. The key to the benefits of sports drinks is their carbohydrate content. Whether the additional carbohydrates ingested during workout are beneficial or really worth the extra cost of sports drinks is still under intense debate, but there is another good reason to choose a sports drink over water--better hydration. Research has shown that most people replace only one-half to two-thirds of their sweat losses, according to Bob Murray, Ph.D., an exercise physiologist and director of the Gatorade Exercise Physiology Lab in Barrington, Ill. He explained that people often let thirst dictate when and how much they drink. Most sports enthusiasts already know that the body is already dehydrated when the mid-workout thirst kicks in. But, more than the timing issue, water reportedly deactivates the thirst mechanism and activates the kidneys prematurely, which results in under-hydration and increased urination. Consequently, the significant sodium content found in most sports drinks prolongs thirst, thereby causing the athlete to drink more sufficient amounts of beneficial liquid. Moreover, experts such as Dr. Murray advised that research has demonstrated that lightly flavored or sweetened drinks are more desirable to the palate, which also prompt people to drink more.

As for the carbohydrates in sports drinks, researcher J. Mark Davis, Ph.D., reported, "Research now demonstrates that the carbohydrate in sports drinks can enhance performance, even for exercise lasting as little as half and hour to an hour, provided the intensity of exercise is high." Experts further noted that research has shown that drinks containing about 8 percent carbohydrates are absorbed faster than drinks with higher levels of carbs. David Sack, M.D., professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and Hygeine, agreed. After researching Cera Products' CeraSport beverage, he said that complex carbohydrates efficiently provide much needed energy during prolonged strenuous exercise. "Because they are in the complex form, they are efficiently absorbed without the side effects from simple sugar solutions," he said.

The Gatorade Sports Science Institute has a library of studies that have found benefits in drinking lightly carbohydrate-fortified sports beverages during exercise or competition. In these studies, athletes performed better at high intensity tasks, achieved higher vertical jumps, delayed fatigue and generally performed better, longer and stronger with use of sports drinks than with use of water.

Based on all these benefits, sports drinks are earning their increased popularity in the sports community, at least for their use during intense exercise or activity of both long and short duration.

Game, Set and Match

Tennis elbow and golf elbow affect more than those in the country club set. These are inflammatory injuries suffered by many athletes after long-term strenuous exercise involving the elbow. The common treat- ment for such injuries has been rest, physiotherapy and use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). However, recent research has discovered that a combination of essential fatty acids (EFAs) and antioxidants can be effective in the treatment of such inflammatory injuries as tennis elbow, as well as similar injuries suffered in shoulders and knees.

First tested in 1996 on a group of rowers from Denmark's National Rowing Team, the combination used in the research contained omega-3, omega-6 and vitamin A, B6, C and E plus selenium and zinc. The most recent trial was led by Soren Mavrogenis, a physiotherapist for the Denmark Olympic Committee who has effectively treated several hundred cases of recurrent inflammatory injuries. He noted that most patients respond positively to the treatment within 2 to 3 weeks, depending on the severity of the injury. Based on the results of this recent trial, he and his research team confirmed that such inflammatory injuries can be treated without the use of NSAIDs.

"I see this as a regular breakthrough in modern physiotherapy," said Mavrogenis. "For the first time, we are able to offer our patients a safe and reliable treatment for stress injuries with chronic inflammatory response." He further reported, "It is our experience that with this new treatment, as opposed to conventional treatment, athletes are able to train actively while receiving treatment." The results of the study are to be published in a scientific journal of sports medicine in the near future, according to researchers.

Backing the use of EFAs and antioxidants in the treatment of inflammatory injuries, Generalist Dr. Claus Hancke explained that strenuous exercise is known to produce an overload of harmful free radicals that damage health cells by oxidizing the phospholipids in the cell membrane. Antioxidants neutralize the free radicals and limit their destruction. "In addition, essential fatty acids are important since they support the body's production of beneficial type one and type three prostaglandins, those which counteract pain and inflammation," he said. He concluded that a nutritional approach is a big deal, and reported that he is convinced that EFAs and antioxidants might have the greater anti-inflammatory potential than NSAIDs.