Creatine Supplementation in Fibromyalgia: A Randomized, Double‐Blind, Placebo‐Controlled Trial

Abstract

Objective. To investigate the efficacy and safety of creatine supplementation in fibromyalgia patients. Methods. A 16-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial was conducted. Fibromyalgia patients were randomly assigned to receive either creatine monohydrate or placebo in a double-blind manner. The patients were evaluated at baseline and after 16 weeks. Muscle function, aerobic conditioning, cognitive function, quality of sleep, quality of life, kidney function, and adverse events were assessed. Muscle phosphorylcreatine content was measured through 31 P magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Results. After the intervention, the creatine group presented higher muscle phosphorylcreatine content when compared with the placebo group (؉80.3% versus ؊2.7%; P ‫؍‬ 0.04). Furthermore, the creatine group presented greater muscle strength than the placebo group in the leg press and chest press exercises (؉9.8% and ؉1.2% for creatine versus ؊0.5% and ؊7.2% for placebo, respectively; P ‫؍‬ 0.02 and P ‫؍‬ 0.002, respectively). Isometric strength was greater in the creatine group than in the placebo group (؉6.4% versus ؊3.2%; P ‫؍‬ 0.007). However, no general changes were observed in aerobic conditioning, pain, cognitive function, quality of sleep, and quality of life. Food intake remained unaltered and no side effects were reported. Conclusion. Creatine supplementation increased intramuscular phosphorylcreatine content and improved lower-and upper-body muscle function, with minor changes in other fibromyalgia features. These findings introduce creatine supplementation as a useful dietary intervention to improve muscle function in fibromyalgia patients.

Can Creatine Supplementation Improve Body Composition and Objective Physical Function in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients? A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Since both groups in our trial had comparable improvements in the function tests, it suggests that, despite prior practice, performance was enhanced by a learning effect. In keeping with the literature, Cr supplementation in our investigation had no effect on aerobic capacity .…”

International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine

“…In this regard, creatine supplementation has been reported to help lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels [67, 196]; reduce fat accumulation in the liver [197]; reduce homocysteine levels [198]; serve as an antioxidant [199–202]; enhance glycemic control [132, 203–205]; slow tumor growth in some types of cancers [32, 198, 206, 207]; increase strength and/or muscle mass [37, 41, 44, 45, 82, 208–212]; minimize bone loss [211, 212]; improve functional capacity in patients with knee osteoarthritis [213] and fibromyalgia [214]; positively influence cognitive function [43, 83, 195]; and in some instances, serve as an anti-depressant [215–217]. …”

Creatine as Biomarker

“…Moreover, Cr reduces the appearance of inflammation markers during endurance exercise (Wallimann et al 2011). These findings have promoted the use of Cr in several clinical controlled trials in patients with muscle disorders and have shown that Cr treatment improves muscle strength in people with muscular dystrophies (Kley et al 2013) and fibromyalgia (Alves et al 2013) and the functional performance in idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (Kley et al 2013). However, Cr did not show any significant improvement in muscle strength in metabolic myopathies; on the contrary, high doses of Cr increased muscle pain in patients with McArdle disease (Kley et al 2013).…”