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Health News Archive 531 - Muscular Dystrophy
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Creatine Boosts Strength in Muscular Dystrophy Sufferers

Creatine, the popular nutritional supplement used by athletes to boost performance, increases muscle strength in people with muscular dystrophies by about nine percent, says the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

The review “shows that short- and medium-term creatine treatment improves muscle strength in people with muscular dystrophies and is well-tolerated,” said lead reviewer Dr. Rudolf Kley of Ruhr University Bochum in Germany.

Muscular dystrophies refer to 30 or more genetic and hereditary muscle disease, where the proteins that make up the muscles are either missing or damaged. About a quarter of a million Americans are reported to live with the condition for which there is no cure. People with muscular dystrophies have lower-than-normal levels of creatine, and, since some studies have suggested that creatine enhances muscle performance in healthy people, some experts have suggested the amino acid may offer benefits against muscle diseases.

Creatine, which occurs naturally in foods like fish and red meat, is banned in some countries because of studies showing a possible link between long-term supplementation and increased cancer risk. It is not banned by the International Olympic Committee, which classifies it as food.

The new review looked at 12 studies involving 266 people with different types of muscular dystrophy. The period of creatine supplementation ranged from three weeks to six months.

Kley and his co-reviewers report that, among those taking creatine supplements, muscle strength increased by an average of 8.5 percent, and gained an average of 0.6 kg (1.4 lbs) more lean body mass compared to those who did not use the supplement.

Despite the results being “fairly consistent” for creatine's apparent benefits, the researchers note that people with metabolic myopathies, another group of hereditary muscle diseases, gained no more muscle strength or lean body mass than patients who did not use the supplement.

A risk assessment by John Hathcock and Andrew Shao from US supplements trade association the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) reported that evidence from well-designed, randomized clinical trials in humans indicated that the upper safe limit (USL) for creatine monohydrate is 5 grams per day (Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, doi: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2006.05.005).

Source: R.A. Kley, M. Vorgerd, M.A. Tarnopolsky. Creatine for treating muscle disorders Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews; Issue 1, 2007.

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