| I took creatine monohydrate in large dosages for two years during my late high school and early college years. I took a dosage of 6 grams at a weight of 210 until I gained 40 lbs of muscle (250) with an increased dosage of 7-9 grams a day. This is, of course, after the recommended loading phase of 20 grams a day for 5 days. I experienced nothing but muscle gain and fat loss. I did however experience tendon strain as a result of increased muscle gain, but that comes with the territory when you're trying to make massive gains and play sports competitively. I played football. Football is an EXPLOSIVE sport. I emphasize explosive because that is the way a person must lift in order to use creatine.
According to Dr. Hatfield, author of the weightlifting book, "POWER: A Scientific Approach," we have two kinds of muscle fibers in our muscles. There is the "fast twitch," low endurance, explosive, white muscle fibers and the "slow twitch," high endurance, non-explosive, red muscle fibers. The red muscle fibers are red because they are enriched with oxygenated blood and other biological elements. These use oxygen as a primary source of energy. The white twitch muscle fibers use CREATINE as a primary source of energy. This is the key to understanding creatine. By ingesting creatine, the body stores up more creatine in the WHITE TWITCH muscle fibers, allowing them to work longer without depleting creatine energy usage. Once creatine is depleted the white twitch begin glucose breakdown for energy and this results in lactic acid build-up and thus leads to fatigue. That's the whole point of using creatine.
The whole point of me saying this is to set up for two points about the alleged conditions of those who say they have developed adverse liver and kidney conditions as a result of large creatine usage. My first point is this: Supplementary creatine monohydrate ingestion is beneficial only for those who train their muscles in an explosive manner. This uses the white twitch muscle fibers. Jogging, circuit training, or even lifting weights slowly or at intermediate speeds will NOT allow the muscles to use the stored creatine and instead will use oxygen. This may result in the "cleaning out" of the excess and unused creatine from the blood stream through the purging processes of the liver and kidney. This could most definitely put strain on these organs. Those who use creatine should take this into consideration before their next workout. Power lifters: you should be in good shape!
Also, creatinine is the by-product of creatine usage. Creatinine is also a natural by-product that occurs whenever one is sprinting or lifting weights, regardless of their creatine take-in level. However, this would be the only substance I can think of that would even remotely effect kidney and liver behavior.
Refer to "Creatine: The Natural Muscle Builder" for references on these facts.
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