Any creatine supplement made by a company that uses Degussa or Pfanstiehl - EAS, MuscleTech, Twinlab, Optimum the list goes on and on. Throw in a few carbs, maybe some ALA and you’ll beat this product easily. C10 is just creatine monohydrate - nothing more and nothing less. 52.00 US for a 10-12 day supply is a joke.
BTW what is the patent number on this product? The site says it’s patented, but never discloses what the patent number is. A search brings up nothing (not surprising).
Also, why doesn’t the published abstract of the “LSU study” mention that C10 was the source of creatine in the study? The abstract only says “creatine monohydrate”. You’d think it would at least disclose that the creatine used also contained vitamin C - if it was in fact C10 that was being used. Res Q Exerc Sport. 1997 Sep;68(3):233-40.
I have to say that I agree with you Ironhead…this company are very suspect. If this supplement is as great as they say it is :
Why is the website so dated and un-informative and full of grammatical spelling errors?
Why is it that only 2 guys have really heard of this supplement?- Believe me I’ve spoke to loads of elite guys back here in UK and they shrugged their shoulders. The 2 that did know what I was talking about didn’t know that the supplement was ‘officially’ called C10!!
Why when you call the ‘company’ phone number you get some unprofessional voice mail options (not the kind you would associate with a company that produces a supplement that will/has changed the face of sport supplementation) and in turn never get a return of message!! (I left 5 messages last week)
Why is it that NO-ONE ever returns your emails?? - I’ve sent 3
Why would I realistically send my Credit Card details to some unknown company VIA A FAX?!!! (See website for methods of payment).
Why is it that they have no description or pictures of their wonder product?
With all that in mind I went out and bought the Cell Tech…contains Vit C as well (infact more that the C10 brand!!)
It wasn’t my goal to bash the company or the product. I just don’t believe it’s anything special and I feel that there are better supplements on the market.
Hey, I haven’t checked the nutrition forums in awhile. I was suprised to see this thread turn to 3 pages.
Anyways, an update from my end. I’ve gone through 2.5 bottles of the c-10 now and I will say it works very very well.
I loaded for one week just to get creatine levels up in my system by taking 8 pills in a 24 hour period, 2 at a time , 4 times daily. I then did maintenance with 4 pills a day, 1 pill at a time, 4x daily. The one reason (besides the below) that I beleive in the c10 is if the amount of creatine they list as being in each pill is accurate then this stuff worked incredibly well for the amount I took (750mg per tablet)
I noticed some serious strength gains over a 4 week period training 5-6 days per week for strength (+40lbs bench) and more than anything that lactic acid burn was completely gone. I was really suprised more than anything that I had no burn when lifting to failure…It’s pretty expensive so it’s kind of hard for me to continue using it but it definitely gets a HUGE thumbs up from me in terms of how well it works.
As for ordering it a gentlemen on the east coast (can’t remember the state) seems to import it from the manufacturer and he re-sells it. I never had a problem getting in touch with him but then I never tried to call the actual company that manufactures the stuff.
Hope that helps a little bit…
Forgot to add one thing, I don’t think I saw it mentioned in this thread but in the literature from the c10 product it stated most creatines are made from animal product which doesn’t get absorbed well (70% gets excreted) and with their (c-10) non-animal product formulation nearly all of it is absorbed. Just semi-quoting their literature…The only thing I can do is beleive it really since after only taking 3g/day while maintaining I had very good results. I have seen other creatines recommend intaking alot more daily (maybe because most of it is excreted?)
They should fire whoever does their marketing and research claims.
Creatine retention isn’t influenced by wether the creatine is animal based or synthetic. Creatine retention is influenced by the intramuscular creatine concentration, and extracellular concentrations of glucose and insulin. Also, I beleive all creatine is synthetic nowdays anyhow - at least the main players’ creatine is.
There’s no hard and fast rule that 5% or say 70% of creatine is excreted. (actually it’s more like 46% - and that’s using regular CM at 0.1 grams per kilogram of bodyweight, without any transport nutrients)
There are too many variables. What’s known is that individuals who start creatine supplementation with low muscle creatine and phosphocreatine content are more responsive to creatine supplementation. Its also known that taking creatine with nutrients that affect insulin levels and/or sensitivity enhance creatine retention whn compare to regular CM alone.
And really it’s not creatine excretion you should be worried about. Everyone get’s all freaked out when they see these high numbers on large doses. But really the bottom line is, the more creatine you ingest, the more creatine you have in your blood. Going low dose on creatine to minimize excretion is like drinking less water so you don’t sweat as much.
In fact, one good dosing protocol that I’ve seen goes something like this:
Day 1 = 0.28 g/kg;
Day 3 = 0.24 g/kg;
Day 5 = 0.25 g/kg;
Day 7 = 0.24 g/kg
(g of creatine per kg of lean body mass).
A study was done that showed a negative correlation between lean tissue mass and creatine excretion. The above protocol was suggested to minimize excretion.
(Burke, D., et al. (2000). Can J Appl Physiol. 25(5):361.)
There is some thought that Di-Sodium Phosphate, Di-Magnesium Phosphate, Di-Potassium Phosphate, and Tri-Calcium Phosphate improve creatine storage. Alot of creatine formulas include some sort of phosphate group with this in mind.
I don’t believe there are any studies that show retention is improved, but there are a couple that showed increased work capacity when CM was taken with a phosphate group - I don’t have them at my fingertips.
Well I gave up on the guys from C10 as they are a joke. I’m using CellTech again using 5g (one scoop) per day in the evenings…I feel GGGGGreat like Tony the Tiger. No need to load up…and my strength levels have improved. Bring on the Indoor Season
They are a joke when it comes to customer service. It is very hard to get ahold of them which is very unprofessional. I sent an email trying to get everyone a discount since I have dealt with them before. They still haven’t responded, but I will let everyone know if I can help with the price.
I wasn’t going low-dose because I’m worried about anything I was just following the manufacturers recommendation. I see your point on first time users and I was a first time user of creatine so who knows I may have had good gains with any old creatine, I’ll never know. All I did notice is that many other manufacturers suggested taking alot more creatine than C-10 did.
I’d be curious to find out if most of the big players creatine is synthetic…I would like to do more reading on syn vs. non-syn creatine and the differences if any(I won’t get my hopes up on finding literature).
Degussa (creapure) is synthetic (US patent 5,719,319). There are a few companies that have positioned themselves by selling “natural” creatine (EndoCre3), but the vast majority are synthetic.
