creatine stability

[rbuchman]

A friend of mine told me creatine is not stable in water, so I shouldn't make my shake ahead of time. Anyone know anything about the stability of creatine in H20 and how this affects it's use. The same goes for Whey.

[Lift2Live]

The word 'stability' isn't quite the term that I think should be used. Instability means it will break down and that's not necessarily true. I'd rather say, insoluable. Unless it's micronized, it does not dissolve in water well at all. This will not affect it's integrity. I make mu post workout shake beforehand and when I go to drink it after lifting, the creatine is all sitting in the bottom. Just give it a quick shake and drink. No worries. The product itself doesn't 'degrade'.

[nic6paul]

"The Stability of Creatine

The stability of creatine is an important subject for athletes looking to get the most out of their supplementation protocol. Based on the available research, creatine is best absorbed when the creatine powder is scooped directly into the mouth and swallowed with a few small sips of water. This insures minimal conversion of creatine to creatinine (Myers, 2000). Dash et al. (2002) further investigated this phenomenon. The crystal structure of creatine monohydrate has previously been reported. However, little information is available on its solid-state properties. Guo et al. (2003) suggests that oxidization of creatine readily causes the conversion to creatinine. Ganguly (2003) dissolved creatine effervescent powders in deionized water and stored them at room temperature and in a refrigerator over a period of several weeks. Creatine concentration was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography. Intrinsic dissolution and saturated solubility of creatine, creatine monohydrate, and di-creatine citrate in water were determined and compared. Crystal growth was detected only in the refrigerated samples on the seventh day of storage. Ninety percent creatine degradation was observed within weeks. However, at refrigerated condition this degradation was 80% within the same time period. Di-creatine citrate used in effervescent formulation dissociates to creatine in aqueous solution and eventually crystallizes. Significant decrease in solubility and effect of pH contribute to this crystallization process.

Sakata et al. (2004) set out to understand the dehydration behavior of creatine monohydrate at various temperatures. The dehydration of untreated and pulverized creatine monohydrate was investigated at various storage temperatures, and the results indicated that untreated and pulverized creatine monohydrate were transformed into the anhydrate at more than 30 degrees C. After dehydration, the particles of untreated and pulverized creatine anhydrate had many cracks. Dehydration of untreated creatine monohydrate had a pronounced effect on the particle size of the powder. Compared with pulverized creatine monohydrate, the particle size of untreated creatine monohydrate was significantly decreased by dehydration. "

taken from this article Creatine Analysis if you read it, it should answer some of your questions

[Lift2Live]

If it takes weeks for these results, a couple hours shouldn't matter...