Performance of Patients With Intermittent Claudication Undergoing Physical Training, With or Without an Aggravation of Arterial Disease. Retrospective Cohort Study

Creatine supplementation as a potential therapeutic aid in peripheral arterial obstructive disease rehabilitation

“…According to it, many exercise intervention studies could document significant gain in many spheres of physical fitness without a significant improvement in blood flow, confirming the data about an important metabolic contribution leading to function. [15][16][17] Even in non diseased (normal blood flow) persons (eg athletes), an increase on metabolic function is capable to improve performance, as seen in studies with Cr supplementation, corroborating the data. 27,28 The ingestion of 20g/day of Cr for 5 days can lead to increase more than 20% of muscle Cr content, of which approximately 20% can be attributable to PCr form.…”

“…6 The worsening of arterial obstruction and consequent disease evolutional stage was previously correlated with these impairments. 14,15,29 In fact, studies made with ambulatory measurements and subjective questionnaires to analyze physical function, observed decreasing levels of physical activity in more severe diseased patients. 14,15,29,30 This scenario of reduced physical capacity due to PAOD, increases the levels of a more sedentary lifestyle, which provokes in end a "progressive disability cycle" of physical function.…”

“…14,15,29 In fact, studies made with ambulatory measurements and subjective questionnaires to analyze physical function, observed decreasing levels of physical activity in more severe diseased patients. 14,15,29,30 This scenario of reduced physical capacity due to PAOD, increases the levels of a more sedentary lifestyle, which provokes in end a "progressive disability cycle" of physical function. 31 In this field, scientific literature has been previously documented reduced values of strength, power and endurance in patients when compared with non diseased controls.…”

“…[7][8][9]16,17,30,[32][33][34] Once muscular strength could be strongly correlated with walking capacity (most accessed measure of fitness capacity) in PAOD patients by Regensteiner et al 34 and Gerdle et al 32 interventions (resistance training) to counteract this condition has been proposed 11,12 and studied with documented positive benefits. [13][14][15][16][17] Additional to resistance training, as a beneficial exercise type prescription in non diseased population, 35 association of Cr supplementation has been studied and proposed as a more effective intervention to improvements muscular strength. 36 In fact two recent meta-analysis 37,38 documented that Cr supplementation can significantly increase muscular capacity to generate strength.…”

“…[6][7][8][9] Cost-effectiveness strategies 10 to counteract muscle, nerve and metabolism impairments, and to reduce the loss of physical fitness capacity, like exercise training have been previously proposed 11,12 and studied. [13][14][15][16][17] Therefore, adding up the cost-effectiveness and the safety profile of studied benefits of Cr supplementation 18,19 and the clinical frame of PAOD, the use of Cr rises as a potential therapeutic aid to be considered.…”