Scientists are asking whether sport should ban a performance-boosting supplement popular with top New Zealand rugby players.
Although creatine occurs in the body, it is impossible to naturally ingest the amounts athletes can take using the supplement, says a report in the Physiological Review.
"Therefore ... discussions should continue on whether creatine
supplementation is a legal [muscle-boosting] aid or whether it should be regarded as a doping strategy."
Creatine was popular among rugby players after the Super 12 competition was introduced in 1996. Carlos Spencer appeared in a 1997 Fitness magazine article on the supplement saying it aided his weight-training and that he would take it for three or four days before an event. Olympic bronze medallist board sailor Aaron McIntosh said in the same article that he used it.
A New Zealand user told the Weekend Herald he felt transformed by creatine, which he credited with boosting his appetite, mental alertness, sex drive and strength.
"It changed my life. Within a few months I had gone from benchpressing 80kg to 120kg."
The supplement has long been controversial in Ireland, where Sports Minister Dr James McDaid told Parliament in 1997 that he would do what he could to ban it. "As a medical practitioner, I believe creatine is harmful."
In 2001, the Irish Sports Council recommended that athletes not take the supplement. This was based on short-term side-effects including muscle cramps, gastrointestinal dysfunction and dehydration.
A spokesman for General Nutrition Products, which packages a brand of creatine, said the firm believed the supplement was safe and beneficial.
CREATINE
* The body creates it from food, particularly meat, but does so in only tiny amounts. * Supplementation can give huge boosts to the amount stored in the muscles.
* It is thought to benefit explosive activities, such as sprinting and weight-training.
