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What's the Best Creatine?There was a time when creatine was available only in powder form. In recent years, however, a huge amount of product diversification has occurred in the creatine market, catering to the needs and specifications of users. Today creatine is available in various forms, and users sometimes find it confusing to determine which form is the best or devoid of side effects. In this article we attempt to study the different types of creatine and identify the advantages and disadvantages of its various forms. Creatine Monohydrate is the original form creatine was available in. Most scientific studies and research has been conducted on this form of creatine. However, Creatine Monohydrate may cause stomach upset, and may lead to skin bloating. Creatine can also be ingested in the liquid or serum form. There are numerous advantages in theory to serum over powder. Creatine serum, when it gets ingested, gets directly absorbed, which means less creatine serum produces the same effects. However the major disadvantage of creatine serum is that creatine is unstable in solution and when left over a few minutes, starts to break into creatinine - a waste product. Creatine Malate is formed from a combination of monohydrate and malic acid. In the Krebs Cycle, malic acid is involved in the main energy cycle. The malate form allegedly provides more muscular energy and endurance. It is also more water soluble and thus gets easily absorbed in the body. Creatine malate also doesn't require a loading phase. CEE or Creatine Ethyl Ester has allegedly a higher solubility, absorption and stability inside the acidic environment of the stomach. However, studies have proved contradictory results when CEE products were mixed with an acidic solution. Within 30 minutes 70% of CEE degraded to Creatinine. Effervescent Creatine is a combination of creatine, sodium and sugar. Research suggests that the added ingredients do not have any noticeable benefits. Due to its high price, this form becomes a high price/low quality product. When creatine monohydrate is micronized, we have micronized creatine. Due to its increased surface area, this form is easily absorbable by the body. It also has fewer side effects, but still requires a loading phase. Creatine citrate is produced by bonding creatine to citrate molecules chemically. Its disadvantage is that though the absorption rate for this form is higher, the dosage of intake is very high as well. Creatine Kre-alkalyn is produced by bonding Creatine to a kre-alkalyne molecule. It has a higher absorption rate and doesn't require the loading phase. Users have also reported a lesser amount of side effects from this form of Creatine. However studies in this area are almost nonexistent. Creatine Orate is produced by bonding creatine to orate molecules. Orate is derived from oratic acid. Orate is a precursor to nucleic acids which are necessary to build ATP. This gives orate properties which provide energy. However, again, in this field very little research has been done. Creatine orate is also very expensive. From this critique, it can be inferred that in today's market, currently creatine malate is probably the best creatine form, due to its high absorption and unique energy effects. Users however can resort to the tried and tested monohydrate form if they don't want to experiment.
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