| Creatine Ethyl Ester HCL Creatine Ethyl Ester HCL (CEE) is creatine
monohydrate with an ester attached. Esters are organic compounds that are formed by
esterification - the reaction of carboxylic acid and alcohols.
Regular creatine monohydrate has been shown
effective at increasing lean muscle mass, muscle strength and athletic performance.
However, regular creatine monohydrate is absorbed poorly by the body - and its
effectiveness is dependant upon the cells ability to absorb it. The poor absorption rate
of regular creatine monohydrate requires the creatine user to ingest large dosages of
creatine to achieve desired effect.
Because creatine draws water to the cell,
and because most ingested creatine monohydrate is not absorbed, unabsorbed creatine will
sit outside of the target cell with the water, and this will result in the "creatine
bloat."
Long-term clinical studies have proven that
creatine monohydrate is safe for use by persons free of medical complication, but why
would you want to ingest more creatine monohydrate than you have to simply because your
creatine is inefficient?
Creatine ethyl ester is creatine
monohydrate with an ester attached. The attachment of an ester is significant, because
esters are found in the fat tissue of animals. But, why is this important? What role does
this have in the absorption of creatine?
All substances that you put into your body
will affect its operation. There are three ways that substances can affect a cells
operation. They are:
- Ligand binding to protein receptor sites.
- Secondary messenger / metabotropic systems
- Passive permeation of the cell wall via lipids
When a substance enters the body and
affects the bodies operation, it is known as a ligand. The soma and dendrites of the cell
have protein receptor sites to which ligands can bind. The process of a ligand binding
with a receptor site is akin to a lock and key: only keys of a certain shape work with
certain locks. When they work and cause the cells stimulation they are called agonists.
When they block the cell from functioning they are called antagonists.
When a ligand binds with the receptor site
of a target cell, the cell, in the simplest of cases, changes its shape, opens up its ion
channels and changes its function. In so-called "secondary messenger" or
metabotropic cells, the ligand binds with the receptor site and an internal protein known
as a g-protein is released. This released protein then binds to an internal site inside of
the cell, and then the cell changes its behavior by opening its ion channels. Cells that
operate in this way are known as metabotropic cells because their operation requires
metabolic energy.
Passive permeation is a process that
describes the diffusion of a substance across a cell membrane through the use of lipids as
transport mechanisms. Because no "work" is being done by the cell in this model,
this model is called passive permeation.
Creatine monohydrate utilizes lipids to
permeate the cell wall and enter the cell. Because of this, the esterification of
creatine, and the presence of esters in animal fat tissue, becomes significant.
Creatine monohydrate is semi-lipopholic.
This means that it inefficiently uses fat as a transport mechanism. The esterification of
substances will increase their lipopholic abilities, and thus esterified creatine will use
fat more efficiently to permeate the cell wall and exert its effects upon cellular
function than its unesterified creatine monohydrate counterpart.
This means, simply, that not only will
dosage requirements be lower, but the absorption of esterified creatine will be increased
and the infamous "creatine bloat" will be eliminated! |
