- Strength Increase
- Muscle Increase
- Rise in Endurance
What is it and where
does it come from?
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.
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."
What does it do?
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.
Why CEE instead
of Monohydrate ?
- Works faster and is more efficiently absorbed . This is
likely
because the esterification of creatine, CEE, will increase its
lipopholic abilities, and thus esterified creatine will use fat more
efficiently to permeate the cell wall and exert its effects on cellular
function than its unesterified creatine monohydrate counterpart.
- Requires a smaller dosage. This is likely because regular
creatine monohydrate is absorbed poorly by the body, and its
effectiveness is dependent on the cells' ability to absorb it. As a
result, the poor absorption rate of regular creatine monohydrate
requires users to ingest larger amounts of creatine monohydrate (5 to
20 grams, daily) to achieve a desired effect, versus the three to six
grams of esterfied creatine, daily.
- Eliminates the infamous "water bloat" look. Thus is
likely
because creatine draws water into the cell (cell volumization), and
because most ingested creatine monohydrate is not all absorbed, any
unabsorbed creatine will sit outside of the target cell with the water.
As a result, this may cause the dreaded "creatine water bloat." Whereas
esterfied creatine is said to pull nearly all of the water into the
muscle cell, thereby creating a harder, more solid appearance of
muscularity
