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There are three theories today which answer the question, “How do dietary supplements work?”(Phillips 13) The first theory is? when you have an adequate amount of a substance that your body needs. Take Creatine for example, “a human body normally only needs two grams a day.” That is the adequate amount or the minimum your body needs to stay healthy, but lets say you stored five grams of Creatine, which is the maximum your muscles could hold to give you a more optimal amount. The reason why an athlete would need more Creatine is that they exert more physical activity and burn more ATP than a standard person would. This makes him consume more body resources than the average person. So, adding more Creatine to your diet would give you better results. The second theory states that “not all but most supplements have a mutating effect (Phillips 15).” 1.) “By volumizing your cells to hold more resources then normal(15).” 2.) “Create a drug like effect on cellular processes(15).” With this scenario, the dietary supplement can exert a positive effect on muscle metabolism and/or performance. The third theory and most important relating to my paper states that a supplement might help you build muscle, enhance athlete performance and improve your health by simply making up for the deficiency. This has basically been what most dieticians, nutritionists, doctors, etc. have viewed supplements as a means of protecting your body against vitamin and mineral deficiencies and so on. Supplements have been widely used for decades as a means of preventing serious, even fatal diseases, which are caused by nutrient deficiencies. Thus, proving my topic by adding more Creatine to the bodies of an athlete can enhance performance by replenishing the body with the most needed resources.

It is rumored that athletes in the former USSR and Bulgaria may have been using Creatine to enhance athletic performance since the early 1970’s. While this may be true, the documented use of Creatine supplementation by athletes was with British track and field competitors who competed in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Creatine was given credit for powering several of the British athletes who won gold medals. The London Times reported (August 7, 1992) that Linford Christie, the 100meter gold medallist, supplemented with Creatine before the 1992 Olympics, and a European magazine called Bodybuilding Monthly reported that Sally Gunnele, the 400 meter gold medallist, also used Creatine. The London Times also reported that Colin Jackson, the champion British 110-meter hurdler, used Creatine before the Olympics (Bamberger 61). Shortly thereafter, U.S. champion athletes began using Creatine. Since then, scientists have elucidated more secrets on how to best utilize Creatine for optimal benefit. Now, champion athletes and bodybuilders around the world swear by Creatine’s effects. Now in the 90’s Creatine has major use in all sport categories, “At least one quarter of all major leaguers now use the substance. That number is at least as high in professional hockey and basketball, and perhaps 50% of NFL Players take Creatine. Among Olympic Sprinters, cyclists and weightlifters, those who do not use Creatine are harder to find than those who do. Bodybuilders live on the stuff. Boxers, too. Innumerable ordinary weekend athletes use it. It’s everywhere (Bamberger 62).”

When I was a sophomore in high school, I was first introduced to this miracle drug called “creatine.” Many of the guys on the football team were taking this, and soon did I. I did not really know what this white powdery substance was, but all I know is that it seemed to jump my weight up 10 pounds within about three weeks. My weightlifting max’s seemed to be increasing and I was full of energy. Some of us would “load” just before a football game to give us that extra boost of energy. To us, it seemed like legal steroids with no side effects. Creatine seemed to improve performance for short-duration activities like our 40 times, bursting off the snap of the ball, and our weightlifting max’s. What I found was in order to make creatine effective, you must work out at least three times a week consistently. Most people do not notice any difference until about three weeks into the cycle. A recent study followed 19 men who lifted weights regularly over 12 weeks. Those taking creatine registered an average 6.3 percent gain in fat-free body mass, compared with a 3.1 percent gain in those not taking the supplement(Timberline 1).

In 1981, an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. l. Silila. Reported that supplementation with Creatine in a group of patients suffering from a condition called Gyrate Atrophy (a genetic ailment of the eyes caused by a metabolic inability to efficiently metabolize ornithine and synthesize Creatine). Improved the test subject’s strength, increased their bodyweight by ten percent, and partially reversed the Type II muscle fiber atrophy associated with this disease(Silila 867). One athlete in this group of test subjects improved his best time in the 100-meter sprint by two seconds.

In 1993, a study peer reviewed and published in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine, Science and sports (Balsom 143) demonstrated that Creatine supplementation could significantly increase body mass (in only one week) and that it was

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