Taking Glutamine And Creatine

Creatine is a compound your body stores and converts into energy during physical activity, and glutamine is the most abundant amino acid your body uses for building protein. Athletes and people with certain muscle-wasting conditions may benefit from taking creatine and glutamine supplements to build muscle. However, you should always speak to your physician before taking any type of dietary supplement.

Supplementation Needs

According to the Student Health Center at Western Washington University, creatine and glutamine play very different roles in building muscle. Your body stores creatine when you rest and releases it when you exercise so that it can help regenerate the energy source ATP faster. Consuming creatine may increase your capacity to perform high-intensity exercise such as weight training. Glutamine does not have such a clear use established. High levels of stress, such as heavy exercise, promote the production of cortisol, a hormone that lowers glutamine levels. Advocates of glutamine claim that replenishment of the amino acid through supplements is necessary to offset the muscle-degrading effects of cortisol and provide the building blocks for new muscle tissue.

Dosage

Take creatine in phases to experience the greatest benefits. You need to consume around 20 g to 25 g of creatine per day for the first week. This will build up the stores of creatine in your muscles. Follow this with a maintenance phase of 3 g to 5 g daily to keep your creatine levels high for exercise. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, most adults can tolerate a glutamine dose of 500 mg one to three times daily without side effects, and prescription doses can be as high as 15,000 mg per day.

Side Effects

While it is relatively safe to consume glutamine and creatine together in their respective recommended doses, you may experience some side effects from the individual supplements. National Strength and Conditioning Association supplement expert Douglas Kalman states that creatine may lead to weight gain, but other claimed negative side effects, such as water retention and cramps, are not supported by research. People with decreased kidney or liver function should not take glutamine supplements. In addition, as reported in an article in the June 2011 issue of the "Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle," glutamine supplementation may suppress your body's ability to synthesize the amino acid on its own, leading to supplement dependency.

Combined Benefits

Researchers have combined creatine and glutamine in clinical trials to treat various muscle-wasting conditions. Results of one such trial were published in the "Annals of Neurology" in 2008. The study found that a supplement of 0.6 mg of glutamine per kilogram of body weight and 5 g of creatine per day for 50 boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy did not increase measures of strength. However, young boys with the disorder may have experienced a slowing of their muscular dystrophy from combined creatine and glutamine.