In over 100 years of collegiate wrestling, the sport had never lost an athlete. However, three wrestlers across the nation have died this season alone of dehydration, a disorder which may be linked to a controversial new weight-training supplement, creatine.Athletes in virtually every sport at every level from high school to the pros have been raving about creatine since the FDA approved its use six years ago. The natural supplement, which is found in beef and some fish, has many benefits for athletes. According to the December 1997 issue of Let’s Live, a health magazine, creatine increases recovery time and endurance by increasing the production of muscle proteins. In short, it enables a weightlifter to lift longer, which in turn makes him stronger.But because creatine is a relatively new drug, the long-term effects are unknown, which concerns some coaches and athletes at Ohio State.Russ Hellickson, OSU’s wrestling coach, has been opposed to excessive use of creatine since it was introduced on the market.”It’s just too unproven. Nobody knows the long-term effects and it’s just unnecessary,” said Hellickson.Donovan True, an OSU wrestler, took creatine for about three years but stopped last spring because he did not believe it was effective.”There’s no documentation that says it helps you gain strength and I was working out hard anyway, so of course I got stronger. The added strength was not necessarily due to the creatine,” said True.While True did not see any benefits of the supplement, he also felt no side effects, such as dehydration and muscle cramps, of which many athletes complain.Matt Light, a sophomore football player at Purdue, noticed muscle cramps soon after he began taking creatine and was hospitalized because of the cramps.”They never figured out why my stomach was cramping up but it happened a couple of days after they started giving me creatine,” he said.He has been taking creatine for over a year since the incident and has seen no other side effects. In fact, he has increased his bench press from less than 300 pounds to 380 pounds and has gained over 30 pounds of muscle, a gain that has forced him from the tight end position to the offensive line.Jason Sroufe, a sophomore at OSU majoring in exercise physiology, has also seen the benefits of creatine. He takes a dose before every workout and has increased his bench press from 230 pounds to 305 pounds in the two years he has taken the supplement. He is an avid weightlifter and has not experienced any side effects.According to Sroufe, creatine can cause dehydration because it pulls water from the body into muscle cells.”I’ve never had the dehydration or cramps but I always make sure to drink a lot of fluids,” he explained.Sean Sheppard, the director of strength and conditioning for the basketball teams, echoed the same precaution. “If administered incorrectly it can result in dehydration and muscle cramping. When I administer the creatine I make the athletes go through a hydration phase. They drink at least 80 ounces of water a day for about two weeks before they go on the first cycle,” he said.Although he feels that there needs to be a lot more research done on the supplement, he is not as concerned with the uncertainty of the long-term effects because it is a natural substance.”It’s a substance that your body manufactures, so it’s not like you’re introducing something foreign into your body,” he said.Hellickson agrees that creatine is natural but said that it is taken in much larger doses than the body is used to. According to a recent study, one dose of creatine gives the body the same amount as about 30 salmon.”The human body over time has evolved to become a pretty efficient machine and we should be concerned about throwing that system off,” said Hellickson.Most athletes and coaches agree that creatine makes an athlete stronger. They also agree that the long-term effects are unknown and that without enough fluids, exercising while on creatine can be very harmful.What they do not agree on is how dangerous the supplement really is. Some athletes were scared off creatine because of the wrestling deaths while others continue to use it despite its long-term uncertainty. The drug has just not been on the market long enough for the public to know everything about it.”There’s a lot of natural supplements that are supposed to help certain things in the body but what do they do to the rest of the body? How does excess creatine effect the overall balance of the system? I think we’ll find out down the road just what this supplement is all about,” said Hellickson.