is product. Should creatine be made illegal for athletes to use, or, are the risks outweighed by the benefits of taking this product?
             What is creatine monohydrate? According to the Southern Medical Journal, creatine is a naturally occurring nitrogen compound found primarily in skeletal muscle (Covington, Eck, Knudtson, Murphy, Ray, Williams 608). The creatine that is normally present in the human body may come from two potential sources: the consumption of animal flesh, or by the liver and kidneys inside the body (Covington 608). Muscle cells generate mechanical work from an energy-liberating chemical reaction where adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is split into adenosine diphosphate (ADT) and phosphate. But ATP is used very quickly by the body's muscular system and there is an extremely limited supply, usually only enough for a few seconds of high intensity work. When all the ATP is used up, the body has an alternative way to produce ATP by converting ADP back to ATP. By the transferring of high-energy phosphate bonds from intracellular phospocreatine to ADP, ATP is formed which the body can use to perform high intensity exercise (Culpepper 890). This chemical reaction that forms ATP is known as the "creatine phosphate shuttle" (Culpepper 890). Creatine is essential in the production of ATP, which is what gives the body energy. The more creatine that is in the body, the faster ADP is converted into ATP and the more energy the body can use for exercise.
             According to Dee Murphy of Current Health, taking creatine as a dietary supplement can increase the body's total creatine content by more than twenty percent (13). This unnatural increase of the body's amount of creatine can enhance performance in two ways: "First, extra creatine will cause an athlete's body to produce more energy for brief, h
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