Dangers Of Muscle Building With Creatine Supplements

Creatine supplements are known to help muscles to do high intensity work. Trainers have been recommending cycling creatine supplement. That means alternating periods of use and non use. Some athletes follow five week cycles-one week loading, four weeks maintenance, then five weeks off.

What it means is that the athletes are taking the supplement for a period of five weeks and then the next five weeks they do not take. During the five weeks they take the dosage for the first week is higher, which is known as loading. Remaining 4 weeks they take a smaller dosage, which is known as maintenance.

The loading dosage is known to increase risk of renal stress and gastrointestinal complications. The potential short term risks of taking creatine supplement are cramp and dehydration. Since creatine draws water into the muscles, use of the supplement creates additional need of water. If the water intake is not increased accordingly, this can lead to dehydration. A negative side effect is observed when the individual gets off creatine. A noticeable decrease in energy level is observed. It can cause renal stress in people with kidney trouble.

Other risks include heat related illnesses, reduced plasma volume, titanic muscle cramping, muscle strain and electrolyte imbalance. The abuse of the creatine supplement can cause great harm to the kidneys. Some of the other dangers such as stroke etc. attributed to creatine supplement are not conclusively proved.

Three wrestlers are reported to have died due to intake of creatine supplement as this was due to dehydration and lack of water intake during training. People taking creatine supplements should be given advance information about its side effects and what precautions are to be taken to help them.

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Dangers Of Muscle Building With Creatine Supplements