What I am
about to tell you is not going to make me a very popular person
with many supplement manufacturers. In fact, some of them are
going to be down right pissed off at me. On the other hand, some
of them are going to be happy someone spilled the beans and told
the truth. Finally, some of them will be totally unaware of this
information and will be shocked when they read it. Basically,
I fully expect this article to cause a sh*% storm that will reverberate
throughout the supplement industry.
The only people
who I know are going to be happy about this article is the consumer,
but I am getting ahead of myself. As we all know, creatine is
one of the best bodybuilding supplements ever discovered. It increases
strength, lean body mass, and, to a lesser extent, endurance.
If that were not enough, it's relatively cheap to boot! What more
could we ask for from a supplement? When creatine was first introduced
it was sort of pricey, but no one really cared because it worked
so well. As time went on and more companies began selling creatine,
the inevitable price war began and prices came down.
At that point
creatine was only being produced by a few companies, so creatine
was basically creatine and the price was the only real consideration.
As is typical of the market place, once creatine became big business,
several new manufacturers popped up and it became no longer a
price war as much as a quality war. The expression "creatine
is creatine" no longer holds true. More on that shortly.
At this time
there are probably four-five companies large enough to mass produce
creatine for the sports nutrition market. These companies in turn
sell their product in huge bulk amounts to various distributors
around the world. As far as the mass producers are concerned,
there is a large German company, two companies out of China, and
two in the United States. Though there are various other companies,
for this article we will basically concern ourselves with these
five major producers which probably comprise 80-90% of the creatine
production market.
Why
I had to write this article
The supplement
industry in the United States is by and large a self-regulated
industry. Unlike other countries, we (the USA) don't have government
constantly telling us what we can and cannot do with our supplements.
Though they have been trying to discredit supplements for decades,
the FDA and pharmaceutical/ medical industrial complex have largely
failed to do so. As a self-regulated industry, we must do just
that. Let me state here and now, I am all for self-regulation
and totally against government regulation when it comes to supplements.
When we find gross problems, we have to expose them no matter
what the cost. Any supplement that is found to be potentially
dangerous, terribly misleading, or otherwise a total scam, must
be exposed as such.
If we don't
do it, then we allow the "powers that be" (who have
an interest in discrediting the supplement industry) to get one
step closer to the Orwellian scenario of other countries. I thought
long and hard as to whether or not I should write this article,
but in the end, as a person of good conscience and ethics, I knew
I had to. In the end, it will cost the entire supplement industry
far more than any one loss could ever cost a single company if
problems with a certain product are not exposed.
As far as
I am concerned, this is us airing out or own dirty inter-industry
laundry and policing our own, instead of waiting for the "don't
confuse us with the facts" popular media or other groups
to come after the supplement industry. I know it must sound like
I am almost apologizing for writing this article, and in a way
I am. It could potentially cost certain people a great deal of
money. On the other hand, it could also make some other person
a great deal of money, depending on where they fall (this will
make more sense to the reader as you read along). In the end,
the truth can never been denied, it can only be delayed. With
each day of delay, the cost to everyone goes up. Nuff said.
Are
you getting more than you paid for?
Most of us
are always happy when we get more than we paid for, but in some
instances, it's not such a good idea. If we are buying say vitamin
C and the label says "500mg per capsule" and laboratory
analysis reveals it contains 600mg, then that is a great thing.
However, if we test a product and not only does it contain what
the label claims, but several other compounds we did not know
were in there and had no place being in there, then that's a completely
different story. For example, when the amino acid L-Tryptophan
was taken off the market for the death of several people, it was
not because of the L-Tryptophan itself, but because of a chemical
contaminant found in a batch of the L-tryptophan that was not
supposed to be there. This was a perfect example of getting more
than you paid for in the worst possible scenario. What I am going
to write about in this article certainly is not as bad as the
L-tryptophan fiasco, but it could be a potential health concern.
So after that
long, cryptic, and bizarre introduction, what am I getting at?
