What is l-glutamine, and Why Is It Good For You?
L-glutamine is an amino acid that is found in your muscles. It is an essential amino acid because it helps to keep your muscles healthy.
It is an essential component of the immune system, helps maintain gut health, and aids muscle recovery. Additionally, l-glutamine has been shown to improve cognitive function and mental clarity.
What are the benefits of l-glutamine?
L-glutamine is an amino acid that is found in the body. It is a building block of protein that helps repair and build muscle tissue.
It also helps to improve gut health, as it is a significant component of the intestinal lining. L-glutamine has many benefits, including:
1. Muscle Growth and Repair: L-glutamine helps to repair and build muscle tissue. It is essential for athletes and bodybuilders, as it helps to reduce recovery time and improve performance.
2. Gut Health: L-glutamine is a significant component of the intestinal lining, which helps to improve gut health. It can help to treat leaky gut syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease.
3. Immunity: L-glutamine helps to boost the immune system, making it easier for the body to fight off infections.
4. Brain Health: L-glutamine has been shown to improve cognitive function and memory. It may also help to protect against Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
Who should take l-glutamine supplements?
Many people could benefit from taking l-glutamine supplements. This amino acid is especially beneficial for people recovering from illness or injury, as it helps repair and rebuilds muscle tissue.
It is also helpful for people trying to build muscle mass, as it helps increase protein synthesis. Additionally, l-glutamine can help boost the immune system, making it ideal for people susceptible to getting sick often.
How much l-glutamine should you take?
Athletes often use glutamine supplements to help recover from exercise and boost immune function. The recommended dose of glutamine is between 10-15 grams per day. You can take glutamine powder, capsules, or tablets.
What are the side effects of l-glutamine?
While l-glutamine is generally considered safe, there are some potential side effects to be aware of. These include:
- Stomach pain
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Headache
- Muscle pain
L-Glutamine Research
Suppose you suffer from anxiety, cravings for sugar or alcohol, constipation or diarrhea, poor immune system, poor muscle mass, lousy wound healing, or sluggish recovery from exercise. In that case, L-glutamine supplementation might be proper for you.
People with digestive disorders such as celiac or Crohns disease Digestive disorders such as celiac disease or Crohns disease may need more L-glutamine to maintain their optimal gut lining than people who do not suffer from these conditions. L-glutamine supplements also might help those with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a condition that causes cramps, stomach pain, bloating, gas, and constipation, says Gail Cresci, but studies are limited and inconclusive.
Studies suggest L-glutamine supplements can be helpful for people with leaky gut syndrome, those with an inflammatory bowel disorder, an umbrella term used to describe conditions marked by chronic inflammation of the digestive tract, like ulcerative colitis, and people whose digestive systems are compromised because of HIV. A recent review highlighted the theory that L-glutamine is helpful in intestinal or intestinal permeability and can help to keep unwanted toxins out of the digestive system.
L-glutamine can also enhance the immune cells in your intestine, helping prevent infections and inflammation and soothing the intestinal tissues. Because L-glutamine is used to produce energy, it may support a reduction in intestinal cramping. For instance, it can promote digestive health, assist in weight loss, aid cancer treatment, build muscle, and improve athletic performance. Like other essential amino acids, but unlike the non-essential amino acids that are produced naturally in the body, L-glutamine is capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier, giving it the ability to enter the brain freely, making it essential for the processes of nitrogen transport, acid-base regulation, and gluconeogenesis, as well as serving as a precursor to nucleotide bases and the antioxidant glutathione.
Studies have also shown how this amino acid may help maintain the gut barrier and protect the intestinal junctions against diseases (6). Studies show that glutamine works best with BCAAs, helping restore and replenish amino acid balance, improving recovery, and repairing muscle size. Both glutamic acid and L-glutamine provide a significant boost in improving the immune system of patients.
Studies show that Glutamine can help the immune function by producing Cytokines, tiny proteins released from the white blood cells. Glutamine has multiple functions, including supporting immune system health, gastrointestinal integrity, insulin secretion, neurological function, and muscle protein synthesis.
Glutamine may reduce susceptibility to disease by improving immune health, optimizing digestive health by repairing your intestinal lining, speeding up recovery times by inhibiting the breakdown of lean mass, and enhancing muscle soreness after exercise. Supplementing post-workout with glutamine ensures you are restoring your glutamine levels appropriately, helping you to rebuild and repair muscle tissue better and improving your recovery times.
Including foods rich in glutamine, like chicken, beef, salmon, and other lean proteins, also helps boost your natural glutamine levels. Sometimes, wheat, celery, and fermented vegetable juices, like miso, may contribute to increasing the L-Glutamine concentrations in the body.
Vegetables such as spinach, carrots, and other green vegetables may help to increase the blood level of L-Glutamine. Foods that may boost the production of Glutamine in the human body are chicken, fish, meat, some dairy products, and vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, spinach, beets, and beans.
L-glutamine also serves as a minor fuel source for cell energy and helps to make other essential compounds, including glucose and purines (the building blocks of DNA). According to research published in The International Journal of Molecular Sciences, glutamine is one of the most abundant amino acids found in blood and cells, and glutamine is a preferential energy source for gut cells. L-glutamine is considered a conditionally necessary amino acid, meaning that the body makes enough of it to sustain its needs, says Gail Cresci, Ph.D., R.D., a gut microbiome researcher at the Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, at The Cleveland Clinic.
If you are looking for supplements, some studies suggest that 5 grams daily is enough since most people get around 3-6 grams of glutamine daily through their diet. If you want to include glutamine in a daily supplement regimen, anywhere between 5 and 10 grams, according to the expert consensus, is an optimal amount.
Glutamic acid is a significant component of monosodium glutamate, and L-Glutamine supplements are used as a protein source. Another way that glutamine helps is to eliminate excessive levels of ammonia from the body: As intriguing as this sounds, L-glutamine converts extra ammonia into helpful amino acids, improving athletic performance as a result (13). More interestingly, this amino acid also helps combat sugar and carb cravings - thus making it easier for individuals to keep their blood sugar from rising (17).
The emphasis may indicate the support of the idea that L-glutamine may aid in improving IBS since IBS is sometimes thought to arise from compromised gut permeability. Since issues such as permeability in the intestines can also lead to hypothyroidism and psoriasis, L-glutamine may also help to prevent those conditions.
Conclusion
L-glutamine is an amino acid found in your muscles and is vital for several reasons. It can help prevent muscle breakdown, improve your gut health, and boost your immune system.
If you are looking for a supplement to improve your overall health, then l-glutamine might be a good option.
