Muscle Milk - Are the claims true?

I am very worried about the attitude so many of us in this country have towrards supplements. Amen to that. This discussion will probably not change anyone's mind about creatine. There are two very different approaches to the whole risk-benefit of creatine: #1: There is little or no risk (unless you have kidney or GI problems), so why not? #2: There is little or no benefit to me, so why risk it? I fall squarely in camp #2 because creatine, even if worked as advertised, will do nothing to enhance my enjoyment of training and competing in USMS. My problematic knees do not need the weight gain, either. Since I am uninterested in creatine I am not going to spend much time scanning through the scientific literature. But a quick search (thru SciFinder Scholar) on the chronic effects of creatine supplements yielded only 69 hits, out of thousands for creatine supplementation itself. I found the following interesting and offer it to you (italics are mine): ********snip************ Creatine supplementation in health and disease: What is the evidence for long-term efficacy? Derave, Wim; Eijnde, Bert O.; Hespel, Peter. Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Department of Kinesiology, Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics Laboratory, Catholic University of Leuven, Louvain, Belg. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry (2003), 244(1&2), 49-55. Abstract A review. Creatine supplementation is an established ergogenic aid in sports and is now claimed to have therapeutical applications in a variety of diseases. The available literature mainly covers the short-term (one to several weeks) effects of creatine supplementation on skeletal muscle function in health and disease, which is of little help to evaluate the long-term (two or more months) potential of creatine as a drug in chronic disorders, such as neurodegenerative diseases or muscular dystrophies. Recent findings in healthy humans indicate that the beneficial effect on muscle function and muscle total creatine content may disappear when creatine is continuously ingested for more than two or three months. The mechanism for this habituation to chronic creatine exposure is poorly understood. The primary purpose of the present review article is to critically evaluate the available evidence for long-term efficacy of creatine administration and to hypothesize about ways to optimize creatine administration regimens. ********snip************ "The mechanism of habituation to chronic exposure is poorly understood." Again, I did not do an exhaustive search. But if chronic effects were poorly understood in 2003 I very much doubt they are completely understood at this time. If you want to perform experiments on yourself, please go right ahead, just don't kid yourself. My own suggestion is that if you need creatine supplements for legitimate health reasons (and there are some) then the risk-benefit changes substantially. But to drop time in a master meet? And possibly not even that, if the effects wear off? Okay, enough time on :soapbox: (sorry, the smileys are cute, aren't they?)

I am very worried about the attitude so many of us in this country have towrards supplements. Amen to that. This discussion will probably not change anyone's mind about creatine. There are two very different approaches to the whole risk-benefit of creatine: #1: There is little or no risk (unless you have kidney or GI problems), so why not? #2: There is little or no benefit to me, so why risk it? I fall squarely in camp #2 because creatine, even if worked as advertised, will do nothing to enhance my enjoyment of training and competing in USMS. My problematic knees do not need the weight gain, either. Since I am uninterested in creatine I am not going to spend much time scanning through the scientific literature. But a quick search (thru SciFinder Scholar) on the chronic effects of creatine supplements yielded only 69 hits, out of thousands for creatine supplementation itself. I found the following interesting and offer it to you (italics are mine): ********snip************ Creatine supplementation in health and disease: What is the evidence for long-term efficacy? Derave, Wim; Eijnde, Bert O.; Hespel, Peter. Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Department of Kinesiology, Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics Laboratory, Catholic University of Leuven, Louvain, Belg. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry (2003), 244(1&2), 49-55. Abstract A review. Creatine supplementation is an established ergogenic aid in sports and is now claimed to have therapeutical applications in a variety of diseases. The available literature mainly covers the short-term (one to several weeks) effects of creatine supplementation on skeletal muscle function in health and disease, which is of little help to evaluate the long-term (two or more months) potential of creatine as a drug in chronic disorders, such as neurodegenerative diseases or muscular dystrophies. Recent findings in healthy humans indicate that the beneficial effect on muscle function and muscle total creatine content may disappear when creatine is continuously ingested for more than two or three months. The mechanism for this habituation to chronic creatine exposure is poorly understood. The primary purpose of the present review article is to critically evaluate the available evidence for long-term efficacy of creatine administration and to hypothesize about ways to optimize creatine administration regimens. ********snip************ "The mechanism of habituation to chronic exposure is poorly understood." Again, I did not do an exhaustive search. But if chronic effects were poorly understood in 2003 I very much doubt they are completely understood at this time. If you want to perform experiments on yourself, please go right ahead, just don't kid yourself. My own suggestion is that if you need creatine supplements for legitimate health reasons (and there are some) then the risk-benefit changes substantially. But to drop time in a master meet? And possibly not even that, if the effects wear off? Okay, enough time on :soapbox: (sorry, the smileys are cute, aren't they?)