Recently, a company tested the five largest creatine manufacturers
products and tested the products of various distributors from
the USA, Germany, Great Britain, and other countries. At this
time, the company who did the testing wishes to remain anonymous,
lest they be accused of throwing stones at the supplement industry.
However, this is a very large and reputable company and they stand
behind their test results.
Also, I know
this company to be one of the worlds most reputable companies,
so I had no problems with their testing results or methods. The
test results came to me through the back door so to speak. So
what was tested for and what did it reveal? The creatine products
were tested for: Dicyandiamide, Creatinine, Dihydrotriazine, and
sodium content. What did the tests reveal? It revealed that there
is a wide range of differences between creatine products from
different manufacturers. The purity level of all the creatine
products were also tested and they generally fell between 88 and
92%. Now before you go off yelling "but my creatine says
99% pure creatine monohydrate on the bottle," you have to
remember there is a small amount of water in creatine monohydrate.
Before we
bother with the results, we need to take a look at the chemicals
that were tested for-and subsequently found- in these samples.
What really bothered me was the fact that there is little safety
research on some of these chemicals, most notably the dihydrotriazine.
I did Med-line searches, looked through various chemical data
related books (i.e. the Merck Index and other publications), made
many phone calls to chemists, spent hours on the internet, and
was amazed to find so little real safety data on some of these
materials.
Considering
the fact that some creatine products contain fairly high amounts
of these chemicals, the lack of solid safety data did not make
me feel very comfortable. The major point of this is really the
amount of creatine ingested in relation to the amount of contaminant
present. It's not that a compound has a small amount of some contaminant
per se, but the levels of the contaminant is found in relation
to how much of the product is consumed is the real question. In
the December issue of Health and Nutrition Breakthroughs (p12,
1997) Dr. Podell addressed the same concern regarding creatine
as I have when he stated "...there is the potentially important
issue of product purity. Given the high doses of creatine most
people take, even a minute toxic impurity could have a dangerous
effect. Unfortunately we cannot be sure of a manufacturers' quality
controls."
As we all
know, people don't just take 500mg (1/2 a gram) of creatine, they
take 10,000mg (10g), 20,000mg (20g), or even 30,000mg (30g) of
creatine per day, so even a small amount of a contaminant (such
as the dihydrotriazine) can add up quickly. For example, one creatine
product contained as much as 18,000 parts per million (PPM) of
Dicyandiamide. If a person is taking in ten grams per day of creatine,
that's 180 mg of this chemical a day. If you are taking in 30g
a day of creatine-as is often the case during the loading phase-you
would be getting a whopping 540mg a day of dicyandiamide!
The
Chemicals
Dicyandiamide
(DC): DC is actually a derivative of one of the starting
chemicals (cyanamide) used in creatine production. DC is formed
during the production of creatine products, and large amounts
found in a product are considered the result of an incomplete
or inefficient process. A quality creatine product will contain
very small amounts, less than 20-50ppm. At this time, DC does
not appear to be a particularly toxic chemical. Oral studies with
animals (rats and dogs) lasting up to 90 days have not shown serious
toxicity or carcinogenic effects, and acute poisoning also takes
very high amounts. DC appears to have many uses in the chemical
industry. Some of the more interesting is the use of DC in the
production of fertilizers, explosives, fire proofing compounds,
cleaning compounds, soldering compounds, stabilizer in detergents,
modifier for starch products, and a catalyst for epoxy resins.
At the concentrations
found in some of the creatine products (see below), it's a good
thing this stuff does not appear to be particularly toxic. However,
as far as I am concerned, I don't want to be eating the stuff.
One interesting point as it relates to DC and toxicity is, if
one looks at the safety sheet on the stuff it states that DC breaks
down into hydrogen cyanide gas when exposed to a strong acid.
Hydrogen cyanide gas is very toxic and has been used as a chemical
warfare agent! As Bruce Kneller points out (see side bar), stomach
acid, which has a PH of 2, is a very strong acid. Is even a tiny
amount of hydrogen cyanide gas produced from the intake of large
amounts of DC? The chemist I spoke to did not seem to think so
and the safety data with animals would tend to support this, but
who knows. Bruce might be overreacting a bit on this, but it's
better to lean on the cautious side with such things. Bottom line,
it's best not to be eating large amounts of DC in this writer's
opinion.
