Creatine Diet: five-fold increase in their stamina

yeahright

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Rutland Herald
Article published Jun 4, 2006
Bulked-up rainbows in future?

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Imagine going to your favorite trout stream and being able to tangle with a "super fish" — a muscle-bound rainbow that has amazing strength and endurance. Now imagine how that fish got that way — by taking creatine, the same supplement Mark McGwire used. A far-fetched scenario, you say? Not in the eyes of researchers at the University of Missouri. For more than a year, Missouri professors have been experimenting with feeding rainbow trout a diet supplemented with 5 percent creatine, which is used by athletes to increase muscle mass and endurance and recover more quickly from injuries. The results have been striking. Preliminary findings indicated that some of the trout taking the creatine — a naturally occurring amino acid, not a steroid or a hormone — showed a five-fold increase in their stamina, measured by the length of time they were able to swim against a controlled current.

The day when that might translate to better fishing is still a long way off.

The federal government does not approve creatine in fish that are to be consumed by humans, though the substance is legally sold over the counter as a supplement.

But researchers haven't ruled out the possibility that the substance — if proved safe, effective and economically feasible — might one day change the face of fishing for some species.

"There would be a lot of marketability for harder-fighting fish," said Rob Hayward, a fisheries professor at MU who is involved in the study. "Fishermen probably would pay a premium for a chance of catching fish that fought longer and harder."

Alicia Amyx, part of the family that has operated the Rainbow Trout Ranch fee-fishing operation near Rockbridge, Mo., since 1954, agreed that it could present new possibilities.

"I'm sure it would be attractive to some of our fishermen, having harder-fighting trout," she said. "Trout 2 pounds and up fight hard enough. We hear a lot of stories about the one that got away. To have a trout that fought even harder could be exciting.

"But before we even considered using something like creatine, we would have to make sure it was safe (to consume) on a long-term basis. We're careful that our fish are natural and of high quality. We wouldn't want to jeopardize that in any way."

But the gains wouldn't necessarily be confined to freshwater fish. The benefits of creatine also could extend to saltwater fish, Hayward said.

"The big thing now is open-ocean aquaculture, in which fish are raised in large cages as far as 200 miles off shore," Hayward said. "By supplementing the diet of those fish with creatine, they might grow stronger and be able to withstand stronger currents."

Hayward emphasizes that the study is still in its preliminary stages. But early returns have opened some eyes.

Creatine was first used by MU researchers in research with pigs to see whether it could improve the quality of pork.

Hayward and animal-sciences professor Eric Berg later decided to test the substance to see whether it could improve muscle growth in fish.

To test the fish's swimming stamina, they used a Plexiglas swim tube in which the current could be regulated.

"In effect, it's like a treadmill," Hayward said. "We can adjust the flow rate and see how the fish react."

Hayward and Berg, aided by undergraduate researchers Amber Wiewel and Kyle Winders, also tested creatine's effects on bluegills, but the results were not profound.

"Bluegills are relatively sedentary and are reluctant to swim, so differences weren't pronounced," Hayward said.

But the researchers found good subjects in the trout, which are current-oriented fish. Now they are thinking of testing other species, including the closely related salmon.

"We can't say if this will ever have any application to fishing or aquaculture," Hayward said. "We are just providing the science.

"But it does provide some interesting possibilities."
 
LakeMountD

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Re: Creatine Diet: five-fold increase in their stamina (in trout)

Kind of a pointless study, however, it lets me know not to fish in an area where the is a massive creatine spill hahaha.
 
yeahright

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Re: Creatine Diet: five-fold increase in their stamina (in trout)

LOL, I thought it was funny. If creatine becomes an accepted part of animal feed, then perhaps it won't be viewed as so bizarre in the general culture.
 
yeahright

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Re: Creatine Diet: five-fold increase in their stamina (in trout)

:icon_lol: :rofl: :toofunny:

They're actually editorializing against the creatine enhanced trout!

Article Last Updated: 6/04/2006 08:57 AM
An idea worth throwing back

Salt Lake Tribune
The New York Times said in an editorial Friday:

After a yearlong experiment with rainbow trout, researchers at the University of Missouri have announced that feeding them creatine - the bodybuilding supplement Mark McGwire made infamous - can improve their fighting ability.

