Creatine Stability In Water?

I’ve been searching on this for awhile and can’t seem to find the right keywords. I think I read something on here that if you let creatine sit in water too long it’ll break down turn into creatinine? Is this true and if so, how long before it happens?

If it makes a difference, I have the Biotest stuff.

Not quite sure, but if you just pound the stuff down fast it wouldn’t matter, if you pre-make your shake then baggie up the creatine and stir in the creatine right before you drink it.

This may not help much but, I have heard the same thing, though I don’t know the answer to the how long question either.

In “the creatine controversy” they talk about creatine serums…

[quote]Those that have been studied scientifically have been shown to have no effect (9), which is likely due to the fact that creatine usually degrades in liquids. Anecdotal reports indicate that liquid creatine products contain virtually no creatine, but rather the mildly toxic metabolite creatinine.

Recently, independent labs investigated this phenomenon and found that Creatine Serum ATP Advantage (made by Muscle Marketing USA) contained 90% creatinine (14)! [/quote]

http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=768093

hope that helps a little

I believe it is about 20 minutes that it breaks down into creatinine. It is not just water that breaks it down, its any liquid. As long as you mix it and down it you’ll be fine. Just never buy liquid creatine.

I’ve heard the same thing. I dont think creatinine is bad for you, I’ve just heard thats what causes creatine bloating.

I’ve heard this happens in about 10 minutes of being in water/juice/whatever.

I used to put it in my Surge and drink it post workout, and never really noticed much… but thats probably becuause I’m fat.

I do not think creatinine is bad for you either as long as your kidneys remove it. I would imagine since it is a waste product that your body would just try to remove it instead of use it. Therefore it would be pointless to ingest creatinine, unless you want to fake kidney damage.

Check this out:

Mixing creatine with a warm liquid is a good way to go, but it may be best to err on the side of caution by not mixing with a caffeinated beverage like coffee or green tea. Granted, the debate is still out. Furthermore, liquid creatine doesn’t look like a viable solution but again…there probably need to be more studies.

[quote]So what are some solutions? The first is to dissolve your creatine in a warm beverage. By doing so, due to the laws of thermodynamics, the creatine is solubilized. And when consumed, it can be absorbed much more effectively without all the GI distress. This is where the creatine coffee debate started as most guys just dumped the creatine into the coffee for convenience sake. Warm coffee, tea, or even just warm water will do just fine.

The second solution is liquid creatine. Many companies have developed liquid creatine products that contain some type of glycerin or carbohydrate-like substance to solubilize the creatine. Although there is no good data to suggest that these products are better than regular creatine, theoretically they could help absorption. This would allow for less GI stress and lower doses. But although theoretically this does make sense, creatine tends to be unstable in liquid if suspended for too long. This is because the creatine can react with the water molecules to degrade into creatinine, a useless metabolite that is simply excreted from the body. With all the brilliant chemists in this industry, we are certain that this problem can be solved. In fact, we’ve seen some yet unpublished data to suggest that there are quite a few liquid creatine products out there that remain stable in solution for long periods of time. Our suggestion would be to try only liquid creatine products from reputable well-established companies with a good history of quality control.[/quote]

Source: http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/supplementation/creatinecomb.htm

It can’t possibly be 10 minutes. It takes longer than that to reach the muscle after you drink it.

Just mix it into your PWO shake and drink it. But don’t treat it like is some highly unstable combination, that’s just silly.

For a while, I used to prepare the PWO shake the evening before training. So creatine would sit in solution for a good 20 hours. Now, it’s hard to tell the difference, but I think there wasn’t any significant change from the freshly mixed creatine, based on the results I obtained.

Just to be on the safe side, now I mix it into the PWO shake a few minutes before drinking it. Appears to work the same.

Ok, I guess I’ll make my poor man’s Surge the night before like I always do, and then add the creatine before I down it.

Thanks everyone.

I read a study where they put creatine monohydrate in hydrochloric acid - after 2 hours 2% of the creatine had degraded to creatinine.

By contrast, 98% of creatine ethyl ester had degraded.