Dihydrotriazine
(DT): DT appears to be the real mystery chemical as far
as potentially toxic contaminants found in some creatine products.
One company had it listed as "...Dihydrotriazine is often
found in various creatine products. This substance is a byproduct
of non-optimized creatine productions and consequently widely
spread over creatine products. Dihydrotriazine is a compound with
unknown pharmaceutical and toxicological properties." It
was virtually impossible to find any useful safety data on this
chemical.
However, DT
is part of a large family of chemicals known as the "triazines."
It is an organic base with many derivatives. Some of these derivatives
are toxic while others are known to be non-toxic, so it is very
difficult to come to any real solid opinion regarding the potential
toxicity of this chemical. One chemist I spoke to from a major
pharmaceutical supply company said to me on the phone "it's
safe to say that there will be major differences in toxicity between
derivatives since 'triazine' simply means possessing three C=N-H
groups. Some derivatives are highly toxic."
Bill Roberts,
a medicinal Chemist and writer for Dan Duchaine's Dirty Dieting
news letter commented after I sent him over this information:
"There really is no way to say just how high a chronic intake
of this chemical [these chemicals] is safe in humans from the
information given. If the amounts were very small, say a few milligrams
per week, it's a reasonable guess that there would probably be
no problem.
But if a creatine
brand has say 1% of this impurity [these impurities] then people
are going to be consuming thousands of milligrams of this compound
[these compounds] over time. I think we have to be concerned about
taking so much of something that really isn't well studied in
humans for safety. It would certainly be unwise to assume thattoxicity
is not an issue. If the consumer has a choice between a creatine
brand that contains this impurity [these impurities] in significant
amounts, and one that is more pure, I'd certainly recommend spending
the extra money and obtaining the purer product."
So as you
can see, we are left with a major question mark regarding DT.
For me, the less I know about a chemical the less of it I want
to find in any product I am ingesting. Though this chemical might
turn out to be perfectly harmless, I think it should not be found
in any amount and thus should be non-detectable (n.d.) in the
ppm range until we know more about this chemical. As you can see
from the tests, some companies have n.d. amounts while others
have far more than that. I find this unacceptable, and so should
you.
Creatinine:
Creatinine is one of the easy compounds to discuss on this list.
Creatinine is actually a natural byproduct of creatine metabolism
in the human body and of creatine production. A small amount can
be found in every creatine product. However, in some products
large amounts can be found, as high as 7700 ppm in one case (see
chart). It is probably safe to say that the ingestion of creatinine
is a safe endeavor. There is some research that links the ingestion
of creatinine from meats with increased colon cancer incidence,
but in all honesty I would not put much stock in that or get all
worked up about it . The point is, when I buy creatine I want
to eat creatine, not creatinine. Though a natural byproduct of
creatine metabolism, it does not have any ergogenic effects and
therefore I don't want large amounts of it in my creatine, period.
A high quality creatine product should contain less than 100ppm
of creatinine in my opinion.
Sodium:
Like the aforementioned creatinine, sodium is an easy one to talk
about. Also, like creatinine, it is a generally safe thing to
ingest at normal intakes. At the levels found in these creatine
products, the amount of sodium added to the diet is very small
and should pose no problems, even to the most sodium phobic person.
However, like I said before, when I pay for creatine I want creatine,
not sodium. The lowest sodium content was 20ppm and the highest
was 500ppm. I leave it to the reader to decide what is a tolerable
sodium content to them.
Conclusion
Believe it
or not, the company who did the testing told me that although
those were the main chemicals they tested for, some creatine products
read like a who's who of different chemical compounds, though
they admitted that they are usually found in trace amounts. As
for the consumer, if it were me, I would demand the HPLC test
results from whom ever I was buying my creatine from regarding
the chemicals listed in this article. If you don't care, that's
OK also. As for me, I will make sure my creatine comes only from
companies and distributors who sell creatine made by the large
German company, or other companies, who clearly have their collective
act together when it comes to producing an ultra pure creatine
product. Bottom line? The expression "creatine is creatine"
no longer holds true. However, a high quality creatine product
it still the best thing going in bodybuilding/sports supplements.
