For mice there appears to be a best dose. Dietary creatine supplementation significantly improved survival, slowed the development of brain atrophy, and delayed atrophy of striatal neurons and the formation of huntingtin-positive aggregates in R6/2 mice. Body weight and motor performance on the rotarod test were significantly improved in creatine-supplemented R6/2 mice, whereas the onset of diabetes was markedly delayed. We can expect creatine to delay HD onset and symptoms in humans.

How Much Creatine Should Humans Take?

There have been no human trials to determine the best amount of creatine to take. The evidence is that HD mice do best when the creatine intake is 2% of the total diet intake. More than 2% produced less gains. There were no gains at 3%.

Here is how that optimum amount for HD mice can be extended to humans. A gram of fat has about 9 calories. Carbos and protein each have about 4 calories per gram. A 2000 calorie diet may have 65 grams fat, 304 grams carbos and 50 grams of protein for a total of 419 grams. Two percent of 419 grams of diet is about 8 grams creatine. Because mice are not humans and all humans are individuals it is probably best to error on the low side of the 8 grams. ALS patients showed significant improvement on 5 grams of creatine a day.

There is some evidence that magnesium may enhance the effects of creatine. In general taking a multi-vitamin-mineral (no iron) supplement seems a good idea.

Response to this article:
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Sorry Kate, I left before you posted your question about dosage. Most of the pre-packaged creatine drink powders contain 5 grams of creatine per packet, so you would just need one of those per day. You need to read the contents of any product and figure out how much you need to get 5 grams of creatine. The effervescent mixes I've used are about $30.00 for 20 doses "off the shelf", they are cheaper on the internet (about $20 to $25 I think.)

===From: Joy -- Subject: Creatine Part 2 --
Wed Oct 31 17:50:25 2001 GMT===
By the way, my shaking definitely gets worse when I neglect to take the Creatine. In fact, I think some of the benefit I attributed to the fish oil, was actually due to the Creatine. The combination of both seems to be the way to go for me.

===From: Joy -- Subject: Creatine Review --
Wed Oct 31 17:47:22 2001 GMT===
I tried the Creatine Edge effervescent powder in orange. It's not nasty, but not nearly as tasty as the Twin Labs Fizz Fuel.

I've just ordered the transdermal patches, I'll report on them later after I've used them for awhile. I'm going on a cruise to the Southern Caribbean next week and don't want to mess with drink mixes, so I thought the patch might be a simple alternative. (Of course, I'll still have to take a bushel of fish oil capsules with me, wish they had a patch for that.)

Happy Halloween everyone!

===05-Oct-01 -- Susana writes; Re: Creatine===
The creatine that the sport trainer gave me was just plain old GNC brand Creatine Monohydrate powder. The trainer recommended that I start taking one heaping teaspoon (5 mg) w/ apple or grape juice for quick absorption prior to exercise. I really did think I had found a miracle. When I bought my own, I picked up TwinLabs Creatine Monohydrate, and found that it seemed to absorb more quickly and last longer. I was unable to find Twin Labs again and have gone back to GNC. I read the bottle and noticed that a loading phase of 5 days was recommended where one should take the Creatine 4 times a day. Since I have an immediate positive reaction to 5gms, I didn't try taking 20gms for five days. There are a confusing amount of forms of Creatine out there with all sorts of additives, "super delivery" systems, extra amino acids etc. I have never tried any of these since taking it with water or juice while I am doing a physical activity that gets my blood flowing

I hope this helps someone.

Peace,

Susana, Cat3dancer@aol.com

===From: Joy -- Subject: Creatine Taste Review--
Wed Aug 22 15:34:22 2001 GMT===
I tried the CreaFizz Margarita Madness -- yuck, gack, ptooey. It sure doesn't taste anything like any Margarita I've ever had (maybe I need to add tequila?). In my opinion it tastes nasty! Twin Labs Creatine Fizz Fuel still tastes better to me.

Source: Jerry Lampson 07-May-2001, updated 12-Nov-2001

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