Not long ago I wrote a blog called the “Creatine Graveyard” where I took a look at the various “high tech” forms of creatine (see list in the Graveyard blog) with a specific focus on Creatine Ethyl Ester (CEE) as a study had just been published putting CEE in a less than positive light.

The study found found CEE to be inferior to creatine monohydrate (CM) and so, CEE was dumped into he graveyard along with a bunch of others. No big shock to yours truly, additional research appears to confirm CEE is a poor choice for a replacement for CM, and now we have this latest study that finds CEE converts to creatinine (which has no ergogenic effects), which = people using CEE are throwing their hard earned $$$ away as far as I am concerned.

This study  concludes “creatine ethyl ester is a pronutrient for creatinine rather than creatine under all physiological conditions encountered during transit through the various tissues, thus no ergogenic effect is to be expected from supplementation.”

In other words, as I’ve been saying for a long time now , stop wasting your money…

Below is the abstract for those interested in such things. It’s my advice at this time that people should avoid this supplement;   at best it’s a waste of money, and at worst, will elevate creatinine levels which may be contraindicated for some  populations.

Non-enzymatic cyclization of creatine ethyl ester to creatinine

Matthew W. Giese
Department of Chemistry,
Marian University,
3200 Cold Spring Rd.,
Indianapolis, IN 46222, USA

Received 28 July 2009.
Available online 4 August 2009.

Creatine ethyl ester was incubated at 37 °C in both water and phosphate-buffered saline and the diagnostic methylene resonances in the 1H NMR spectrum were used to identify the resultant products. It was found that mild aqueous conditions result in the cyclization of creatine ethyl ester to provide inactive creatinine as the exclusive product, and this transformation becomes nearly instantaneous as the pH approaches 7.4.

This study demonstrates that mild non-enzymatic conditions are sufficient for the cyclization of creatine ethyl ester into creatinine, and together with previous results obtained under enzymatic conditions suggests that there are no physiological conditions that would result in the production of creatine.

It is concluded that creatine ethyl ester is a pronutrient for creatinine rather than creatine under all physiological conditions encountered during transit through the various tissues, thus no ergogenic effect is to be expected from supplementation.

Keywords: Creatine ethyl ester; Creatine; Creatinine; Cyclization; In vivo;

CEE, The Poster Child For The “Graveyard”! is a post from: The Final Frontier In Bodybuilding , Fat Loss, Health & Fitness