the effect of short-term creatine monohydrate and folic acid supplementation on homocysteine levels in active males after an exhaustive exercise

the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of short-term creatine monohydrate (cr) and folic acid (fa) supplementation on homocysteine (hcy) levels in young active males. eighteen young male soccer players (21.11±2.02 years, vo2max 56.51±2.31, hcy 13.45±0.59) volunteered to participate in this study. they were randomly divided into creatine monohydrate (n=6), folic acid (n=6) and placebo (n=6) groups. blood samples were gathered before (at least 12 hours of fasting) and immediately after the exhaustive exercise. each subject of fa group received 14 folic acid capsules (800µg/d) for 9 days and 0.3 g/kg/wt/d placebo + folic acid capsules for 5 days. cr group received placebo for 9 days and then 0.3 g/kg/wt/d creatine monohydrate + placebo for 5 days. again after 2 weeks of supplementation, in at least 12h fasting, blood samples were gathered before, and immediately after the exhaustive exercise. results showed that hcy significantly decreased after supplementation in creatine monohydrate group, but there was no significant difference in hcy between the two groups. hcy significantly decreased immediately after the exercise in creatine group when compared to the pretest. there was a significant difference between creatine and acid folic groups as well as between creatine and placebo (p=0.001 and p=0.002 respectively), but there was no significant difference between acid folic and placebo groups (p=0.714). overall, the findings showed that short-term creatine monohydrate supplementation can significantly decrease hcy levels after the exhaustive exercise, but short-term folic acid supplementation did not significantly affect basic hcy and immediately after the exhaustive exercise.