Creatine?

I generally do not like the idea of dietary supplements, preferring to do things the natural way. But since I've noticed the term creatine bandied about a lot in fitness circles, I decided to look into it a little to see just what this is and what it does.

Well, the more I read about it, the more I began to think that this is something I should work into my dietary intake. It's used by many for muscle building, increasing endurance, and perhaps speeding recovery--the latter two of which I have no opposition to. But it is actually not primarily those uses that have got me thinking seriously about trying it.

Rather, what makes me think more seriously about it is that, in addition to those things, it is said to be of special benefit to vegetarians. And I happen to have been following a vegetarian diet for over 20 years.

It seems that creatine is a naturally occurring substance in the body, but also one that our bodies can absorb from certain foods--fresh meat being one of the main ones, it is said. Vegetarians, understandably, tend to be deficient in this substance. And one of the positive effects studies have shown creatine to have on vegetarians is to enhance mental performance (study cited in this Wikipedia article). I'm not sure why a lack of creatine would degrade mental faculties but, hey, at my age, I can use all the help I can get in heightening cognitive abilities.

So, what are the downsides? Unfortunately, there are some for me. While creatine seems a fairly safe supplement to use, it is said not to interact well with a medication I've recently had to resume taking--hydrochlorothiazide (HZ hereafter). See the National Library of Medicine page regarding creatine, where they recommend against combining it with HZ and other diuretics, here.

I'm excited to learn about creatine and its possible benefits for me. But at the same time I'm in kind of a quandary about what to do since I seem to need the HZ recently. I got a bit lax about my breathing exercises lately, though I've gotten more regular about them over the last few days (incidentally I've been consistently at around 4 BrPM and even saw 3.6 BrPM today with a little straining toward the end). Maybe by sticking more regularly with those exercises I can bring the blood pressure under control non-medicinally like I'd been hoping? That sounds like the way to go. At the moment it seems to me creatine offers too many benefits to not try taking it.