Think all creatine is the same? It's not. The type you see most often is creatine monohydrate, but this is far from your only option. In fact, your best bet for reaping all the benefits of one of the most highly touted (and widely studied) performance-enhancing supplements ever is creatine HCL.
Creatine hydrochloride (HCL) is made by attaching a hydrochloride (HCL) group to creatine to enhance its stability. While creatine is well-recognized by sport scientists and athletes as one of the most effective supplement ingredients you can take to promote muscle growth and strength gains, there can be a few issues with the standard form of creatine known as creatine monohydrate.
Creatine HCL works well because adding the hydrochloride group to the creatine molucule lowers the pH of the creatine, making it more acidic.This drastically increases its solubility in fluids. You'll notice this when you mix creatine HCL in water; it mixes almost instantly with no sedimentation, with no particles sitting in the bottom of the glass. Any ingredients that have precipitated to the bottom of a cup are ingredients that will sit in your intestines and not be absorbed properly. This will also cause water to be pulled into the intestines, causing stomach discomfort and diarrhea. Creatine HCL has been shown in the lab to be about 40 times more soluble in fluid than creatine monohydrate.
And research shows that when subjects consume the same amounts of creatine HCL and creatine monohydrate, the creatine HCL is absorbed by the intestines around 60% better than creatine monohydrate. This means that you can take a much smaller dose of creatine HCL to get similar results as creatine monohydrate. With greater solubility in fluid, greater absorption by the intestines and with a much smaller dose, you significantly reduce the chance of stomach issues and subcutaneous water retention.