Hey it's a free country...
I always get a little blood pressure rise from blank check comments like this. Quit using freedom as a shield to protect yourself from somebody's objection to your comments. It is the worst kind of sophistry and it weakens your claim.
I don't care if you speak up. Just don't hide behind the flag when you do have something to say.
A nice study using meta data can be found here:
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/DOCKETS/95s0316/95s-0316-rpt0154-51-Ref-47-vol112.pdf
After reading most of the article, I came away with a few observations. It doesn't do much for exceptional athletes. The down side is that most of creatine production in North America is synthetic and the process has not been tested for carcinogenic or toxic effects. However, this study cited the following observations in the literature:
"A search of this database enables the observation that 2621 adverse effects have been declared relating to 3451 products. For creatine, 32 reports have been made. 26 of these reports concern subjects who have only ingested creatine. The name of the product and that of the company are indicated, they are vary diverse. The adverse side effects reported are very varied, quoted in the order they were recorded: dyspnoea, fatigue, “serious pain”, diarrhoea, vomiting, polymyositis, aggressive and violent behaviour, stomach cramps, myopathy, venous thrombosis, atria1 fibrillation, one death, stomach bums, migraines, facial rash, cardiac arrest with apoplexy and ventricular fibrillation, repeated epistaxis, thoracic, gastric and backbone pain, intracerebral haemorrhage and rabdomyolysis. The most frequent side effects are digestive."
Now, if the Hawkeye team members affected were all using a creatine supplement, it might be prudent to discontinue this supplementary treatment until greater studies have been conducted. To say that creatine did not have a negative effect on the players is not only premature, but is unsubstantiated by any measure. What we do know is that they may have been taking this supplement as part of their S&C regimen and that is most likely the one common association between all the athletes hospitalized. There really needs to be a good investigation into the cause of their hospitalization.