Actually, these experiments demonstrate that trout eating a 5 percent creatine diet can swim against the current far longer than fish that aren't taking the supplement. No one has tested these creatine rainbows against an actual angler. But that has not prevented the researchers from leaping to an economic conclusion. ''Fishermen probably would pay a premium for a chance of catching fish that fought longer and harder,'' one of them said.

Probably. But also probably not. A trout that is being fed creatine is being fed by humans. The ones at the University of Missouri were tested in double-walled plexiglass tubes. The ones that anglers are likely to hook would be living in ponds, where their diets could be supplemented with creatine. They would be hatchery fish. And that's where the irony of a study like this becomes apparent.

If you've ever caught a wild rainbow trout - truly wild, like those in the Delaware or the Madison River - you know that it doesn't need any help from creatine. A hatchery trout is a different creature entirely - a wan spirit reared in concrete tanks, fed trout pellets, and dumped into a foreign world on opening day.

Creatine might make a difference to these fish and the anglers who catch them, but it's the wrong difference, especially since the FDA hasn't approved creatine as a food additive. Anglers don't need creatine-enhanced hatchery trout. What we need are more wild trout in more wild rivers.
 
LakeMountD

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Re: Creatine Diet: five-fold increase in their stamina (in trout)

Haha did I NOT say that I wouldn't fish in that area! I told ya ;).
 
wastedwhiteboy2

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Re: Creatine Diet: five-fold increase in their stamina (in trout)

missouri? this is the same state that canned a principal and coach for allowing students to take creatine on school grounds? what a confused state.
 
yeahright

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Re: Creatine Diet: five-fold increase in their stamina (in trout)

missouri? this is the same state that canned a principal and coach for allowing students to take creatine on school grounds? what a confused state.
LOL, no kidding.
 
LakeMountD

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Re: Creatine Diet: five-fold increase in their stamina (in trout)

missouri? this is the same state that canned a principal and coach for allowing students to take creatine on school grounds? what a confused state.
Haha isnt that the damn truth.
 

DazzlinJack

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Hope one day they do get the fish on creatine. So I can go fish loading: 4 servings a day for 5 days straight! Need to get a vat of tartar sauce from Cosco first though.
 
yeahright

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Hope one day they do get the fish on creatine. So I can go fish loading: 4 servings a day for 5 days straight! Need to get a vat of tartar sauce from Cosco first though.
LOL, we could sell them as "functional foods" like vitamin enriched foods.
 
bioman

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Gads, that is stupid,lol.

As a former fisheries biologist I like to laugh at idiot trout fishermen who make statements like these..

"If you've ever caught a wild rainbow trout - truly wild, like those in the Delaware or the Madison River - you know that it doesn't need any help from creatine."

Umm, well guess what there braintrust? Rainbow trout are native only to the Western US, so what you're catching there isn't even native and therefore not "wild and free". Though there are some naturally reproducing rainbow populations back east, nearly all of them are supplemented (pun intended) with hatchery fish from time to time.

The increased cost of feeding fish creatine is going to make this finding less than workable in real life.
 
LakeMountD

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Gads, that is stupid,lol.

As a former fisheries biologist I like to laugh at idiot trout fishermen who make statements like these..

"If you've ever caught a wild rainbow trout - truly wild, like those in the Delaware or the Madison River - you know that it doesn't need any help from creatine."

Umm, well guess what there braintrust? Rainbow trout are native only to the Western US, so what you're catching there isn't even native and therefore not "wild and free". Though there are some naturally reproducing rainbow populations back east, nearly all of them are supplemented (pun intended) with hatchery fish from time to time.

The increased cost of feeding fish creatine is going to make this finding less than workable in real life.
Haha that is pretty funny bro I didn't know that..:rofl:
 
JonesersRX7

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I just hope one day... I can be as strong as a rainbow trout.

and if creatine is the way.... by all means. :rofl:
 
bioman

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I'm going to run a cycle of creatine and MeoTRN on my giant danios and neon tetras. I want the biggest m-fing fish on the block!
 
yeahright

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Oh, just imagine it. Trout the size of salmon. :burger:
 

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