Dicyandiamide
Creatinine Dyhydrotriazine Sodium
German producer < 20 ppm < 50 ppm n.d. 20 ppm
Chinese producer #1 18000ppm 100ppm n.d. n.d.
Chinese producer #2 2300ppm 1500ppm n.d. n.d.
USA producer #1 300ppm 2500ppm 90ppm 500ppm
USA producer #2 400ppm 190ppm 410ppm 295ppm
USA distributor #1 120ppm 220ppm 60ppm 493ppm
USA Distributor #2 80ppm 1480ppm 30ppm n.d.
USA Distributor #3 250ppm 400ppm 80ppm n.d.
USA Distributor #4 30ppm 70ppm 300ppm n.d.
USA Distributor #5 n.d. 200ppm n.d. n.d.
USA Distributor #6 40ppm 800ppm 180ppm n.d.
USA Distributor #7 30ppm 400ppm 120ppm n.d.
USA Distributor #8 120ppm 350ppm 20ppm 478ppm
USA Distributor #9 30ppm 90ppm n.d. n.d.
USA Distributor #10 30ppm 100ppm n.d. n.d.
GB Distributor #1 < 20ppm 80ppm 30ppm n.d.
GB Distributor #2 80ppm 210ppm 160ppm n.d.
GB Distributor #3 < 20ppm 90ppm n.d. n.d.
GB Distributor #4 2600ppm 100ppm n.d. n.d.
GB Distributor #5 4700ppm 7700ppm 60ppm n.d.
GB Distributor #6 60ppm 320ppm 60ppm n.d.
GB Distributor #7 7700ppm 2900ppm 120ppm n.d.
GB Distributor #8 20ppm 80ppm n.d. n.d.
GB Distributor #9 20ppm 100ppm n.d. n.d.
GB Distributor #10 9000ppm < 50ppm 40ppm n.d.
GB Distributor #11 600ppm < 50ppm 20ppm n.d.
German Distributor 50ppm 100ppm n.d. n.d.
Spanish Distributor 30ppm 200ppm n.d. n.d.
About
the Author - William D. Brink
Will Brink is a columnist, contributing consultant, and writer
for various health/fitness, medical, and bodybuilding publications.
His articles relating to nutrition, supplements, weight loss,
exercise and medicine can be found in such publications as Lets
Live, Muscle Media 2000, MuscleMag International, The Life Extension
Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Inside Karate, Exercise For Men Only,
Body International, Power, Oxygen, Penthouse, Women’s World
and The Townsend Letter For Doctors.
He is the
author of Priming The Anabolic Environment and Weight Loss Nutrients
Revealed. He is the Consulting Sports Nutrition Editor and a monthly
columnist for Physical magazine and an Editor at Large for Power
magazine. Will graduated from Harvard University with a concentration
in the natural sciences, and is a consultant to major supplement,
dairy, and pharmaceutical companies.
He has been
co author of several studies relating to sports nutrition and
health found in peer reviewed academic journals, as well as having
commentary published in JAMA. He runs the highly popular web site
BrinkZone.com which is strategically positioned to fulfill the
needs and interests of people with diverse backgrounds and knowledge.
The BrinkZone site has a following with many sports nutrition
enthusiasts, athletes, fitness professionals, scientists, medical
doctors, nutritionists, and interested lay people. William has
been invited to lecture on the benefits of weight training and
nutrition at conventions and symposiums around the U.S. and Canada,
and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs.
William has
worked with athletes ranging from professional bodybuilders, golfers,
fitness contestants, to police and military personnel.
See Will's
ebooks online here:
Muscle
Building Nutrition
A complete guide bodybuilding supplements and eating to gain lean
muscle
Diet
Supplements Revealed
A review of diet supplements and guide to eating for maximum fat
loss
He can be contacted at: PO Box 812430
Wellesley MA. 02482.
BrinkZone.com
Email: will@brinkzone.com
