Is Creatine Ethyl Ester Better than Creatine Monohydrate?
March 06 2009
Is creatine Ethyl ester better than creatine monohydrate to increase muscle growth & strength? A study was done to see if creatine ethyl ester is indeed effective in increasing absorption than creatine monohydrate. Let’s see what the study found out about creatine ethyl ester:
Why Creatine?
Creatine is one of the very few supplements scientifically proven to work. Almost 70% of the studies on creatine have shown significant increase in performance, in the form of muscle, strength ,or endurance. And almso all of them used creatine monohydrate
Why Different Formulations of Creatine?
Intramuscular stores of creatine saturates at 160 mmol/kg dry mass; however, only 20% of users achieve this amount.
Due to this variation in creatine uptake, it has been suggested that creatine alone is not absorbed well enough into the muscle. Hence, instead of just plain creatine monohydrate, several formulations of creatine have been developed in the hope of bypassing the creatine transporter and thereby increasing creatine absorption.
Effervescent creatine, creatine with magnesium, creatine serum were all studied and was shown to be ineffective compared to creatine monohydrate.
Why Creatine Ethyl Ester?
Creatine Ethyl Ester is a new formulation claiming to be better than other creatine forms. Esterification is commonly done in pharmaceutical industries to increase the bioavailability of drugs. Hence Creatine Ethyl Ester is claimed to be abosorbed better than creatine monohydrate or other creatine blends.
Though esterified creatine is unstable in low pH conditions and has been shown to be rapidly degraded to creatinine in stomach acid, manufacturers of creatine ethyl ester claim that it is superior to other forms of creatine ( including creatine monohydrate).
What did the Study Find about Creatine Ethyl Ester?
The study compared 3 groups: creatine ethyl ester, creatine monohydrate, & a placebo (dextrose) group.
- The study found no added benefit of creatine ethyl ester over creatine monohydrate. In fact, even after ingesting twice the amount of Ethyl ester, the serum creatine ( blood levels) levels were significantly higher in creatine monohydrate group than ethyl ester group.
- Also the total muscle creatine levels showed no benefit of creatine ethyl ester over creatine monohydrate.
- In addition, creatine ethyl ester supplementation showed a large increase in serum creatinine levels throughout the study, it was concluded that a large portion of the creatine ethyl ester was being degraded within the GI tract after ingestion.
To make a long story short, stick with creatine monohydrate.
