College Station, Texas. The first paper of a special issue on Creatine in Health and Clinical Disease that is being edited by Dr. Richard B. Kreider (TAMU) and Dr. Jeff Stout (UCF) has been published in Nutrients (IF 4.546). This paper provides an overview about the role of creatine in health and disease as an introduction to 15 other invited papers that will be published extensively reviewing the topics covered in this paper. This collection will be published as a book as well as serve as the basis for a webinar conference on creatine in health and disease later this year that will be sponsored by AlzChem.
Kreider RB and JR Stout. Creatine in Health and Disease. Nutrients 2021, 13(2), 447; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13020447.
Abstract
Although creatine has been mostly studied as an ergogenic aid for exercise, training, and sport, several health and potential therapeutic benefits have been reported. This is because creatine plays a critical role in cellular metabolism, particularly during metabolically stressed states, and limitations in the ability to transport and/or store creatine can impair metabolism. Moreover, increasing availability of creatine in tissue may enhance cellular metabolism and thereby lessen the severity of injury and/or disease conditions, particularly when oxygen availability is compromised. This systematic review assesses the peer-reviewed scientific and medical evidence related to creatine’s role in promoting general health as we age and how creatine supplementation has been used as a nutritional strategy to help individuals recover from injury and/or manage chronic disease. Additionally, it provides reasonable conclusions about the role of creatine on health and disease based on current scientific evidence. Based on this analysis, it can be concluded that creatine supplementation has several health and therapeutic benefits throughout the lifespan.