Kre-alkayln the superior creatine?
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008Kre-Alkalyn Clinical Trial
“Using Olympic-Level Weight Lifters”
Start Date: March 1st 2006th
Finished Date: April 30th, 2006
Dr. Kamen Stroychev & Neno Terziiski, Comparison of Kre-Alkalyn to Creatine on body composition, muscular performance, & safety: Dr. I.S. Greenberg Medical Center, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of Kre-Alkalyn and Creatine Monohydrate on training induced changes in strength and body composition using Olympic-level weight lifters.
Methods: Using a random, double-blind design, 24 healthy men from the Bulgarian National Weight Lifting Team were selected and assigned to ingest 10 capsules x 750 mg of Kre-Alkalyn daily (for the test group) and 10 capsules x 750 mg of creatine monohydrate (for the controlled group). Verification of purity was assayed by an independent laboratory. Body weight was monitored, even though participating athletes were on strict diets due to their Olympic status of competition. Muscular performance was measured in the snatch, clean & jerk, high snatch, & back squat. Lifts were performed at maximum resistence for 1 repetition. The duration of the study was 60 days. Measurements were taken on baseline day and every day throughout the study per each athlete’s schedule. The best lift during the administration part of study was used for the comparison. Each athlete was required to maintain their normal dietary and training patterns during the study.
Results: The Creatine Monohydrate group showed an average increase over baseline of 8.39% for the snatch, clean & jerk, high snatch, & back squat. The Kre-Alkalyn group showed an average increase over baseline of 10.76%. By comparison, the average increase in total lifts for the Kre-Alkalyn group in the snatch, clean & jerk, high snatch, & back squat was 28.25% over the Creatine Monohydrate group.
Additionally, the Kre-Alkalyn group appeared to be healthy without any side effects from daily Kre-Alkalyn administration. No significant changes in body weight for either the Creatine Monohydrate group or the Kre-Alkalyn group were noted.
Conclusion: Within the framework and context of the current experimental design, this study concluded that subjects in the Kre-Alkalyn group increased their weight poundages by an average of 28.25% over subjects in the Creatine Monohydrate group. It should be noted that it is quite difficult for high-caliber Olympic-level athletes to produce considerable improvements in their muscular performance in such a short time-frame. Therefore, a 28.25% increase is considered to be a significant value
Effects Of Creatine Supplementation On Cellular Protein Metabolism In Vitro
“Kre-Alkalyn -vs- Creatine Monohydrate”
January 31st, 2008
Dr. Kamen Stroychev, MD (Greenberg Medical Center, Sofia, Bulgaria)
Objectives: The anabolic properties of creatine supplementation are well established, and we sought to determine the effects the stabilization process (used to manufacture Kre-Alkalyn) might have upon these metabolic effects.
Methods: To address this issue, established monolayer cultures of muscle cells (RD) or chondrocytes (SW1353) were subcultured in a deficient medium containing only 2.5 % fetal calf serum, instead of 10% which is mandatory for the optimal cell growth and maintenance in vitro. Thereafter, cells were exposed to either culture medium (controls) or 0.5 mmol conventional creatine (Creatine Monohydrate) or buffered creatine (Kre-Alkalyn). At different exposure periods (12, 24 or 48 h), the cells were detached from the cell culture flasks via trypsinization, washed thrice in PBS to remove residual protein from the culture medium and counted. Thereafter, the protein content in each sample was determined using the method of Lowry. The results were calculated as mg protein/106 cells and expressed as percentage of the untreated control (set as 100 %).
Results: Evident from the results obtained, both creatine formulations (conventional creatine and stabilized Kre-Alkayn) caused a significant time dependent increase in the protein content of either muscle or cartilage cells. In all experiments, however, the Kre-Alkalyn formulation caused a more pronounced augmentation of the protein anabolism, as compared to the non-stabilized counterpart (Creatine Monohydrate) (Table 4.1.; Figure 4.1.).
Appendix 4.
Experimental data for the effects of creatine supplementation on cellular metabolism.
Table 4.1. Effects of creatine supplementation on the protein synthesis of human muscle or cartilage cells cultured in FCS-deficient medium.
Exposure period (h) Protein content (% of untr. control)
Conventional creatine Kre-Alkalyn
RD muscle cells
12 109* ± 4 111* ± 1
24 112* ± 3 121*# ± 4
48 117* ± 2 124*# ± 2
SW1353 cartilage cells
12 105* ± 4 110*# ± 3
24 111* ± 4 117*# ± 3
48 115* ± 3 122*# ± 4
* Statistically significant (p<0.05) vs. the untreated control; # Statistically significant (p<0.05) vs. the equivalent concentration of conventional creatine (Student’s t-test).
Figure 4.1. Effects of creatine – conventional (white columns) or stabilized Kre-Alkalyn (grey columns) on the protein content in cells (upper plot) or RD cells (lower plot), cultured in FCS-deficient medium after a 12, 24 or 48 h incubation period. Each column represents the arithmetic mean ± sd of 4 independent experiments.
Conclusion: Kre-Alkalyn proved to exhibit a greater anabolic effect compared to regular creatine. Thus, considering the equivalent controlled conditions of the experiment, the observed greater anabolic effects of Kre-Alkalyn could be ascribed solely to the superior stability afforded by the processing manipulations used to make Kre-alkalyn.
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